June 2008
Malaysian Peninsular: Kuala Lumpur & Perhentian Island. We are in Malaysia…stayed a couple of nights in Kuala Lumpur, a stop over between the 6 hour train ride from Singapore and before a protracted journey to the Perhentian Islands. The train station is in central Singapore but owned by Malaysia which confused us, quite basic but not without charm. High vaulted ceilings and decorative murals but horrible strip lighting. Apparently the Singaporeans are embarrassed by it and want a modern futuristic building. I didn’t mind the building but the trains could be improved, the timetable expanded instead of most being very early hours, better on-board food instead of instant pot noodles…and decent toilets; but then we’d have nothing to tell you about. The station is full of hawker food stalls most of which we can’t identify but trying new things is part of the experience. There’s a huge Indian influence but what I thought was an onion Bahji (for breakfast, the choices were slim) had prawn paste inside and wasn’t very tasty but the highly sugared doughnuts were delicious.
The 6 hour bone-shaker of a journey to Kuala Lumpur through monotonous scenery is difficult to appreciate through scratched smeared windows. Immigration control was an hour after we left. Everyone off the train, file slowly by immigration officers, get our thumbprints taken by infra-red, sniffed by a springer spaniel…file out another door down the platform and back on the train. All quite efficient. In Kuala Lumpur a notice in our taxi said no kissing. We checked in to the hotel, noted the warning against bringing in Durian…the highly pungent fruit which when cut leaves a residual stink for days…apparently like farts…so the warning is appreciated. A wander by huge residential blocks and our first view of the Petronas Towers…the tallest towers in the world until 2004 and still the tallest twin skyscrapers. The 88-floor towers were designed by architect Cesar Pelli built from reinforced concrete steel and glass and a facade based on Islamic culture…a symbol of Malaysia’s Muslim religion. A double-decker sky bridge connects the two towers on the 41st and 42nd floors, 558 feet above the ground. We booked tickets for the following day for the observation deck on the 86th floor of Tower 2 to see fantastic views of the city.
To Pentang Street which caters mainly to tourists…t-shirts and trinkets, a lot of knock off handbags and watches. The monorail runs overhead sporting amusing advertising for ‘bum equipment’. Some beautifully painted buildings, street food hawkers and the bustle of big city life. A wander in the evening results in new friends. Like us Steffi and Eberhard from Germany are looking to eat on the infamous street Jalan Alor, a long road packed cheek-by-jowl with food vendors selling Thai, Chinese, Indian, Malay and Vietnamese food…plastic tables and chairs spread across the pavements and sprawl in to the road. Dinner is delicious and the atmosphere buzzing, tables are packed with locals and tourists, business is frenetic, the night loud with hundreds of conversations in different languages. A fantastic experience.
Petronas Towers look beautiful at dusk but are difficult to photograph showing both towers. The city is alive with music pulsing from bars, rope lights wound around trees, streets busy with people and traffic bumper to bumper. Back in our hotel room we can see the towers glittering.
Left the city for beach life on the island of Perhentian Besar. From the airport to Kota Bharu, then by cab to Koala Besut where we took a boat to the island, these boats have two engines and fly like hell across the water. We initially checked in to an A-Frame place, can’t recall the name…one of many as part of a small beach set up frequented mainly by families. After walking the beach a few times we found a brand new place only recently opened called Bayu Dive Lodge and decamped there. Kind of a posh shed on stilts with en-suite bathroom; £22 a night, a few feet from the beach and discounted dives. Great value and fun people. It’s a basic room but very clean and we even had a full length mirror. Haven’t stood in front of one of those for a while.
The Break First Bar next door is where we usually go to sit on the beach for breakfast lunch and dinner. Allegedly run by a group of local squatters, they serve good grub very quickly and cheap…and right now it’s the only place on the island where you can get beer. The ginger chicken becomes a favourite dish and our waiter is usually Zakki who’s great, he brings me pancakes at breakfast. There’s a little girl who hangs out here and an amusing 4 year old boy, Api. He pedals his bike along the beach daily stopping to check out what everyone is doing. Getting served quickly is a rarity on the island, we often wait up to 40 minutes just for a couple of drinks but Break First Bar is more organised and efficient.
We see Ari around often, she’s co-owner of Bayu Dive Lodge and Alu Alu Divers with Swedish dive instructor Johan who’s got a dragon tattooed across his back. Christian is another Swedish dive instructor regularly seen lifting weights on the beach, a large dragon tattoo winds its way from his chest down to his leg. We often see them smoking which surprises us considering their profession. There’s a dive lodge cat…unfortunately called Hitler but you can see why. Azam is a dive master and his partner Emily is another dive instructor. Faizal, one of the staff who looks after rooms, reckons he’s 30 but looks about 15 he’s so young looking. He’s super friendly, loves coming to chat with us and asks us lots of questions about how much money it costs for flights, how much to live in England, how much is fruit. We experience this in a lot of countries we travel through and it’s alway sobering to acknowledge how privileged we are; most people we meet will never afford to leave where they are.
I did a discovery dive for around 40 minutes before I had to give up as I kept getting cramp. Frustrating but I saw a few fish and some great coral but visibility was quite low. I know you want a good laugh, so here’s some photos of me in diving gear. I had to put on the tank (14 kilos) and the weight belt (about another 3 kilos) and wade out to the boat. Not easy but dive instructor Stefan made sure everything fit correctly and did all the checks; the tank, weights, regulator and hand held dive computer etc.
No photos of him in full dive gear unfortunately as he does look quite impressive; Dave has now completed his advanced PADI diving course taken here with Alu Alu Divers…Whoo Hoo as our mate Bruce would say back in Seattle. He’s completed a navigation dive, a wreck dive and a night dive which Dave enjoyed the most even though the end of it took place in a massive thunder and lightning storm. Back in our glorified shed on the beach I was getting a bit worried about him but as Dave told me later he didn’t realise most of it was going on until he surfaced. He’s looking a bit skinny round the edges after almost 8 months of travelling and 3 months of Asian food which have whittled him down. I have remained the same, may have even put on a few pounds as I have an uncanny ability to seek out chocolate wherever we are.
We saw 4-5 foot long Black Tip Reef sharks today, whilst snorkelling at the appropriately named Shark’s Point…basically a jumble of rocks about a 90 minute swim from the beach. We bartered with a small taxi boat to take us there with a young Dutch couple. We snorkelled around a while whilst the boat bobbed in the water waiting for us. Lots of coral and loads of Parrot fish, Needle fish, Clown fish. The sharks were swimming directly under us, sliding sinuously flashing silver in sun bright crystal water. We’d been assured by Christian and Johan that Black Tips won’t attack humans, hence our keenness to find them. Getting back in the boat was comical. No ladder meant we had to climb up over the top from the sea. Not easy at all; Dave wedged his hands under my bum and shoved me upwards, difficult for him to do whilst treading water. After a few attempts and a lot of swearing I landed flat on my face head first in the boat. Dave managed but also landed on his face. The boat driver found it hilarious. The Dutch couple, young and fit, swam back….laughing. Lesson learned, check the boat has a ladder before hiring it. Christian later that evening showed us a tear in the leg of his wetsuit bitten out by a Titan Trigger fish…apparently more aggressive than the sharks especially when guarding their funnel built nests.
Plenty of wildlife around…seen some large monkeys in the trees on the beach, couldn’t get a clear look so couldn’t identify them but don’t think they’re Macaques. There are some huge bats, one of which makes a loud squeaking wheeze of a racket every evening around 8pm in a tree right outside our room. A German couple saw a large snake coiled on the path behind our huts, I’d love to see it. There are giant monitor lizards, very common and up to 7 feet long. We’ve made several attempts to see them, walking a well trodden path passing another visitor who told us there was a huge one in a tree only a few feet away…we got to the tree and it had gone. Johan noting my desperation even took me to the local rubbish dump where they’re known to hang out to munch on garbage…still no luck. Finally saw one basking in long grass but only 2 feet long.
Our last days on Perhentian Besar were spent floating on a couple of inflatable lilos…some of the local kids from Break First Bar joining us; waiting until Dave had relaxed then swimming over to pour sea water out of plastic bottles all over him. Their dedication to the prank was impressive. Our well travelled Dakine bags sat on the jetty waiting for the first morning boat across to the mainland. Dave looked out for the boat and dreamed of breakfast.
We’re back in Singapore now, packing our bags for a night flight to London. The boat picked us up at 8am on the Wednesday morning and did the reverse journey; Perhentian Besar to Koala Besut to Kota Bharu where we had to hang around the airport for a while until our 3pm flight to Kuala Lumpur. We spent 3 nights in KL before heading for one last night with Hil and Mark in Singapore. It’s going to be weird routing through the UK before the next part of our journey…to explore more of North America and some of the huge countries there.
The Travel Diarist 