And yet still the serpent whispers.

We woke up around 2 or 3 in the afternoon we found we had a visitor sleeping on our porch:

This was the coolest cat we have met on our trip thus far.  She was extremely friendly and really seemed to enjoy the company of people.  She spent a good deal of time with us and our Finnish neighbours.  She did not seem to like being alone.

After playing with the cat, who we decided to call nebula (or Nebby for short) we realized we were extremely hungry.  We had not eaten anything since dinner the night before.  Fortunately, Paradise Point had a restaurant, which was run by the wife of the man who had met gotten us settled with the chalet.  The restaurant was covered, but otherwise open aired and looked out over the beach and water beyond.  A nice wind blew in from the bay and we were very comfortable as we sat down to order.  The prices on the menu seemed to indicate that they would be small portions so we ordered a lot of food (we were very hungry anyway).  When our food came, we discovered that it was actually fairly large in size and shocking good.  I don't know what that woman's secret was but every single item that we ate there was delicious.  There was also fresh juice made by the man (when I say fresh I mean we saw him squeezing the oranges at the counter or putting the pineapple through the juicer).  There was coconut curry, regular Malay curry, fruit pancakes, porridge, fried rice, fried noodles, omelettes of all sorts.  All of which were some of the best we've eaten in Malaysia.  And it was all really cheap, even by Malay standards.  There were other restaurants in Juara, but we never bothered to try any of them, except to get beer (the place next store sold beer for 4-6 RM a can depending on the brand).  Really why eat elsewhere, when you can be certain that the best is right there (and certainly the cheapest).  To say the least, we stuffed our face every chance we got at the Paradise Point restaurant.

The restaurant.

We did not have too much time on our first day in Juara, but we went swimming on the beach right in front of Paradise Point and walked up it to the river that flowed into the Ocean not that far up the beach.  The water was crystal clear mountain water and even colder than the ocean.  When the moon rose and we had another delicious meal, we bought some beer and watched the red moon rising over the ocean.  We wandered back to our chalet and hopped into bed around 11.  We went to sleep thinking that we had really found something nice, something we really could call paradise.  Something to really brag about.

But there are always problems, even in paradise.  If not caused by the locals, then by the other guests (this I think is probably more often the case).  Out sweet dreams were shattered about 2 hours later, when from the chalet next to us we heard a man yell, angrily and very loudly: "I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!"  Followed by the sound of a struggle.  We both sat right up in bed, with our hearts pounding and our veins filling with adrenaline (I'm assuming on this part).  There was some more yelling and struggling as we sat, scared and bewildered in bed.  We did not know what to do.  Whether it was a good idea to check outside, or to just stay put inside and hope that it would all be over soon.  When it sounded like it had died down next door we peaked outside.  Two of our neighbours were sitting outside watching a movie on their computer, in the other direction from the noise.  They turned out to be two Fins I mentioned earlier, who were named Samuel and Panu.  They had heard the noise and said it seemed like our direct neighbours were probably drunk.  Our neighbour directly on the other side of us came out then.  She we learned later was from Nambia (I think; "just North of South Africa," as she put it).  She had spent the day with our noisy neighbours and was rather concerned.  They were three brothers and a father from England, plus one of the brother's girlfriend.  They had not seemed crazy to her.  We all said that we would come outside again if things really seemed to be getting out of hand and maybe try and stop what was going on if we could (well Samuel and Panu, certainly seemed like they could handle that sort of situation anyway).

We went back inside and tried to sleep, but there was some more yelling from next door and though it subsided fairly quickly we decided to put our big bag and the small table in front of our door for the rest of the night.

While we did sleep for the rest of the night peacefully we woke up worried and did our best to avoid seeing those particular neighbours.  When we got up and went out for breakfast Samuel and Panu were eating too (along with the cat close by).  They said that they had not heard anything else last night and were concerned when we told them we had.  We asked the owner if our neighbours were leaving today and he said that two of the brother and the father had left already, just leaving the couple.  We all assumed that this was the end of it.  We chatted for a bit with Samuel and Panu.  They had also walked to Juara as well, but using the foot path and it had only taken them an hour and half (it took us 3 hours on the road).  They were both trained chefs, but Samuel was now a Paramedic and Panu was training to be a nurse, though he was unsure if this was really what he wanted to do.  They had bought 6 fish the day before and the lady at Paradise Point had cooked and spiced them all for 8 RM.

The next few days could have passed completely blissfully and for the most part they did.  We rented snorkels on one day and snorkelled all around the bay.  We saw more wonders of the sea, though the coral was rather dead closer to the shore.  We walked all the way up and down Juara's beautiful beach.  We gazed at more stars in the night sky and drank more cheap beer (I forgot to mention Tioman Island is a duty free zone, so beer was much cheaper than anywhere else in Malaysia).  On another day we rented a sea kayak and kayaked out to another bay with a lot of coral.  And we spent a lot of time just swimming right in front us.  We read well into our books (A Walk in the Woods for me; The Painted Veil for Nancy).  It would have been perfect, the sort of vacation you spot you don't need to write about, except to say that it was indeed perfect and send envy inspiring pictures to your friends, like these:

Nancy frustrated with all the pictures I was taking.

We loved our time there, except for one thing.  As it turned out, the noisy neighbours had not really left.  The couple were in fact the noisy ones.  In the afternoon of the second day there after our scary night we were sitting one the beach in front of Paradise Point when we heard the start of another shouting match begin.  It seemed to start with the guy yelling very loudly something about not reading.  It seemed like a very odd thing to be arguing about, but it soon turned into a full fledged screaming match.  I don't really know what it was about, but it hard not to catch the intensity of the anger.  I'm sure everyone on that part of the beach heard it.  We walked over to the owners who were watching the chalet that the argument was coming from warily.  They were sure that there was nothing physical.  The same thing had happened earlier while we were out.  Maybe it was normal for them, the man suggested in confusion.  We asked if we could change rooms and they regretfully informed us that they had no other rooms at the moment.  It was not their fault.

Later when we were sitting farther down the beach, the owner came by and pointed, the couple that had just walked by holding hands  were our noisy neighbours.  He said again that maybe it was normal for them to "talk talk" like that and then make up.  he apologized again about not having any other room.  We said it was okay and it wasn't his fault.  Still whenever we went to sleep we were sure to put the bag and table against the door.

Maybe it was normal for them, but anger of that intensity, of that seeming irrationality, is always dangerous and we were not going let it too close to us if we could help it.  There are a lot of things to get angry about in relationships, but part of love, at least I think, is how you control yourself when you are angry.  If you are always violently exploding at someone over anything, how can you claim to really care for them.  Sure emotions can run away with you, but the more you let it the more it will.  I think if you really truly care you will be able to hold yourself to a higher standard even in anger, prevent yourself from yelling and screaming being hurtful and violent.  Perhaps I'm wrong, but if what we witnessed next door to us is love, I don't want it.

Okay, maybe I'm being a little harsh.  It is harder for some people to control themselves.  And maybe they just had some issues that had lain undealt with for a long time and they simply all manifested at once.  Maybe a combination of factors led to it and it was all settled by the time they left.  There was certainly no more fighting at night for the rest of the time we were there.  Who knows.  We certainly weren't about to ask what it was all about.  If it was something that had to be dealt with, I wish they could have done it else where or at least quieter.  Whatever the case it made us both a little sad and more than a little scared while we were at Paradise Point and marred what could have been some of the best memories we will have of Malaysia.

Well enough complaining.  Anger is the responsibility of the one who is angered.

When we left Juara we decided to take a 4 wheel drive.  Not surprisingly Paradise Point supplied us with the cheapest option.  Before we left the owner asked us to tell our friends about.  Too bad so few of our friends are travellers.  We do highly recommend Paradise Point, for a good budget spot in Juara.   If you're looking for tropical paradise, its there for cheap and it also has the best and cheapest food on Tioman, that we could see.  Hopefully though, there won't be any annoying neighbours.

Nancy enjoying the back of the truck.

The road from the back of the truck.

The scenery.

The ride back took 20 minutes and we enjoyed the view from the back of the pick up truck as it wove its way along the road.  Before we knew it, we were back at Cheers.  This time though, it was open and they had a room for us.  It was a 3 bed deal, but they gave it to us for only 50 RM as there was only two of us.  After making ourselves at home in the room (and discovering that we had forgotten my watch back at Paradise Point), we made our way into Tekek, this time by the light of day.  We had been told that the marine park was a good place to snorkel and see many a fish, so we went in that direction.  Tekek is much more developed than Juara and it lacks much of the small town charm that we liked about Juara.  We could not walk along the beach because there wasn't one in the direction we were going until the marine park itself.  We walked on asphalt road in the blazing sun with little in the way of shade.  The shops and restaurants all seemed over priced here and blander.  The houses less well kept and the jetty huge and ugly.  We wish we were still in Juara (sometimes I still wish this).  We were almost to the marine park when we ran into Samuel and Panu again.  They had just walked back from Juara.  They said they were off to Cheers.

We reached the marine park and found that it was a very small beach and that you had to pay to use the snorkelling area.  We moved on to the beach at ABC, which was a decent beach.

We found a cool place on the beach to eat called the Cabana, though it was quite bit more expensive.  It had a feel like a pirates den and seemed to be made entirely of drift wood.  The staff were very friendly and we talked with them for a bit too.  After dinner we ran into Samuel and Panu at Cheers.  They were going back to Mersing the next day and then on to Cherating and Thailand.  They showed us some of the underwater pictures they had taken at the marine park (where no one had asked them to pay so they didn't).  There were a lot of fish there.  They also showed us a video using their underwater camera, in which they both got mobbed by too many curious fish.  We exchanged e-mails and blogs with them and wished them happy travels.  We then sat in our room and read while drinking some Chang beer, a Thai brand, which cost only 2.5 RM.  Chang apparently means elephant in Thai.

Our final day on Tioman we did a lot of snorkelling around the main Tekek beach, in the opposite direction of the jetty.  It was a pretty nice beach and the snorkelling was quite good once we swam out deep enough.  We also bought our ferry tickets back to Mersing and spent a good deal of time at the Cabana reading and eating.  There was a few other foreigners there.  One was an Australian man (by his accent anyway) with his toddler son.  They were actually sailing around Malaysia and his vessel (a sailing ship; is it called a yacht?) was anchored directly in front of the Cabana.  I got this mostly from over hearing a the conversation he was having with a young English woman while his son ran around the Cabana.  He was apparently the primary caregiver.

We went to sleep early that night because the ferry (so the ticket claimed) left at 7:30 the next morning.  As we no longer had an alarm to wake us up, we slept poorly that night and were not fully rested when we got out of bed at 6:30.  Which was too bad, because we had a long day ahead of us.

A Long Trek to Paradise

Our bus ride to Mersing to was uneventful, but it was pleasant.  The bus driver didn't think he was drag racing and we were able to read our new books in relative peace.  I have become quite fond of our transit time.  We are somewhat insulated from the world as we cross it, only to emerge in our new destination feeling refreshed and ready for something new.  This bus was also on time unlike our previous one, which was a nice change.

Mersing was a bit of a shock after our time in Melaka.  It was small and grubby, with little to see besides traffic on both land and sea and uninspiring architecture.  We almost immediately wanted to return to Melaka.  Upon alighting from the bus we were told by the proprietor of the ferry company that the ferry to Tioman island had only a few more tickets left for today and none for tomorrow.  We told him that we weren't planning to go to Tioman until Saturday (it was Thursday when we arrived).  These plans, as it turned out, were not to be.  We walked from the bus station to a busy road that we had to dash across.  While we were waiting on the meridian a young boy about 12 dashed across the road through traffic, just before he got to the curb he was side swiped by a man driving a motor cycle, knocking the boy flat on his back.  The man stopped immediately and made to go help the boy, but before he could even get off his motorcycle the boy got up, dusted himself of and wandered away.  We and the man on motorcycle stared after him in shock.  As far as I could tell he looked barely winded as he walked away.  Tough kids around here.

We found the hostel of our choice, Omar's Backpackers, and our troubles began.

Omar was not in when we arrived, but a friendly note on the wall said to just grab a key and a room, and pay later.  Not long after we had done this three more people arrived: an English guy (John), who had come with a German who girl that he had met on the bus (and whose name I cannot remember, she did have a PHD in Microbiology though) and another German girl who had just returned from Tioman (this one was a Political Geographer, or something like that, she seemed very tough and self sufficient; we later learned that she had done some work in Northern Afghanistan).  To keep them distinct I will call them Micro and Geo (I need to write down people's name more often).  After we had all introduced each other we decided to go out for dinner after John and Micro finished freshening up.  As we were lazing about in our sparse room, Geo wandered by and asked if we had heard anything about bed bugs at this place (Omar's).  We hadn't, but this question did make us rather nervous.  Geo said it looked okay, but she had read something on the internet about it.  We spent some frantic moments looking around our room for places that bed bugs could be hiding, but after consulting THe Lonely Planet and finding they mostly hung out in the walls we gave up.  Geo apologized for scaring us and said she was sure it was fine.  We never really got the chance to find out though.

John and Micro finished their freshening up and we all went to an Indian place suggested by Geo who had stayed in Mersing before going to Tioman.  John also wanted to find a place to have a beer (he was English after all), and there was a Chinese place across the road that sold some Tiger beer which he expressed an interest in for later.  The food was pretty good and so was the conversation.  John and Geo were quite the travellers and they shared some tales with us of their adventures.  I don't really remember much of what they said though, largely it had to do with how to travel lightly.  John only had one small backpack with him.  Micro had been in Singapore for a conference and was taking a small vacation in Malaysia before returning to Germany and her husband and two boys.  She seemed to have not done too much in the way of traveling before.  Before we finished dinner, an older Malay husband and wife (from Melaka as it turned out) who had met Geo on the boat from Tioman sat down with us for a while.  They were very friendly and talked to Geo like they were old friends (not people who had recently met), though they talked to everyone.  The man was particularly playful and Geo kept asking his wife how she had put up with him for so.  She had a fond and patient smile for a response.

Towards the end of dinner Geo had the idea that we could take a trip to Endau Rompin National Park with Omar, which was something that me and Nancy were considering.  It was something that we could do from Mersing which could be arranged by Omar in fact.  Geo either wanted to do this or take the bus on to Cherating if not.  We decided to see what Omar had to say on the matter, after checking the bus times and the boat times (we thought we might head to Tioman island the next day after all if not).  After finding that the buses were mostly full for the next day (actually there was no direct bus to Cherating, but we will talk about that later, because that was our next destination after Tioman) and the boat was full except for a few seats in the very early morning and some on the boat leaving at midnight.  Geo called Omar from her phone and found out that he wanted 200 RM per person for a trip for a day to Endau.

We pondered whether we wanted to do this or not (and whether it was worth the price, after all Uncle Tan's was about double this for 3 days and 2 nights, while this was only a day trip) all the way back and still had not made a decision then.  We talked a bit longer and asked Omar some questions about what it entailed (well mostly Nancy did this; I am still terrible at asking questions).  We decided that we should go after all (I was a little frustrated by this point and ready to simply make the decision either way it looked to be going).  I wandered away to have a show just as an Italian man arrived.  While I was in the shower, Nancy struck up a conversation with the Italian and just as Omar was about to call the people for the trip the Italian mentioned that he had had a great time in Teman Negara, which was a much bigger and easier (cheaper) to get to park to the North.  Nancy stopped Omar from calling the people, Omar got cranky about this and went away to sulk in his room.  When I got back from the shower, I found that our plans had changed while I was showering, which made me a little cranky, but when I found out about Teman Negara, I was soothed.  

The Italian man, in the mean time was looking to find out what times were left for the boat and came back to tell us that there were some tickets left for 5 AM.  So we followed him to the dock to get the tickets.  When we got there, we found out that the tickets that were left were for a ferry that left from a dock 20 KM down the road at 5 AM, which was rather hard to get to from our location (and hailing a cab around 4 in the morning did not seem like a fun prospect.  The people at the ticket booth told us that the midnight ferry was a little delayed so we could catch that if we hurried.  We hurried.  We ran back, with our new Italian friend, to Omar's, grabbed our bags as fast as we could (in the confusion we forgot our Taiwan cellphone) and pelted back to the jetty, which was fortunately not that far away.  We bought our tickets and went through the check and proceeded to wait for 20 minutes for the ferry.  The boat that pulled into the jetty looked very small for a 2 hour boat ride in the dark and it made us nervous.  Fortunately it turned out to be only a ferry taking us out to the big boat that would take us the rest of the way.  The big boat was much more spacious and seemed to be largely full of Singaporeans (who had a long weekend starting the next day).  Why Singapore has Easter as a long weekend, I do not really know.

We found some seats and to put our bags on and let the Chinese lady in the same row sleep on them (in guardianship) while we sat outside at the back of the boat and watched the boat's wake make a big V in the ocean behind it.  Nancy took a nap on my shoulder and I read my book.  It was quite peaceful really.  The two hour boat ride by in what seemed like minutes and suddenly we had arrived.  We had wanted to go to a place that the ferry did not stop so we were told we would have to stay in Genting which was the closest stop on Tioman.  But as it turned out the ferry had skipped this stop and we ended up in Tekek, the main settlement on Tioman.  Out Italian friend was rather put out by this, as he specifically asked to be dropped there too.  As we were getting ready to alight from the ferry we were drawn into a conversation about having accommodations upon arrival.  A Belgian man who worked in Singapore was talking to a Singaporean couple about where to stay and they seemed shocked that he didn't already have a place to stay.  We volunteered that we had nowhere to stay either.  They said that there might be places with reception still open at 3 AM but it seemed doubtful.  Their accommodations (a resort called Purjaya, that largely catered to Singaporeans) was picking them up.  They said that maybe we could sleep on the hammocks on the Purjaya beach front (this included all of us even the Italian), they could probably sneak us on the van that took them to Purjaya.  We thought about it, but suddenly the lady (whose name might have been Irene) said that there was a place she knew in Tekek, that was run by a friend of her's called Cheers.  We could probably even get a deal if we mentioned Irene from Singapore.  We all decided to try there.

We got off the ferry and walked down the road towards Cheers as we did we saw some rather large shapes flying around above our heads.  Very large bats.  We hurried on to Cheers, but it was closed.  We knocked on several reception looking door, but to no avail.  The Singaporeans came by on their bus and asked the driver to stop.  They asked if we were okay and we said we were fine, we'd just sleep on the  beach.  They seemed a little skeptical of that but said ok and their bus drove on.  The Belgian laughed and said that he didn't that any Singaporean had slept on a beach before.

We wandered down to the beach and the Italian and the Belgian picked hammocks for themselves and we set up our tent for the night.  As we were doing so we noticed that thunderheads were on the horizon and lighting flashing across the sky.  We put on the weather dome.  After two uncomfortable hours of "sleep" climbed out of our tent, took it down and went to some other hammocks and tried to sleep on those for a bit.  Thunder and lightning were still grumbling at us out on the South China Sea.  We slept in out hammocks for maybe half an hour before climbing off them and making out way to the reception area at Cheers.  There was a sign that said not open until 9 AM, as it was 6:30 AM we wished desperately that this was not true.  The Italian and the Belgian wandered to the same spot a while later and shortly after, the sky opened up above and a hard shower began and lasted for the next hour.  We had gotten to shelter just in time it seemed.

As we waited the Italian took advantage of us all being there and went looking for a place to stay.  We talked to the Belgian guy for a bit.  He told us that he had been living in Singapore for about 2 months and was an international sales manager for Johnson and Johnson.  He liked Singapore and its people, but thought it was way too expensive, especially when the very cheap Malaysia was right next door.

The Italian returned and said he had booked himself into a chalet for 100 RM, which he did not like that much (especially the price), but he really needed to sleep, he was in his 40s I think.  We bid him farewell and the Belgian said that he was going to head to Air Bitang (or ABC as it is more commonly known), where his friends were supposed to meet him.  We decided to wait a bit longer, but after an hour and some talk to the people going by, we decided to walk to the other side of the island.  We had thought to do this the next day, but so many people seemed to think that it might be the only place that had any accommodations that we thought we better get there before they were full too.

So we started to walk.  There were two paths over to Juara, as the town on the other side of the mountain was know.  One was a road, the other a foot path, both involved climbing up a mountain and then down again and both were about 7 or 8 KM.  The foot path was farther away from Cheers so we decided on the road.  We were helped in this knowing that we could always break down and flag a passing 4 Wheel drive if became too weary.  The reason we did not take one directly is because The Lonely Planet said that it could cost up 90RM per person after bargaining.  We stopped at a Chinese Restaurant to use the bathroom.  There was some nice Buddhist music playing (I think it had something to do with Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, because I heard the name a lot) and it lifted our spirits before our long trek.

The mountain started immediately and we walked up, and up, and up.  The rain had stopped by the time we set out, but about halfway up the incline it was back, though not as strongly as before.  Still before long we were soaked.  This was fine though as it cooled us down.  We used our rain coats to keep the bags relatively dry.  The road twisted back and forth on itself as went further up and further up.  Each time we came to a curve we hoped that it was the last up slope.  When it finally came we got a nice view of a valley and then another large hill in front of us.  Wearily and grumpily we trudged on.  In the valley there was a lot of neat vegetation and big trees.  We even spent a little bit of time admiring them.  Then up the next hill.  It was the same thing, the road twisting back and forth.  By this time we began seeing 4 wheel drives going by with obvious tourist in them, many of whom waved cheerfully.  This worried us, but we could not quicken our pace so we simply kept on.  We came to the crest on the next hill and it seemed like we should almost be there.  There was a valley and we could see the Ocean beyond.  With somewhat renewed vigour we carried on.  20 minutes later we still had not arrived and were starting to wonder just how long the road actually was.  The next corner we kept thinking and when we turned that corner there always seemed to be more to it.  It was actually quite like A Walk in the Woods, the book I was reading at the time.  Like Bill and Katz, we kept thinking we were almost there and were always disappointed.

A big tree along the road. 

Nancy making sure our bags did not get wet. 

Not Juara yet, but it was a pretty view.

A sign of civilization!

We did finally make it.  We came around a bend on flat ground and saw signs of civilization.  We came around another one and saw a T section beyond which, thorough the guest houses and shops, we saw the beach.  It looked like paradise.  We were greeted by a friendly guesthouse proprietor who told us that, "yes he had rooms left" which took a huge weight off of our minds as we had been up to that point uncertain as to weather there was actual room anywhere.  His guesthouse was 80 per chalet  which we told him was a bit beyond our budget.  He looked us up and down and asked us if we had walked.  We told him we had, he seemed impressed.  He told us there was a place not far called Paradise Point that had chalets for 40 RM a night.  We thanked him profusely and made our way to Paradise Point.  There a small and thin Malay man met us and asked us if we wanted a room.  It was indeed 40 a night.  The view from Paradise Point really lent to the name: a white sand beach stretched away, just through the trees on either side and soft ocean waves washed lazily into the it in front.  We got our key dropped out bags inside the door, took a quick look around our new room (it was nice, good fan, good mosquito net, decent bathroom), fell on to the bed and went to sleep.  We weren't to enjoy our new paradise for the next few hours.

Paradise Point.

Our room.

At last we can rest.

The city named after a tree.

After our longer than expected walk to the bus station we had a longer than expected ride on the bus back to Serembam (despite being closer to Melaka than Serembam, there was not direct bus there from Melaka).  What should have been a half an hour ride ended up being 2 hours because there appeared to be some sort of large function going on, with cars pouring in and out of a large parking lot with something beyond.  The road was single lane in either direction.  I remember looking out the window at one point and seeing a little sign that said Serembam 12 KM and literally an hour later I looked out the window and saw a sign that that said Serembam 11KM.  We were rather grumpy when we arrived at the Serembam bus station.  Fortunately we had no problem getting a bus to Melaka from there (there were tons).

Upon our arrival at the Melaka bus station we were greeted by several people asking us if we wanted to stay in a guest house (one guy was nice enough to help e get my backpack on before he asked).  We told them that we had already booked a place (this was not really true but we had decided on the bus to go to a guest house called Jalan-Jalan, which I think translates as "roads" or "trail").  We needed to hop on another bus to get into Melaka proper, but this one was not delayed in any way.  On our way in we saw a big sign saying "Welcome to the World Heritage City of Melaka", it was neat.  Melaka is nicely planned out and very easy to navigate and we found Jalan-Jalan pretty quickly, despite getting off in city centre, not Chinatown.  Yes Jalan-Jalan was in Chinatown, like the vast majority of cheap guest houses in Melaka.  We rang that door and were greeted by a talkative middle aged British guy, who, by the way he spoke anyway, seemed to have just come from the set of a Guy Ritchie movie.
When we told him we were from Canada, he replied, "the whole bloody world must be from Canada!" as an after thought: "or Germany."  There were indeed many Canadians and Germans staying there, but we were to stay in the new guest house (new is a relative term, it was actually in a 200 year old building, but the owner had just recently bought it).  As Alan led us to the new guest house, the speakers from the nearby Mosque started to blare.
"This is one of the good things about the other guest house, buddy here" (indicating the Mosque) "is on about 4 times a day."
When we said it seemed kind of neat, he agreed, except for when he was on at 6AM.  That did sound less appealing.
"He only goes on for about 10 minutes though."
We asked how he ended up here and he replied, "it's a long story.  About 25 years ago I got tired of my job and bought a motorcycle and headed to the Sahara.  Hmm, that maybe another story..."
He had had a business in Barcelona until the economic down turn and then he had headed to Thailand to teach english.  He had been hanging around ever since, teaching or working in guesthouse (he preferred guesthouses).

Our room was very nice, with a window that opened up onto the street below and a balcony (which was for everyone and arrived at through a different door).  It was only 42RM.  The place was clean and well kept and seemed to have wind blowing through the common area most of the time.  As Alan had said it was an old building and the old stone walls gave us a distinct sense of history.  Once inside the guest house we didn't really want to leave.  We sat downstairs on the couches and drank the gratis coffee (which I think is still the best instant coffee I have ever had) and read our books.

Yea it was pretty comfy.

The few from our room.

Also comfy.

When night arrived we decided to stir ourselves and head to the night market, which came highly recommended by the American guy who was also staying in the new guesthouse.  We ate some tornado potatoes and drank some sickeningly bitter Chinese tea (the guy did warn us though).  We also bought some lovely jasmine tea.

In my right hand is a tornado potato.  In my left is the tea (we didn't finish it).

After realizing that we didn't actually want to eat at a night market again we went to the lonely planet's pick for eating in Melaka, Pak Putra a Pakistani place.  It was so good that we ate there for almost every dinner we had in Melaka.  When we returned from dinner some Finnish guys (whose names I forget) were in the common area and we recommended (highly) that they eat dinner there when they got the chance.  They laughed, because the American guy (who I will call James from now on because its possible that was his name) had just told them the same thing.

The food at Pak Putra.  Yummy.

In the morning of the following day, which we woke up much later than we had in other places, James showed us the best place to eat breakfast (western: toast, pancakes, porridge, eggs, etc) which was great.  He also told us a bit about himself.  He was a teacher in Kobe, Japan, in fact his Japanese was good enough that he actually taught history as well as English at a public school.  He had helped out with the evacuation and humanitarian work after the Fukishima disaster last year and one of his friends had started an aid centre in the area.  He also told us about something that made us wish we could afford to go to Japan on this trip.  I think I may have heard of this before, but it was definitely neat to hear about: Up in the Nagano mountains there are several hot springs that have some unusual visitors: monkeys.  Japan has what basically snow monkeys, who are just as happy as hot spring enthusiasts to hop into the hot springs. He showed us some pictures of the monkeys he had lounged with on his visit there.  They looked very relaxed sitting in the springs, with their elbows on the ledge.

We visited the ruins of the St. Paul's Church which was built by the Portuguese in 1547 (or there about).  It was used by the Dutch, as a church, when they took Melaka from them and by the British, as an ammunitions store, when they took Melaka from the Dutch.  It was situated on a hill over looking the city and was quite peaceful.  The peacefulness was helped by many people playing soft music in and around it.

One guy was playing a flute and selling some paintings and when we were looking at his paintings he struck up a conversation with us.  He had also been a traveller for a while (specifically in India), but now he could not travel so much because his daughter was sick (she actually had just recently had a brain tumour removed).  He was worried about his daughter, obviously but at the same time he was not trying to pressure anyone to buying anything from him if they didn't want to.  We spent a long time talking to him about travel and Melaka.  The paintings we did buy (for 30 RM) were of old less touristy Melaka.  While we spoke to him he got a call from his brother and had to leave fairly quickly to see his daughter.  He said that we were the first people from North America who had stopped to talk for a while (there were plenty of people from Australia or New Zealand who had though) and he wanted to give us a flute he was working on.  He said it would be ready in a few days and asked us to come back.  We said we would and he had to run.  His name was Kaam (I think)

We spent the rest of that day wandering around.  Melaka just feels historical to walk around with all its old buildings and land marks.  In one old building there was a restaurant called Nancy's Kitchen, which we came across in time for lunch, we naturally had to eat there.  It was delicious.  More relaxing after, during which Nancy finished reading The Great Gatsby (I had finished it at Uncle Tan's), followed by some literary discussion.

The next morning we took a German girl named Sylvi, who Nancy had struck up a conversation with in the common area, to the the place we had had breakfast the previous day.  She had just come from Penang and highly recommended it.  She had quit her printing job in Germany and went to New Zealand to learn to speak better English in preparation for the longer trip she was now on.  Part of her trip was to go to Canada, in fact, she was leaving for Vancouver from Singapore the following day.  She asked for some ideas on where to go.  We told her we would think about it and tell her what we could at dinner.  We agreed to meet at the guest house before so that we could all go to Pak Putra together.

Melaka has one of the coolest concepts for a museum ever: their naval museum is in a replica Portuguese tall ship.  We enjoyed wandering around below deck learning about the various powers that controlled Melaka since its inception.  We were also more filled in on the origin history (well it seems kind of mythical really) of Melaka.
Melaka was founded by a Hindu pirate prince from Sumatra named Parimeshwara (who was kicked out of his home for an unknown reason).  He and his merry band on sailors sailed about Malaysia looking for a suitable home.  they stopped in various places, once to be cased away by a particularly fierce band of monitor lizards.  One day Parimeshwara was hunting with his dogs.  He saw some mouse deer and his dogs made chase.  One of the mouse deers kicked one of his dogs so hard that the dog ran away.  Parimeshwara was awed by this act of courage and decided that they would make a city on the spot (well just down the way in the bay where he had seen a natural harbour).  He asked (who I don't know) what the name of the tree was under which this act of courage took place.  The tree was the Melaka tree and the   city of Melaka was born
There was a lot inside the museum about ships and artillery and the names of the various conquering admirals, as well as artistic depictions of the stages of the Melaka harbour.

The museum

Me getting keel hauled.

Nancy Ready to climb to the crows nest.

Me beside Alphonso De Albequerque, the Portuguese conquerer of Melaka.

Nancy finding some natural light.

Beside to the Naval museum was the Maritime museum which we were also admitted to with our ticket.  There were some neat galleries about marine life and maritime pioneers, but we were pretty tired after our jaunt through the Naval museum.  As we wandered it a young girl approached me and with a camera and made a clicking motion with her fingers.  I thought she wanted me to take a picture of her and her sisters, who were not far off.
I said, "do you want me to take a picture?"  She said, "yes."  I reached for the camera, but she had already turned around.  Suddenly me and Nancy were surrounded by the girl's entire (mostly female) family, who were mostly wearing head scarfs.  What the girl had meant apparently was "can we take a picture with you?"  So we posed with the group and someone who looked to be their grandfather took a few pictures.  I kind of wish we had them take a picture with our camera.

In the heat of the day we had some Cendol (pronounced Chendol), which is shaved ice mixed with condensed coconut milk, beans and chocolate syrup.  We made sure to have another before we left Melaka.  It was delicious.

We enjoyed our dinner with Sylvi (I hope that's how to spell her name, because we have exchanged blogs with her now) and were even somewhat inspired by our suggestions to sometime actually give Canada a better tour.

The next day we went back to St. Paul's and Kaam gave us a bamboo flute that he had carved himself.  He said that it might be a bit before we could get too much sound out of it (and we could always just put it on our wall somewhere if not).  he told us we might want to get our bus ticket early to Mersing (which was town from which you get to Tioman Island, our next destination) as it was a long weekend coming up for Singaporeans and Malaysians.  He played as a little melody on his own flute to wish us happy travels and we put a small donation in his box.

We went to the former Dutch administration building next which was another museum, but before too long we were suffering from too much museum syndrome and decided that we didn't need to know any more about the various marriage rituals of the various ethnic groups in Melaka.  So we left to wander Melaka some more.  Nancy bought herself a nice dress at a vendor, that she has since put to good use.

The clock tower by the old Dutch admin building.

There was an artist shop right in front of Jalan-Jalan and the guy there told us that there was used book store near by.  We decided to pick up a book each and I got A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, while Nancy picked up The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham (yes there was a movie based off it out about 4 years ago).

We spent a serene evening reading our new books.

The next morning we mailed some post cards and the paintings (and I traded The Great Gatsby for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) before hopping on a bus to the bus station and another bus to Mersing, without any hassle at all.  We did run into a French guy who we had previously met at the Step In Lodge in KK, which was kind of neat.

 Mersing was to be a very different place, but the reward that was Tioman was worth going through it.  But that is for next time.

Little Adventures in Port Dickson

So we had had enough of KL, and needed a change of scenery. Port Dickson seemed to be one of those places that wasn't to far and less on the popular travel map. According to the Lonely PLanet, it was a quiet Port town. We had no idea what to expect, this being our first  smaller town on the Peninsula.

We took a train early in the morning, Kevin got a Dunkin Donut breakfast (Sunny Egg Sandwich). I had, I know, a Mc Donald breakfast. I got a sausage Mc Muffin, though I don't think it was made of Pork. I saw a sign that said "Hallal" which means its allowed food for Muslims to eat, hence it was not Pork. We just recently found out that it is illegal for Muslims to sell, and eat, anything that is not Hallal (this includes liquor). I was very surprised to find out about this. Anyhow, we took our breakfast and caught a train to Seremban and ate our breakfast on the train. I had asked the lady selling tickets if it was okay. People seemed to be looking at us as we ate, later we saw a sign just above our heads, as we finished eating, that said no food on the train. Oops! We guiltily packed our food away and hoped we would not get fined. If it was anything like Taiwan, we had better be wary.

After arriving we walked to the bus station and caught the bus to Port Dickson which arrived in town. We got off, and as the Lonely planet gave no directions to the Sunshine Camp hostel, we were completely lost. The town was very spread out. In fact, it was hard to tell when you had arrived in town. Houses and business seem to be spread all along the highway, making it a bit more difficult to know when you have arrived in a new town. We made a phone call, the lady told us to say Sunshine Camp. We told the bus driver and he know exactly where we wanted to go. So we took the bus and were told when we arrived at our hostel.

It was not the most welcoming, situated behind a chained fence, it reminded us of an army camp, but the Hindu Lady there was very friendly and the room was incredibly cheap. 25 RM a night! For a double room. We were not complaining.

The bed was beside Kevin when he took the picture.

After settling in we walked to the nearest beach. We had to cross the busy road, so we made a fast dash when it looked like the right time, sometimes this is a bit scary, but the locals seem to do it with ease. We try to follow, but we almost always panic and burst across the road as soon as we get the chance, taking a deep breath and a sigh of relief once we're safely on the other side.

The beach, to our disappointment, was quite dirty and it was way to hot to walk along the water as there was no shade. We crossed the road again and looked at the first restaurant we saw. Unfortunately, what they had available seemed to have been the food for the flies as well. They were buzzing and landing all over the buffet. We politely declined and looked at other options. We found one place called "Tino's Pizza". We did not want Western food, but it seemed clean, so it won us over.

I ordered spaghetti, which the lady went out and bought after we ordered, and Kevin ordered pizza Margheritta. It was all very delicious. Mmmm, the pizza was loaded with garlic and fresh cheese. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

We made our way back to the beach and tried to lay on the sand, but it was too hot. So we went to the shade, but as soon as we spread out our sheet, the sand fleas decided to join us by jumping on it. They just kept coming, so with some gruffs and sighs we packed up our sheet and made our way to the picnic tables. On our way we saw a sign. Take a look:

So for all you couples out there, planning a romantic getaway, be wary of the Port Dickson Municipal Council.

When the sun went down we saw flashes in the distance, they remained behind the clouds, lightened them up in silhouettes against the dark sky. It looked like war was on the horizon. We sat and watched the storm. Later in the early morning we were awaken by a huge gust of wind, pelting rain, loud thunder and bright flashes of lightening. Finally we fell asleep again, after dashing to the bathroom in the next building, I always have to pee in the middle of the night. But then six o'clock in the morning came around and their was that familiar warble coming from the mosque.

That day we set out to the lighthouse. After a breakfast of Roti and Lemon tea, we caught the bus. However, our bus driver, who liked to talk, forgot about our stop and a lady had to remind him. She said we had to take the bus around to its final stop and them come back the other way. So we took a tour, but shortly after the bus driver stopped. "Break time", he said to us with a wide smile. He seemed too friendly to be grumpy with. We were kind of hungry anyways. So we ate some delicious food served to us by a very friendly lady. The bus driver, who's name we later learned was Bob, told us to try the "Sedap Tapai". It was a kind of fermented banana. They used yeast to make it puffy and somewhat watery. Kevin really didn't like it, but I quite enjoyed it. It tasted of yeast and somewhat alcoholic. He seemed pleased that we were eating it and then suddenly started telling us how people here used to eat it in WWII when the Japanese occupied Malaysia. He said it was cheap and easy to make. It was also the only thing really available to eat.

We got back on the bus and sat near Bob. He was very happy to talk to us. He had some Malaysian oldies playing on the radio. We drove down the country road, watching people ride by on the bicycles smiling and waving to Bob, and sometimes us too. The music played and gave us a sense of the old Malaysia, the time before it became so developed. I imagined this music traveling outside the windows of lazy homes situated between trees and farm field. People riding their bicycles and talking to each other.

We asked him about the music. He told us one of the singers name was Julia. She had won the Golden Record, which he said was very hard to get. She was the first person in Malaysia to win it. There was also the singer called B. Rumdi who was popular from around 1940-1960. A group of ladies came on the bus as we were talking. When I tried to repeat his name, the older lady looked at me and smiled so happily. She was so happy to hear me speak his name. It seemed to have brought back memories for her that had much pride and love. She was happy that we could say his name.

I hope when we grow old we will hold such fond memories. Though artist back then seemed to have been appreciated at a deeper level. Perhaps it was because it was a much simpler time and the lifestyles were so different. Maybe it just the fondness of memories that makes it so precious now. Still, I love hearing that old music. It fills me with warmth and give me a sense of richness to this place.

Bob also talked about snow and how he only had seen it in his imagination. He seemed to be dreaming as he spoke of it. He was quite content to talk about the weather and how Malaysia didn't really experience earthquakes, but they were near the giant volcano called Krakatoa that had once exploded. He said it was so big that the dust cloud reached Europe and beyond.

So Bob let us off to the road to the lighthouse. We said goodbye and hoped to see him again. He really made our day. So we hiked another 2km and reached the hill to the lighthouse. It cost 1RM now to get in. The trail was situated in front of a giant Hotel that had a swimming pool and extremely elegant reception/dining hall. We admired the beauty of it and imagined sitting in its elegant rooms with soft linen and light draping in.

So up we walked, till we came across some monkeys on the power lines. They were the Long Tail Macquaces and they stared at us as we walked by.

When we reached the old lighthouse, built by the Portuguese in the late 1500s, Kevin gave out a small laugh as he noticed the giant, modern, radar dish right next to it.

We walked around the lighthouse, it was not open to tourist, and in front saw the opening to the Straights of Malacca.

We had hoped to spot the migratory birds that made their way across the Straits of Malacca in this area, but we saw none. The view however was spectacular.

We found the trail that led down to the beach. On our way we noticed an old British man, he seemed out of breath, though he was in his late sixties. He had some binoculars around his neck and told us the beach was quite lovely. He was looking for birds as well. We made our way down the trail, it was pretty steep. We saw some big trees and heard lots of birds. When we made our way down we came to this isolated beach.

The water was cleaner, but we didn't swim as we had no water shoes, and it was quiet rocky. We chased around some hermit crabs after siting in the water to cool off. Kevin read the Lonely planet book and decided we had to go to Malacca ( he will tell you why). I took a nap.

As we were heading back up the path, and were almost to the light house, a big male monkey came running, past Kevin and straight at me. I knew he wanted the food bag I carried in my hand. I freak out and threw it straight at the monkey and accidentally hit him in the face as he jumped, like catching a football with you face, for my food. Once he caught it, he left us alone. Though I was a bit upset because now all the garbage would be in the forest, I had littered, but I had no alternative. Crazy monkeys.

After waiting for the bus for about an hour. Having people honk and say "hello", and one person yelled "Fuck you" from the window. "And you" we would have yelled back had they not been down the road by then. Some people are very strange, wherever you go in the world.

So after a shower, we went to the night market. We picked and chose so many strange things. Like neon coloured drinks, deep fried pancakes with chocolate and nuts, deep fried Roti wrapped around veggies and beef, corn on the cob with mayo, a strange sandwich and other things. We tried again to cross the road without getting killed and ate it on the beach, producing a high amount of trash. It really makes you think when you can fill a bag with plastic and garbage when you are only two people eating one meal. This is one thing people could try to improve on, the level of plastic they use to package food.

We slept well that night and forced ourselves to wake up early. As we walked to the bus stop we saw the bus pass us by. According to the Lonely Planet they come every hour so we decided to walk. It was only 7 KM after all. But as it got hotter, and our bags are not exactly light, we began to regret our decision. In fact we just remember how the lady said, it was miles not km and then we even further regretted it when we saw a bus go by. So much for only once an hour. So we walked, and walked. Finally we must be almost there, then we saw another bus, but this time it was Bob. He honked and waved. We smiled and waved back. This cheered us up and we walked with more strength and energy. Finally, after about an hour and a half we made it.

Muddy Confluence

First a note on the name.  Kuala Lumpur actually means "muddy confluence" and it was not really anything until about 150 years ago when some Chinese prospectors stumbled on it looking for tin.  They named it "muddy confluence" in Chinese, because that's basically what it was: two muddy rivers meeting; I think the current name is Malay though.  Anyway, they found tin in the area, though all but 17 of the original 70 prospectors died of various tropical fevers within a few months of the discovery, but apparently enough lived so that word was spread.  This was the rather humble beginning of the big, shining and cosmopolitan capital of Malaysia that we were now in.

Wheelers guesthouse did not have many windows and we were out late on the night of our arrival.  With these two factor combined we ended up waking up rather late.  They had a great, but more expensive than we were used to, breakfast at Wheelers and we ate our yogurt, muesli, scrambled eggs and toast with great delight.  We then gave them our laundry (that had been in contact through our bag, with the fish stuff) and were off.  

Chinatown has lots of temples, not just Chinese ones either.  The first one we went to was a Hindu temple, which was a refreshing change from all of the Chinese (Daoist/Confusian/Buddhist) temples we had seen in Taiwan.  We did have to pay 40 sen (cents) for them to hold our shoes, while we wandered around.  It was rather neat and even more colourful than a Chinese temple (which I didn't think was possible).  There tons of colourful scenes from the Bahiva Gita, Ramayana and other Hindu texts.  And lots, and lots, of statues of various gods, all ornamented and colourful.  We moved on to a Chinese temple that was pretty neat, though not overly different from the many we saw in Taiwan; and the old KL train station, which was a little underwhelming.  One of the neater structures we did see was the Dayabumi tower, which was large tower (at 50 stories) shaped like an 8 pointed star.  There was also a giant globe in the main plaza.  A security guard told us that is had been the head quarters of Petronas (the state owned oil company) before the twin Petronas towers, KL's most recognizable land mark, were built.

Who could resist?

It is a pretty cool building.

After a decent meal at the central market, which was a generally overpriced place, we headed to the KL mosque.  The KL mosque was closed to non-muslims between 3 and 4 (for prayer) unfortunately, but it was quite the sight from the outside, looking like some sort of like flying saucer, yet very different from the KK mosque.  As it had just turned 3 we did not want to wait an hour to wait around, so we headed over to another interesting looking building.  It turned out to be the Islamic Education channel of Malaysia, which was not open to non-muslims at any time so we were told by the head scarfed security guard (yes this was a woman security guard in a muslim country; muslims we were told at the museum of Islamic civilization in KK believed that men and women were vastly different and shouldn't hold the same sort of jobs; I'll bet women Saudi Arabia can't be security guards, though I have not really looked this up… I like this about Malaysia, they are muslim, but that think more in spirit and less in letter when it comes to Islamic law,I think). 

It was also much bigger than the KK mosque, so it was hard to get the whole thing in.

Nancy in front of the building that housed the Islamic Education channel.

We moved on to the museum of Islamic art, maybe it was just a religious day for us.  When we finally found and entered the Museum of Islamic Art, after marvelling at its domed architecture, we told that we had entered from the wrong way and had to go down stairs to buy tickets.  At the counter the girl asked if we were students, we replied that we had been students once.  She apparently thought that this meant recently because she gave us the student discount, which was nice because it saved us 4RM.  The museum was very well designed, it had so many windows to let the sun in that it was almost unnecessary to have lights.  There was a lot to see and to be honest I don't remember to much.  My favourite part was the architecture area, which had scale models of various mosques from around the world.  Islamic folk really know their architecture.  The weapons section was neat too, but it was a bit less inspiring to learn about Koranic verses written along swords and guns.  The least interesting area was the ceramics sections… I am not a huge fan of pots.  After about 2 hours we had had enough and headed to the bookstore.  It was also rather enlightening.  I picked up a text that told me why evolution was wrong and that all animals are created (by god) perfectly adapted to their environment and never change.  It did make some interesting concessions to the scientific method, when it coincided with its point.  Among other things, it was quick to call Darwin an "amettuer  naturalist" and talk about how evolution was defended to keep rational humanist ideas like nazism (yes it suggested that rational humanist were all basically nazis) alive.  It would have been amusing if it weren't so scary to think that people might read this and believe it.  The fact that it was in English made it scarier still.  Nancy ended up reading a children's book about the stories from Koran.  This informed us, among other things, that Mohamed was a cat lover, which is why most Muslim people are also cat lovers, if they want pets (he liked dogs too, but he thought cats were cleaner and that dogs should remain outside, where they were free to roam, and presumable, not mess up your house).

There are a lot of cool domes on the museum.

The fountain in the courtyard.

We left the museum, somewhat enlightened and somewhat concerned and walked to Mederka (independence) square, where there was a giant Malaysian flag and a really cool building lit up by fairy light across the way (the building was the national court).  We spent about an hour wandering around and taking pictures and then made our way to the nearest LRT and MRT (as it turned out) station.  KL has 3 different types of city train transport: the LRT (light rail transit), the MRT (mass rail transit) and the Monorail (which we never took, much to my disappointment).  I am not sure how this happened, but it made their system rather confusing.  We decided that if what the Lonely Planet said about their movie prices was correct than we were in the perfect place to see a movie so we bought tickets to the mall that had a big movie theatre in it and attempted to find the right train.  As it turned out we bought our tickets of the wrong side and had to go all the way through the MRT station, to come out on the other side and into the LRT station.  We did this with the help of a local who told us that it was alright to get lost in their train system, because the locals also got lost.

That's one big flag

Fairy lights on the National Court building.

We arrived at the mall and found the movie theatre around 9 and bought our tickets for the 9 o'clock showing of The Hunger Games (12 RM a ticket, very much cheaper than anywhere we had been in Taiwan, or Canada for that matter; remember 3 RM = 1 CND).  The Hunger Games was pretty good: atmospheric, emotional and somewhat surprising.  Despite it being a movie based on a young adult novel it was pretty violent, but nothing is over the top.  It is just a genuinely good movie.  We'll probably see the sequel and maybe read the books, if we come across it in a book exchange.

When we got out of the movie (2 hours and a half) we found that the MRT and LRT were both closed.  The Mono was running, but it it did not go in a helpful direction.  So we decided to walk.  It did not look like an overly far distance from Times Square Mall (as it was called) to Chinatown and Wheelers.  We were pretty nervous the entire way (I would never walk home from downtown Vancouver at midnight),  but there turned out to be nothing to be concerned about.  There were actually malay couples also strolling casually around and the most threatening thing we saw was a construction crew, who actually gave us the thumbs up as we passed.  Still we were quite relieved when we arrived at the Chinatown night market and further so when were safe in bed at Wheelers.  We slept soundly.

The next day was to be our city centre day, but before we went to the KLCC (as it was abbreviated) we came to the decision that with the prices of internet cafes as they were  and everywhere we stayed having free wifi, we should get the new computer we had planned to get at the end of the trip.  We returned to Time Square mall and after some deliberation, we bought a MacBook Air for 3000RM (or about 1000 CND).  The staff were quite friendly and, in fact, once they found out that the "Air" was what we wanted the main sales guy ran (literally) to the other store in the mall down the way to get it (as their own store was out of stock).  We followed a expensive new purchase up by getting lunch at Papa John's pizza (which was the same as in Canada, except I think their pepperoni was made with chicken).

Our computer (in our room in Melaka).

With our new computer and full stomachs, we made our way to KLCC and the Petronas towers.  We ended up mostly indoors for a good section of the journey (partly because it was rainy, partly because all of downtown KL seems to be interconnected).  We arrived at the towers underground, so our first real sight of them close up, was actually after we walked out of the complex they were on top of.  What can I say they look like space ships:

As they purportedly look even better at night we decided to hang around the area.  The Petronas towers complex houses a large state of the art concert hall and Nancy had wanted to see if we could go to a concert, as the Petronas philharmonic is purportedly very good.  When we finally arrived at the box office (there were two different box offices and we confused a lot of people when we asked for directions to the box office) the young woman at the desk told us what was playing in the next few days.  There was a jazzy/hip-hoppy  kind of concert the night we were there and the philharmonic would be playing music from oscar winning movies, for best original score (Jaws, I noticed, was among the ones advertised).  Then she told us about the dress code.  It was a semiformal affair, no sneakers, sandals or slippers (we only have sneakers and sandals with us for the trip). No jeans, no track pants, no shirts with logos on them (at this point she indicated my shirt and helpfully said, "like his.").  So we didn't go to a concert, but maybe when we return to KL, we may get some cheap shoes and attempt to.  Maybe.

I wanted to go to the Petrosians, a science museum on the 3rd floor, but it was closed by the time we got there.  Not sure why they closed so early.  Maybe next time as well.  We did manage to get to the Galeri Petronas, which was sort of like a photo gallery showing the events that shaped Malaysia since independence.  They were all pictures from a newspaper, which I assume is owned by Petronas.  It was also free to enter, which was nice.  As we left they gave us 3 postcards each, all featuring the art of a Malaysian artist named .

Inside the mall.

It still wasn't dark when we left the Galeri so we decided to watch another movie (this time at 9RM a person).  We watched John Carter, which is (loosely, I expect) based off the novels by Edgar Rice Boroughs.  It was fun and silly, sort of an Indiana Jones in space type thing.  We both thoroughly enjoyed it.  Its too bad its doing so poorly in the box office.  I'll have to pick up the books at sometime (the first one is called "The Princess of Mars" I think).

The Petronas Towers by night were stunning.  Like seeing the space age come into fruition or something.  We spent about an hour outside them (along with several other people) taking various pictures:

As they say a picture is worth a thousand words.  

It was an easy trip home this time.

Another attraction near KL that Nancy had been pretty keen on was the Batu Cave, which is a really large cave just outside of KL.  After a frustrating half hour of people pointing us in almost the right direction, we found the bus stop from which we could take the bus to the Batu cave.  Then we waited for another 45 minutes for the but to show up.  After another 45 minutes on the bus we were rather disappointed when we arrived.  There was indeed a large cave and beside it  was a large statue, but it was thronged with people and businesses.  And it was pretty much in the middle of a small city.  We had also expected that they wouldn't put an elevated highway next to such a place, but there it was, almost framing the cave as we got off the bus.  So we wandered up the many stairs and took some pictures of the monkeys like everyone else was doing.  Some were perhaps getting a little too close to the monkeys.

As sort of a side night I must say that there were a lot of people taking pictures with their iPads.  I have noticed quite a few of them about since our travels started.  I guess they are pretty handy after all.

Inside the cave there were a few Hindu temples (the big statue is apparently the Hindu subterranean god).  And it was quite neat to see the big hole at the top of the cave letting the sunlight in.  There was a lot of praying and chanting and pigeons taking baths.

Up those stairs is another open space with a temple.

And of course more monkeys.  As we wandered around we heard a lady scream near by us.  When we turned to see what was wrong we saw a monkey running away from her with a water bottle clasped in one hand.  We kept our stuff hidden after that.  This brings me to my favourite monkey story thus far in Malaysia.  A short time later, we were sitting on some steps about a 2 meters behind a group of three people.  There was a small duffle bag between two of them.  As we sat there a monkey wandered along between us and began to try and unzip the duffle bag.  We called to the people that a monkey was trying to rob them and the middle guy turned and tried to shoo the monkey away.  Instead of being shooed the monkey jumped onto the guy at the ends head (who stayed remarkably calm throughout the whole thing) and reached down and grabbed a pack of cigarettes out of his breast pocket.  He then hopped off the man's head and ran a fair distance before opening the cigarette pack with its teeth.  It pulled the cigarettes out the pack one by and shoved them into its mouth, under a no smoking sign.

We left the Batu cave after having some delicious Indian vegetarian food and wandered around the KL lake gardens for a few hours.  They were pleasant and, unlike the Batu Cave were relatively uncrowded.  A peaceful afternoon away from the traffic and noise of the city (despite being in the middle of the big city).  It wasn't too hard to imagine the wilderness than would have dominated the landscape when the Chinese prospectors arrived.  We were somewhat reluctant to leave the area, but as we were hungry and the only restaurant around was well beyond our budget to eat at.  On consulting our map we found that KL Sentrul was not too far away and we walked toward it, until we hit what appeared to be an impassible road.  We approached a couple who we thought to be locals only to find that they were Japanese and as confused as us.  A Malay man did cross the road shortly after and we asked him how to get to Sentrul.  The Japanese couple followed us as we found the rather hidden staircase to the elevated roadway and then across that roadway and through the Hinton hotel parking lot.  This convoluted path led us right to Sentrul though.

Sentrul only had fast food chains, but when we enquired about food a local man led us out the other side of Sentrul to Little India where we had the best vegetarian cuisine we have ever had.  I wish I could remember the name of the place we ate at, but I don't.  I can only tell you that the Aloo Gobi and Malia Kofta were so good that we were licking our plates when we were done.  If we had a bit better a budget, we would have gone for seconds, but it was one of the more expensive places we have eaten in Malaysia (the bill was almost 40 RM).  We'll remember where it is for next time though.

After 3 days in KL we were a little sick of the big city and decided to leave the next day.  We will likely be back for a few more days in the future (especially if there are any decently looking new blockbusters in theatres; it will be a lot cheaper than seeing them in Canada :)), but for the time being we decided to head to the small community of Port Dickson on the coast, not far from KL.


On looking at the date, we published this post almost 3 weeks after we left KL.  Obviously we need to get moving a bit on to actually stay up to date with ourselves.