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Saturday, December 22, 2012

Bits and pieces of Malaysia in 4 days

  Took the ferry from Ko Lanta to Ao Nang and met up with Holly at McDonald's, where she was finishing up her cheeseburger. We had planned on meeting at 3ish p.m. but my ferry kept stopping to transfer passengers to other vessels. I got to McDonald's a few minutes before 4 p.m. We were trying to figure out where to go, and walked towards the beach, and found a ticket agent after a few minutes. I asked him about ticket prices, to Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, and Penang.

We couldn't decide on where to go first, so Holly tossed a coin. Heads, Kuala Lumpur. Tails, Langkawi. Tails won, so off to Langkawi we were the next morning. Our tickets cost 850 baht, and included pick-up at our guesthouse. It was late afternoon, and there was no available transport for the same day so we chose to be picked up at 6:00 a.m. Bad news bears. We ended up going out later in the evening, after we'd cleaned up and stashed our stuff at our guesthouse, J Mansion in Ao Nang. I've stayed at other guesthouses in the area, and J Mansion is, by far, one of the cleanest, and most affordable places I've encountered. Highly recommend it!

  Where was I? Oh, yeah, we had dinner overlooking the beach at Aning Restaurant, then to Full Moon Bar for a beer, and then yet another bar (don't remember the name), then finally, back to the guesthouse to sleep for a few hours.

  Our pickup service was a bit tardy, not so surprising in Thailand. We drove around for a good 2 hours, retrieving all the passengers on the roster. Between ferries and motorbikes, and tuktuks and songtaews, my hair had formed one giant dreadlock underneath, and I spent most of the minivan ride trying to undo the knot! When we arrived at Bara Port, several hours later, I was still trying to undo my hair...the British girl seated next to me on the minivan took pity on me, and lent me her lint brush. It helped...a little...must. use. conditioner.

We had about 30 minutes to spare at Bara Port, and I changed from gypsy pants into shorts in the smelly bathroom, and Holly went and did the same. We were to line up at 1 p.m. to have our passports stamped by the port officials before boarding the ferry. I'd never been on such a grimy ferry, with so much passenger space. There was a fruit vendor who tried to sell me grapefruit and mango. I told her fruit upsets my stomach, and she backed off. We chose a backrow, and every so often I'd get a whiff of the bathroom in the back of the ferry.

We set sail around 1:30 p.m. and exhaust fumes hit me in the face. I told Holly I was going upstairs to check out the view. We ended up at Pemerikaan Port at around 3:00 p.m. and had to be stamped into Malaysia. All the foreign passport holders seemed to get stamped in promptly, while Asian passport holders got detained and searched for no apparent reason. Holly waited for me for a good 20 minutes while the immigration officer in my line detained the 2 Asian girls in front of me. Finally, it was my turn, and the officer looked at my U.S. passport, stamped it, and handed it back to me. Finally, we were in Malaysia!

Pemerikaan Port is no joke. Langkawi is a duty free island, and there were so many shops, and so many people running rampant. It was sensory overload. We walked around for a bit trying to take it all in, and were propositioned by taxi drivers. 30 ringgit seemed to be rather pricey for a cab ride. We kept walking, towards the KFC and 7-11, and found a cabbie who would take us to Cenang Beach for 25 ringgit. I was smoking a cig, and he told me not to rush. He pulled out some cigarettes as well, and lit one up. They looked like they were wrapped in bamboo, but it was a pale colored leaf, and he said it contained fresh tobacco...

  It took about 30-40 minutes from Pemerikaan Port to Cenang Beach, and our driver dropped us off near a bunch of guesthouses. It was really hot that day, and we went from guesthouse to guesthouse, trying to find the best deal. None of the guesthouses were under 50 ringgit. We had just about given up, when I spotted Amani Guesthouse. 45 ringgit per night. There was a huge dead beetle and various other insects on the stairwell on the way up to our room. This was the least of our worries.

 The room was threadbare, with patches of paint missing from the walls, stains on the sheets, and burn marks on the furniture. The bathroom was your typical South East Asian bathroom, with no separate shower, and this one didn't even have a sink! The hotel worker was very kind, however, and we were sweaty, and tired, and agreed to stay there for a night, even though I grimaced at the thought of sleeping in that room.

 We tried our best to avoid staying in our room, and stayed out for as long as was humanly possible. We found a Thai restaurant called Rose Tea 2, and had some chicken pad thai for dinner, and coffee at Starbucks. Do not order the red velvet cake in Malaysia! I don't know what their idea of cream cheese is, but whatever they're putting in their velvet cake is ruining it. We found a mini mart nearby, and stocked up on cartons of cigarettes. I hadn't seen Pall Malls since Europe, so I got a carton of 'em for 45 ringgit!

  The next morning we left our bags at the guesthouse and found a ticket agent straight ahead. Langkawi was beautiful, but very expensive in comparison to the rest of SEA. Our ticket agent was a portly, butch, Malysian woman, who told us it was our fault that everything was getting more and more expensive in Malaysia. She was riot, and made us laugh the whole time we were booking our ferry to Georgetown. 77 ringgit, and we were to be picked up at 4 p.m. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach, catching some rays, and just chill-axing.

  We arrived at the jetty port in Georgetown at around 9 p.m. and shared a cab to Chinatown with a guy we met, who said he lived in French Guyana. I had pre-booked a guesthouse on agoda.com, and our cab driver took us there, but it was so far away from everything,  and looked to be in a dodgy neighbourhood. I ended up running upstairs and trying to cancel my reservation, but the lady at the front desk told me I had to contact agoda.com directly, that she couldn't do anything at this point. Ok. I later emailec agoda.com, but haven't heard back from them.

  We got dropped off in Chinatown and must've checked out rooms at about 10 different guesthouses. Our friend from French Guyana was carrying a 34 kg backpack, containing all of his dive equipment. I don't know how he managed. Holly and I grew weary and settled on 75 Traveller's Lodge, 40 ringgit per night. Georgetown seemed to be a bit cheaper than Langkawi, with a massive array of street food...from chow fun to dimsum to sushi, and all for about 2 ringgit per order. HALLELUJAH!

  In the morning, we walked over to Banana Travel and booked our bus from Georgetown to Kuala Lumpur, 35 ringgit. We explored Georgetown, as we had half the day free to sight see, and decided that China and India had thrown up there, and Georgetown was the byproduct. We came across a beautiful Hindu temple, but alas, it was locked up. We then stumbled upon a Chinese temple, one of the only examples of Teo Chew architecture in the city. Wandered through Little India, and wafts of incense slapped us in the face. Every couple of blocks, we'd find a wrought iron cartoon, some with a story, some freestanding. They were the highlight of Georgetown, to me, as well as the old old old old old examples of architecture, influenced by so many different cultures. It was scorchingly hot and we sat down for iced white coffee at Kaffa Kafa. I'd never seen, or heard of white coffee until I got to Malaysia, but apparently, it's very popular with the locals.
  Our pickup service was very very late and I had to call to remind the tour agency. I had bought a Malaysian sim card and it proved to be very useful. We got to our bus, just in the knick of time, and were told to hurry and get on the bus. If our driver hadn't been so very late, then we wouldn't have had to hurry now, would we? We got on the bus, and it was MASSIVE, with more leg room than I've ever had in any bus I've ever been on. The seats had plenty of reclining room and even had an adjustable leg rest?!?! No cupholders though...not that I needed one...I slept the whole way to Kuala Lumpur.

I think our journey took 6-7 hours, and the bus dropped us off in Puduraya. I had contacted a Couchsurfing host and texted him to let him know we were waiting in front of the 7-11 on Jalan Pudu Lama. he showed up in a cab and told us to get in. He lived about 20 minutes outside of KL, JLN Cahaya to be exact, and the total cab fare was 30 ringgit. he was telling us that his landlady was a nice Chinese woman, and he rented a room in their house. on his Couchsurfing profile, he never mentioned that we'd all be sleeping in the same room, but he was nice enough to give up his bed, so that was ok. As an added bonus, we could smoke inside.

  We must've been exhausted because Holly and I woke up a little before 1 p.m. the next day. We quickly showered and headed to the train station, and went sightseeing. "Sightseeing" ended up being shown around malls. Times Square and Pavilion. Riveting. (Not really.) We had lunch at Nando's, which I fell in love with in London, and was really excited to see the chain in Kuala Lumpur. After lunch we went over to Trader's Hotel and took the elevator up to the 33rd floor, to Sky Bar. The view from up top was spectacular, and I got up on the cushions to take pictures of the Twin Towers. not so spectacular was the price tag for my iced green tea, 15 ringgit?!?!

It was sprinkling, and then full on raining, as we headed back over to Times Square for Starbuck's coffee, and then over to Pavilion, again, to have dinner at the food court. The food court was massive, and I had a hard time deciding what to eat...I spotted a sign for 'Penang Street Food' in the back, and made a beeline for it. The kiosk was called "Mee Jawa', and their spicy noodles were YUM!!! We ended up at Mac Residence, which was a huge highrise condominium, where one of our friend's friend of a friend of a friend lived.

Apparently it was a Coucsurfing potluck gathering, and the dining room table was covered with food from every nation. We met a Dutch girl, a French girl, some Algerians, and Nigerians, 2 Malaysians, and of course, there was our Couchsurfing host who is Saudi Arabian. A bottle of wine, a bottle of whisky, and off we went to the pubs. lot of beer, lots of dancing, and i got quite friendly with one of the couchsurfer boys?! at some point we left in a taxi and somehow got rerouted from our couchsurfing host's house to a house in Cyberjaya, a good 40 minutes south of Kuala Lumpur. I'm guessing the boy i got friendly with at the bar wanted to see me again. We got there and finished all the booze in the house, and the sun had been up for quite some time. I think it was 8:30 a.m. by the time boy and i made it to his bed. And no, I did not put out for a warm bed to sleep in...