We stepped out of the airport and into the warm and humid arms of Malaysia. Mike and I feel comfortable in Asia. We like the humidity and love the food, so we felt at ease but totally whacked from a long travel day. We tried to fight the fatigue but ended up giving in and having a snooze. On waking our first goal was to get to Petaling street for some food. We jumped in the lift and chatted to a couple of British blokes, Hetan and Sam. They said "follow us, that's where we're going". So off we went, following two strangers through dark and winding alleyways, across a pedestrian bridge over a major road, through some more alleyways to arrive at a street full of outdoor restaurants. And the food was good. We got a little lost coming back but managed ok. That night we totally crashed and slept through breakfast till 10.30am! When we finally got moving we booked a trip to Kuala Selangor which was leaving at four, so we headed out for some lunch (good pho at Petaling St) - we found our way through the alleyways - then we did a little shopping. Mike was on the lookout for a man-bag.
At 4 pm we headed off to Kuala Selangor
. I was excited by the thought of seeing the fireflies. The trip ended up being just Mike and I with a driver/tour guide 'Raja'. The drive took about an hour and a half. We stopped at a relatively new, elaborate Indian temple in Bukit Rotan, called the Sri Shakti Temple. It has finely sculpted stone walls and an intricately decorated 5 tier gopuram entrance tower and is dedicated to the goddess Shakti. It is a beautiful looking Hindu temple and may well become a leading tourist attraction in years to come. Raja felt it was fortuitous to be here on this day as it was his 42nd wedding anniversary. Raja prayed at various statues whilst we looked around. Mike was wearing shorts above the knee so had to wear a sarong. Apparently this modesty is something fairly new. The temple sits next to a mosque, which sits next to a church. Respect and religious tolerance on display yet again.
We continued on our way and stopped at Bukit Melawati Hill which overlook the Straits of Malacca. Here we both fed and became perches for Silver Leaf Monkeys
. They are ok for monkeys...quite cute and not malicious but they can squabble a little over food. There was a lady with some small savoury biscuits and the monkeys LOVED her. It seems all primates love processed carbs! The baby silver leaf monkeys are a vivid orange. Very cute. There were some macaque monkeys as well, but these were a bit scary, baring their teeth. They can be bitey- bitey too, not to mention that they are mischievous little thieves.
It was time to have our meal (which was included in the trip) at a Chinese restaurant on the water. It was ok, but nothing compared to where we'd been the night before. It was then time for our boat ride to see the fireflies. It was a pretty sight but there were a couple of drawbacks...one, it was a bright moon, which meant the sky wasn't very dark, and two, we were in a boat full of idiots. There were about ten other people in our open boat. We were going upstream at a good speed and one dickhead was trying to smoke with a strong headwind. Of course when we got close to the Berembang trees (which the fireflies like), he received a call on his mobile phone and spoke very loudly for over five minutes
. Then the people he was with kept shining bright lights at the bushes. Grrr, so annoying. They also had a small plastic sheet which they swiped through a bush to capture a firefly. It spoiled the experience. I think it could have been a lovely evening if with the right people. After that it was a long drive back to Bukit Bantang, very painful for Mike. Neither of us slept very well. Maybe too much MSG in our food? Who knows.
The next day was a shopping day. There are so many malls and plazas in a Bukit Bintang. Times Square, Low Yat and Lot 10 just to name a few. We looked at lots and lots of man bags compared them, went back and looked again. We bought a few clothing items, then thought we'd walk to the Central Market. We could not find it. The map didn't make sense - it should have been right near Petaling St but we couldn't find it. We were getting very hot and sweaty. We spotted the Menara tower and decided to head there instead. Once we decided that's where we were going it still took ages to walk there. We had been advised to go there rather than the Petronas Towers by Raja as it is as good a view but half the price
. We pottered around up there for a while and were glad we hadn't paid the extra for Petronas. We caught a cab back to the hotel as we were buggered!
After a bit of a rest we decided to head back to 'Petaling St' for dinner. Good, but not as good as our first night. We tried to crash for the night but we were really pissed off by a whole lot of shenanigans by a big group of people ringing doorbells, slamming doors and making a hell of a racket. Absolutely no respect for other people at all. I yelled "shut up" at one point but it didn't stop till Mike rang the front desk and they sent security up.
The next day we decided to catch a cab to Central Market thinking once there we could walk back, as according to the map it shouldn't be too far. First I took Mike to a shop I'd seen as we were driving in on our arrival from Dubai. It was across the road and up the street from the hotel. It was a leather goods store. Well, after all our searching Mike found his man bag a hundred metres from the hotel. I managed to do a bit of bargaining and I think we got it for a good price
. Mike was happy! We caught our taxi to Central market. The drivers name was Goh and we ended up booking him to take us to the airport the next day.
Central Market is a market for tourists essentially. Some stuff is ok but there's a lot of crap too. There was loads and loads of fake stuff. We thought we'd have lunch in the food court but we'd been spoiled. It was awful food, so we left it and decided to go back to Petaling St. Except we accidentally stumbled across the REAL Petaling St on the way back! The place we'd been eating was called Jalan Alor. The Brits were misinformed about Petaling St and as a result we were misinformed. We would have been none the wiser if we hadn't accidentally found it! Petaling St was another tourist market but there were restaurants as well. We had a very tasty lunch, browsed the market then walked back to our hotel. I did a bit of research back there and we realised we'd missed a huge section of it but I guess next time we come to Malaysia we will check it out better!
We went for a swim on return to the hotel and had a relaxing evening
. We were a bit late organising ourselves for dinner which was a good thing. A massive tropical storm hit and pelted down heavy rain for an hour. We had a great sound and light show too. Had we been out we would have been drenched. As with these tropical storms, it's full on for an hour then it just stops. Once it stopped we headed out to Jalan Alor again and ate at the same place we'd been on our first night as it was so good.
We packed our bags, and slept. Our last morning was a quiet one. We checked out and Goh was on time to take us to the airport. We had the very back seats in the plane - just the two seats in the row which is good. We were near the galley and the aircrew seats. As we were taking off the crew were regaling each other with their worst ever flight stories. Not what you really want to hear, lol!
We also had a big family of Sudanese about five rows ahead of us who were all sick. One kid was vomiting and two others were feeling ill. A bloke from their row came and stood down behind us. He was totally freaked out and worried about viruses like Ebola. We all had Ebola alert sheets given to us as soon as we'd boarded anyway, so if we get ill, we'll know what to do!
So that's it, another great holiday. Malaysia was a lovely way to end it. Things are all back to normal. Mum took the news that we'd been to Egypt and Jordan well. She said she thought there wouldn't be much to see in NZ but I'm looking forward to going there, it sounds amazing! Mum thinks it's the same as here. Not sure what lies we'll tell her next time!
Ignorance is Bliss...
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
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