Breakfast at Barracuda Cafe... I like Banana Roti, but the humans order rice! For breakfast!
One of the locals...
Working on our tans...
Showing posts with label Malaysia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Malaysia. Show all posts
Thursday, 19 April 2007
Wednesday, 18 April 2007
Orang Malas..!
The jungle railway swept us away from KL, right up the spine of Malaysia, to the north eastern corner of the country... We were heading for a set of islands called Perenthien. But first, a note to travellers!
Note to Travellers: If you arrive at a small town after nightfall, it might not be such a good idea to proudly turn away the taxi drivers, on a valiant search for the bus station, which may or may not actually exist. When you find that the buses have stopped running, it may be that the taxi drivers have all disappeared as well. You may be forced to take up the offer of a young guy with no english except a handwritten phrasebook with handy coversation starters such as "Malaysia has many beautiful beaches and there is a very interesting museum nearby, I can take you to a local craft market...".
Look! Wave to the tourists! These kids proceeded to do a little rain dance for our entertainment...
Anyway, a night in Kota Baru, a yummy breakfast on the street with the locals (yes! locals! they put condensed milk in their coffee - soul mates!), and we made our connection to Coral Bay.
The quiet side of the quiet island, Coral Bay sports three cafes, a couple of dive shops and some of the most crystal clear, turquoise water I've ever had the pleasure of wallowing in...
Note to Travellers: If you arrive at a small town after nightfall, it might not be such a good idea to proudly turn away the taxi drivers, on a valiant search for the bus station, which may or may not actually exist. When you find that the buses have stopped running, it may be that the taxi drivers have all disappeared as well. You may be forced to take up the offer of a young guy with no english except a handwritten phrasebook with handy coversation starters such as "Malaysia has many beautiful beaches and there is a very interesting museum nearby, I can take you to a local craft market...".
Look! Wave to the tourists! These kids proceeded to do a little rain dance for our entertainment...
Anyway, a night in Kota Baru, a yummy breakfast on the street with the locals (yes! locals! they put condensed milk in their coffee - soul mates!), and we made our connection to Coral Bay.
The quiet side of the quiet island, Coral Bay sports three cafes, a couple of dive shops and some of the most crystal clear, turquoise water I've ever had the pleasure of wallowing in...
We ate Barramundi BBQ, wandered through private tickertape parades of dusty cream butterflies, and inspected the shallows - but mostly we did Orang Malas...
Monday, 2 April 2007
Well was certainly meant to be a civilised way to begin...
First post, sipping "real" coffee on the 31st floor of Sydney's Hotel Intercontinental. Very nice man at reception took stock of throw away clothes (literally, I'm tossing the outfit in the bin when we leave, it's very liberating), backpacks (yes, 50 litres, that's all we're taking, no, I don't think it's going to be a problem, gulp), and gift voucher for one (1) night's accommodation (thank you Worling Saunders), and gave us an upgrade, a room on the second highest floor of the building, and a late check out time. Yayyy!
First post, sipping "real" coffee on the 31st floor of Sydney's Hotel Intercontinental. Very nice man at reception took stock of throw away clothes (literally, I'm tossing the outfit in the bin when we leave, it's very liberating), backpacks (yes, 50 litres, that's all we're taking, no, I don't think it's going to be a problem, gulp), and gift voucher for one (1) night's accommodation (thank you Worling Saunders), and gave us an upgrade, a room on the second highest floor of the building, and a late check out time. Yayyy!
View from our room...
Unfortunately, a combination of extreme over planning (Blake), and mild absent-mindedness on my part, meant that we didn't get to utilise the lazy morning.
Note to travellers: Important documents, such as non-refundable plane tickets, should be kept safe... but to hand. I do not recommend zipping the tickets in the invisible pocket of your girlfriend's handbag, which she then puts into storage. Especially when you put all the keys to the storage in equally "safe" places, like posting them to your parents, leaving them with friends who are uncontactable, or at work. It makes for quite a hectic trip to the airport (Hotel-Work-Storage Space-Airport: 40 minutes)
So, we made our flight, off to what the Lonley Planet calls the "kiddie's wading pool" of Asia - KL. And it's pretty spot on. Customs was such a non-event we wondered if had even happened, new train took us right into the city, then one connection to reach chinatown, the backpacker ghetto of the city. Our Planet-picked hostel was full, so the guy at the desk walked us across to another - mainly to get beer, I suspect, but a kind gesture all the same!
So we've wandered, we've eaten, we've seen some sites, but mostly we've just been acclimatising ourselves to the heat and hustle bustle of the shallows before we plunge any deeper!
Note to travellers: Important documents, such as non-refundable plane tickets, should be kept safe... but to hand. I do not recommend zipping the tickets in the invisible pocket of your girlfriend's handbag, which she then puts into storage. Especially when you put all the keys to the storage in equally "safe" places, like posting them to your parents, leaving them with friends who are uncontactable, or at work. It makes for quite a hectic trip to the airport (Hotel-Work-Storage Space-Airport: 40 minutes)
So, we made our flight, off to what the Lonley Planet calls the "kiddie's wading pool" of Asia - KL. And it's pretty spot on. Customs was such a non-event we wondered if had even happened, new train took us right into the city, then one connection to reach chinatown, the backpacker ghetto of the city. Our Planet-picked hostel was full, so the guy at the desk walked us across to another - mainly to get beer, I suspect, but a kind gesture all the same!
So we've wandered, we've eaten, we've seen some sites, but mostly we've just been acclimatising ourselves to the heat and hustle bustle of the shallows before we plunge any deeper!
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