Sharon and Andy's World Tour 2006

27 - 31 March

Stung by the painful bus journey to the Cameron Highlands (see last entry), we journied to our next destination, Penang, in the luxury of a 'Super VIP' class bus which afforded greater leg room, reclining seats, decent air-con and a far lower risk of any of the wheels falling off whilst the bus was moving.

'Pulau Penang' (Island of the Betel Nut) is joined to mainland Malaysia by the 13.5km Penang Bridge and has many attractions for today's visitor, including fine sandy beaches, exotic temples and various historic monuments to its British heritage.

We wasted no time in heading for Penang Hill, the highest point on the island, reached by a steeply climbing two-stage funicular railway rising some 380 meters to the peak.

From here, a panoramic view of the island can be had; however despite the sunshine a haze obscured the finer details of our surroundings.

Penang Hill boasts a treetop canopy walkway but - D'OH! - this was closed for safety reasons when we visited. Walking around the pleasantly landscaped hilltop was reward enough for us though and at lunchtime we decided to stop for a bite to eat at one of the hilltop hotels. We initially chose to sit in the hotel garden for lunch, as again this gave spectacular views. Then, however, we spotted this notice...

...and they weren't kidding!

The snakes perched just above us; this is the closest we have yet come to live, unfettered wild snakes. We hastily moved into the dining room.

That evening, we sought a suitable place to eat and drink us and - being adventurous - settled for a 'typical English pub', the Soho House.

Home from home...

Here, a somewhat 'well refreshed' Taiwanese sailor began chatting to us, whilst simultaneously lavishing his attentions on the young barmaid who served us. We ordered dinner, and managed to disengage from our new friend when it arrived. As we were finishing, the barmaid informed us that all our food and drinks had been paid for by the Taiwanese guy! Not wishing to be seen as the type who take advantage, we protested (reasonably) vigorously; but our new friend would hear nothing of it, instead buying us another round of drinks.
Some time later, as we all reeled out of the pub, he accepted a cigar in payment for the evening before disappearing in a taxicab back to his ship.

Rising at the crack of noon the following day, we set off for Penang's Spice Gardens - lush gardens and forest trails in which grow every spice imaginable. As well as the beautiful gardens, the restaurant here looks out over a golden sandy beach on the Penang coast. Although a long taxi trip from our hotel, the Spice Garden was well worth the effort.

Our last day in Penang was spent sightseeing around Georgetown, with another opportunity to enjoy the view from a high tower, this time the Komtar:

The windows on the viewing floor were a bit dirty, but hey! entrance was pretty cheap (7 Malaysian Ringgit each)

That evening we returned to the Soho House, slightly nervous that the man from Taiwan might be back, but instead we were able to laugh about our experience with the barmaid, Quen (pronounced, she told us, Queenie). We quickly became friends with Quen - she's lovely - so if you ever find yourself in the Soho House in Penang, leave her a good tip. Or at least a foreign banknote; she collects them.

Queenie and Sharon outside the Soho House, Penang

24 - 26 March

Our time in Malaysia is limited; we have to make our way down to Singapore by April 10th for the onward journey to Australia. Thus, wanting to experience as much 'good stuff' as possible we booked a bus heading north to the scenic Cameron Highlands.

A word of advice, when booking a bus out of KL do not go for the cheapest option; ask for 'Super VIP' at least. Our bus was a wreck. It was filthy. And it left KL an hour late.

The journey to the Highlands was both amazing and scary as the clapped-out bus painfully negotiated increasingly narrow and hairpin-bended roads as it slowly climbed through forested mountains to our destination, Tanah Rata.

But...what a destination.

Tanah Rata is a small town consisting of one main street, and predominantly surrounded by lush forests and hillside tea plantations. Tea and strawberries are the chief exports of the Cameron Highlands.

Here, the temperature was considerably cooler than we had become used to and - shock horror - rain was frequent!

We spent Saturday (25/03) attempting what was described as an 'easy' walk in a nearby section of rainforest. The day was baking hot, but after about 90 minutes in the humid atmosphere of the forest we were absolutely drenched in sweat and pretty worn out (oh, and very grimy too). It was all we could do to take the long trek back to our hostel - atop another hill -, get showered, and head out to the pub. (An Indian pub; a first for us).

Sunday, we opted for a full-day tour of the Cameron Highlands in the capable hands of two local guides, Kumar and Francis:

After visiting the highest accessible point in the Highlands and taking in the somewhat mist-shrouded views, we arrived at the high point of Sharon's day; a trip to the oldest tea plantation in Malaysia (established 1926).

Tea, as far as the eye can see

Next stop was another rainforest trek; this was good fun as we had a highly entertaining mixed group of fellow trippers. The guides took delight in describing to us the poisonous effects of many of the plants surrounding us; even the most humble species of bamboo can prove fatal...
The forest was wet, muddy and extremely slippery in places, but we all made it back relatively unscathed until *SPLOSH!* Sharon totally submerged her right foot into a particularly deep boggy puddle. Cue hilarity from the rest of the group.

After a break for lunch, the majority of the group departed, leaving Sharon and I in the hands of Kumar, who had promised to show us some of the indigenous wildlife of the Highlands. An earlier visit to a butterfly farm had given us some idea of the creepy crawlies to be found in these parts, but not these fellas! (Click to enlarge, if you're not squeamish)

The finale to the afternoon was a trip to a village of the native Semai Tribe. This was reminiscent of a visit to a hilltribe in Thailand, although the Semai have the luxury of electricity, provided by state-funded solar panels. Thus the gathering around a communal television set for the latest episode of the local soap-opera becomes something of an occasion in the otherwise rural existence of these folk.

The highlight for us was an introduction to, and the opportunity to take tea with, the village Chief - Osman.
Formalities over, we were invited to try our hand with the Semai tribe's traditional weapon; the blowpipe! The target was a shoe attached to the side of Chief Osman's bamboo house. Chief Osman -

gave us a perfect demonstration, and then it was our go. I hit the target three times out of five - one a perfect bullseye - thus doing considerably better than Sharon who strained to avoid killing any of the chickens/cats/children which wandered around the house...

...and all too soon we were back on the road to our hostel, our time in the Cameron Highlands almost over.

Kumar, our guide, cares passionately about the environment he shows to visitors in his daily work and is passing on his considerable ecological knowledge to his sons; he is deeply concerned about the damage that potential over-development will inflict on the Highlands.

It seems that fewer and fewer tourists are making the journey to the Cameron Highlands, seeking instead the more heavily promoted areas of Malaysia. Our opinion is that you would be missing out on an area of outstanding natural beauty and history by overlooking this spectacular area of the country. Go there before the lush rainforest becomes a concrete jungle...

20 - 23 March

What a difference a day makes; from the hot sandy beaches and clear warm seas of the Thai islands to the humid inner-city bustle of Malaysia's capital city. Kuala Lumpur (KL) is an amazing city - it has everything that is good about - for example - London, but none of the bad bits (well, OK, except maybe the manic traffic).

Old KL architecture meets New (Petronas Twin Towers and KL Tower in background)

Here you can find a multi-level shopping plaza purely dedicated to electronic equipment, rubbing shoulders with another packed with nothing but the latest fashions. The largest mall contains an indoor roller-coaster which zooms at high speed around the vast atrium. A short walk away finds bustling market streets selling every kind of counterfeit product imaginable; designer clothes, watches, shoes, handbags and DVDs and CDs.

Shopping aside, the best thing about KL is that you don't feel like, and aren't treated as, a stranger. Everyone gets on with everyone else and you very quickly feel like part of the crowd.

Our hostel conveniently located in the centre of KL, and we wasted no time in dumping our bags and setting of to explore.

First stop was the tallest building, the KL Tower:

which for a small fee can be ascended to afford stunning views of the entire city:

Bizarrely, the KL Tower is surrounded by a small inner-city rainforest (honestly!) and so we took the opportunity of a quick yet very interesting guided walk. Unfortunately this proved to be a good way of boosting our collection of mosquito bites...

Five of KL's main tourist attractions are grouped together on a hill just outside the city; an orchid garden, deer park, planetarium, butterfly garden and the largest (apparently) enclosed aviary in the world. Arriving after a long, hot and sticky walk we were slightly disheartened to find that the deer park and orchid garden were closed for renovation. We weren't too bothered with visiting the planetarium (despite the miniature recreation of Stonehenge outside), but we did have a really enjoyable time at both the aviary:

and the butterfly garden:

On the last day of our first visit to KL we visited the zoo, which I had (mistakenly) understood to have been commended for its attempt to provide natural environments for the animals*

I hasten to add that none of the animals seemed particularly distressed or unhappy,

but somehow the zoo didn't live up to our expectations.

Luckily, the day was redeemed by a chance visit in the evening to a restaurant near our hostel called the Copper Kettle at which we had, by mutual agreement, probably the best Indian food we'd ever tasted.

*In fact, this praise had been bestowed upon Singapore zoo. More on this later if we end up visiting the zoo in Singapore.

19 - 20 March

Koh Samui was only intended as a brief stopover point, as we were flying from there to Phuket then immediately catching a connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Approaching Koh Samui

As such, we hadn't booked any accommodation; we'd planned to spend the night in the airport in order to check in at 06:00. Upon landing on Koh Samui we decided that maybe this was a bad idea... but a quick sortie soon found us a cheap and comfortable double-room for the night.

Room taken care of, we decided to make the most of our last night in Thailand by taking in a romantic meal and, of course, a few drinks.

We had been plagued upon arrival by hordes of business-hungry taxi drivers but at dawn the next day, needing to get to the airport, there were none. Stumbling around in the dark, laden down with heavy backpacks, a kindly moped driver came to our aid by offering to sort out our ride. Lo and behold, within five minutes a taxi had magically appeared.

Koh Samui International Airport is a rudimentary wooden affair, and we realised with relief that our decision to find a room instead of crashing out had definitely been the right choice...

And so at 08:30 on Monday March 20 we bade a fond farewell to Thailand and took to the air bound for Malaysia.

16 - 18 March

We'd been looking for a bit of 'beachy' relaxation after the breakneck tour of Cambodia, but Koh Tao left us feeling somewhat drained due to the unavoidable heat. So it was with trepidation that we took the ferry to our next island, Koh Phangan.

We'd literally just missed the infamous 'Full Moon'(rave) Party which takes place on the island each month, and to our surprise we found our resort virtually empty as the partygoers had moved on.

We thought Koh Tao was beautiful, but Koh Phangan is positively paradaisical. We instantly fell in love with this place; there is nothing to dislike.

Our villa - (we stayed at the lovely Rung Arun resort)

- had aircon, cable tv, a big bath (and how we'd missed a bath!) and a fridge for storing much needed water and drinks. After Koh Tao, absolute luxury. And as for the beach (as seen from our villa)...

This is the first place I've ever been where the water is literally blood-warm, and as calm as a mill-pond. A cooling breeze blew from the sea as we lazed in our deck-chairs... and merrily burnt ourselves. Youch!!! Red legs, shoulders and faces all round; the cooling breeze had been highly deceptive. But, even slightly charred limbs couldn't detract from our sense of joy at being in this beautiful and restful place - (cue gratuitous sunset picture):

Plus, we found an excellent beach bar called the Spunky Monkey, where we sat watching the aforementioned sunset with cool beers while the soothing guitar riffs of Pink Floyd oozed from the speakers behind us. It doesn't get much better than this.

All too soon our couple of days here was over, and it was time to move on again.