So with a heavy sad heart we arrived in KL at 4.30am on the night bus. It was a pretty luxurious, so for the first time I actually slept pretty well!!
We were dropped off pretty central, although it was hard to tell at that time in the morning, but a very friendly local who had also got off the bus helped us with the map and figure out where we were. We were actually close to China Town and as with all big cities; it was going to be expensive for decent accommodation, which is why we headed there as it was supposed to be cheaper. Even if the Lonely Liar did say that when they were there last most of the hostels in the area were full of bed bugs!! But luckily a guy had driven by on a scooter with a flyer for a place not in the book which was a short walk and is where we headed. On arrival and when we got into the room it was – well cheap and nasty! Just what we expected!! The room was a twin room, the size of a box with a shared skanky bathroom that looked as if it hadn’t been cleaned for about 1 month! But the beds did look ok and the room fairly clean so we took it. At that time in the morning we really didn’t fancy trekking about.
The plan for the day was to grab a couple of hours sleep and then get up around 9am to go straight to the Indian consulate to sort out our visa. But as usual, once we fell asleep, when the alarm went off I felt as if I had been hit over the head with a hammer. I was so groggy and tired that we decided it could wait until the following day. We promptly fell back asleep.
Once up and about a few hours later we went outside to realize that we really were in the heart of China town. Our hostel was at the end of a huge wide road that was sheltered full of stalls selling the usual. Fake bags and clothing and watches. I was surprised as for some reason I had envisioned KL to be a bit more classy than that, but I guess we were just in the non classy part of town! First impressions were the area was really run down. Once outside of China Town we soon stumbled into the Indian district and the buildings while slightly colonial looking also looked like they would crumble if the wind blew strong!
We had been in contact with my parents a fair bit as we were trying to organize them flying out to meet us. The plan had been simple. They would fly into KL then we would get an internal flight up to Perhentian Islands, NE of Malaysia, then back to KL, a quick stopover in Melaka and then head on down to Singapore with them. However, once we started looking into accommodation we realized that sods law, it was the school holidays the time they were arriving and we couldn’t for love nor money find any accommodation on the islands. ANYWHERE!! Dad spent hours, I spent hours, we spent 2.5 hours that first afternoon in KL in a travel agents trying to find something, but it was all fully booked. It was crazy. We decided to leave it in the hands of my dad and left the travel agents rather frustrated although we were dry. We had avoided the huge thunderstorm and down pour which is typical of KL at this time of year. Stiflingly hot, but wet!! We continued to walk around the Indian area and actually stumbled across the consulate office for India so we popped in a picked up the application forms for the following day. The rest of day we wandered about. We stopped off at a local restaurant for some Murtabak, the dough baked like bread with meat inside, which we had first sampled and loved in Singapore, although it was nowhere near as good. We had a look through the market come mall which wasn’t very fascinating and then took a walk out to the centre area to see where we would end up, which was walking around a ring road like area. It all seemed very seedy although we could see the KL Towers looming over the town letting us know there were better areas to be in. All in all this time round in KL we didn’t really do much as we wanted to save all the big things like the KL towers for when my mum and dad arrived, so we headed to one of the big shopping malls for a look around. I tell you what; the Malaysians know how to do shopping malls. It was MASSIVE!! I have never been in such a megatropolis in my life. It’s so big it even contains Asia’s longest roller coaster!! As you are walking along window shopping you can feel this rumble and hear faint screams as it plunges off to goodness knows where. It’s not like it’s screeching around the middle of the mall and for some bizarre reason we didn’t actually go and have a look. We heard it was quite expensive so we didn’t bother. What we did do was go to the cinema and watch the final Shrek in 3D. It was brilliant. I love Shrek and it didn’t disappoint, even though it felt like we were sitting in a freezer, literally – the aircon was sooooo cold!!
The following day we got our visa sorted and dropped off our applications and we were very glad that we had decided to come straight to KL and sort it out as we were told it would take a minimum of 5 days for the application process alone to go through. We would than have to come back and submit our passports for a day for the visa to be put in. If we had left it until my parents arrived and we were back in KL we would have come into all sorts of trouble time wise!!
The plan with my parents had also been fixed by this time. We would travel around Malaysia and for a little bit South to Melaka and then travel up to the Cameron Highlands before returning to KL to meet them. So as soon as we had dropped off our applications we got our bags and grabbed the local bus to the bus station which had been moved out of town to go to Melaka.
As the local bus pulled into this makeshift bus station, which was chaos by the way, no sooner as the doors opened and we had stepped off we were accosted by people asking us where we were going. But it wasn’t like in other countries in Asia where you just want them to back out of your face of punch them. This was like just overly efficient. They gave us space, but wanted to get us on the next bus. The first destination they were shouting was actually for Melaka so they lead us off straight away into the ticket booth area, where we also stopped by a few other counters to check out the deals, but we had a good one and before we knew what was happening we were whisked off to the bus which was waiting for us as it was just about to leave and we would have had to have waited for another 1.5 hours otherwise. Our bags were put on and we were given the front 2 seats on this very plush bus and off we went. It was like we had been given special treatment rather than harassed within an inch of our lives.
It was so nice to be on a decent bus as well and we were like the cats that got the cream. We also acted like them when we pushed the seats back as far as they would go and curled up to go to sleep, even though we had only been awake for 3 hours or so!!
It wasn’t a long journey to Melaka only 2 hours so we were there before we knew it. Melaka is an old Dutch town and really historical and beautiful.
We got on a local bus from the main bus station which the Lonely Liar recommended would take us straight to the backpacker district and it actually did. It was easy and before we knew it we had found the street with the budget hostels and Tymon had found us a nice place with aircon to boot which was great as it was bloody hot! It also had a kitchen which was sooo exciting, so we went to the bottom of the road to the supermarket and went shopping!! It was very exciting! Although we thought we would easily be able to get some nice food for dinner with the money we had but we were like right paupers at the till and had to give stuff back!! How embarrassing!! Lols. We’d only gotten chicken fajitas and some soda with some goodies like broad beans but we ran out!! But once back Tymon cooked up a storm in the kitchen. He was so happy with the pots and pans and made delicious fajitas. We sat on the roof top overlooking Melaka before hitting the sack with our books.
The next day we had a leisurely start, as if we ever do anything else, and headed out to see the sights. It’s a very historical town so we went to the old quarter and fort with a lot of war burial grounds of English and Dutch men. The streets are cobbled and it’s so peaceful and quaint. At the entrance of the fort we met a bicycle tuk tuk driver who was an old guy and just chatted away to us like there was no tomorrow. He was so proud of Melaka and wanted to tell us all about the history so we agreed to go with him after we had looked around for a quick tour. We told him straight up that we wouldn’t pay him a lot and we settled a price beforehand as usually no matter how lovely, sincere, friendly or old these people seem there’s always a catch and you end up getting stung!
Anyway the fort was lovely and as always moving to walk around the graveyards. It’s just so humbling knowing that all over the world are buried and lost soldiers who fought for our world today. And look what we’re doing to it!
We met a guy and a girl, a Dutchie and a UK girl who were travelling together and we got talking and agreed to meet up later that night for some drinks as we continued looking around and finally met up again with the bicycle tuk tuk driver. We squeezed in the back and let him chat on as he drove us to what we thought was going to be a nice old traditional tea house, but what in the end was just a plain old local restaurant, one that he got commission for taking us to obviously. But it had been a nice experience with him. We left him in the restaurant with his ridiculously expensive beer (alcohol is not allowed if you’re Muslim so it’s really expensive to buy alcohol in Malaysia!)and took a wander through China Town. It wasn’t the best China Town, infact there wasn’t really much going on at all, it was a more a bric a brac town, but nice all the same. We were pretty tired by this point as it was really hot and it’s hard work doing nothing you know. So we headed back to the hostel to chill out.
That night we met up with Harriet and Chris on the rooftop for some drinks and chats and had a really good night. We sat up till 4am and it was really nice to have a girl to chat to, we got on really well. I was hoping that maybe we would be able to travel a bit further with them but they were spitting up in 2 days time and Harriet was flying to Borneo! But we had agreed to go to the zoo together with them the next day.
I was a bit skeptical about going to the zoo as I don’t really like them. I always get really sad but I have to admit this one was pretty ok. It was a really big zoo and the enclosures were fairly spacious. Although they chained the elephants up as they were closing and you could see they were distressed as they were rocking backwards and forwards which was really sad to see. I mean that I just don’t get. Put them in a proper enclosure for god sake so there’s no need to chain them! We had hoped to be able to go to the butterfly park too but we had left pretty late due to our late night so before we knew it, it was 6pm and everything was shutting so we jumped back on the bus back into town. Across the bus station was a Tesco’s and we were craving a nice bit of meat so Tymon offered to cook dinner for the four of us. We went to get groceries and it was soooo much cheaper than the local supermarket we had gone to previously. We got quadruple the stuff for less!! You gotta love Tesco’s! We brought some steak and potatoes and salad and raced back to the hostel as we were all starving!! We had another really lovely evening and the food was yummy!! It felt so nice also not to be eating out in a restaurant and to have a bit of a homely feeling. Chris and Harriet both had really early starts to the airport so they went to bed early and we got talking to another 2 guys from Sweden. I even got them into poker so we played a game. To make it a little more interesting we all put in RM5. It was a loooong game. As soon as you get money involved everyone plays it safe as you want to win so I think in the end we played for about 4 hours!! But – in the end I won!! Whoo Hoo! I earnt my bus ticket up to the Cameron Highlands which was our next stop the next day, so that was a bonus.
I was really excited to get to the Cameron Highlands. It sounded really beautiful and also it was higher up so it would be cooler! I was really looking forward to wearing a jumper in the evening. The bus was pretty plush again so we settled in for the ride. It was going to take about 6 hours and we’d heard it was a pretty hairy ride, twisting and turning up the into the Highlands, but as usual we didn’t have to worry about that as we conked out as the wheel started turning.
The ride up wasn’t actually as bad as we had heard. It was twisty and neither of us could stomach to read but it actually went by fast and the views up were just magical. We drove through vast valleys of tea plantations and it was stunning. So much tea!!
When we arrived at the bus station there was one pick up bus for a hostel called Father’s Guesthouse. We’d read about it in the book and it sounded decent so we hopped in. It was only a 2 minute drive through the tiny town centre which comprises of one street with about 52 shops/restaurants in. The hostel sat atop a hillside overlooking the town and it was a really lovely place. Most all of the tourists that got off the bus had piled in up to Father’s Guesthouse and when we got out a man gathered us all up and was so enthusiastic about the place. He was the owner and showed us around with so much gusto Tymon and I just looked at each other and laughed. The place was great. There was the main brick house at the top with the restaurant and big living room and down the hill were the barracks. These were the cheap accommodation rooms which is where we stayed and it was pretty cool. They are actual old barracks for the British Army, cylindrical tin huts which are really basic, just a bed really but they were all full and it had a real camaraderie feeling to it. The shared bathrooms were pretty gross, but it felt like camping, just with a roof over your head. It was nice.
We went for a walk through ‘town’ and grabbed some food which was the worst food we have this trip. Oh it was sooooo bad, it had been sitting in the back for what could have been days, and it was hard and dry and just disgusting. We picked at it for a few minutes before leaving it all and asking for the bill and going somewhere else.
Our plan for the Cameron Highlands was to go for some hikes through the hills and plantations so the next day we got a map and decided to start with an easy route. Problem was the map in the Lonely Liar was rubbish and the other map we had was actually a photo taken from the hostel wall on Tymon’s camera. To say it was a bad map is a bit of an understatement. It took about 45 minutes to get through town and find the start point! I thought it was one way but Tymon was sure it was another and seeing as he is usually right when it comes to map reading we went his way only to find ourselves back at my point 10 minutes later. So slightly smug, we finally started the walk! It took us by a little river and we walked to the forestry department where once again the map failed to show us which way to go. We had to ask a few people and look at a big map and we decided in the end to just see where we ended up – surely it would be easier. So after a few wrong turns we finally got to the golf course which had been the goal. It was so lovely the golf course was in the middle of the town and you could walk around it with lovely vintage boutique Tudor hotels around the side and cafes. We followed the signs to one of the strawberry farms which is what the Highlands are also famous for. It was a pretty big farm at the top of the hill where they sell all sorts of strawberry goodies. Jams, fresh strawberries with cream and chocolate, popsicles which we had and oh my lord – they were sooo good. They were the fruitiest and most strawberry flavour I’ve ever had. Oh I’m salivating now writing about it. They were yummy. We also had some fresh ones with cream and chocolate. Once full we continued back around the course and took another trail back towards the hotel. This took us up a hill and into the forest for a really great track. It was windy and twisty through the forest and thankfully easily signposted when we had to change tracks to head back in the right direction. It was a really great walk, very enjoyable – all we were missing was a dog and it would be a perfect Sunday afternoon. (Even though it wasn’t Sunday – I don’t think…Lols.)
That night we cuddled up in the living room with some hot chocolate and really good food from the kitchen watching the movie of the day.
We spent five days in the Highlands, mainly relaxing at the hostel, playing scrabble and watching movies. We met another couple and decided one day to do the walk up the highest hill top which was another awesome hike. It was very steep uphill through the forest and as we got the top it really was climbing up tree trunks and vines. Totally cool, and the views from the top over the valleys were amazing. All the patterned hills formed by the tea plantations look stunning. We started walking down and kept walking and walking and walking and we realized that the way back was a looooong way. It was all on the road too so not as fun as hiking in the woods. In the end we flagged down a convoy of 2 cars and asked if we could sit in the boot and hitch down the hill. And thank goodness we did. The drive was about 15 minutes, so god knows how long it would have taken us to walk! Even once at the bottom of the hill we found out we were still miles away from town. There was a small market so we wandered about and some local woman miraculously started speaking Dutch straight away to Tymon, as if she knew where he was from. Lucky guess I think, but it’s amazing all over Asia how many locals speak Dutch. It’s funny when they start saying ‘kijke kijke, mooi dingen, mooi pakkie.’ (Look look, beautiful things, beautiful suit) As it was a national holiday it was really busy everywhere and we needed to get a cab but there was none anywhere. We asked some locals to call us one who said that no one would come out as the traffic was so bad, which was completely not what we wanted to hear. In the end we managed to persuade someone to call a friend to come and get us which would take an hour so we found a café and sat down for coffee. I couldn’t walk anymore, my feet were killing me, I had blisters on my little toes and all I wanted was to go home!
Finally the cab came and we flopped for the night. I can’t tell you how much I loved the Highlands and Father’s Guesthouse. It was so homely and the owners were great. They gave us free movies and the atmosphere was great. A really sorted hostel. So if you ever find yourself there you know where to stay.
Our last day we rented a scooter and went for a ride around the area to another strawberry farm which I had seen on the bus on the way in. It was overlooking the valley plantations and it looked gorgeous, plus they did afternoon tea, scones and jam with tea so we went to check it out. It was breathtaking. I could have stood looking at the view for hours. It was so vast and so neat and tidy and you just have to wonder how on earth they begin to make these grooves and plantations, it must take so much work to maintain them. The afternoon tea was delicious and it was a first for Tymon to have scones and jam. He liked it – I mean what’s not to like right? It was expensive for what it was and a complete tourist trap but just one of those things you have to do.
And that was it. After 5 wonderful days hiking and relaxing we headed back to KL to meet my parents. I was sooooo excited!! It had been just over 8 months since I had seen them which is actually the longest in my entire life that I have not seen them so I couldn’t wait. We were also looking forward to a little pampering, so the next blog will be from a 5 star hotel! :0)
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