So, this may make you all jealous. Or, maybe you'll be mature and truly feel happy for me, but, I am pleased to say that for the first time in all my life, I spent Christmas day on a lovely warm, relatively empty beach in Malaysia. Praise the Lord!
Yes, the water was warm, the air was clean and the landscape was unbelievable.
Christmas day evening we went on a bit of a tour where we saw live eagles feeding, swooping, diving for the chicken skin we fed them. We were able to go into some bat caves and see hundreds upon hundreds of small brown and black bats hanging upside down. Of course, it is pitch black, but you can hear them all....fluttering and squeeking, and then you shine a flashlight on the wall and you just see them all...the wall is cluttered with them...and you try not to make noise at all...incase them get restless and fly all over your head!!! Ahhh. Creepy. But, fantastic, and one of my favorite parts.
We stopped on a dock where a couple of us touched a stingray, and we also held a horse shoe crab (which Gloria may or may not have dropped). Creepy crawly things. We saw monkeys on the tour, and met some slovakian guys...one of whom went swimming in his clothes, which I thought was a terrible idea, as the sun was setting and it was about to get chilly. But, to each his own.
Christmas day I got a wonderfully horribly sun burn in the most random shapes and locations on my back and legs. I feel like after applying 45 sunscreen every hour and a half or so, one should really be protected from the sun...and yet, "not I" said the horrifically pale and currently splotchy little Talia.
Boxing day we hired a taxi driver to bring us around the island all day, he cost 150 Malaysian Ringet for an entire day...which is about 50 bucks, which we split 4 ways. I'd say we got a deal! He brought us wherever we wanted to go, which included waterfalls, monkey's, the enormous cable car overlooking the whole of the island Langkawi, which is where we were at this point). Breathtaking!
We left Langkawi near the end of the day, and flew back to Kuala Lampur for just a quick stopover for the night. We stayed at the backhome hostel, which I would truly suggest to anyone in the area. It's relatively inexpensive, has clean blankets and sheets (cleaner that our hotel in the next city!), and is both modern and urban in decor. I really enjoyed both the nights we spent there.
The next morning, left KL and flew to Kota Bahru. Once upon a time when we were booking flights, we all decided we'd like to see the Pherentian Islands...because, who wouldn't? However, what none of us knew was that it was indeed Monsoon season. We decided to book flights and then look into housing details afterward, which was a poor choice. It turns out that in monsoon season the entire set of pherentian islands completely shuts down. Nothing goes in or out. Therefore, we were stuck in the transfer town of Kota Bahru...which is super local, and super boring, and, obviously, as it was in a monsoony place, it was indeed, wet.
Our hotel was aweful. We had blood on a quilt, my sheets were dirty in BOTH beds, there were spiders in the first room, and ants in the second. We had a 3 bed room first (one double, two twin's) which was tiny, but would have been comfortable enough, however the window faced directly into the street where into the wee hours of the morning there was a market. Now, this is a market that reminded me so much of Abu Dhabi it wasn't even funny. Loud people, loud music, blaring islamic messages and incantations, children up at 2 and 3 in the morning, and hussle and bussle forever. Who knows why it is the cool thing to do...but it is.
We moved rooms to the opposite side of the building after complaining. We ended up getting two small rooms with two twins each. It worked out fine...though at the end i had to argue with the manager over the phone to have him honour our first price, as they were going to make us pay a higher price for switching rooms (even though we'd asked directly if that would happen). It's a good thing I've worked in hotels.
We did try to hire a driver in KB as well, but there was absolutely nothing to see. We took several long drives back and forth through the city looking for random things, including a hot springs that turned out to be a rather gross warm swimming pool. The best part was that we almost got lost in the jungle looking for it, and our poor taxi driver (who spoke zero english), was desperatley driving through deep muddy puddles and knocking on the doors of locals trying to find it...a lot of hype went in, and not very much came out.
We tried to see a "fishing villiage" which was some colourful boats tied to a dock. And we eventually just gave up.
The saving grace of KB was actually a tip from Lonely planet. Zacsman batique. I have his card if you'd like. He has a little shop over there where he teacher the art of batiking, and sells his own merchandise as well. He was friendly, spoke English well, and allowed us to try things as he taught the technique. The process takes roughly 4 or 5 hours (for 4 people). We went twice, just to kill time. We also enjoy the products that we came out with. Check out my Face book page for more pictures, as many were taken on my friend's cameras.
Anyway, I am thankful to never have to go back to KB.
We spent new years in Kuala Lampur again, one short night there before we flew back to HK. It was absolutely packed everywhere on the streets. We began our evening by taking a train to the "twin towers" buildings, which are impressive. We ate an italian meal there, delightful, and we looked around a bit. We were quite early, and since we weren't dressed for "raving" and since I wouldn't have been caught dead entering into a "rave" anyway, we took the train back to our hostel area. There was a nearby park where they had a second count down and concert. People were selling things all over the streets, cars weren't allowed to get in, it was madness!
Funny though, we were watching out clocks, and ready to go, the concert ended, and all of a sudden, fireworks....aka: no countdown. So, once we realized that they weren't going to do one, we did our own on a small video recoring that Rebecca made...just to feel the anticipation of the new year that we're all so accustomed to.
Now, this trip was fun, but I don't think I"ll be heading back to Malaysia anytime soon... much like the middle east, I just don't get it.
Signing off for now.
Talia
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