Category Archives: Travel

Taman Negara National Park, Kuala Tahan, Malaysia

Flashpacking, Hiking, Malaysia, Travel,

7/31 – After a poor night’s sleep (I won’t whine about the air con dripping on our heads and the fan that only worked on ‘hurricane’ setting – oops, just did!), we were ready for some jungle trekking. Nusa camp is so far from from town that we have to be ferried by long boat 15 minutes to and from the village of Kuala Tahan to the entrance of Taman Negara national park. We had a hard time with the communication of what time the boat would drop us off and, more importantly, pick us back up. The boat ride downriver went over three sets of rapids, and was pretty exciting. Whoever sat in the front seat got the wettest!       

The tiny village of Kuala Tahan exists for the park and the tourists. It consists of a series of hostels, tourist agents and small floating restaurants, with water taxis ferrying tourists across the Tembeling River for one ringgit (25 cents) each way. IMG_1524

Once we entered the park, we had a choice of several trails to follow.  

  Today we walked the route along the river, mostly on raised boardwalks that preserve the flora beneath.IMG_1543

Here’s a pretty big tree!image

We saw evidence of wild boar – soil churned up wherever they root for truffles and such – but didn’t see any wildlife today.

The jungle really is dark, so much so that my camera flash often went off. Lots of mushrooms and fungi grow here.

Lots of pretty flowers too.

We walked to the river, and watched some people frolicking in the brown, muddy water… We’ve read that there are leeches in the river. Maybe we’ll swim another day…image

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Kuala Lumpur to Kuala Tahan, Taman Negara, Malaysia

Backpacking, Flashpacking, Malaysia, Travel, , ,

7/30 – walked over to the Mandarin Hotel to have breakfast and catch our 8:30 bus to start our jungle adventure.  We are on our way to Taman Negara (translates as Country Garden), which is the Malasian National Park containing the oldest old growth rain forest in the world. 

Shades of British colonialism – the Full English breakfast was offered, with mushrooms, baked beans and tomatoes accompanying the eggs and toast.  Haven’t had that in a while!  Our bus left at 9:30, and was full of Italian and Dutch tourists. Off we go!

  We rode until noon, and were delivered to Jerantut, Pahang, where we queued up to pay for our entrance to Taman Negara  of 1 ringgit (25 cents) and our camera permit (5 ringgit) that will allow us to take pictures in the park. The man was very clear in communicating that this permit must be carried with us at all times and produced upon demand. Failure to have the camera permit results in a 5000 ringgit fine.

After a quick lunch, we hopped on another bus for the short ride to the jetty, where we were packed onto two long boats for the three hour ride up the Tembeling River to Kuala Tahan.   

   The brown water was opaque, but there were enough exposed trees and branches to show that the river was shallow. 

  We rode past a big clan of fat water buffalo snoozing in the sun, all piled up on one another.  

  

  We also saw some monkeys in the trees, and a big monitor lizard lumbering along the shore, but they were too far away to snap.

Halfway through the trip, the lead boat got stuck on a sandbar, and we watched with amusement as everybody jumped out and helped push the boat through the calf-deep water.  

  

As we should have expected, we got stuck a short time later, and all the guys couldn’t wait to jump out and help!  

A half hour before landing, the sky opened up for a typical tropical afternoon drenching. Unfortunately, our packs were all lashed to the front of the boat, and no one had thought, on a sunny afternoon, to put their pack covers on. We arrived at 5:30pm with wet packs, sore bottoms from sitting on the hard deck, and full bladders – no facilities on board the small boat of course, and we were all drinking water in the hot sun.  

We disembarked and walked over to the hut marked Nusa, where we expected to find a small boat that would take us to our camp, Nusa Holiday Village. All was dark and still – no one and no boat. We went to the floating restaurant next door, and were told to climb the hill and inquire about Nusa.  

 The travel agent at the top of the hill rolled his eyes and at first refused to help, but then thought better of it, and called Nusa on the phone. He apologized for his moment of pique, but said Nusa does this (leaving folks stranded) all the time. 45 minutes later, the Nusa truck rolled up to pick up the four of us who were waiting. We were wet and hot and hungry. Our adventure was not off to a good start.

Nusa Holiday Village was billed as a resort, and we had prepaid at a much higher rate than our normal budget allows, as it got high ratings online and was supposed to be ‘da bomb’. It’s the busy season for tourists here, and every budget place we had tried was booked solid. We talked ourselves into the high priced ‘resort’ as Jim was really eager to hike in this jungle. Imagine our surprise as we trudged up the steep hill, over the swinging bridge to find a dinky, musty cabin with no windows and no amenities whatsoever. Well! How about the restaurant, which also got rave reviews? We ordered chicken curry for supper, and got curry with chicken bones and skin. Ugh.  We’re captives here, with no other restaurant choices.  It’s going to be a long week! 

   

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Flashpacking, Hiking, Malaysia, Travel, ,

7/29 – Today we had another chance to see the different cultures that make up Malaysia. We started by visiting a colorful Hindu temple.

Right across the street was a Chinese temple.

The Central Market had many Muslim shops.

In the evening, we were swimming in the rooftop pool, when it began to rain. We took shelter under an overhang, then watched with amazement as the Police headquarters building across the way belched smoke and flame from an upper story.image
A Malaysian man watching with us said it was probably arson, and the news later confirmed that the floor that was set on fire was the floor where confiscated drugs are stored. There’s lots of corruption in the Malaysian government these days.

Pretty pix of the evening skyline.image

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The Petronus Twin Towers are just to the right of the green tower.

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Penang to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Backpacking, Flashpacking, Malaysia, Travel, , , , ,

7/27 – Time to leave the island of Penang, the same way we arrived.

We took an early morning ferry from Georgetown back to Butterworth Station on the Malay peninsula mainland.

There, we waited for our Very Nice bus, which would take us for the six hour ride to the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, or, as the locals call it, KL.image

The bus really lived up to its name, with BarcaLounger seats, and a driver who called out every hour to see if anyone needed a rest stop. Very Nice!
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As we approached the tall buildings of this modern city, I turned on my phone to check the GPS. There are several bus terminals in KL, and we were not sure which one this bus would take us to. I was heartened to see that we were progressing nicely toward the bus terminal that was nearest to our hotel. Closer, closer…. Oh no! The bus kept rolling along, even though we could see our hotel out the window! Now we were getting farther away, and, wouldn’t you know, it was starting to rain. By the time the bus stopped, we were 10 miles away, with no idea how to get back to KL Sentral.

Two university students saw us hunched over my phone looking for a metro or bus to get us back across town, and they asked how they could help. Nice People of Malaysia! They walked us over to the metro station, helped us buy tickets from the machine, and showed us on the metro map how many stations and where to change trains. Although we thanked them profusely, I neglected to get a photo. They were beautiful people. In a half hour, we were back at KL Sentral, walking the two blocks to our hotel. We have a rooftop pool! image

7/28 – Last year when we were in Istanbul, we shared breakfast with two brothers on holiday from KL. The younger brother Rool, who had the better English, invited us to look him up when we got to KL. Today, we did just that!

Rool picked us up and drove us to an authentic Malay buffet for lunch. Here we are with Rool and his six year old daughter Alicia.image

So many delicious choices! We really love Malay food. I even had some fermented durian (the orange stuff on the right).image

After lunch, Rool took us on a tour of KL. Here are the famous Petronus Twin Towers, which were the tallest buildings in the world for several years (not anymore). There is a walkway that connects the towers at the 42nd floor, which telescopes to compensate for the swaying of the buildings in the wind.image

There were shiny malls and designer shops, and government buildings.imageimage

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A wonderful day – thanks Rool, we had a great time! Another Nice Person of Malaysia!image

Teluk Bahang to Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia

Backpacking, Flashpacking, Malaysia, Travel, , , ,

7/25 – Time to get back to the city. We watched Bus 101 rumble through town every 15 minutes the whole time we were in Teluk Bahang, but as we stood at the bus stop in the sweltering heat with packs on our backs, no Bus 101 was forthcoming.  After 45 minutes, we wondered what could possibly explain the lack of buses, when four Bus 101s came rolling down the street, one after the other!  An hour later, we were back in the city, to stay for a day in Georgetown, before making our way south to the capital.  Our trendy hotel: 

  
With an additional fruit that is not allowed:  

We asked what is wrong with mangosteen – is it another smelly fruit?  We were told that the red juice of mangosteen skin permanently stains whatever it comes in contact with, and that is why it is not permitted.  

Our hotel is in the Chinese part of the city.  

  

There is a Sam’s here! 

 
A Chinese temple:

  
  

    
   
Traveling by tricycle rickshaw: 

 We asked our hotel clerk, who is of Chinese descent, how to get to Little India.  “Walk down the street” he said.  “When you see Indian people, hear Indian music and smell Indian food, you are in Little India.”  Easy enough! 

 

Ganesha, son of the goddess Parvati.   Lord Shiva cut off the boy’s head, which angered Parvati, so he replaced it with an elephant’s head.   

Hanuman is the monkey god.

    
 
Our yummy lunch – spicy chicken, vegetables, rice and ginger tea – we love Indian food!  The Malay and Indians eat with their right hands only – no utensils – but we were offered spoons and forks.

 

 The Kapitan Kling Mosque, the oldest in Penang, dating from the seventeenth century:  
 

Reminders of when Malay was a British colony.   St. George The Martyr Church, the oldest Anglican Church in Southeast Asia:

 

The Light Street Convent:   

Fort Cornwallis:

The 60 foot tall Jubilee Clock Tower, built in 1897 to commemorate 60 years of Queen Victoria’s reign.  The tower tilts slightly, but withstood being bombed during WWII:   

A lovely town, with new delights around every corner!

Penang National Park, Malaysia 

Backpacking, Flashpacking, Hiking, Malaysia, Travel, , , ,

7/20 – So, here we are at the northern end of Penang Island to do a week’s trekking in Penang National Park.   

 

Mind you manners here please – no lewd kissing! 

 Admission to the park is free, and there are several trail routes to choose – to the University Research Center, Monkey Beach, the Lighthouse, Turtle Beach and the Canopy Walk.  Unfortunately, the Canopy Walk is closed for renovation.  Our first destination is the University Research Center.

 

This trek hugged the coastline, with different views of the water (Straits of Malacca), always on our right.

   
 

Parts of the trail were relatively flat and easy to navigate, while other parts involved some climbing and scrabbling over rocks, big roots and downed trees. 

    
 
The weather was HOT, and we sweated buckets even walking in the shade of the jungle. Very pretty tree trunks here.

    
Here are the same “temple-eating” trees (Ficus strangulosa) that we encountered at Angkor Wat in Thailand.  Looks like they also eat bridges!

 

There are several buildings and a pier at the Research Center.  It was a nice place to stop and eat our lunch before retracing our path back home.

    
 
7/21 – The next day we hiked farther along the seaside trail to see Monkey Beach.  As promised, there were monkeys here, long-tailed macaques of the agressive variety. 

    
  

We were sitting on a bench and talking to some Malaysian students and a couple from Switzerland, when a monkey jumped down and grabbed Jim’s backpack!  Luckily, his reflexes were quick, and he was able to snatch it back.  The monkey stayed on the ledge, looking a little disgruntled.

   

The beach was pretty, and we met another group of Malaysian students who had all just graduated from university.  They are all engineers!

   

7/23 – Today we hiked up the mountain toward Turtle Beach.  The terrain was steep, and it was dark under the canopy, but still very hot.  

     
There was a waterfall, and a dirt path used by water buffalo to haul logs out of the jungle.  

   
 
 
These roots look a little snake-like, don’t you think?  I examined them carefully before stepping on them!  

We hiked up to the Canopy Walk, which looked like it was intact, but was roped off so it could not be used. 

 
We’ll have to come back another year to walk the Canopy!

Teluk Bahang and Batu Feringghi, Malaysia

Flashpacking, Malaysia, Travel, ,

7/19 – Teluk Bahang turns out to be such a small town that it doesn’t have an ATM!  As our hotel only takes cash (Malaysian ringgits, approximately 4 to the dollar), our first order of business was to get back on the 101 bus and go back to the bigger town of Batu Feringghi for some money.   There is a Hard Rock Cafe there!

 
Lots of touristy stuff, right on the beach.  

   
The mixture of cultures is evident here, with Danish / Pakistani restaurants, and Arabic / Lebonese restaurants in addition to the Chinese, Malay and Indian varieties.

   
Most important, there was a 7Eleven with an ATM!  We had some yummy Malay lunch (don’t ask me what it was called, we just pointed at things that looked good), then, flush with ringgits, got on the bus to return to our town.

Teluk Bahan is a one-street town.  Motorbikes are the prevalent mode of transport.  I continue to cringe, as I have throughout Asia, at families all sharing one motorbike, especially those who ride without helmets.  I’ve even seen a mother driving one-handed with an infant cradled in the other arm and a toddler between her knees! 

    
It also unnerves me when the driver wears a helmet, but the passengers don’t! 

  

We found a great little restaurant for our breakfast of roti canai – very thin dough fried then folded over with a scrambled egg and cheese in the middle, served with curry sauce.  Coffee is very good here too – they ask if you would like milk, but assume that you want sugar – way sweeter than is good for me! 

   
We walked by a drainage ditch and got a shock – a huge lizard swimming slowly toward us through the shallow water!  These are water monitors, very common here.  Sort of alligator-like, with a long, flicking, serpent tongue. This one is about eight feet long, maybe more with that long tail.  Wikipedia says they are carnivorous – hope they can’t get out of the ditch!  We saw this one in the evening:

    
 

Here’s another one we saw in the morning:

    
 
Tomorrow, the park!  

Bangkok, Thailand to Penang, Malaysia

Backpacking, Flashpacking, Malaysia, Thailand, Travel, , , ,

7/18 – We took the sky train and the underground metro across town to get us to Bangkok’s main train station at Hua Lumphong in time to board our mid-afternoon train.

 

The reminder posted in the station’s restroom, which tickles me every time I see it!  We’ve encountered similar reminders throughout Asia.

 Jim had booked our tickets a week in advance to assure we would get an air conditioned car and lower berths on the 22 hour sleeper ride. 

   

We will miss Thailand!

On board, we met an American expat named Tom, who’s lived here for eight years.  He said he moved to Thailand because Miami was too cold!  

After a tasty dinner in the dining car and a peaceful night’s sleep on the rocking train, we arrived at the Malaysian border by mid-morning, and we all got off for our exit and entry stamps.  We don’t need a visa for Malaysia, and can stay for up to 90 days.

The train ride ended on the mainland in Butterworth, where we caught a ferry across the Straits of Malacca to the island of Penang. 

   

Georgetown is the big city here, full of shiny buildings and big shopping malls.  We are not staying in Georgetown, however, so as soon as we got off the ferry we boarded the 101 bus, which we rode for an hour and a half to the little town of Teluk Bahang, home of Penang National Park.  

  

We are staying at the Amal Inn for the next week, very convenient for exploring the jungles of Malaysia’s top nature park.   

 
Malaysia has Chinese, Indian and Malay cultures living in harmony, with three different styles of food and religion.  Today we heard the Muslim call to prayer for the first time since we left Turkey.  The town is small, but the park is huge!  The western alphabet is used here, and many of the signs are repeated in English, so we should be able to navigate easily here.  We’ve been told that Malay food is great!  Tomorrow we will explore. 

    
 

Bangkok, Thailand – Wat Pho and the Temple of the Dawn

Flashpacking, Thailand, Travel, , ,

7/17 – Today we took a ferry across the canal to visit the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, a tourist destination that just can’t be missed.  As with other wats, I found myself more attracted to the guardians outside the temples than to the Buddhas within. 

    
    
    
   

We waited on a long line for the opportunity to see the Reclining Buddha, a statue made of brick and plaster, covered in gold leaf, with foot soles inlaid with mother-of-pearl.  He sure is big! 

His feet:

  The back of his head:
His serene face:  
 
The long view:  

The wat also contained a school: 

   
And a sacred bodhi tree, started from the one Buddha sat under to attain enlightenment: 

 
Heads of state who have visited Wat Pho are showcased in a gallery.  Barack and Hillary were here! 

 

We rode the ferry back over the canal to the Temple of the Dawn. 

   
Here we saw some lovely gardens:

    
   
And some lovely temples. 

   
At lunch, we met Olivia, a pre-med student from North Carolina, and her Canadian friend, who are studying in Singapore for a semester.  So nice to spend time with someone who lives so close to home.  A beautiful day!

  

Back in Bangkok, Thailand 

Flashpacking, Thailand, Travel, ,

7/15 – After a month at the beach, we are back in busy Bangkok.  While we are here, we need to purchase some things we couldn’t get on Koh Chang – Jim’s medicine, dental floss, rechargeable batteries for my camera and a new battery for my watch.  We found a pharmacy right down the street, then asked our hotel lady where batteries could be purchased.  Her answer, of course – the mall!  A taxi ride got us over to the modern part of town.  We walked among familiar shops, including a Dunkin Donuts and a KFC.   Did I take pictures?  No – you know what a mall looks like!

The lower level had a fresh food court, and there we saw a lady selling durians.  Now, you will remember that durian is either the king of fruits, or the smelliest fruit ever, depending on who you ask.  A notice on our hotel wall reminded me that I promised to try some. 

 

Now, we have been keeping our eyes open for a chance to score some durian, but unlike other fruits, which the street vendors are happy to cut up and sell, we’ve only seen durians for sale whole and unopened.  We don’t want to bring a whole one home and take a chance of stinking up our room.  All I want is a little bite!  So here at the mall, imagine my surprise to see durians opened and sold by the piece!  What’s more, the lady has a plate of durian pieces, and is offering samples.  This is the moment I’ve been waiting for!

 

I bent down and sniffed the durian skin – nothing.  I took a sample and sniffed it in my hand – nothing.  I placed it in my mouth and… yum!  It tastes very faintly like a pineapple, only creamy instead of fiberous.  Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t know what the “stink” is all about.  Maybe it gets smelly if you leave it out?  Let it get overripe?  If anybody knows, please share.  As far as I can tell, durian = nice fruit.

We walked all around the mall, surrounded by “stuff”, but after getting our batteries, couldn’t think of a single thing we wanted to buy, so hopped in a taxi and went back to the non-tourist side of town.

We walked down the street outside our hotel, looking for things to buy for supper.  So much variety! 

    
    
    
 

I’m partial to the Chinese steamed dumplings. 

 
We bought a bunch of stuff and had a smorgasbord feast, until I found a whole chicken foot in my ginger chicken and rice.  Gave Jim the foot – there are some things I just don’t need to try!
7/16 – The other thing we decided to do in Bangkok was to get Jim a new set of hearing aids.  We understand that we will save several thousand dollars here, rather than waiting til we get home.  I located an audiologist who was recommended and spoke English, and made an appointment.  The office is more than a taxi ride away, so we got directions for the Sky Train to take us there.

The Bangkok Sky Train is an elevated railway, fast and modern.  Like other metros we’ve seen in Asia, there are plexiglass walls that prevent the crush of people from pushing folks over the edge onto the tracks.  Like others we have ridden, the process was easy, from purchasing tickets, to changing trains, and getting off at the right stop.  Stops were announced in both Thai and English.  Easy peasy.  Happy to say that people queue up politely here, like in Japan, and don’t push and shove, like in China.

 
Jim got a thorough hearing test, and an extensive tutorial on how to use his new state-of-the-art hearing aids.  A productive morning!