Today's writer: Shannon
So after leaving Singapore (the hottest country ever) we do our first overland crossing andcross the Causeway bridge arriving in Melaka, Malaysia (another hot country.) The scenary on the way was awesome as a lot of it was just like crazy jungles we've never seen before. The people in Melaka were extremely welcoming...especially the 2 ladies that worked at our favorite coffee shop there. They were LITERALLY bending over backwards for us, trying to find me a cooking class, trying to find Klemm vegetarian food and restaraunts, talking to us about seriously EVERYTHING, and pretty much forgetting they were at work until all of the other customers had to flag them down. whooops
From there, we took the bus to Kuala Lumpur (KL) which is a way bigger city than Melaka (aka the capital of Malaysia.) It wasn't one of our favorites though...so we decided to make it a quick visit and actually only stayed there for less than a day. The Petronas Towers were the highlight here for sure. But otherwise, we were glad to leave it...but maybe should have given it more of a chance? too late now i guess
From KL we took a long distance bus across the country to Kota Bharu so we could catch a ferry to the Perhentian Islands. Now let's just say that the long distance bus rides here seem to be a bit different (although kind of expected)than back at home. First of all, don't expect them to be on time. 2nd of all, don't expect them to be on time. 3rd, they stop for gas right when they get on the road and then also again right before dropping you off at ur destination. Really? It's kind of like an airplane taking off, and then landing 3 minutes later to fill up the fuel tank. pretty similiar i think.
So we finally make it to the Perhentian Islands and damn. Definitely worth the journey. A serious tropical paradise that we were lucky enough to see. And our first day was spent having happy hour w/the locals and drinking "monkey juice" (an actual good type of arak.) There was of course one thing that wasn't so gr8 about the island... And that was our lil rodent friend we had in our room on r last night. I pretty much woke up to what I thought was a rat climbing up our wall right next to Klemm's face (thank god it wasn't mine) but in the morning we decided it was prolly a squirrel.. we hope. Bcuz rats dont climb walls right? Newho this island rocks and if we had more time we would for sure still b there :)
After the Perhentians, we travelled for about 20 hours to get to Pulau Langkawi. And that was because one of our amazing long distance busses was 2 hours late. basically we made friends with everyone whose bus came b4 ours. it was gr8 to send everyone along their way while we waited in the rain. Langkawi though is another beautiful island, but a bit more commercialized with way more people. The beach bars though were still amazing :)
From there we took the ferry to Penang, where we spent our last 3 days in Malaysia. We got there at the perfect time, because part of the population was celbrating Deepavali-which is similiar to our xmas-so there was a huge ceremony/celebration just parading through the roads. And obviously this means lighting fireworks in the middle of the street with nothing blocking them off at all. Perfectly safe.
Needless to say, Penang is a great little city with awesome food.
And here are a few other important facts about Malaysia.
-stray cats and rats everywhere
-more rats
-squat toilets in more places than we would have liked ( and we still can't understand why some people actually CHOOSE to use these)...way more frustrating and difficult than they look!
-showers in the same room as the toilets...and since they dont use toilet paper (instead a hose) its basically a pool party everytime u enter into a bathroom. and the best ones are when ur not allowed to wear shoes. awesome.
-falling asleep and waking up at 5am to a loudspeaker that's calling the whole city to prayer. and the WHOLE city can hear it no matter where u r. the first night we thought we were dreaming. but. we werent.
That's all we got from Malaysia....later!!!!
So after leaving Singapore (the hottest country ever) we do our first overland crossing andcross the Causeway bridge arriving in Melaka, Malaysia (another hot country.) The scenary on the way was awesome as a lot of it was just like crazy jungles we've never seen before. The people in Melaka were extremely welcoming...especially the 2 ladies that worked at our favorite coffee shop there. They were LITERALLY bending over backwards for us, trying to find me a cooking class, trying to find Klemm vegetarian food and restaraunts, talking to us about seriously EVERYTHING, and pretty much forgetting they were at work until all of the other customers had to flag them down. whooops
From there, we took the bus to Kuala Lumpur (KL) which is a way bigger city than Melaka (aka the capital of Malaysia.) It wasn't one of our favorites though...so we decided to make it a quick visit and actually only stayed there for less than a day. The Petronas Towers were the highlight here for sure. But otherwise, we were glad to leave it...but maybe should have given it more of a chance? too late now i guess
From KL we took a long distance bus across the country to Kota Bharu so we could catch a ferry to the Perhentian Islands. Now let's just say that the long distance bus rides here seem to be a bit different (although kind of expected)than back at home. First of all, don't expect them to be on time. 2nd of all, don't expect them to be on time. 3rd, they stop for gas right when they get on the road and then also again right before dropping you off at ur destination. Really? It's kind of like an airplane taking off, and then landing 3 minutes later to fill up the fuel tank. pretty similiar i think.
So we finally make it to the Perhentian Islands and damn. Definitely worth the journey. A serious tropical paradise that we were lucky enough to see. And our first day was spent having happy hour w/the locals and drinking "monkey juice" (an actual good type of arak.) There was of course one thing that wasn't so gr8 about the island... And that was our lil rodent friend we had in our room on r last night. I pretty much woke up to what I thought was a rat climbing up our wall right next to Klemm's face (thank god it wasn't mine) but in the morning we decided it was prolly a squirrel.. we hope. Bcuz rats dont climb walls right? Newho this island rocks and if we had more time we would for sure still b there :)
After the Perhentians, we travelled for about 20 hours to get to Pulau Langkawi. And that was because one of our amazing long distance busses was 2 hours late. basically we made friends with everyone whose bus came b4 ours. it was gr8 to send everyone along their way while we waited in the rain. Langkawi though is another beautiful island, but a bit more commercialized with way more people. The beach bars though were still amazing :)
From there we took the ferry to Penang, where we spent our last 3 days in Malaysia. We got there at the perfect time, because part of the population was celbrating Deepavali-which is similiar to our xmas-so there was a huge ceremony/celebration just parading through the roads. And obviously this means lighting fireworks in the middle of the street with nothing blocking them off at all. Perfectly safe.
Needless to say, Penang is a great little city with awesome food.
And here are a few other important facts about Malaysia.
-stray cats and rats everywhere
-more rats
-squat toilets in more places than we would have liked ( and we still can't understand why some people actually CHOOSE to use these)...way more frustrating and difficult than they look!
-showers in the same room as the toilets...and since they dont use toilet paper (instead a hose) its basically a pool party everytime u enter into a bathroom. and the best ones are when ur not allowed to wear shoes. awesome.
-falling asleep and waking up at 5am to a loudspeaker that's calling the whole city to prayer. and the WHOLE city can hear it no matter where u r. the first night we thought we were dreaming. but. we werent.
That's all we got from Malaysia....later!!!!
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