Ok so i'm in kl however let's backtrack to ...
Trip Start
May 09, 2001
1
5
23
Trip End
Sep 2001
Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia
Thursday, May 24, 2001
So we headed for Penang over Asia's longest bridge (i believe?) to stay in the Cathay Hotel in the Chinese area of Georgetown. The hotel is basic and the bed was comfortable although the towels could probably be best described as tea towels/ not a lot left to the imagination!!! Lucky i'd brought my own!
The first evening we went to a Nyonyan restaurant. The Nyonyan's and the Baba's are Chinese/Malays with their own style of everything, particularly cooking. There was a fantastic selection for meat-eaters but a bit sparse for us veggies!! It was lovely though.
The following day we all headed off in Trishaws around the North Eastern side of Georgetown, via Fort Cornwallis - vital in securing the English with safe passage of trade materials a century or so ago, and some Chinese stilt-houses located on the water! The smell of incense was lovely and in stark contrast to some of the city smells that waft around!! They are burnt as an offering - which is nice!
We also had a look round a Hindu temple to give us an insight into another religion in Malaysia - there are so many - and it was a good contrast to all the Wat's (Buddhist Temples) in Thailand.
Later on in the afternoon a group of us headed up Penang Hill on the funicular railway - a must for several reasons; 1/ It is 5 degrees cooler up there which is so refreshing! 2/ For the adventure of going up one of the steepest railways ever!!! (It was quite scary to look up or down and know that the train is at a really odd angle!! Tea and biscuits at the top along with a fantastic view and then the journey back down past the Thai Monkeys! We had to wait for longer than usual for the second train to the bottom of the hill so the Monkeys thought they'd chance the occasion by checking out what the tourists had bought. Only food will do and they moved like lightning! One monkey literally snatched a carrier bag out of someone's hand grabbed a packet of nuts and ran off to scoff himself!! They know how to open the bags and get exactly what they want. Of course once one monkey has got away with it the others decided to join in the impromptu feast!!! Well it passed the time for entertaining us!!
In the evening we all headed out to Little India for a typical Indian meal eaten with your hands and served up on a banana leaf!! Now some of you will know that i'm not a big fan of too many spices so lots of water had to be drunk - I don't think Mild is in the Indian Dictionary - they love spices so much! Still the Naan bread was delicious as ever and it was a great experience using no cutlery - to serve us in good stead for the next part of our journey!
From Penang we headed to the Royal Town of Kuala Kangsar where the Sultan resides. We were to head back here for a town tour a couple of days later at the end of our Island Hideaway to look at the Mosque here and the Museum which used to house the Sultan whilst renovations were in place in his palace - a bit fancy but it's got nothing on home!!!!!!
We had to get a boat to Suka Suka Lake Resort which is based 20 minutes from the mainland on a man-made lake which is the most amazing, tranquil place i think i've ever been to! Our hosts, Asiah and Aziz were fantastic! I stayed in a basic A-frame bungalow and got the communal facilites whilst some members of the group got the en-suite facilities (Lucky people!) - It wasn't nearly as bad as i thought it would be chancing the walk to the toilet in the middle of the night wary of any passing water buffalo and dodging the ghecko's I'd disturbed from their slumber!!!
We were able to swim in the lake and we were also taken to a neighbouring village, Batu Ring, where we trekked up to this very refreshing waterfall - lucky for us it hadn't rained for a couple of days as no leaches were found on any parts of anyone's body, hurrah!! Aziz pointed out loads of useful plants - both medicinal and for cooking which you just wouldn't have known about otherwise - the lemongrass looks like a giant spiderplant and is really a bush style plant! They have Merinda there which is highly prized for its medicinal qualities - later that evening we tried some of the fruit juice - Hint - if you ever get to sample this DON'T SMELL IT before you taste it or it might very well put you off!! It's like very old cheesy socks, uugghh!!
At Suka Suka we learnt how to play the local game called Chongkak - this is the most fun and addictive game ever using a wooden board and some marbles - sounds simple and it is easy to pick up, you just never want to finish playing!! Might have to commission a certain cousin of mine to producing one for moi?!? And anyone else if it proves lucrative??!!!
That evening we had a traditional Malay Feast wearing traditional Sarongs - and the Honeymoon couple; Karl & Heather wore traditional costumes! It was fantastic - Asiah is the best cook ever and Malay food is scrumdidlyumptious!!!
Well we're off to Singapore tonight and the tour will then finish on Saturday so i'll be on my own again!!! Here's to Singapore, Oz and most importantly NZ!!! Can't wait although i'll be sorry to leave the people i've been travelling with behind! They've been great and the Intrepid Small Group Adventures are an amazing way to see a country particularly in a relatively short space of time - you get a good insight but a chance to do your own thing too!! Check them out!
