Carrie walks into the Thailand section of the border
With our new friends Claire and Karen in tow, Carrie and I left the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia at 7:30am to head to Koh Phangan, Thailand, for the Full Moon Party. Referred to as the best and biggest party in the world, we had based our entire schedule for Malaysia and Singapore around getting to the party. It was something that we just had to experience. Little did we know that getting there would be an experience all in itself.
Our day began with a quick boat “taxi” to the speedboat ferry that would take us from the Perhentians back to the mainland. From there we hired a proper taxi to take the four of us to the Thailand border at Sungai Kolok. Getting our passport stamped to leave Malaysia was quick and painless. Getting into Thailand was not.
Checking to make sure no on has swine flu before entering Thailand
First we had to undergo a health check, which involved filing out a form swearing that we had no swine flu symptoms and getting our temperature checked. After mine came out at 36.7 degrees Celsius the nurse showed it to me and said, “very close.” I freaked out a bit until I saw the sign that said 38 was the minimum for concern. What was she scaring me for?!
Next we had to wait on a long and hot line to get our passports stamped with our Thai visas. While waiting, a money changer approached me and tried to give me a terrible exchange rate. As everything does, it turned into a little scene that ended with me refusing to give him my money.
The encounter did have a positive effect though, as Reuben, a Spaniard traveling alone and standing behind me in the line, asked me why I didn’t want to change money with that guy. We continued to talk about traveling and soon established that he too was going to the party without pre-booked accommodation. And just like that we had a fifth member of our crew.
The full moon gang (from the left: Claire, Karen, Reuben, Carrie and Me)
After successfully getting through the border check and entering Thailand we found that the train station we needed for the next leg of our journey was about 4 kilometers away. There were no car taxis anywhere so we had no choice but to all hop on the back of motorcycle taxis with our big bags. For ten minutes we caravanned through the streets of Sungai Kolok: waving, hooting and hollering at each other. Depending on whom you ask it was either a fun or terrifying experience; Claire said she had never been more scared in her life!
Safely arriving at the train station and buying our tickets to Surat Thani, we joined a train full of other Western travelers heading to the same place. The ride was long, dusty, hot and highly entertaining. Reuben was sitting next to a Thai who was drinking beer for 10 hours straight. Karen and Claire drank whisky with a Thai police officer in the food car. Carrie and I met an army officer who loves scuba diving as much as we do. Good times were had by all.
The sleeping quarters on board the overnight ferry to Koh Phangan
We finally arrived at Surat Thani at around 9pm and quickly started looking for cabs to take us to the boat dock. However, we had somehow picked up a straggler (we’ll call him San Diego because that’s where he’s from and I don’t know his name) who invited himself into our group to try and save money on the cab. He alternated between making sure to latch onto us and trying to find his own cheap deal. In the end he tagged along with us, which made us need two cabs instead of one and we all had to pay an extra 10 bhat for helping him. No problem, I would hope the same would happen to me in that situation.
The boat, which doubled as a cargo ship filled with food, beer and other dry goods, wound up costing double the normal price due to the party. The inside was lined with mattresses both on the floor and elevated in the aisles. Everyone had an assigned spot, though we did have to kick a few sleeping locals out of our beds after playing cards until nearly 1am. It took a while, but we all finally fell asleep to the rocking of the sea.
We made it!
Arriving at 5:30am, we were awoken by the sounds of the ship’s horns and countless taxi drivers on the jetty shouting “good morning! You want taxi? Where you go?” through the boat’s windows. Still groggy, we had no choice but to enter the taxi gauntlet waiting for us and try and figure out where we were headed. Not surprisingly, it was at this point that San Diego reappeared after being MIA all night and tagged along with us. Our destination: a hotel with a room big enough for six.
The epilogue to the story is that Claire’s place didn’t work out but we did find a wonderful AC room that we could cram the original five into. San Diego had been both trying to find his own place and make sure to stick with us all morning just in case, so we were a-ok with him doing his own thing. We even helped find him a cheap single room, but were completely done with him. Finally, at around 8:30am we all plopped into our beds and passed out.
Final tally
1 train ride
1 motorcycle taxi
3 car taxis
3 boats
26 hours of travel
Views from the back of our motorcycle taxi to the train station
The scene on the dock when our boat arrived at the full moon party at 530am
Our hotel for the first night in Kuala Lumpur was the airport next to the baggage claim_2
First Malaysia and Singapore were on our our itinerary, then due to time constraints we cut them out. However, as the cheapest way to get from Bali back to mainland Southeast Asia was through Kuala Lumpur, we decided to give it a go.
Our experience began at 1am when our plane landed in KL and we decided to save money on a hotel by sleeping on the baggage claim floor at the airport. We had a thin sheet over us, it was beyond freezing and uncomfortable and more than a few times I woke up, peered out from under the sheet and saw the feet of security and cleaning people standing over us trying to figure out what to do.
After a few hours we couldn’t take the cold and hard floor anymore, so we moved to the seats nearby: all of which had armrests in between them. We spent the rest of the night sitting and leaning over the armrests on our bags and couldn’t have been happier when 8am came around and we headed into the city.
After leaving the airport and finding a hostel in the Chinatown area of Kuala Lumpur, we spent our first day wandering the city and seeing our first movie in the theaters since leaving the USA: Star Trek, which was awesome! Later that night we spent literally hours taking the subway around trying to find a nice place to take a panoramic photo of the KL skyline at night. We found nothing, but did meet fellow travelers looking to do the same thing. Eventually we just got off at the Petronas Towers and settled for an amazing view and some awesome shots of the twin towers (from the movie Entrapment) at night. They were lit up and more stunning than by day.
The next day was another one for wandering, as we walked through Little India (a sad representation of our favorite country on this trip to date) and around a bunch of residential neighborhoods. Kuala Lumpur is a pretty small city and by the end of the day we felt like we had seen most of it. The skyscrapers are average both in size and architectural style and pale in comparison to the beauty of Bangkok. The subway system takes you everywhere you need to go and traffic did not seem to be much of a problem.
A view of Kuala Lumpur from the Petronas Towers
Sadly, at one point during the day Carrie lost her sunglasses, so we had to head to the Times Square mall to find her a new pair. This place was like nothing I’ve ever seen. Literally, it was 15 stories tall, had an amusement park with roller coaster inside, three movie theaters, multiple food courts and more. After finding new sunglasses and having spent the day walking, we decided to treat ourselves to a cheap foot massage for $6.
Actually, we treated ourselves to foot reflexology, which is apparently very different from a massage as the guy spent 30 minutes putting my foot in more pain than it has ever been before. It was interesting when he identified the areas of my body that hurt (neck, lower back, shoulders) just by finding the knots in certain areas of my foot, but the process of getting said knots out made me grit my teeth and clench my fists at times.
Carrie and I at the Harlem Globetrotters game in Kuala Lumpur
On the way back from the mall we happened to walk by a sign for the Harlem Globetrotters, who were playing in Malaysia the next day. Though we had originally planned to leave, we decided to stick around as we had both always wanted to see them and how random that we would do so in Kuala Lumpur.
We woke up at the crack of dawn the next day and headed back to the Petronas Towers to queue up for two of the 1,400 free tickets issued daily to go to the skybridge on the 41st floor. Our book advised us to arrive early or be disappointed so we got there an hour before go time and found ourselves pretty much at the front of the line and people still coming in and going up hours later. Oh well, we still got to go up on the second elevator ride of the day. The view from the top was spectacular and the light perfect.
Hours later it was time to head out to the Globetrotters. Of course, the arena was in a suburb outside Kuala Lumpur and the 15 minute journey we were promised took nearly an hour and required a cab from the train station to actually get there. We finally arrived 20 minutes late and were thrilled to find a promoter outside who gave us comp tickets.
A reflection of the Petronas Towers
The game, and I use that term loosely, was a farce…more of a comedy show than an actual basketball game. A lot of time was spent with the players teasing each other on the court, pulling fans out to take shots, going through rehearsed taunts against the other team (clearly more actors) and interacting with the fake referees and coaches.
When they did shoot some hoops it was as advertised and totally awesome! The dribbled around, made the other team look like fools, dunked, passed back and forth and did amazing tricks. It was clearly a show for kids, but we had a great time and are very glad we spent one more day in KL to check it out.
The Harlem Globetrotters do all sorts of tricks in the final moments of the game
A view of Kuala Lumpur from the window of a moving above ground subway train
The sights and sounds of a Chinatown street restaurant both in the kitchen and the table area. Look for the guy selling lotto tickets.
An assortment of local foods at a buffet in Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia seems to be more of a mix of other cultures than a country with its own. The locals are a collection of Indians, Malaysians, Indonesians and Chinese. This leads to many different religions and a very segmented population: especially in Kuala Lumpur. True, we didn’t spend too much time interacting with locals, but everyone we have talked to and the guide books all agree that the country lacks an identity all its own.
The food is reflects this mix as well, as local dishes of the server’s country are available everywhere but there is no traditional Malaysian food. Most meals consisted of some sort of noodle and meat, which made life tough for Carrie the vegetarian. The majority of the popular dishes also had some sort of weird brownish sauce on them that absolutely made me gag. I could get it down, but it wasn’t enjoyable.
Pastries like this were all over Malaysia. Bread, katsup, hot dog, peas, corn, mayo, and some sort of super sweet something
What was enjoyable was all of the pastries everywhere, as Malaysia was filled with things I have never seen before. Most of them were filled with sausage and cheese, though some interesting ones also threw in peas, corn and other varied veggies. That one was gross. Oh, and the cheese had sugar and other sweeteners in it to form a very unique taste. Seafood is also everywhere, though not being a big fan I mostly avoided it. I hate to say it, but the meal we probably had the most was cup of noodles from 7-11.I haven’t had that much Ramen since college!
Poor Carrie! First she gets sick in Bali and goes a little stir crazy trying to recover. Then, no sooner than she starts to feel better I get a case of the belly and have to hole myself up for a few days. This is how we came to Melaka: a small coastal city that our guide described as a backpacker’s haven. In reality, it was a small town with little to do and nary another backpacker in sight.
On occasion I did drag myself out of bed for a little sightseeing. Highlights included a nice fort, the seaside and the mall. We also visited the local museum with exhibits on kites, spinning tops, Melaka’s history and abnormal beauty practices around the world. This one was the most fascinating, as it had sections on African lip discs, foot binding, neck stretching and all the other things societies do in the pursuit of beauty. However, we never made it through the whole thing as the AC was broken and the entire beauty exhibit was around 100 degrees.
Jonker's Walk is a great Chinatown weekend night market in Melaka
Still not feeling better despite having almost finished the pharmacy-prescribed meds, we finally took me to the ER of the local hospital to see a doctor. First let me say this was terrifying, as I was sure that they were going to diagnose me with Swine Flu and quarantine me. What really happened was the doctor tapped my stomach a few times, asked about my symptoms, told me I had food poisoning and sent me on my way. Food poisoning that lasts 5 days? Dummy! We demanded a poo test for all parasites and other possibilities which he begrudgingly agreed to. The next day when I got it back I saw that he only tested for food poisoning: which was negative. Thanks guy, I just wasted $30 to find out nothing!
Anyway, I was feeling a bit better on our last night so we headed over to Jonker’s Walk in Chinatown. Consisting of four streets, the place was filled with street stalls, local restaurants, red Chinese lanterns and delicious food.. It is amazing all the crap that was for sale too. Tables were covered in little plastic toys, hair bands, bootleg tee shirts, watches and more. We spent a few hours walking up and down, soaking it all in and eating before calling it an early night…we were off to Singapore the next day!
Creating spring rolls from scratch on the street at Jonker’s Walk
They say be careful what you wish for. Carrie lived in Nicaragua for 27 months. I was there for seven. We’ve since traveled in Central America, Canada, Europe, India, Sri Lanka and a good portion of Southeast Asia. As of our bus ride out of Singapore, neither of us had ever experienced bedbugs and were having a conversation about that very subject.
Half a day later we arrived in Ipoh, Malaysia: a little middle-of-nowhere town where we had to spend the night and catch an early bus the next day. The guide book warned us that many places charge by the hour and to be sure of the hygiene of the room and the bed. Still, we’re budget travelers so we couldn’t say no when our cabbie took us to see a $6 room above a Chinese restaurant….even if he couldn’t vouch for it.
The room was an instant classic and could be compared to some of the dingiest places we have ever stayed. As for the bed, it had leaves and mothballs under the sheets but after shaking out the mattress and finding no critters we figured that we were in the clear and checked in.
Dead bedbugs on our pillow at our first hotel in Ipoh. We gave up our 20 ringit and ran out of the place at 1230am
The fun began shortly after returning from dinner when we saw a couple of little brown bugs crawling on our bags and in the bed. No problem; we put down our sheet that we travel with and figured that they were too big to hurt us. I was still feeling under the weather so I went to sleep while Carrie watched a movie on the iPod. For nearly two hours I dreamed that I was covered in bugs before I woke up, felt something crawling on my neck and slapped it. My hand came away covered in blood.
Upon closer inspection, our travel sheet was now covered in little white bugs as well as the bigger brown ones we had seen before. They were everywhere: the pillow, our bags, our bodies. Needless to say, we have never packed faster in our life and, at 12:30am, we stormed out of the hotel. I tried to get a refund from the guy watching the place at night but that was not happening.
So we wandered up and down the deserted streets desperately searching for a clean hotel. The first few we stopped into were clearly in use by prostitutes, as we saw them hanging out in the doorways and streets looking for business. Finally we came across a winner, checked in, changed clothes and promptly passed out in non-crawley bliss.
In case you were wondering, we never went back to the first hotel to ask for a refund…we figured it just wasn’t worth it. I’m very thankful it was only a close call and I didn’t wake up covered in itchy bites. No thanks!
Carrie and I at the BOH Tea Plantation in Tana Rata, Cameron Highlands
After escaping bed bugs, we finally finished our journey to the Cameron Highlands, which feature rainforests and mountains to hike through. The town is basically one long street filled with restaurants, convenience stores, guest houses and tour operators. Best of all, the climate was coooool! We checked into a hostel with the springiest bed I have ever slept on and proceeded to spend the next four days enjoying the temperature, relaxing and trekking.
As is the case with most places Westerners go, the tour operators make it seem like it’s impossible to go trekking without a guide. Good thing we don’t believe anyone trying to sell us anything, as we spent two days hiking alone in the rainforest. We just followed well trodden paths up and down mountains while holding onto roots for support, swatting away giant mosquitoes and getting a great workout.
A chrysantum plantation in the Cameron Highlands...just one of the areas we had to walk to to find a hiking trail
The trails were especially unique as their start and end points were usually on someone’s private property. One started in a berry jam farm and ended in a tea plantation. Another started in a strawberry field and ended in the back of a hotel in private farmland. There were pretty much no signs for the trails either, so it was a bit of an adventure finding them.
Our other field trip in the Highlands was a day trip to see the rafflesia arnoldii, which is the world’s largest flower…though there is some argument as to whether it is a fungus. The hike up was beyond muddy but our guide had fisherman boots that he lent us. Mine were about two sizes too small so I spent the whole four hours of intense hiking with my toes bunched up. Anyway, after hiking up the muddy trail and through the forest we came to the flower.
Carrie and I in front of the Rafflesia arnoldii (the world's largest flower)
At nearly three feet wide, the rafflesia arnoldii really is a thing of beauty. They only bloom for five days a year, so seeing one is a real treat for hundreds of visitors daily. The first one we saw was nestled in the middle of a dense patch of trees, bushes and mud and stood out brilliantly with its bright red color.
We took a few photos and after the last one I snapped of Carrie with the flower I lost my footing on the mud. Up in the air I went and down I came. Hands first. On the flower. Breaking off one of the six inch petals. I was both mortified and unable to stop laughing as our guide picked up the broken petal and tried to lay it back where it belonged to fool other visitors. I can only imagine what the next folks to come through there thought. Oops!
The rest of the tour was pretty uneventful in comparison. We saw a few more flowers and their buds, drank rain water out of a bamboo branch, shot blow darts (without the poison) at a target in an indigenous village, saw a tea plantation, visited a honey bee farm and had fresh strawberries right off the vine.
The reletively undiscovered Long Beach on the Perhentian Islands
What better reason to leave the cool weather of the Highlands than for some scuba diving and time on a tropical island. The Perhentians are a pair of relatively untouched islands, the smaller of which is Long Beach where we stayed. It reminded Carrie and I of the Corn Islands in Nicaragua. The beach was where all the action was. There were restaurants, bars, sundry shops, hotels and dive shops lining the shore. Behind the beach and the single line stretch of civilization there was nothing but dense forest and some walking paths.
As for the cast of characters on the Perhentians, Carrie and I had picked up a couple of new friends on the minivan ride from the Cameron Highlands. One gal was Karen from the UK who was staying at our hostel. Our other new friend was Claire from Scotland, who we had actually met atop Mt Batur on our sunrise hike in Bali. We hadn’t seen her since, but there she was in the same van. Random! Anyway, the four of us got a room together and thus a new crew was born.
Nemos (aka clown fish) in our dive in the Perhentian Islands (taken by reuben)
During the two days there, Carrie, Karen and I crammed in five dives while Claire worked on her tan. On one dive through a shipwreck we actually had a conversation in an artificial air pocket 12 meters underwater. Caused by divers’ bubbles rising, the pocket allowed us to actually take out our breather, have an echo-filled conversation and breath the underwater air. It smelled and tasted a bit funny, but was perfectly fine and an amazingly unique experience.
During another dive we went to a cleaning station where little shrimps with claws are all congregated by a large piece of coral. Fish come over and the shrimp pick the dirt off them. Well, instead of a fish they got our hands and we watched as dozens of the little guys crawled all over us and gave us a cleaning. It didn’t hurt, but I definitely felt a lot of little pinches.
Claire, Karen and Carrie in the Perhentian Islands
Then there are the Nemos. Every dive we go on, the clown fish are the most fun to play with. Think about the fish from the movie Finding Nemo. That’s a clown fish. They really do live in anemones and every time we come over to them they are the most curious fish in the sea. An outstretched hand is usually enough to get them to come out and say hi.
Oh, and on one dive we literally saw dozens of bamboo sharks hiding under rocks and tons of blue spotted sting rays swimming all over.
Other than diving we really didn’t have much time to explore the island. We ate a few meals, wandered around, checked out the nightlife scene and the chicas had a girl’s night out when I went to bed early one evening. We could have stayed longer, but the world’s biggest party was quickly approaching and we had to get to Thailand. But that’s a story for next time…
A video of what scuba diving in the Perhentian Islands was like, as taken by Reuben
Muslim women apparantly need to wear burkas while snorkling. Makes sense I guess.
Malaysia
I saw a Muslim woman snorkeling with a full burka on
We saw the final episode of American Idol in a hotel room in Melaka. This marks the third final I’ve ever seen…once in Panama, once traveling back from Nicaragua in 2007 and now this one. I have no idea who won any of them…including this one.
I got a bee sting in the rainforest.
In a Kuala Lumpur hostel there were signs everywhere to leave the toilet seat UP in order to help the ladies. This is because the shower is in the same room as the toilet and when the seat is left down it is soaked for the next sitter. I only mention this because it goes against everything we are taught in the West to leave the seat down for the women.
We visited a museum in Melaka that would have been very interesting, except that half of the signs were illegible due to terrible printing and the entire third floor, which housed the exhibit on beauty that we wanted to see, was about 100 degrees.
The Petronas Towers at night
Before going up the Petronas Towers we had to watch a 3D video that was just a 10 minute promo for the Petronas company. They just made it 3D to make it seem cool. It didn’t work.
Nothing happened, but it is always worrisome when your boat captain quickly puts on and fastens his life vest in the middle of a boat trip
Our guide to the rafflesia arnoldii flower refused to take a photo of us with my camera. I guess it must be some religious thing, but I’ve never heard of that before.
Carrie and I find it hilarious when we order something from a restaurant and see the waiter leaving a few minutes later then returning with a bag of groceries including the ingredients needed to make our dish.
While holed up in Melaka, we sat in the mall next to our hotel for hours to use the free wireless Internet from the coffee and donut shop inside.
A Kuala Lumpur subway station
Even though Kuala Lumpur is a small city it has some of the best public transportation I’ve ever seen.
In Kuala Lumpur we had amazing fresh pineapple shakes that for some reason also included chunks of gooey pineapple candy at the bottom. Delicious, but definitely not fresh.
We ran into Claire, who we met on the top of the volcano we hiked in Bali, Indonesia, on the same minibus we took from the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia nearly a month later.
After leaving a squatty potty stall to find a Western one in a public bathroom I exchanged places with a local who had just left a Western style toilet to find himself a squatty potty.
The Malaysian post office is called POS for short.
Enjoying a steak with not a strand of hair on my head
It’s growing back now, but I finally fully shaved my head with a razor on my last night on the Perhentian Islands.
I swatted some of the biggest mosquitoes I’ve ever seen in the Cameron Highlands. Sometimes they didn’t even die. I’m pretty sure they might be mutants.
We feasted on delicious and cheap Indian food every night in the Cameron Highlands. Mmmmm!
I’ve pretty much been sick for the last month. First it was a stomach bug. Then my not-quite-swine-flu. Then I got a cold or allergies…still not sure. Then I got a neck thing that made it hurt to move my head for a few days. Now it hurts to clench my left fist. Sheesh!
A byproduct of all the sickness is that my weight was temporarily 164lbs. You can see every bone in my body. Don’t worry…I’ve been eating everything I can get my hands on since.
We drove by a wedding procession. The men were in back and the groom had an umbrella held over his head while he walked. The women were in front with the bride in the very front: unshaded and carrying her own wedding cake.
I did not have a single beer in Malaysia due to the super high USA type prices. $3 for a can at a supermarket. Crazy!
Many taxis in Northern Malaysia have the side view windows on the side of the front of the hood of the car.
Singapore
Dozens of local men stand outside a little store watching a soap opera
We saw a group of about 30 men standing outside a bodega in Little India at 7pm on a weeknight watching a teeny TV inside that was playing a soap opera.
Apartment buildings have poles sticking of the windows to give residents a place to air dry their clothes.
On the bus ride to Singapore, Carrie and I decided to play a game called “who can find the first piece of litter,” expecting it to take all day. We were shocked to find that there was trash all over the place moments after getting off the bus. So much for being the cleanest city on earth.
When we hailed our first cab we asked the same question we always do, “is meter possible?” He reacted like this was the strangest question he had ever heard, as all cabs in Singapore are meter. What a nice break from constant haggling over fares.
When I was sick in Singapore I had a can of baked beans for breakfast that I couldn’t finish so I put them in a shopping bag and carried them with me until I could have a few more bites.
Subway security stand. I was stopped at one of these with my giant backpack on our first day in Singapore
On our first day in Singapore I was stopped by a security woman in the metro station who wanted to go through my big backpacking bag.
There are white business people everywhere.
There are also tons of Indians everywhere.
I forgot the laws and spat on the street a couple of times and quickly remembered and looked around, hoping no one was waiting to cane me.
When I told a cabbie we were from the USA he asked us if we were traveling for six months or a year. I guess they don’t ever see the one week work vacationer from the USA. Too far away.
Air fresheners and clean smelling air sprays are constantly being sprayed in subways, malls, buses or anywhere there can be fake air.
While waiting for our bus to leave Singapore we saw our first ever Muslim female backpacker, complete with burka.
A woman at the supermarket stopped me to ask if I could get an item down off of a high shelf for her. The amazing thing is that there are items on high shelves at all considering the average height of a local Singaporian is very short.
