Lins and Rich’s Travel Blog

I am not happy as I have just typed this entry and it didn’t save so I’m having to do it all again. Here goes…

The test results are not quite as impressive as they seem as the exam was a series of just 50 multiple choice questions, but still, after passing the exam and having completed 6 dives - 2 in confined (shallow) water and 4 in open water, we became certified divers.

The two confined water dives involved just practising the skills we would later use in the open water, though most of them were intended as safety measures if anything ever went wrong, so hopefully we’ll never need any of them! The first open water dive really wet our appetite as we saw a whole shoal of bumphead parrotfish; there were about 25 of them and the biggest ones were about 2 ft long and nearly as tall. We were also shown a cleaning station in which a pufferfish was being cleaned by the samll shrimps eating from it’s scales! The following few dives did not turn up anything quite as exciting but we still saw lots of smaller fish and beautiful corals and sea anenomaes.

After completing our PADI and with a thirst for more, we went out on a fun dive to D’Lagoon, where we’d seen the parrotfish, and, although they weren’t there this time, we were with an instructor who’d realised that we were really interested in being able to identify what we saw so he brought an etch-a-sketch along with him and pointed out the fish as we went and wrote down their species. IT was a fascinating dive and we both learnt a lot and will now be able to recognise some of the fish we see rather than just talking about the ‘orange and purple stripey fish’ or other similarly useless descriptions!

In spite of having now completed 5 open water dives, we still hadn’t seen a turtle, even though, on one of our dives, some Malaysian divers who were on the same boat as us and who got into the water just a few minutes after us at the same site, did see one on their descent. I was thoroughly disappointed.

We had planned to do another couple of fun dives or to do our advanced PADI after a rest day but, when we went to get the bus tickets the following morning, with Hari Raya approaching (this is a bit like the Muslim Christmas in that it’s a religious festival in which everyone goes to visit family - and I mean everyone!) the whole of Malaysia wa son the move over the next few days, therefore, we either had to leave the following morning or we wouldn’t be able to leave for at least another 10 days. Although the idea of diving for another 10 days was fairly appealing, it would also have been very expensive, so we headed back to the dive shop to pay for the dive we’d done the day before and they offered us one last dive that afternoon as they had a boat and a divemaster (Jimmy) available.

As I still hadn’t seen a turtle, we took them up on their offer and Jimmy took us back to Tanjung Besi, where we’d dived once before and where, alledgedly, Jimmy regularly sees turtles. We had a great dive and did see a black tip reef shark and a barracuda - it was huge and Jimmy was terrified, removing all his silver as apparently this attracts them! However, after an hour in the water, still no turtle.

In a last ditched attempt to spot a turtle, I went snorkelling as I was told this was a good time of day to spot them off the rocks, but once again, I returned dejected! Jimmy had a plastic turtle that he gave me as a consolation in the end - I floated it in the sea! When I returned to the guest house, the owner said “What, you haven’t seen a turtle in the whole time you’ve been here. That’s not possible. They’re everywhere.” I beg to differ!

So, without a single turtle sighting on or around an island apprently surrounded by them, we left on a boat the next morning and headed back to the mainland.

From there we headed to Jerteh, a very islamic town that clearly doesn’t see westerners that often as we were stared at once again - it was like being back in India, and from there we caught the overnight bus to Butterworth. This dropped us off at about 5 in the morning and the first ferry to Penang starts at 5.30 so we caught that across and spent the day and night there (an island with little in the way of real sightseeing but very pleasant to walk around with some interesting colonial and religious buildings from a variety of faiths - it certainly had character) before catching a flight to Bangkok the next morning, from where I am writing now.

As Rich has already written about our day yesterday and I have been on the internet for hours now typing this out again, I’ll just add that I too found the Grand Palace and Wat Pho absolutely amazing and awesome (and I mean that in a very non-American way, just that they wered awe-inspiring). They beat the Taj Mahal for me! So much grandeur and intricate detail on each of the buildings, monuments and statue; the Buddhists know how to build to impress! And with that, and a quick mention that today’s a rest day so I don ‘t have to go too far from the loo, I’ll leave it there! xx

Not sure how long I’ve got before I run out of time and this logs out but I’ll do my best to summarise our time on the Perhentian Islands in the time I’ve got!

First and foremost, they are beautiful: the beaches are of white and golden sands; the water is azur blue in places and crystal clear in others; and the two beaches on Perhentian Kecil (Small Island) are separated by a small jungle. We stayed on the ‘Coral Bay’ side of the island but walked over to the other side between 1 and 3 times a day as we were diving on the ‘Long Beach’ side.

We both took our PADI studies very seriously and were told we should not spend so much time studying as we’d fry our brains! Still, it all paid off as O got 90 % in the exam and Rich got 94% - and yes, he has been very smug about it!

I’ll finish this tomorrow as I have just 2 minutes left! xx

Hi, back again and still trying to update both the blog and the photos. Quickly become apparent that when you go to places without internet access, they tend to be very photographic and as such you have to spend a few yours in front of a computer uploading the photos before you can take more BORING!! Still it gives me time to update after last post yesterday.

 As I left it yesterday we were going downstream to head to the Perinthians. Journey downstream is so much faster, especially with flood water. We got chatting to a girl called Hannah from cornwall who had the same plane ticket as us, she had just done it in reverse and was heading up to India as her last stop. Chatting away with her the journey flew by and before we knew it we all found ourselves in Jerantut ready to catch the famed Jungle railway.

The jungle railway runs from Singapore through the rain forest centre of Malaysia up to Kota Burh and we joined it just before the jungle stage. It was an impressive journey of about eight hours, however having lived in the rain forest for 4 days I think it was a little bit lost on us. An amazing feat of engineering and with stunning views of jungle clad mountains it keeps you entertained but when your trundling through normal forrest its a case of seen one bit, seen it all!

It was amusing however the timekeeping that it operated. Stops at stations seem to depend on how long the driver fancied and often he would walk outside the station to shop quickly before getting back on. When break fast came at sunset (its a very muslim country and there all fasting for ramadam) the train was parked up and off he went for dinner. We took this opperuntity to walk to a petrol station and stock up on snacks!

Arriving in Kota Bhuru at around eight we caught a cheap taxi to the hostel and together with Hannah and Jenny and Carl (two others we met on the way, Jenny swapped books with me at jerantut so she had reading material for the eight hours much to Carls relif) we headed out for some food.

Finding a busy little food hall we tucked in to noodles and fried rice. Whiles i was munching away the biggest rat I have ever seen walked across my foot! Its the second time its happened it Malaysia and shrugging our shoulders we carried on with dinner. Its remarkable how quickly you get used to less than clean standards!!

Next morning it was off to the Perinthians to learn to dive. The perinthians are truely stunning islands. Golden beachs and turquosise sea they really are paradise and to make it even better, not busy at all as its getting towards closed season. We stayed on the very quiet side with an English guy called Pierre in little beach side rooms. Huge monitor lizards stalked the perimeter of the ground like short nosed crocodiles and cocconuts lay strewn in the sand outside. Not a bad place to stay!

After dumping the bags we quickly walked the five minutes throught he jungle (yes more jungle!) to long beach to check out the dive operators. We decided on one called Quiver, everyone there was a brilliant laugh and very passionate about diving and conservation. Having origianlly planned to have a day off we quickly found a gap to do our padi open water so without further hesitation booked to start the next day.

Our instructor was a chinese guy called Brian. After hearing some of the places and situations he had been in  I renamed him Dangorous Brian. Anyone who dives to 120m is mad and some of the thing he has done like retriving bodies from pitch black ships where military divers have failed show how good he really was.

Four days instruction from him and Mark the shop manager improved our diving exponentionally we both love it. We have picked up and expensive hobby but there is no feeling like it on earth.

Some of the highlights of our six dives were swimming amongst a school of metre long giant bump head parrot fish (each weighing about 50lbs) and gliding through shallow waters near a rock cove with a four foot long black tipped reef shark and a monster of a barracuda. If travel had worked out better I think we would have stayed and done our advanced course but we had to leave due to hari Rayh, all the buses and trains are solidly booked.

Current we are staying in a Hostel in Georgetown, pennang, a nice ex east india trading company outpost and tommorrow we fly up to Bangkok. Going to try and update the photos over the next couple of days as its so time consuming. Keep checking the link from here and stay happy all.

Hi, back in civalisation for a little while at least, currently sat in a small internet cafe trying to update the photos we have taken over the last week and a half and think back to what we have been up to.

Since I last wrote Lins and I have made it our mission to tour areas of Malaysia where there are not internet connection, namley Tamra Negara (Malaysias rain forest) and the Perinthina island (Paradise!!) So here goes, monster updates from both of us!

After another day in KL we decided to head to Taman Negara (National Park) which is an area of rain forest 130 million years old covering over 4300 km. The park holds a large part of Malaysias rare wildlife but unlike Mr Charles who randomly stumbles into animals emerging drunk from his tent at 2.30am the animals here are incredibly hard to find. Due to increased tourist pressure the holy grail of animals such as the black lepord, malaysian tiger and wild elephant are found at the very heart of the jungle where humans seldom tread. That said its an amazing place and like knowhere I have ever been.

After a few buses and a three hour boat ride we arrived at the park HQ from KL. Whilst waiting for the boat we decided to stay at Nusa camp which was deeper into the forest than the other accomodation. We got talking to another couple (Carol and Rob) who were also staying there so we stuck together and off we went.

Arriving in Nusa, we were in for a shock. There were two other people in a huge camp and we were outnumbered by the staff 2:1. Turning round to get the hell out of there we were told that the last boat out was gone and we would have to spend the night there!! Lins and I checked into the dorm and met Carol and Rob for dinner at 8. To say the staff were hostile was an understatement. You actually felt guilty asking for food and the food when it did arrive was miles apart. I ate my rice and half an hour later the accompanying chicken arrived. Very funny, after being ignored by the staff for another couple of hours and watching a so bad it was good horror film we snuck back to the dorm and vowed to catch the first boat out in the morning! Rob and Carol were waiting for us despite having paid for three nights
I took a photo before we left of Nusa during the morning breakfast rush, just for a laugh before we went! How the place was buzzing!

After getting the boat back we quickly checked into a small guest house called Durian challets and spent the rest of the time in a lovely little wooden challet with very basic amenaties but it was heaven!

Finally at one we arrived at the park HQ and booked a cave exploration and a night jungle walk. Lins and I also booked to stay in a hide deep in the forest the next day.

The cave exploration was in a cave called Ear Cave, big on the outside, narrow in the centre (like an ear hence the name!!) In the booking Lins and Carol had both asked whether it was narrow at any point. “No not really” came the reply and arriving the reality became apparent that this was going to be a squeeze! Setting off slowly we clambered over rocks thorough an ever narrowing space untill we reached a chamber that contained at an estimate 1000 fruit bats. It was amazing watching them sway in the slight breeze not even blinking at our prescence.

Of course all these bats lead to a problem, Guyana (Bat Crap to most people!) It covered everywhere, add to  this the fact that it was near pitch black and you can imagine how messy we got. I got away lightly as I managed to stay on my feet but Carol and Lins were covered after gracefully sliding down the slope in the room on their arses! Couple this with the fact a stream ran through the centre and it got narrower and narrower and an hour after we went in we came out soaked, dirty but beaming from ear to ear at what we had seen.

After a shower and dinner we headed back to take on a night walk with our guide. I found it really intresting talking to him as he explained the problems that they had with poachers and also the pressure that toursim creates with the fragile eco system. He had untill recently done deep jungle treks and informed us to see anything you had to be miles away from civilisation. Even then in 7 years of deep jungle treking he had only seen and elusive tiger twice!

Walking through the jungle at night is an experience, shreiks, hoots and ribbits echo round and the blackness is claustrophobic and my torch did not make a dent. Luckily the guide was better prepared and produced a massive torch that lit the way. Walking a small distance from camp we saw a viper.  A tiny little green snake that can easily produce enough venom to kill someone and the second most posionous snake behind the cobra. We since discovered that this snake may not be real as three days later it was in the same place!! Further along we saw huge hunter spiders that made the spider in India look like a little baby, black scorpions that blend into the night and again are very dangorous and numorous harmless snakes, stick insects and other creepy crawlies. Retiring to our challet we were left with a clear indication that the jungle is not somewhere you take lightly.

In the morning we were due to trek to the deepest hide but after the night before and seeing how dark it got and how nervous Lins was about it all, I let her off the experince and we decided to get a boat up stream the next day and walk back the 10k.

With no agenda we headed to the famous canopy walkway, a short 1.8 km trek away. Along the way a huge tree had blocked the path, turning round we met a guide who stated that you just climb over it. We nearly all made in unscathed. Poor Rob lost his balance and undertook the slowest fall I have ever seen in my life onto a branch, this then broke and he ended in a crumpled heap on the path. Once we knew he was ok it was quite funny!

For Lins however the canopy walkway was not. Twenty five meters from the ground does not sound that much but when your walking on scaffold planks and rickety ladders all the while swaying backwards and forwards its one of the scariest things ive done. Lins well known for her hatred of heights and rickerty bridges went through hell but came through it with alot of swearing and willpower. I took a photo to record the fact to everyone that she braved it, bearing in mind this in a long way up in the trees

The afternoon was spent on terra firmer with us shooting river rapids and getting soaked.

After a good nights sleep we caught a taxi boat to Kula Tegganan, an abondonded lodge 9.5km from the main camp and set off on the trek back to civilisation. Two things became quickly apparent, 1) that walking in a rain forest is like exercising in a greenhouse and 2) leechs are merciless and well designed for getting your blood out of your body. After three hours of treking through amazing jungle scenery our socks were soaked with blood and we were running low on water. It hammered home how inhospitable the jungle is and how hostile.  9.5km flat is a doddle but imagine having to leap fallen trees, crawl through gaps, clamber accross streams  and haull yourself up steep leech infested slopes by ropes as well as narrow ledges and roots everywhere and you have some idea of the terrain. We had not prepared enough, not enough water and food, no sports drinks to replace to salts e.t.c Six hours later we emerged and boy did we feel ill, behind attempting to run the marathon this was the toughest thing i have ever done and both Lins and I felt ill all night.

Deciding we needed proper food and running low on funds (no cash point in the jungle!!) we headed to the posh resorts restaraunt to pay by card and gourge ourselves on the overpriced food!

Setting off there was not a cloud in the sky but an hour into dinner a gayle force wind came out of knowhere and rain started coming through the open plan eating area sideways . It proceed to bucket it down for the next hour and a half in torrents, finally a waiter appeared with umbreallas for resort guests. We decided our need was greater as a km is alot further than waddling 3 steps to the luxury room so we stole one and scarpered (we did leave it at the room for the next people to bring back so our conscience is clear! Just!)

Next day feeling a little worse for wear we caught the early boat and set fourth to the Perinthian islands.  That leg of our trip will have to wait though  and my stomach feels like my throat has been cutand food and drink is the order of the day.

Stay happy all, and as a final note can i Just say well done to Russ and becks who got married at the weekend!

So, we’re currently sat in an internet shop in a small towm in the North East of Malaysia and we have 5 more hours until our bus leaves, so I have decided to take the opportunity to write a proper blog entry!

I believe I last wrote properly when we’d just arrived in KL - a city which I wasn’t overly enamoured with - the Petronas Towers were quite impressive, though I clearly wasn’t as taken with them as Richie was! Other than tha, we covered the main sights in a pretty short space of time and I didn’t feel we’d seen an awful lot!

We left KL with one bus, then had to catch another bus in time to get us to the town of Jerantut in time to get a taxi to get us to jetty for 2 p.m. Somehow we managed to make it to the jetty in plenty of time and from there we had a 3 hour boat ride on the river running through the middle of the jungle to take us to Taman Negara, Malaysia’s National Park. The National Park is, in fact, the rainforest and not much like a park at all! When we arrived at the jetty, and English couple, Rob and Carol, were also on the boat with us and they had the brochure for a place called ‘Nusa’ where they had planned to stay; it was described in the Lonely Planet guide as ‘a jungle camp’ which we though sounded ideal, so we got another boat once our boat had dropped us at the village and headed another 15 minutes upstream to Nusa Camp. At first we thought nothing of the lack of people, assuming they were all just out doing jungle activities, however, as the evening went on, and the time of the last ‘Nusa riverbus’ back from the park itself had passed, we realised that there was only the 4 of us and 1 other couple in the whole area. By this point, Rich and I had already decided that we would just stay one night here as it was quite cut off from the rest of the park and you had to return to Nusa on the 6.20 riverbus in the evening which would mean that you would not be able to do anything after this time - night walks and eating out would be off the agenda.

We met Rob and Carol for dinner at 8 in the Nusa restaurant. We ordered and waited as our dishes were brought out one at a time over the next hour or so - if you ordered chicken and rice, you ate chicken then rice; there was no chance of eating them together if you wanted to eat them hot! Once the last dish was delivered to the table, the waitress went and sat down with the rest of the staff at the table next to ours - and nobody took any further notice of us, in spite of the fact that, slowly, the number of staff at the table doubled from 4 to 8. The women’s football world cup must be a big attraction in Malaysia as they were glued to it! This was then followed by them watching a programme in which 2 couples had turned up in a village where all the residents had disappeared and which was now haunted by spirits; a sense of foreboding was setting in among the 4 of us!! We eventually plucked up the courage to ask the staff for some water and the bill: they were out of water!

The next morning, Rich and I were up and packed to catch the first ‘Nusabus’ back to the village to find alternative accommodation! When we arrived at the jetty, Rob and Carol, who had paid upfront for 3 nights, were also there with their bags! We all headed up to ‘Durian Chalets’ in the village - a quiet accommodation option because it’s allegedly a long way out; everyone kept telling us what along walk it is, but in fact, it was only 10 minutes if you went the long way round! Here we stayed in bamboo huts with a VERY basic bathroom - a drop-bomb loo and a shower hose attached to a cold tap - but it was spotlessly clean, had beautiful gardens, was on the edge of the jungle, and you were even provided with towels, bedding and soap - not bad for 3 pounds 50 per room!

Thus we began our jungle adventure for real! On the first day we went over to the park and booked up a guided tour of ‘Ear Cave’ and a night walk. Carol and I were a little bit concerned that the cave would have enclosed spaces and would require us to do some crawling around in narrow tunnels - the park officials lied to us when they told us that this would only be the case for a few metres, but it’s just as well they did as we probably wouldn’t have gone if they’d told us the truth and the cave has been one of the highlights of the holiday so far! We were told when we arrived, after a short boat journey downstream and a walk of about 1km, that the cave is called ear cave because it has a wide opening and then a narrow tunnel running through it that we would be climbing through to come out the other side. We entered the cave and immediately had to start ‘caving’ - we were crawling, climbing, squeezing through small gaps etc. from start to finish, though we were never too far from a place where you could see daylight above so it didn’t seem so bad. There were 2 points in the cave that are absolutely filled with bats hanging from the ceiling; there were in excess of 100 bats at each point and they were surprisingly unperturbed by our presence or the torches being shone on them. Needless to say, where there are bats, there is bat poo, and 100 bats produce a lot of poo. Poo is slippery, as are wet cave floors - you see where I’m going here! - Carol and I both decided that the slope we had to get down was too steep and slippery to tackle on foot so we decided that our best option was to simply sit down and let the bat poo lubricate our slide to the bottom!

The night walk began with a sighting of a viper sitting in the first tree once you crossed through the gate from the main resort into the park - at the time this seemed fairly impressive, but we’re no longer convinced it was real as it was still in exactly the same position 3 days later when we went to check it - a photo will be posted shortly (the computer I’m on won’t upload my pictures, though Rich has managed to add a few of his - I’ll do mine in Bangkok in a couple of days)- any snake experts out there able to tell a real viper from a fake one? We did, however, see a vast array of insects from scorpions to hunter spiders, stick insects to honey bees, and we saw a couple of brown speckled back snakes which I am convinced were the genuine article! Mostly the Malaysians seem to have the same or similar insects to us, but everything is supersized! We also went to a hide and spotted a couple of deer.

Rich desperately wanted to go to a hide further out in the hope we may see some different animals - apparently there are elephants and tigers around, though very rare - so we had booked a hide for the following night, however, the night walk made me realise just how dark the jungle gets at night, and I didn’t feel so comfortable about the idea of sleeping out in it, so we chickened out and spent the second day walking to and venturing onto the canopy walkway - I saw it as some flimsy metal and wood being all that stood between me and eternity! the walkway is 400m long and is up to 25 metres off the ground. It is made of ladders with planks of wood on top, help up by rope and metal rope - I hated every second of it - I’ve never been so scared before that I actually cried (well, not that I can remember anyway; I guess mum and dad might be able ot tell you differently - I seem to remember them telling me about a captain hook ride in Disneyworld I was quite afraid of!) but I couldn’t help shedding tears as I was gripping the ropes and looking out, or up, or anyway except down. I didn’t derive any pleasure form the experience whatsoever as I didn’t notice the views or anything else it had to offer! Needless to say, I plan never to do anything similar again!

In the afternoon, we took to the water - where I feel much more at home. We went rapid shooting and, although the rapids weren’t very rapid, we enjoyed splashing and being splashed by those on the other boats and the cooling water was welcome after the hot walk in the morning.

The following day, as we had already paid for a boat to bring us back from the hide we’d planned to trek to, Rich and I decided we would get the boat to drop us near the hide and we would walk back. Big mistake. The walk was 9.5km - not very long, we thought; you can do that in a couple of hours. I knew it would be a bit more difficult, having done some jungle walking before, but neither of us were really prepared for what hit us! We started walking at 9.30 after a pleasant 30 minute boat-ride upstream. We quickly realised that there were more leaches about than we’d reckonned on and were regretting not hiring leach boots (when the photos are uploaded, be sure to look for the photos of our blood-sodden socks). You don’t feel leach bites so they can tuck in to a good feast before you notice they’re there - I had to remove one from my sock that had clearly had his breakfast, lunch and dinner in one go from my ankle! As well as not feeling them, you don’t stop bleeding as they have an anti-colagulant that they somehow put into you; I was most annoyed, not by the bites themselves, but by the fact that my shoes now have a permanent blood-stain on the outside, caused by blood that seaped all the way through my socks and shoes!

As well as contending with leach bites, we had to contend with the heat and teh dehydration it caused. We has become a bit obsessed with saving cash as there is no way to get cash in the jungle so, in spite of having originally though of taking rehydration drinks with us, we forgot about them as we were on a tight budget, and within about 1/2 hour of starting the walk we were both drenched with sweat from the humdity to the point where I could wring out my T-shirt. 3 hours in, we decided we would have to stop for lunch as we both had headaches and were suffering from the lack of salts and sugars. By this time I had also nearly finished my 2 1/2 litres of water. We had been unable to stop up until this point as stopping meant the leaches found you. We decided it was best to eat sitting on a rock in the stream as there seemed to be less leaches in the water than out of it! Shortly after finishing lunch we saw a sign that informed us that we had walked 5.025km - we realised we were just over half way and suffering severely. We had no cnoice but ot puch on and eventually we reached the canopy walk, where we had fortunately seen the day before sold drinks including 100 plus - a rehydration drink like lucozade. We had a couple of those and my dizziness stopped. We walked the final 1.5km, knowing we had only about 40mins to go and very relieved that we’d managed to get away with it! Or so we thought. On arrival back at the village, Rich started to be sick and my body still wasn’t right 3 days later until I had a 3 course meal!

We slept well that night! The following morning we got up early ready to take the boat back downstream to catch the ‘jungle railway’ train up through the rest of the jungle to take us to the jumping off point for the Perhentian Islands.

Hi all,

We know we’re not doing very well here with this website - we seem to keep visiting places where the internet access is very limited. Just a short update to let you all know that we’re currently on Perhentian Kecil - a beautiful island off the East coast of Malaysia and we have spent the last 4 days doing our PADI - we finished it to day and so we’re now qualified divers. The island is beautiful - the sands are golden, the sea is crystal clear and azur blue and it’s really quiet because it’s the off season so we’ve virtually got the island to ourselves! We’ve seen all sorts of fish and plan to spend a couple more days here so we can have a day relaxing and a day to do a couple more dives, just for fun!

Lindsey continues to be bitten by anything that flies, jumps or crawls so needs to go somewhere where there are less midgies!

We’ll probably be in Bangkok within a week so will update properly then about our jungle adventure and our diving - I know for certain, having been before, that every other shop in the city is an internet cafe so we promise we’ll write decent entries then.

Hope everyone’s well: could some of my friends (Lins) please get in touch as I’m beginnning to think you’ve all forgotten me - I haven’t heard from anyone for ages and would like to know what you’re all up to - I’m very jealous as Rich hear’s from his mates regularly! Moan, moan!

xxxx

Hi All

Just a quick note to say were out of the Jungle in nearly one piece (leechs have at least a pint and a half of my blood!)  and we have just arrived in our hostel to crash for the night. Will update the blog in the next day or two and upload the pictures.

Sleep is the order of the day now though

Rich

As Lins wrote yesterday we have arrived in Malaysia and its proper traveling from now on!! None of this hand held by tour companies or luxury. Currently staying in a fantastic little hostel in the Chow Kit area of Kula Lumpar. Its a fantastic place, really clean and air con all for three quid a night! Outside the front door is a night market that sells all sorts of Hawker foods and junk so tonights dinner will be from there.

Kula Lumpar can be compared as Singapore evil twin, in some areas its alot like it, posh hotels, towering sky scrapers and great transport but there is a element to it that, while not threatening just gives a rougher feel. Its still a really friendly place and a place ive wanted to visit for a while.

After arriving early afternoon last night we did not really do much yesterday apart from head to the Golden Triangle to grab a bit to eat and have a little bit of a wander looking in shops that I couldn’t afford to shop in e.g Prada, Gucci e.t.c!! We were back at the hostel early and have been trying to work out where to head next. Think were going to go head to tarma Negra rainforest, it looks amazing and will be a great stop off on the way to the Perinthian islands.

Today we got up at half seven and after tucking into the free breakfast, headed to the Pertronas towers to get our free tickets. Being a bit of a construction geek its been an ambition of mine for a long time to see these. Formerly the worlds tallest building they are a masterpiece of modern construction. We arrived shortly after nine and collected our tickets for 12.30.

With time to kill we caught the tube to the National Mosque (Malaysia is very much a Muslim country) and wandered the area around Negaral Square. This as it turns out was just a large piece of grass and uninspiring but was where independence was declared so means alot to the Malaysians. We have quickly noticed that the Malysians love flying their flag and its drapped from everywhere.

Few more hours of wandering saw us visit Chinatown and the Largest Hindi temple in Malaysia with its large ornate entrance with carvings of various deities. It was, as we have come to expect very colourful and bright with a familar smell of incense and very calm.

In contrast as we walked by a Chinese temple and were called in to view inside. It was chaos with no sense of order, people were crawling around and waving incense and lighting fantastic smelling prayer coils and offering food to various gods. Intresting how diffrent religions can vary so much in doing what is essentially the same!

Finally after a quick lunch we headed to the Petronas Towers. Standing at 452m tall, they were constructed on 27,000 m3 of concrete and contain 37,000 tonnes of steel. Until 2004 they were the largest man made construction and they are amazing. Clad in Stainless steel and curtain walling they gleam against the skyline. The towers were constucted my rival firms and it was a Japanese/Korean race to finish first. They were finshed in apporximatly 2 and a half years which is some going considering the size of the project. As part of the tour we visited the sky bridge that spans the 42 floor which is only approximately a third of the way up which gave great views of not only the city but the workmanship that went into the exterior cladding. It really did live up to my estimations.

Now just back at the hostel, ive uploaded a few photos from today. Enjoying the fact im now back in civilization and unlike India internet cafes are everywhere. looking forward to posting more frequent updates.  Stay happy all and come on the city

Excuse the title - it’s the Malaysian Tourist Board’s effort! Just thought i’d use it to announce our arrival in Malaysia following our coach journey from Singapore today - on Frisday we spent a bit of time finding the cheapest coach we could to carry us for the 6 hour journey - we feel like we can deal with any mode of transport for that length of time now following our regular lengthy journeys in the boot of a jeep in India on what can hardly be considered to be roads, or even dirt tracks for that matter; boulder tracks would be a better description. Anyway, I digress! So we found a coach for S$27 each - that’s 9 quid - which we thought was pretty reasonable considering the length of the journey. It became even more reasonable when we boarded the coach and made ourselves comfy in what were, essentially lazyboy chairs - they leant right back, had a leg rest, a foot rest and arm rests. You even got a bottle of water! The first couple of hours were filled with a showing of Rush Hour 2 - which was more entertaining than I expected it to be - and 2 immigration stops - then, with one further stop for lunch, we arrived in KL.

My brother and Dahlia had told me that KL would be much like Singapore but, on first inspection, I haven’t really found this to be the case. There are certainly similarities; we wandered through one of the shopping areas this evening that is definitely reminiscent of Singapore but, on the whole, this city does not seem as upmarket, built up or as crowded as Singapore and the Islamic influence is very strong here - in Singapore, there were areas obviously catering to the Islamic population during Ramadan, but here the call to prayer can be heard in all areas and, as dusk fell this evening, Rich and I were sat in a fairly Western restaurant which was showing Britney’s recent MTV performance on the TV while were eating our starter and, as we tucked into our main course, the time came for Muslims to break their fast and the TV switched to showing the words of an Islamic prayer. We had wandered around the street stools just before dusk and they were bustling with people buying their tasty morcels with which to break their fasts - something we didn’t manage to find the time to do in Singapore - the smells were delicious and really wetting our appetite! We were almost tempted to just buy BBQ grilled chicken for dinner from one seller but we realised we needed something more substantial after the chicken and rice we had for lunch, which was pretty early in the day. (Thanks to Dahlia for introducing us to the Hainanese chicken and rice last week - I think it may form part of our stable diet in Asia!)

I know we’ve now moved on to Malaysia, but I just want to mention the Changi prison museum we visited yesterday in Singapore - my granddad was captured as a prisoner of war in Singapore during the Second World War and this museum is a memorial to those who served, fought, survived and died in the area. It began to give me an understanding of what granddad’s life must have been like for those few years he was in captivity - and it was truly horrendous. He died when I was 9, but I remember him well and it was always evident that the war had had a very adverse affect on him. Yesterday I learned what conditions were like for granddad and the thousands of others who were living under Japanese rule or as their hostages. They were objects of torture and forced labour and were kept and herded around like animals. There was one picture of a group of men who were made to build the Burmha/Thai railway (The Bridge over the River Kwai), of which my granddad was one, and it wasn’t until I read the caption that I realised that these men were actually alive - on first glance I thought that the picture was of 3 skeletons. A truly harrowing experience and one that, as I wrote on my note of remembrance, I hope I never have to fully comprehend.

I don’t have much more to add really - I didn’t write another entry about Singapore as I can’t really say anything Rich hasn’t already said as we mostly did just eat and socialise! I’ll just add a quick thanks to Danny and his friends and colleagues for their generous hospitality while we were there though - I can’t imagine how high some of the drinks bills must have been but nobody would accept any money from us to pay our share. So, thanks! And a special thanks to Dan and Dahlia for putting up with us in their house and for buying us lots of delicious food!