Apologies

Apologies for the delay in getting pictures up. We are experiencing a bit of difficulty getting internet access now we are in Borneo. Hopefully further posts and pics should be up soon. - N

Second day in Langkawi – 21/2/09

Naomi strongly resisted on the idea of hiring a scooter. There was not much faith there in my driving and I am not sure why. It was impossible to get around the island without either a scooter, a car or a taxi-ride. In the end, we decided to hire this bomby old car for double the cost as a scooter.

It actually turned out to be a brilliant idea on getting a car considering that it rained heavily later on that afternoon (thank you Naomi~).

Langkawi Island is actually quite beautiful to say the least. It wasn't just a normal beach island, there were volcanic mountains, gorgeous waterfalls and of course, plenty of shopping and food. The beach in the main part of town (Pantai Cenang) was very ordinary by Aussie standards. There seemed to be a lot of Europeans here for beach holidays. We haven't met one Australian yet in Langkawi. But then why would you want to come here for the beach when you have the best beaches in the world in your backyard??? BRING BACK BYRON!!!!

In our quest for a decent beach on the island, we found a pristine beach with crystal-blue water that was occupied by many locals and a few foreigners. Maybe there is a reason that the locals want to save their best beach from the invasion of others. Oh, there were also a lot of monkeys in the surrounding which seemed to act as natural garbos.

We went to a place called the “Oriental Village” that had heaps of duty free shops and this cable car thing that take you to the summit of a mountain (750m). Unfortunately, we decided not to do it because it would have cost us around AUD$11 each. I was kicking myself when someone later told us it was one of the highlights of Langkawi. :(

The night market was absolutely awesome. We had Malay pancakes, chicken satay sticks (Naomi had 10), tempura chicken and prawns, deep fried chicken legs, fried noodles etc. The food was excellent and it only cost $9 for both of us.

The next day (22/2/09) we found a new hotel that was also right on the beach (beach view from our balcony) and to Naomi's delight, it was insect free, except the mossies of course. I decided to go on a Island-hopping tour in the afternoon while Naomi read and relaxed on the beach.
Island hopping was very uneventful besides that 3 Swiss girls that I met were apparently attacked by the monkeys on one of the islands. Apparently the monkeys grabbed their towels and attempted to rob them of their handbags. The girls also lost their blank DVDs for their Camcorder to the monkeys whom ate them in front of the girls. It was a pity that I wasn't there else to rescue them. There are coming to Oz in a few months, maybe you can show them around Angus.

The eagle feeding was pretty majestic. Langkawi apparently means land of the eagles in Malay. It was amazing to see 40-50 wild eagles with wingspan of a metre flying around you. They put up a good show for us tourists.

We also saw the sunset that day. I really enjoy sitting on the beach watching the sun set over the horizon and the colour transformation of the sky from blue to yellow to pink to purple. One of Borat's favourite sayings - “Very Niiiice”.

Naomi fell in love with the beach surrounding and the relaxing atmosphere. After we got out from our first hotel, the island suddenly became a lot more beautiful and like the holiday destination that they brag about in the in-plane magazines.

Angus for your information, there is an awesome reggae bar right next to our hotel serving some of the cheapest drinks in whole of Malaysia. Langkawi is duty-free and has drinks cheaper than water. A Tiger cost around RM1.50 which is roughly 70 cents. They also have some very very cheap cocktails too. Told you should have come over here! I even had a drink in memory of you. It was packed with backpackers at night when they have live reggae music playing. It was pretty funny how they turned Knocking on Heaven's Door and some of Blondie's songs into reggae. Nevertheless it was just nice sitting there listening to the music and looking at the boats and listening to the waves hitting the beach. You could have a whole carton for less than $20! Maybe next time mate. - P

Langkawi Island

Penang to Pulau Langkawi – 19 / 20 February 2009

We got up late on our second day at Penang and decided to go check out the beach area of Batu Ferringhi. There are a lot of backpacker joints in that area and the beach was supposed to be nice.

The public transport system has so far been quite easy to navigate, comfortable and reliable here in Malaysia. We jumped bus No.101 from the 7/11 on the corner of Love Lane and Lebuh Chulia which took us there in about half an hour. We wandered down to the beach which was quite pretty and parked ourselves under a tree.

Paul got hassled by a tout trying to get him to go horseriding, parasailing or any number of other activities bound to send us WAY over our daily budget. If there is a tout around you can guarantee that they will make a beeline for Paul. I think the reason is that instead of ignoring them he asks them questions – it only makes it worse when he turns them down, which he always does. Having said that, the level of hassling in Malaysia is nowhere near as bad as I have experienced before. Usually if you indicate that you're not interested they'll leave you alone.

I decided that I was quite tired enough for the spot under the tree to be my bed for the day and all we did for the rest of the afternoon was rest, swim and eat icecreams. Around 7.00pm it was just on dusk so we decided to grab something to eat and wandered around trying to find the famous Batu Ferrhengi night market which we had read about in a tourist brochure.
We weren't able to find it and eventually we decided to catch the 101 back to Georgetown. We later asked a taxi driver about the night market and he said it was a very famous night market but it didn't start till 8.00pm – doh!! We were annoyed that we missed it.

On the way back in the 101 we went past the Eastern and Oriental Hotel which is a 6 star resort with a famous history here in Penang (it was established by the brothers who established Raffles in Singapore). The E&O looked gorgeous from the outside. We had considered going there for lunch but we didn't have the appropriate attire (no shorts, no sandals). Obviously, we were too scruffy so we had to miss that too.

Oh well, the hostel that we stayed at in Georgetown (the Old Penang Guesthouse) was really nice anyway (and right within our budget so we didn't feel guilty about staying there). It was an old colonial style house and the owners had retained a lot of the original features, such as the tiled floors and decorative ceilings. Our room was really nice with window shutters that opened right out to a verandah at street level, a red feature wall, air conditioning and clean sheets and towels. There was a common area which,although it was indoors, was set out like a courtyard (which I guess it may have been at some point), a sofa, a flatscreen television with tonnes of DVDs and a bookshelf with a bunch of books to borrow. Breakfast of tea and toast was served every morning until 12 noon. Best of all, the bathrooms were really clean and there was plenty of hot water. And the total price for such luxury? It set us back a mere RM50 (about AU$23) a night which we thought was a bargain.

While we were in Penang I tried my best to sample some of the local foods that the area is famous for. Of course we ate more than our fair share of char kway teow but my favourite new things to try were actually drinks. I really loved the “stretched” tea that you can get (really strong and sweet) and the iced coffee. Yes, I have succumbed already to the heat and decided some days ago that I could not possible survive a day longer in the heat if I didn't have a really, really cold drink. The refrigerators here never seem to make the drinks very cold. The only way to get a really, really cold drink is, you guessed it – ice. Once I did it once I just couldn't stop. I just saw so many other tourists with ice in their drinks and I kept thinking “if they are drinking it then so am I!” Now every day I tell myself that I won't be having any ice but as soon as I start to move I get so hot I just can't help from having ice. At least I am still doing most other things right...

The one other thing that I would have liked to do in Penang that we didn't get the chance to do was to take a ride in a trishaw. There are still quite a lot of trishaw drivers around and it seems like it would be a wonderful, old fashioned way to see Georgetown but we ended up being too cheap to hire one and walking everywhere instead.

We decided that our day at Batu Ferringhi would be our last day in Penang. We still had some time before our flight to Borneo from KL on the 24th so we decided to head to Pulau Langkawi for our remaining time. Langkawi is a resort island that you can reach via ferry from Penang. Obviously, our day at Batu Ferringhi only whetted our appetite for more lounging on the beach.
Having given in to our slothful instincts and telling ourselves that we really needed a rest before attempting to climb Mt Kinabalu in a few weeks, we booked tickets on the 8.15 ferry to Langkawi. I decided to set the alarm for 6.00 because I figured it would take Paul about 45 minutes to wake up and about the same to pack and we intended to walk to the ferry from our hostel (about 15 – 20 minutes). By the time we went to sleep it was well after midnight as we were using the internet to try to find accommodation in Langkawi.

Because we have both been religiously wearing our earplugs at night to avoid the noise in the hostels, of course neither of us heard the alarm!!!! Thankfully the hostel proprietors banged on our door at 7.30 this morning yelling at us that we had to be at the ferry stop in half an hour! We totally freaked out and started throwing stuff in our bags. I ended up leaving without having a shower or even washing my face or brushing my hair (thankfully I managed to squeeze in brushing my teeth), let alone taking advantage of the free breakfast. We got the proprietors to call us a cab and only just made it to the ferry on time. We were very grateful that they take such interest in their guests – otherwise we would definitely have missed the ferry and both been RM60 out of pocket for the ticket!! Unfortunately in the rush we left our food bag behind somewhere. Although it didn't have much food in it because we ate it all, it did have our potato/fruit peelers in there which we were very sad to lose (you would not believe how hard it is to find a good potato peeler here!).

The ferry ride took about 2 ½ hours and by the time we finally reached Langkawi Paul had managed to ring a hostel and make a booking. However, he wasn't that happy with it because the room he had booked (which was all they had left) only had a fan and no air conditioning. Of course when we arrived at the dock Paul engaged one of the touts in conversation about accommodation and ended up going off with him somewhere while I got some money out of the ATM.

Eventually Paul came back and said that he had booked a room in a motel throught the tout and had already paid a deposit! Although I wasn't too thrilled at booking something that we hadn't read a review on somewhere at least, I wasn't too worried until the taxi actually turned into the driveway of this “motel”. The driveway was a dirt road with mounds of rubbish on either side and a dingy looking sign. We followed the proprietor to our room (not before parting with RM120 being the cost of two nights accommodation) only for things to get worse.

Let me describe this room. It has brown lino on the floor over which there is a constant stream of ants emanating from who knows where. There are no screens or even glass on the windows so we are constantly covered in DEET and I am writing this from within my silk sleeping bag liner trying to avoid the mosquitos. For the same reason the whole room smells like the two mosquito coils that we have burning constantly. There is air conditioning but it is quite ineffectual because there is no window pane to keep in the cool air. There are no blankets or sheets on the bed. We do have our own bathroom in which there is a toilet and a shower head with no sink and no hot water. When I got in to take a shower before a millipede came out of the drain. Hmmmm and this place is costing more than the Old Penang Guesthouse? Truly horrific. Plus there is no internet so this won't even get posted on the blog for some days to come. I have of course decided that from now on Paul will no longer be allowed to communicate independently with any touts.

After I had a bit of a sulk about the room I decided to get over it and just treat it like camping! After all, at least the toilet flushes, which is more than I can say for some of the hostels we've stayed in so far. I also decided it would make a good story for the blog (I use this idea to cheer me up when strange or horrible things happen on the trip, such as when we were “tourist-napped” by Vrea and Vicki). Plus, since Paul had already foolishly parted with our money there was nothing we could really do about it. In truth, I think I had read so much about the fabulous 5 start resorts and pristine beaches here that I had forgotton what AU$25 a night actually buys.

In the afternoon we went down to the beach (which is just 20 metres from our front door) and another afternoon of doing practically nothing helped cheer us up no end. We also decided that the horror of our room meant that we could totally blow our budget on an actual restaurant meal. In one meal we successfully spent enough money to see both of us through another whole day of our trip (including accommodation). I am currently feeling quite guilty about this gross overspend – it's back to the RM3 hawker meals for us tomorrow. At least the food was good though.

We're currently planning what we will do with our remaining days in Langkawi. It's a hard choice – we can't decide between going on a cruise of the nearby islands, going snorkelling or hiring a car to see some of the natural rainforest and deserted beaches elsewhere around the island. Whatever we choose, it must be something that will keep us out of this room as much as possible!

PS By the way, Michelle I have decided that you could definitely handle Langkawi (as long as you stayed in a proper resort). The beaches are nice, it is hot all the time (which has meant that having no hot water has not really been that big of a problem) and on our way down the street this evening we saw an Irish pub – the first we've seen in Malaysia!! - N

Second day at Penang - 18th Feb 2009

Not much really to report today.

It was very hot and humid today. Naomi nearly fainted before she found a chocolate boutique shop.

Went to the Penang Museum. There had interesting artefacts there on display including wedding items like the dresses, veils, and symbolic wedding keris etc. The blending of the different cultures and races was also interesting - for example, the "Baba Nonya" culture here has resulted from the blending of people from Chinese and Malay backgrounds and there is "Baba Nonya" traditional food and other cultural traditions etc.

I finally got my hat. After serious bargaining, Naomi and I both bought a hat for RM15 each which is equivalent to around $6.50 each. Bargain!

Oh, Naomi ate ice for the first time and I think she survived so far....

We went up to the Penang Hill after lunch. It offered panaromic view of Penang being 800 metres high. It was at least a couple of degrees cooler up there.

Had another yummy dinner on the way back to our hostel - roast duck and bbq pork with rice! Yum!

Oh, booked a flight to Langkawi! Cant wait to put our feet up for a few days and have some relaxing time on the beach... - P.

We're arrived in Penang - 17th Feb 2009

Had an interesting day today. We checked out from our hostel at the Cameron Highlands at 10:41 just in time for our first bus to Penang at 10:45am. I was kicking myself for missing breakfast this morning. We had the best Roti Canai yesterday from this corner shop. I really wanted to go back there again this morning. I guess we should have got up at 9:15 instead of 9:30.

The bus had no air-con and no toilet. It was bearable nonetheless as there were wind blowing through the ceiling window. We saw heaps of limestone mountains and some magnificent scenery of the Highlands coming down. It is a pity that the limestone is gradually being chipped away by heavy machines for commercial use.

The interchange bus station at Ipoh was very confusing. Apparently there were different bus stations going to different places from Ipoh and there were all far apart. The bus started to drive away from the bus stop that we supposed to get off and luckily a friendly local passenger on the bus asked us whether we were going to Penang and told us that was our stop. We picked up our bags and fully sprinted towards the driver (knocking a people out on the way) and told him that we needed to get off the bus here. It was so embarrassing that he had to stop the whole bus in the middle of the road for us to get off.

After we got off the bus at the interchange station, Naomi took the initiative in asking the local taxi driver and the information desk on where we can buy the ticket. It was such a small station, but we just couldn't find the stupid ticket counters!

It was pretty smooth ride on the second bus en route to Penang. Naomi was very excited when we saw a Pizza Hut restaurant when we were on the second bus to Penang. She made me promise that we will have to go there when we see the next Pizza Hut restaurant. I agreed.
We saw a lot of palm trees on the way. As Vrea told us, palm trees and rubber trees are the two money trees in Malaysia. He said Malaysia used to produce a lot of palm tree cooking oil and export it to Australia for consumption until the Howard government banned it due to the cholesterol content in it.

Because Penang is an island we had to catch a ferry there after we got off the bus. It was quite pretty to see the island from the Peninsula. Not many tall buildings and very green up in the Penang Hill. There were also a lot of boats around.

We were busy snapping shots on the ferry and on the way to our hostel. The buildings here are very diverse - from Chinese temples to Indian temples, Muslim mosques to century old colonial buildings. It was amazing seeing all the different types of people that lived in this one building – a colonial building with Chinese/Indian characters on it.

The food here is also AWESOME. There is so much variety here we didn't even know where to start. We had a very late lunch (3:45pm) at a noodle shop. We had rice noodle soup with chicken. At night we had the famous Char Kway Teow (stir-fried rice noodles with prawns, sausages and egg in them) that was invented here.

Had a tiring travelling day today, but otherwise enjoyable. - P.

Post restante

Doh! Just checked the price of getting my jeans and shoes sent to me here in Malaysia and I think I better not be so vain and reserve any international postage for absolute essentials.

I just haven't seen any good jeans to buy here. Obviously this means I haven't been doing enough shopping!!! Will have to get my priorities in order.... - N.

Cameron Highlands (cont...)

Today Paul decided that we needed to go for a hike around some of the walking trails here. I wasn't too keen because I still don't have a hat (I was supposed to buy one when I got here) but I eventually caved in.

There are quite a few trails around the Highands but none of them seem to be very clearly marked. After spending about half an hour looking for the start of the trail we finally found it and headed off through some nice rainforest. The trail we were on lead to a mountain peak about 1650 metres above sea level. We finally made it to the summit although Paul nearly turned around when he thought he saw a snake. It was pretty hard going but the rainforest was really pretty. After Paul saw the snake (or whatever it was) I was pretty glad that I had my hiking boots, especially after we saw some truly scary snakes yesterday at the butterfly sanctuary.

[It WAS a snake. I was so sure that it wanted to come and attack me before it realised that I would probably do a Steve Irwin and wrestle it to the ground. - P]

On the way back we decided to go via another route and after skirting our way around a few landslides and hiking for about an hour we met a Dutch couple coming the opposite way who told us that there was a power station ahead and that the trail seemed to end so they were going back the way we had come.

We couldn't be bothered to go all the way back up the mountain so we pushed onto the power station and finally found a way around it by jumping over a drain bushwhacking through the bush around the perimeter fence. We went back for the Dutch couple who were waiting for us to check out the power station to see if we could find a way around it. By that time a Swiss guy had joined them so we all went around the power station together and found ourselves on a bitumen road. The maps that we had were all really inaccurate and by that time we had been hiking for a couple of hours so although we saw a turn off for another trail we decided to follow the road instead.

[These guys seriously had no idea where they were going. The Dutch people apparently were walking around for hours and kept hitting dead ends and wrong turns. I have no idea what they would do without us. But anyway, we thought it was pretty obvious that you should just walk around the fence if there's a road on the other side....... - P]

Well, we must have been quite far out of Tanah Rata because it seemed like we were hiking FOREVER on this road in the blazing hot sun. In truth, we didn't even know if we were headed back to Tanah Rata and there were hardly any cars on the road. Thankfully we were with the others and not by ourselves! Anyway, we eventually turned a corner and saw that we were back on the outskirts of Tanah Rata. We decided that our hard work had earned us a beer and a coke and an afternoon watching movies at our hostel and recovering from our exertions.

[I am feeling very very very very sore right now. My legs and thighs are dead. Every move is slow death. I am ready to pass out. Angus - it almost feels like going up Mt KK, but quicker effect. Maybe that's what old age does to you!?! - P]

I am still wishing I had my jeans and some "going out" shoes. Everyone here is wearing jeans in the evening because it gets so cool. I think I might have to get them sent over..... - N.

Cameron Highlands - 14/15 February 2009

We made it to the Cameron Highlands (finally) but we had an interesting trip.

The train ride from KL to Tapah was uneventful -about 2 hours. The trains are so cheap here - it only cost us 8RM from KL to the Tapah station (about AU$3.50). When we got to Tapah train station we were supposed to go to the bus station to catch the bus to Tanah Rata from where you can explore the Cameron Highlands. The bus station was 9km from the train station and being a Saturday there weren't too many taxis around.

We met this girl named Vicki at the station who said that her brother Vrea was coming to pick her up from the station and he could give us a ride to the bus stop. She was a nursing student home for the weekend and she seemed like a nice girl so we thought it would be ok and would save us the cost of taxi fare. When her brother came he asked if we would like to see the local waterfall on the way to the bus staion. We were pretty early for the bus and we didn't want to be rude so we said ok.

[It was totally random. I was just standing at the train station while Naomi was wandering around the station and this random woman started talking to me (it was very obvious to locals some guy with a big backpack on his back and with a lonely planet guide in his hand that he's just got no idea where he's going...). I asked her re the bus stop and she said she had no idea. She then asked this random girl to look after us...... talking about local hospitality! It was awesome. We then went on to a very long detour joy ride as described below - P]

We got to the waterfall which was about 20 minutes from town - it was very impressive and there were a lot of people swimming there and having barbeques. Vrea shouted Vicki and Paul drinks but I thankfully got out of it (they all had ice in them). Thankfully Paul drank one otherwise it may have been a bit rude but he totally saved my bacon. After we got back in the car Vrea said he would take us on another detour to see a local Hindu temple. I was a little worried by how long it was all taking and the fact that a simple ride to the bus station had turned into a half day odyssey to see all the local sights. Plus I was trying the whole time to suppress my instincts not to accept rides from strangers (especially in a foreign country).

I had a few anxious moments wondering whether we were going to be driven into the bush and killed or robbed but I tried to tell myself that surely someone wouldn't rob us or kill us with his sister in the car. Right? Right? Besides, Vrea himself gave us a lecture on getting lifts with people in big cities but he said it was ok in small towns (like Tapah presumably).

When we got to the Hindu temple it was closed and the local guru didn't want to open it despite Vrea's pleading. The story that Vrea told us about the temple was that there was a Hindu holy man who walked from India to Malaysia. He didn't ever eat any food but he lived to be 149 years old. The holy man did not want to be reincarnated as most Hindus are so he was buried alive at the site of the temple around 1959 and the temple was built over the top of his grave. Spooky! I was kind of glad that the temple wasn't open, especially when Vrea told us that there was a pipe that went down to the Holy Man's grave from which he could speak to you while you were praying!


[That was totally random. I was just like....right. Did the Holy Man make it into the Guiness Book of Records for being so ancient??? It was probably not the best to ask Vrea. Apparently Vrea even dreamt about 2 travellers coming to Tapah the night before and that he would guide us around. Crikey! I really wanted to say G'day to the Holy Man through the pipe though. I almost slid in a $20 note for the guru to open the gate. - P]

After the temple, we were supposed to go back to the bus station, but Vrea turned onto the road to the Cameron Highlands. By this stage, Vicki and Vrea had already spend most of the day driving us around so we protested and asked them to take us back to the bus stop. But Vrea said that he had decided to drive us all the way to the Cameron Highlands (about 2 - 3 hours by bus) because his sister had never been there. Well, by then we couldn't really say no because we felt extremely indebted.

On the way we stopped at a little roadside stall for food. Once again Paul was my saviour because he ate some food (I couldn't come at it because it looked like it had been sitting there all day) and then we were off on the highway. Vrea wouldn't accept any payment for the food or drinks although he obviously wasn't very well off. There were no seatbelts in the back of the car and we had Paul's backpack sitting on our laps. Also, the road to the Cameron Highlands was very narrow and windy and the Malaysian drivers are all crazy!! We were just hanging onto the door and hoping we wouldn't die.

Suddenly, when we were about 20km from the Cameron Highlands, the car sputtered and conked out!! Vrea pulled onto the shoulder of this narrow windy road and popped the hood while he tried to figure out what was wrong.

At this stage we thought we were never going to make it to the Highlands!! Vrea told us we would have to hail the bus to the Highlands (which we had overtaken on the way) as he didn't know what was wrong with the car and he would have to ring his relative to come all the way from Tapah to pick up him and Vicki. Luckily the bus came by after only about 5 minutes and we hailed it down and jumped on board. Paul slipped Vicki some money before we left because we felt bad about all that they had done for us. We felt sorry for Vicki and Vrea as they were left on the side of the road with the broken down car....


[It was seriously nice of Vicki and Vrea to spend half of their weekend driving us around and shouting me free food and drinks. It was really the first time that I experience something so hospitable from a totally random stranger. Having said that, within our first 24 hours in KL, 2 random people offered us free tours in their home State of Penang. The experience is overwhelmingly warm and generous. I felt so bad that their car broke down and Vrea still hailed a bus down for us while he and his sister had to sit in the car on the side of the road waiting for their relatives to come and pick them up 2 hours later. - P]

Anyway, after that exciting interlude we checked into our very nice hostel in the Highlands (RM45 per night for a double with shared bathroom).

Today we went for a half day tour to visit some of the attractions around the Highlands which include tea plantations, strawberry farms and a butterfly sanctuary. We may stay for another day to do some of the walks they have here before we move on to Penang.

The tea plantation was really amazing with the tea planted all the way up the sides of the mountains. It must be such hard work to pick for the labourers who have to do it by hand with shears. Our tour guide told us that they are paid about RM44 per day (about AU$20) and they have to purchase their own harvesting equipment - it seemed a bit of a raw deal to us - N.

13/14 February 2009 - KL to Cameron Highlands

13 February 2009 - We decided to take it easy today. Woke up at 10am and out of here at 11am. We started the day by going to “Little India” to check out the markets and searched for an internet cafe. We ended up in a really dodgy tenement block. It was like in someone's unit with 4-5 computers in different booths. There were also phone booths inside the unit. It was quite interesting to walk around in the block checking out the people that live there. The internet cafe was shut at 1pm for prayer.

One thing I discovered about KL is that everything is LOUD. Loud horns from cars, loud music from speakers everywhere on the street, in the market, in apartment blocks (including our hostel). I am not sure how people can live with such loud noise in their lives constantly.

We went to this curry house place for dinner. But we could not understand the menu and the food was in a bain marie. So Naomi decided to pull the plug in case we got sick. We ended up just eating in some random place on the side of the road for Bat Kut Teh (literally meat bone tea). It was spare ribs cooked in tea and served on rice. Yummy! It was soooo good. It only cost us $7 for both of us including a plate of veges and soup. On the way home, we saw another curry house and decided to order a garlic naan. They cooked it in front of us in the tandoor oven. I haven't seen it before in my life. Good expereince.

I really want to buy a new cap from the night market. I gave myself a budget of $2 for a cool hat. I am not sure whether I have much chance. But hopefully with some fierce “negotiation” they'll cave in. I bought a pair of fake Crocs yesterday at this stall that apparently has the cheapest price and does not accept bargaining. After I paid for the shoes, we walked to another store 3 shops down and there were selling it for like 15% less! Absolutely spewing about that. Hopefully I will get a chance to get my hat before I leave here.

Am struggling a little bit with trying to lower out daily expenses. We have been spending time every night trying to work out what else we can cut down. It is pretty difficult to leave my lifestyle back in Bris Vegas and come here to live off on a small budget and not being able to buy those cheap shoes, shirts, wallets etc that I see in the market. Hopefully, after a few more weeks, I will be able to adapt to my new life - P.

14 February 2009 - Yes, thank you Dad for clearing up my confusion about the toilet hoses here. I actually did guess that that's what they were for but I guess I just didn't want it to be true. Anyway, seeing as I am the person who thought Ireland was connected to England it shouldn't come as much surprise that I didn't know what the toilet hoses were for!

We are spending Valentine's Day making our way to the Cameron Highlands where we are hoping it will be a little bit cooler. Actually, the weather has not been too bad since we got here – although we don't have a guage I don't think it would have been more than 30 on most days but it is heaps humid and you get really hot walking around during the day. I can only imagine how hot some of the women here must be because they are covered from head to foot.

Apart from our trip up to the skybridge at the Petronus Towers, most of our time in KL seems to have been spent at one market or another – from China Town to Chow Kit to Little India and others. I'm quite proud to say that my only purchase so far has been a wallet (10RM – about $3 - $4) because my old wallet was crushing my notes. We have given ourselves a budget of AU$50 each per day for the whole trip and to date in Malaysia we have been spending about AU$30 per day including accommodation (we spent about AU$13 each per night in KL). However, you could really live on quite a bit less and I think we seriously need to curtail our eating habits because apart from accommodation this is where the bulk of ou money is going. Besides, we need to spend less now so that we can afford the more expensive countries later (plus we will of course need to purchase further air fares). Suffice to say we spend quite a bit of time each day calcuating our expenses for the day and working out how we can cut costs - N

My feet hurt!

We have now spent two days seeing the sights of KL. My favourite was the Islamic Arts Museum which we visited this afternoon. It had a pretty cool collection of all types of artworks related to Islamic religion over the world.

I can't understand the toilets here - why do they all have a hose beside them?????? It is really confusing me and I just can't work it out. I don't know what I am supposed to use if for. Hmmmm, confusing...

My legs are really hurting from all the walking that we have been doing. Being cheapskates we have refused to take any taxis and instead have been catching the train and traipsing all over town. Quite a few times we have almost lost our lives trying to cross the road here - there are hardly any pedestrian crossings and half the time the motorists don't even stop when the light is red. Yesterday we had to walk over an overpass on the side of the road with the traffic and then cross an eight lane highway to get to the National Museum - quite a feat.

On Saturday we are off to the Cameron Highlands. I am very disappointed at the moment because my plans to climb Mt Kinabalu in Borneo next month have to date been thwarted by the annoying company who owns and runs all the accommodation on the mountain - they keep telling me there are no rooms available for the nights we need. Darn!! I really want to climb the mountain!!! - N

I am utterly disgusted by the bathroom of our hostel. I discovered mushrooms in the bathroom. Charming! I had no idea what it was until I kicked the forest with my shoes. Man, what other fruit/vegetables have they been growing in where I have showers?!? Don't ask, it may be too much for both of us.

Naomi said girls' bathroom does not have mushrooms in them. But it had no flush before until last night.

Yesterday we wandered up this small alley way and had breakfast with the locals. It was a rather interesting experience, sitting in a small long table with men chain smoking around us and eating local food. We decided to branch out so we had 1 Roti each. Probably bit few for my taking to be honest. The guy reckoned that I should have 10 but I thought he was joking.

We also went to the Batu Caves near KL today. I was fully puffed walking up the whole 275 steps. The scenery would have been ok if it wasn't for all the tonnes of rubbish (literally) leftover after the recent Hindu festival up there. There was an Indian shrine there that's still worshipped. There were also chickens in the caves which must have been dinner that wasn't cooked during the festival. :) There were also heaps of monkeys there which Naomi was very scared of. She thinks the monkeys will come and bite her and give her rabies.

Tomorrow is going to be the day of serious shopping. I plan to go to 2 day markets and maybe a night market as well while Naomi spends the time in the hostel doing chores. Good on her!!!!!

Peace and out - P

Ha ha, very funny Paul! - N

We've arrived - first day in KL

Ok ok - for those of you who are worrying, we have safely made it KL, although it was a very stressful event trying to get Paul organised for an 8.55am flight (hmmm, should have guessed it). The (Air Asia) flight was totally uneventful with the exception of the in-flight safety demonstration where the captain announced (in relation to the oxygen masks dropping from overhead) that we should “muzzle ourselves first before assisting others” - hilarious.

Customs in KL was another total non-event. Even though we marked on our arrival card that we had goods to declare (we had fruit) and tried to present our bags to three separate customs officers for inspection, they refused to check our bags and just kept waving us on. Eventually we realised we were out of customs and no one was going to check the bags because we were at the doors of the airport. Obviously I have been watching a little bit too much “Border Security” because even after we got outside I felt like at any moment a sniffer dog and customs official might grab me, demand to see my bags, confiscate my food, lecture me about the dangers of bringing food into the country and fine me (or even possibly deport me)! I was quite scared at the prospect because there were scary looking guard type people standing around with machine guns!

Having survived the actual plane ride we walked straight into our first Malaysian downpour – not very cool since we didn't bring any umbrellas and couldn't be bothered to get out our rain jackets from the bottoms of our packs. While we were waiting at KL Sentral (train station) for the rain to stop I couldn't help but notice quite a few pairs of skinny jeans walking past on girls who were definitely locals – bugger it!! Darn it Mum – I told you I needed those jeans!!!!!!!! At the last minute I left my favourite skinnies out of my pack (along with my only pair of semi decent shoes I might add) and now I am limited to wearing Crocs and cargo pants the whole trip!!!! Totally not hot!!

We have now checked into our seedy hostel room which I have studiously checked for peepholes. I'm now trying to figure out how I can eat the fruit I just bought at the night market down the road (do I need to peel it or can I just wash it in bottled water?...what if I washed it with the water that we have purified with our steripen?...what if I washed it with the water from the “water filter” machine downstairs?...speaking of water, what about cleaning my teeth?...). And so starts the grand adventure.... - N

KL being KL, is always so predictable. Yes, that's right. It started raining at 4:45pm right on the dot and went till 7pm. Walking in the rain was totally fun. Tomorrow I think is about time to purchase my first umbrella of this trip. Night market in Chinatown is interesting. A lot of people trying to sell me fake DVDs...Do I look like those people who would buy fake DVDs??? Yep, totally.

Oh yeah, thanks to my Inspector Rex talent, got back to our Hostel without even have to refer to my map. And had Naomi nagging me the whole way on how we were totally lost in the concrete jungle :)

One of the weirdest things that we experienced today was this new thing called "Fish Spa Massage". It is totally the new Go for foot treatment. Instead of going to the podiatrist, you can just put your feet in a fish tank full of small fish that will eat dead skin cells off your feet and massage it in the same time. AWESOME! Such a cool idea that I am going to introduce it back in Oz upon my return. Guys, seriously, I am looking for shareholders in my new venture. Ha! Ha!

Oh yeah, I got a Malaysian number now for those who want to give us a call and say G'day. I will facebook/email you in a bit.

Peace and out - P