Getting My Sarong On: Falling in love all over again... with Malaysia, that is.

Hello Blogoshpere,

I would just like to say sorry for not posting for like... a week? After we left Kuala Lumpur, we headed into the Peninsular Malaysian jungle of Taman Negara, and after a few days there, we took the jungle railway (a very long, dusty, hot and beautiful train ride through the jungle- stopping at every remote village possible) to Kota Bahru in the Northeast. From there, we took a boat to Pulau Perhentian Cecil, or, Small Perhentian Island, located just off the coast of Northeastern Malaysia.

Let me share how we were feeling about Malaysia from the time of departure from Kuala Lumpur to the time of arrival on the Perhentians. Pretty blah. Blah is actually a great word to describe how we were feeling about Malaysia.

Yeah, like I said before, no one hassles you here, the infrastructure is great and the first world comforts are appreciated. Blah. When we arrived in Taman Negara I'm not quite sure what we were expecting. At the risk of sounding travel snobby, I will go ahead and say that, quite frankly, we saw it all in the Sumatran jungle. And we didn't see anything in Teman Negara.

That being said, we didn't really make a huge attempt to see anything, either. We could have gone for night hikes, three or four day treks, fishing, trekking to nomadic tribal areas (quite specifically, the Orang Asli people of Malaysia). We could have done a lot of stuff! But to be even more honest, the weather was sorta crappy and we were both in a major state of tropical burnout. Like, if I had to look at another monkey (there were even monkeys in Kuala Lumpur) I was going to puke. Luckily (?) we didn't see monkeys of any kind in Teman Negara. We didn't even see any leeches, which the jungle is apparently crawling with 365 days of the year.

So what did we do? Well... not much. We did an interesting (read: terrifying) canopy walk amongst the tops of the tallest trees in the jungle. There were bridges set up between the trees and you could walk around for about half an hour before the walk ends. What everyone failed to mention to me was that the "bridges" were, in fact, made of rope which made them sway... a lot. I tried not to panic and even managed to take a look around a few times! Of course, Patrick enjoyed the whole thing and took some pictures... which you will see later. Then we did a smaller hike up a small mountain and around a loop that brought us back to the National Park headquarters.

The next day, we decided to *not* hike anymore and instead go swimming in the river. This was actually nice, and there were even little "doctor fish" in the river nipping at my toes and giving me a free pedicure. Thanks, little dudes. As it rained torrentially every afternoon, we spent the rest of our time in our little hut run by a devout Muslim (and therefore extremely hospitable and thoughtful) family, reading books and playing cards.

All of the restaurants in this area are found on barges in the river, which was a fun experience (even though the food wasn't as good as we had been getting). By the third day we decided we had had enough of the jungle and set off for our next destination: The Perhentian Islands.

My thoughts on this: Finally, more time on the beach. It's about damn time. We hadn't seen a beach since Bali, and I was totes burnt out and needed some relaxation (Because, believe it or not, backpacking is hard work. Just ask the pinched nerves in my neck.)

In order to get to these islands, you need to bus or take the train to Kota Bahru, a small but bustling city of about 400,000 people, with a night market AND a day market for all your yummy food needs. Can you tell I like markets? After taking the Jungle Railway through... the jungle... for about 8 hours, we arrived in Kota Bahru and stayed the night. Early the next morning I went to a clinic to see the doc about my nervy neck and then we took a cab to the port village of Kuala Besut- the jumping off point to the Perhentians.

I wasn't expecting much. By this time in our journey, Pat and I were actually missing Indonesia- despite the hassle. At least the locals talked to us. At least we ate consistently good food. At least we saw a decent jungle (ok ok, no more jabs below the belt, it's our own fault we didn't have any decent jungle time in Teman Negara).

When we got our tickets to the island, I was angry because I thought they were wayyyyyy overcharging us because they thought we were just another bunch of rich tourists. It turns out what I thought was a one way ticket was actually a round trip ticket, and I was almost impolite to several people because of my err in judgement. I was downright snappy when we arrived to Cecil Perhentian Island in the midst of a huge thunder and lightning storm. I said some stuff under my breath to the guy who charged us two rinngit to taxi us and our bags to the beach. We were soaked straight through from the torrential rain, and I was really scared being out on the open water in a lightning storm. That's not an irrational fear, right? I mean, that's dangerous, isn't it?

Well, I had expected as much. Crappy Malaysia. Typical, really. That's what you get for being so developed.

I was so, so wrong.

We stopped at a little cafe/resthouse and had some tea and roti canai (fried Indian bread served with a curry dipping sauce... I have been eating an average of two per day...) and had a chat with the friendly manager. She was full, but she pointed us out in the direction of some cheap guesthouses on the other end of the beach.

Actually, once the rain stopped and the sun came out, we found a great little hut for 25 rinngit (about 8 bucks) per night and the most AMAZING view of the ocean. We had a nice little veranda and a mosquito net. What more could we need?

Well, I hadn't thought about it at the time, but we could certainly use some wildlife, yes? And that's what we got. Every night something unidentifyable would scurry into our room and thrash around our bags until the wee hours of the morning. During the day, we were occasionally greeted by the largest lizard I have ever seen (in the wild) in my life. It was a massive moniter lizard, at least a metre in length. It looked like a Komodo Dragon, so that kinda makes up for us missing out on those guys.

Pat, of course, looked into doing some diving while we were there, and actually, the diving guys were renting rooms right next to ours. We had a great time chatting and having drinks with them- they were lots of fun- and Pat had a good time diving (although he says the Gilis were better) and saw some stingrays and sharks and a moray eel. I didn't ever want to leave, but there are no ATM's on the island so, before we ran out of money, we returned (sadly) to Kota Bahru today.

Don't fret, though, beachlovers. We are on our way to Surin Island in Southwestern Thailand, where we will hopefully see some whalesharks... or at least Pat will while scuba diving and then tell me about it. And I'll take lots of pretty pictures. Until then!