Leaving Paradise

Day 15 (14/04/08): Kota Bharu, Malaysia

Fabian had left the day before, so I spent the lasty night in the bungalow by myself. There are no ATM's on the island, so my last night was also my quietest, as I had no money to spend on anything. I was sad to be saying goodbye to my home of the last week, but all travellers in the area are making a beeline for the Thai Island of Koh Phangan. The full moon was approaching, and on the night of the full moon Phangan hosts the biggest beach party in the world, in excess of 20 000 people! And that is where we were all headed.

I caught the boat back to the mainland with a Canadian called Anna, who I had met a few days before. Back on the mainland, we unsuccesfully waited for the bus, before catching a taxi to the main town of Kota Bharu. Now that we were out of the sand, I tried to have a healing session for my toes. Several of my toes had raw abrasions, where ill fitting snorkelling flippers had rubbed them raw. They wounds weren't healing on the island, as they were always wet and covered in sand. I went to a pharmacy and got some bandaids, cleaned all the wounds, disinfected them and covered them up.

There isn't much to do in Kota Bharu, so Anna and I met up with an English girl, Siona who we met at the bus stop and was staying at the same hostel. We walked down to the night market and I ate some very good barbequed meat on a stick. We all felt like a beer, but finding a beer in a heavily muslim town can be quite hard. We kept our eyes open for a chinese restaurant, the standard souce of beer. We eneded up finding not only a chinese restaurant, but also a very nice lounge bar as well, complete with couches, disco ball and a dart board! What started as a quiet beer, turned into several and we had a great time just chatting about all sorts of things. The bar started to fill up, all middle aged chinese businessmen, and we noticed that the waitresses, all Chinese girls, were very friendly to the customers. So friendly in fact, that we soon realised that the girls were selling more than just beer to the old chinese men... We felt left out, because we were getting none of the attention all the other bar patrons were. Maybe it was because Anna and Siona were the only female customers in the place.

About midnight we went downstairs and got some food to soak up the beer. We chatted to a Japanese guy we had met at the bus stop, and he told us how we had been travelling for the last fifteen years or so, and didn't want to go back to Japan. His english was very good, and it turns out he even lived in Christchurch for a year!

We walked back to our hostel in the early hours of the morning, very happy that we had managed to create a great night out of nothing!

Time in an Island Paradise

Days 10 - 14 (09/09/08 - 13/04/08): Long Beach, Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

Life on a tropical paradise island seems to slow and blur all together. The days are spent lazing on the beach, swimming in the beautifully warm and crystal clear water and drinking fresh fruit juice in the shade of a palm tree. I went to the Perhentian Islands, only planning to stay for three days or so, and in the end I spent a week there! They truly are a beautiful and magical place. I even considered canning the rest of my trip and just spending the rest of my time under a palm tree. And I normally don't even like beaches...

Rather than give a day by day break down of what happened, I'll just summarise a basic day on the island:

- Sleep in till the mid morning, roll over in bed and admire the beautiful view out of our beach bungalow shack.
- Put on togs and the same shirt you have been wearing the whole time and wander down the beach.
- Spend the next few hours lying down in the sand, reading your book or writing in your journal. - When it gets to hot, jump in the water and go for a swim. There isn't even a shock as you get in the water, it is so warm.
- At some stage, go to one of the few beachfront cafes, sit on a little plastic chair by a plastic table, under an umbrella right on the beach. Order some cheap and delicious local food, a big mango/papaya/banana/strawberry lassi, and wait for the very relaxed and chilled out Rasta waiter boys to bring your food.
- Spend the rest of the day on the beach.
- Have dinner on the beach, served by the same relaxed Rasta guys. For dinner we normally had fresh barbequed fish. In my time there I had barracuda, kingfish and shark, all delicious.
- Go down to the 'Safety Stop', the local 'beach bar' . Little more than a bamboo shack on the beach, with a few low wooden tables scattered around the beach.
- Spend the night drinking the expensive beer or the cheap vodka (being a Muslim country, alcohol isn't cheap), and watching other people play with fire poi and fire staff.
- Meet a bunch of other interesting travellers, swap travel stories, and make good friends.
- Go to bed in the early hours of the morning.

Life on the island is so relaxed and chilled out, before you know it, several days have passed. Although to prove I did more than just laze on the beach, here are few other things I did with my time:

- Went on a snorkelling tour, twice. The tour last the whole day and you visit several different places around the island. The visibility is amazing, and you spend a lot of time swimming in the corals, with more tropical fish than you can imagine. There is a phenomenal range of colours, size and behaviour amongst all the fish, and it is quite spectacular. We also found some quite large reef sharks, and swam with giant turtles. And oh, I also found Nemo.
- Pretended to be a Rescue Dog trainer called Hans from Finland. I was doing it with several other people, and the local Malaysian guys were believing us, until a Canadian came along and saw straight through our ruse.
- Went swimming several times at 3am. Floating in warm water and watching the stars, while sounding very cheesy, is actually a great experience.
- Shared a vodka watermelon with a bunch of other people who I had gotten to know over the past several days.
- Walked across the island to watch the sunset on the western side. While very pretty, the sun was hidden by clouds for most of the time.
- Said goodbye to Fabian, Michael and Katerina, the germans I had been travelling with. I have promised to meet up with them when I get to Munich.

The Islands are a fantastic and relaxed place, and even though I spent a week there, I could have easily spent longer.

Arriving in Island Paradise

Day 9 (08/04/08): Long Beach, Small Island, Perhentian Islands

The day started with an hour taxi ride in an old Mercedes 220 with Fabian and the two Danes to the jetty port at Kota Besut. We arrived there and were immediately herded onto the waiting speedboat. The boat trip out to the island takes about 40mins on a speedboat with 12 passengers, all wearing lifejackets. It was actually quite a fun trip, with a few big waves that we bounced over. Arriving at our beach, we had to pay another RM2 for a water taxi, a little boat that takes you from the speedboat to the beach, a journey lasting less than a minute!

The Perhentian Islands are considered some of the most beautiful islands in the world. They consist of two islands (known as the 'Big' island and the 'Small' island). Most backpackers stay on the small island, at its biggest beach, known as Long Beach. It truly is spectacular. The beach is a near perfect crescent of white sand, shaded in palm trees, however it is the water that is the most breathtaking. It is perfectly crystal clear, when the boat approached the beach, you could look down through several meters of water depth, and see the white sand at the bottom. When looking at the water from a short distance away, is a brilliant bright turquoise colour, absolutely amazing!

Fabian and I landed on the beach and spent a little while walking up and down it looking for a place to stay. Fortunately, we where smart enough and dropped our packs at a small cafe, but it was still hot work walking up and down in the beach heat. Unfortunately, none of the nice places had any room, so we settled on a place called 'Rock Garden Resort'. It was a fair way up the hill at the end of the beach, and the 'bungalows' were pretty simple; a wooden shack with two beds and mosquito nets. Not even a fan, indoor light bulb or power socket, however it was cheap! We figured we would stay there for one day, and then be first the next morning to find somewhere nicer. However, being up on the hill, our little wooden shack had an absolutely amazing view! We looked out over palm trees into the bay, with the Big Island in the distance. From up here you could see the water change from the translucent clear water of the shallows, through all the shades of blue and turquoise to the strong blue of the deep sea. We were both gobsmacked, and both sat and watched the view for half an hour.

We spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach and swimming in the water, which was as warm as a bath! I think I spent a good two hours in the water! I got a new novel at one of the small stores, and lay on the white sand reading it. For dinner we met up with some of Fabian's German friends, and went to one of the beach front restaurants; a series of plastic tables and chairs right on the beach, staffed by the local Malay Rasta boys, complete with dreadlocks. I had barbequed fresh caught barracuda with a garlic sauce, beautifully delicious!

A bar had just opened on the beach, it was nothing more than a wooden shack on the beach, that put out a few low wooden tables on the beach around a bonfire. We spent the whole night drinking beer and meeting and talking to other travellers. Fabian and I walked back up the hill to our wooden shack at about 2 in the morning!

(Once again no photos with this post, will add photos later)

Jungle Train, Part 2

Day 8 (07/04/08): Kota Bharu, Malaysia

I spent my last night in the park, blissfully sleeping off the ravages of the jungle. My plan was to catch the early bus back to Jerantut, and from there I could get back on the train into the North of Malaysia, and from there to the Perhentian Islands. I got up ridiculously early to catch the bus, and then waited an hour at the bus stop!

I had several hours to kill in Jerantut, a small town with nothing to do, and so spent the time in an internet cafe catching up on this blog, telling the world about my Jungle experiences. Back at the train I met up with Fabian, a german guy I had met in the park the night before. He was also
going to the Perhentian Islands, so we caught the train together.

The train was pretty good, we had an air-conditioned carriage, and the seats were pretty comfy. Once again, the train went through the jungle (it's called the 'Jungle Train'), although I found this second half of the Jungle Train was a lot better than the first half I had done a few days before. The train went past some magnificent sheer cliffs, and rocky uprisings, all covered in thick green rainforest. Fabian was also a bit of a shutterbug, and as we were the last carriage on the train, we opened the back door and took photos out the back.

Besides watching the jungle and taking photos, I finished reading my book, listened to my iPod, and even napped a bit. Fabian and I also talked a fair bit and compared the cultural differences between NZ and Germany.

Towards the end of the 7 hour journey, we met a local guy called Eddie who we chatted to for a little while. He saw the cuts on my legs, and offered me some cream to put on them. I asked if it would hurt, and he said no. The cream didn't look or smell like Tiger Balm, so I rubbed a bunch of my cut and grazed thigh.

The train station is actually a fair way out of Kota Bharu, our destination for the night. Fabian and I shared a taxi, and it was during this taxi read, that the mysterious cream that Eddie offered me, actually turned out to be Tiger Balm. If anybody has put Tiger Balm on open wounds would know, it burns like a house on fire and stings like Muhammed Ali. I sat in the taxi grimacing my teeth, feeling like my leg was on fire. As soon as we got to the Backpackers I ran for the shower and washed it all off. Relief.

The room we stayed in was a tiny little shack of a room outside the main backpackers behind the kitchen. There were some really big rats or something, because the whole ceiling moved and thumped with their movement. We were pondering catching the 6.15 bus to the nearby town of Kuala Besut, from where you catch the boat to the Perhentian Islands. Luckily, two other Danes were also going to the island, so we organised a shared taxi. We could now sleep in till 8am the next morning!

It was pretty late at night by now, and so Fabian and I had a beer in the courtyard and chatted to some Swedes, before heading off to bed.

(Unfortunately no photos with this post, the USB on this machine doesn't work. I'll go back and add some photos to it later).

Status Update - Perhentian Islands

I'm on the Perhentian Islands, some of the most beautiful islands in the world, and they live up to their name. White sand, crystal clear blue water, palm trees, the works. There are no roads here, and everything is run off generator, this means that the internet is exorbitantly expensive, so this is just a very quick post to make you all feel jealous. I will leave you with the view I have from my bungalow, that costs me just $4NZ a night.

Jungle Adventure

Day 7 (06/04/08): Taman Negara National Park

Woke up with the sunrise and ate my can of baked beans using a makeshift spoon cut from the styrifoam container of my fried rice. Washed the baked beans down with some mini-cookies. Breakfast of champions! Myself and Utz, (the German guy I had shared the hide with), decided we would walk back together along the river-side trail. We had both done the inland trail to get to the hide, and so the river trail would be something different. Things however, never go to plan...

Due to the awful maps, we couldn't find the path to the start of the river trail, we know roughly were it should be, but had no luck in finding it, and we were both determined to not go back down the same inland route again. Eventually we settled on what we thought was the path, and started down it. It quite quickly thinned out, and we would follow it for brief sections as it disappeared and re-appeared. Eventually it disappeared completely, however we were both brave adventurers and figured that if we followed the local river we would eventually run into either the path or the large main river. Off we went, blazing our own path into the jungle!

We bashed our way through the thick jungle for several hours, going up and down, always following the river. It was pretty tough going, sometimes taking us minutes just to move a few meters through the thick undergrowth of the equatorial rainforest. We would pause occaisonally to flick the leeches off our shoes, or remove the ones that were attached to us. After about two hours, we had lost our way from the river. I took out my compass and using the bad map, we knew which direction we had to go in. I kept checking the compass, because it was scary just how easy it was to lose your sense of direction. The forest was so thick it was hard to see the sky, and with no landmarks it was very easy to end up walking back the way you came, or even in circles. With the compass, we kept on a reasonably straight line, hopefully heading in the direction of the river.

Almost all the plants in the jungle are spiky, covered in nasty barbs, spikes and hooks, just waiting to tear out skin and fabric. Utz and I both got thoroughly ripped up, our legs and arms completely covered in scratches. My shirt had several holes ripped in it, as well as my hat. At one point, I slipped in the mud, and a particularly nasty plant, with hundreds of tiny fish-hooks along thin vines ripped my hat off and gave me a bad scratch by my eye. Sweat-diluted blood covered the side of my face. Climbing up and down the steep banks is very hard. The ground is all muddy clay, which is very slippery. You can try hold onto plants, but as most of them are spiky, you have to be very careful about which ones you instinctively reach for as you slip. Other trees, which look very solid are so rotten, that the slightest touch causes them to break apart. We climbed over some giant logs that crumbled beneath us.

For a lot of the time we tried to follow the animal trails, as some of the plants had already been cleared. The elephants paths were the best, as the large elephants footprints made good stairs in the muddy hillsides. We still slipped our way up and down, and got completely covered in mud, spider webs, dirt, blood and the spiky pieces of plant, which would break off and stay in you as a tiny splinter.

Eventually we managed to find a small stream, and since we were so dirty, jumped straight into it and all the mud and followed it downstream, on the theory that it should eventually link to the river, and if we followed that downstream, we would reach the main river. Walking down the stream was slightly easier in parts, being a bit more free of the thick plants and undergrowth. However we still had lots of climbing to do, often over fallen trees and bushes that blocked the stream. Climbing over one of these I slipped, and fell onto a particularly nasty spiky tree trunk. I got a big series of parallel cuts down my thigh.

The mud in the stream was pretty deep, but eventually we made it to the river. We tried walking down the river, but it got deep pretty quickly. I fell into my waist several times, and the bottom of my pack got wet. I ahd safely stowed my camera in a waterproof dive bag, at the top of my pack, so it should be safe. Deciding that walking down the river was not smart, we climbed up the near vertical clay bank (an ordeal in itself) and procedeed to follow the river along the bank. At this stage, we were so cut up from the spiky plants, that the odd leech didn't bother us at all, and it was a non-event each time we found one draining our blood.

Eventually after climbing through another muddy stream, and up yet another steep bank, we happened upon a trail, and a yellow marker in the trees. Joy of all joys! I never thought I would be so happy to find a yellow square nailed to a tree! We had found our way back to the trail! We had been bashing our way through the jungle, streams and river for about three and a half hours! In celebration we recovered our safely stowed cameras and took photos of each other, covered in mud, blood, sweat, dirt, spikes, thorns and leeches. We had done it!

After a short walk we made it to a camping ground that was shown on the map. Although it must have been abandonded, as all the huts were desolate, with broken furniture strewn around and grass growing up through the planks. We found a sign saying the hide was 45mins away, it had taken us close to fours hours in the jungle! We found another tiny path, and being the brave adventures, followed that down to a small native village. However the locals aren't very keen on tourists, and so we turned back. From where we were, it was about a 5 hour trek back to the main village along the river. It was now past midday, and we both had little water left, let alone the will to keep walking. We knew boats often dropped people off here, so we went down to the jetty on the main river. It was beautiful and warm in the sun, and we stripped off our dirty clothes and dried them in the sun. A quick swim in the river, and we both felt a lot better.

We saw several boats going upstream, but very few going downstream. We waved at couple, but the boats just waved back! Eventually the third boat stopped and would take us back to Kuala Tahan for RM30, a bit of a ripoff, but we were in no position to negotiate! The boat was pretty small and had a local family on board. The boat ride was very nice, going down the river, through a few rapids, that splashed us and got us quite wet!

We made it back, and the first thing Utz and I did was go to a restaurant and order a big meal and lots to drink. Utz acutally ate two meals! We swapped email address and said that whenever I get to Berlin, him and I will go on another crazy adventure somwhere. Since arriving at the restaurant, my ankle had got really sore and swollen. I don't remember doing anything to it in the jungle, so I'm not sure what happened.

I limped up the hill and checked into a slightly nicer backpacker place, and had a nice cold shower and spent a good hour washing the mud, blood and dirt out of my clothes. I washed my socks in the basin 6 times, and yet still the water was dark brown. I decided they were never getting cleaner and gave up! The rest of the evening was spent relaxing, writing in my journal and reading my book. I tried counting the number of scratches and cuts on myself, but gave up. There were also a number of leech marks down inside my shoes, obviously the little bastards had crawled down my shoes, had a meal and then crawled out again. Tomorrow I head back to Jerantut, then the train to the North of Malaysia to go to the Perhentian Islands. Relaxing in a hammock for a few days sounds pretty good right now.

Glutton for Self Punishment

Day 6 (05/04/08): Taman Negara National Park

"Millions of leeches, leeches for me

Millions of leeches, leeches for free!"

Had a reasonable sleep in, and woke to find I was the only person in the bunk. I considered having a shower, but realised if I was about to head into the jungle, whats the point? I went down to a floating restaurant and had a traditional Malay breakfast called roti canai. Ita unlevened bread with curry dipping sauce. However, I got mine with eggs and onions, so it was more a bready omellete with curry dipping sauce - brilliant!

My plan for the day was to head out into the Jungle, and spend a night in one of the hides. To do this you need to bring your own food and supplies, so I went to a little floating shop. Unfortunately, they didn't really have much in the way of tramping food, and so I had to settle on some mini cookies, a can of baked beans and obviously some water - I got 3 litres, thinking it would be plenty! On a tip from some other travellers, I got some vegetable fried rice to go and put this in my pack as well.

Took a boat across the river to the Park Headquarters to book my hide for the night. I had the option of going to close hides, only about 1-2 hours away, but decided I may as well do this properly and booked myself into Bumbun Kumbung hide, which was listed as an 11km walk, taking about 5-6 hours. I rented a foam sleeping mat, and popped back across the river to rent a powerful spotlight torch - a must for staying in the hide and left some non-essential items in a locker. At about midday I headed off into the jungle!

Like all tourist places, the provided map beared little to no resemblance to reality, however the paths were fairly easy to follow, with little yellow markers attached to trees. Most of the intersections were sign-posted, so it was fairly easy to find your way. There wasn't a lot of wildlife to see in the Jungle, but us humans make so much noise when we walk that most of the animals run away far before we get close to them. I did however often hear animals scurrying away in the bushes, and some of them sounded quite large, but never managed to see any. The trees, vines and plants were all very impressive though. As the jungle is so dense, all the trees are in an arms race to be the tallest, and as such some of the trees are staggeringly tall.

I realised I had left quite late, and so walked pretty fast to try and make up time. This was alright for the first few hours, however the second half was quite rough; muddy and lots of steep climbs. Coupled with this was the completely de-moralising distance signs. These signs just seemed to sh0w random numbers, and on several occasions, the number actually increased from the previous sign! This really messed with your mind and was quite frustrating. After walking for over an hour from a 7km to go sign, and figuring I must have made some good distance, the next sign read 10km! Completely de-moralising.

While the distance to walk wasn't a huge amount, and the climbs weren't too bad, this would have been an easy walk in New Zealand. However in the equatorial rainforest with all the associated heat and humidity, it was pretty tough. After about an hour, everything I was wearing was completely and utterly soaking wet with sweat, right down to my underwear! So when it started to rain after three hours, I didn't really care, as I was wet anyway, and rainwater is a lot nicer than the sweat/sunblock/insect repellent cocktail I was covered in.

Everyone had told me about the leeches in the park, and they are mentioned in the guidebooks as well. As it had been very dry, I was reasonably lucky and hadn't found any leeches, although I did have some blood on a sock. The leeches in Malaysia don't live in the water, they stay on the ground plants and attach themselves to you as you walk past or brush the leaves. Some even fall out of trees onto you. Towards the end though, I got closer to the river, and combined with the rain, I got hit by a few leeches, mostly around the ankles. Although I did find a small one on my stomach, which I can only assumed climbed all the way up my pants and under my shirt. You can't rip the leeches off, they are strongly attached, and pulling them off only rips them and they leave their teeth in you. Instead a quick squirt from your insect repellent and the leech detaches and you can flick her off. The leeches have an anti-coagulant in them, so the wounds don't stop bleeding, and whenever you flick a leech off, your finger gets covered in blood. The leeches were anything from 0.5cm long, to about 4cm long. They were very skinny, like long little worms, but after sucking your blood, they grew pretty fat.

Finally, after nearly five hours of trudging through the jungle in the heat I made it to the hide. My shoes were completely soaking as I had to cross a knee deep river at the end. But at least I had made it! There was only one other person there, a German guy who had already spent the last two nights in the jungle. The hide was pretty basic, a large room raised up high on stilts with a number of wooden bunks and a viewing window overlooking a water hole. It had a very basic toilet and miracle of all miracles, a rainwater shower! This shower was a lifesaver, and I could wash off all the sweat, blood, mud and dirt that the rainforest had gifted to me over the last few hours. Although my leech wounds kept bleeding, even though it was now several hours since the leech. Damn those anti-coagulants!

I settled down, ate my fried rice using a slice of cucumber as a makeshift utensil and watched the day transform to night and listen to the sounds of the night jungle. The powerful spotlight I had rented was very good, and was able to direct a beam all the way across to the watering hole. Unfortunately, we didn't see anything at all, and my bunk mate said he hadn't seen anything the previous two nights either. Oh well, the atmosphere of the jungle was cool enough. I had a terrible sleep on the hard wooden bunk with no pillow, but just lying in the jungle, in the absolute pitch dark, listening to the sounds, made the whole thing worthwhile.

Into the Jungle

Day 5 (04/04/09): Kuala Tahan, Taman Negara National Park, Malaysia

Had an early start in the town of Gemas, although there was still plenty of traffic in the early hours. Caught the Jungle Train at 7am. There are plenty of other express trains going to where I want to go, but the daytime slow Jungle Train comes highly recommended, as you slowly cruise through the rainforest jungle of Peninsular Malaysia. The train stops at all the little villages to let the locals on and off, and sometimes seemed to just stop in the middle of the jungle where people were waiting. The jungle itself is pretty interesting to watch, at least for the first hour or two, after that its all the same. It is really impressive just how thick it is, sometimes the jungle was mere metres away from the train, an impenetrable wall of green. The journey to Jerantut was about 4 hours, and after watching the jungle, I read my book and studied the Lonely Planet guidebook.

There isn't much in Jerantut, it is a fairly large town, but is mainly used by tourists as a transit hub and gateway to Taman Negara National Park. To get into the park, you need to catch a boat from Kuala Tembeling, a small jetty outpost, about 15km from Jerantut. The last boat for the day left at 2pm, so I need to be there by then. Unfortunately, none of the local buses were going before then. The local bus left Jerantut at 1.45pm, so would miss the boat by about 5 minutes. Pretty silly if you ask me.

I wandered around a lot of the centre part of town investigating ways to get to Kuala Tembeling, asking at a few backpacker places. This was pretty difficult though, because no one seemed to speak english. The only recommendation people could make to me was to take a taxi to the jetty, or a local bus directly to the park. The local bus was really cheap, however you would miss out on the boat trip up the river, which comes highly recommended. So after eating some curry for lunch, I took a 30min taxi ride for only RM20 ($8NZ) to the jetty and got a boat ticket.

The boat ride was very cool. About 20 of us (almost all tourists) got into a long wooden boat (basically a big canoe or waka), with our luggage precariously strapped to the front. For the next three hours we wound our way up the river through the jungle. Besides the jungle there wasn't much to see, although we did spot quite a few birds, and the odd cattle and water buffalo. Some of the people in the boat claimed they saw a snake in the water, but I didn't see anything.

The boat arrives in the small village of Kuala Tahan. This tiny village houses a lot of the locals who work in the park, and also has a large number of backpackers and cheap hostels. Across the river from the village, lies the entrance to the park itself, as well as a fancy resort where all the fat american tourist went to stay. Along the riverbank of the village are a number of floating restaurants offering cheap meals and selling guided walks and tours into the jungle. Each restaurant also has a small boat or two that will ferry you across the river to the park for a RM1, which takes all of about 30 seconds.

I walked up the bank and found a cheap backpackers overlooking the river. It was so laid back I just asked for a room and the guy just pointed me to one. I didn't even have to fill anything in or pay for it yet! It was a pretty basic room with 4 beds, a fan and some mosquito nets. Outside there was a pretty basic shower and toilet block, with one sink. And you had to provide your own toilet paper, but it was cheap! There were a bunch of other young backpackers around, a bunch of english, an irishman and a canadian. So I spent the early part of the evening doing the typical backpacker thing of swapping travel stories and recommendations for where to go. Everyone it seems has either come from the Perhentian islands, or is heading there next.

That evening I went on a guided night walk. It was only about an hour and half, and it was mainly for the guide to explain a bit about the forest to us and find insect. We saw quite a few large spiders, large crickets, scorpions, huge stick insects (like 20cm long stick insects!) and some really big ants. Basically, all the insects here are huge! We also managed to see a Lesser Mousedeer (which I had seen at Singapore Zoo, a very small deer), and a number of large deer in the distance at the salt lick, as well as a couple of snakes.

I got back to the village and spent the rest of the evening playing cards with the same group of people as before, with the addition of a Portugese surfer.

Into Malaysia

Location: Net Cafe, Gemas, Malaysia

Day 4 (03/04/08): Gemas

I am currently sitting in a Net Cafe in the small Malaysian town of Gemas. I had an early start this morning, as I had my train out of Singapore at 7:40am. I didn't get much sleep, as I stayed up quite late talking to a few other people at the hostel. One of the American guys has been travelling SE Asia for the past two years. So me and an Aussie guy, who had also just got to SE Asia, took notes while the American gave us all the insider knowledge on which places were good to go to. Pretty interesting guy, he had some crazy stories about drinking at night with the Vietnamese mafia.

In the morning I was running late after packing up all my stuff in the backpackers, and by the time I got off the MRT I was starting to get worried I would miss the train. While the train didn't actually leave anytime soon, I still needed to clear customs and immigration. So I ran through the streets of Singapore, in the early hours of the morning, with a pack on my back. I got a few odd stares from the locals who must have just thought I was a crazy white guy. I arrived at the station dripping with sweat, but luckily managed to get through Malaysian customs and immigration reasonably quickly. However I didn't have any time to stop at the money changer, so I still have a fair bit of Singapore currency on me. At least I was on the train!

The train ride itself was pretty uneventful. I had a second class ticket, but it was air-conditioned, which is all I cared about. After a short while the train stops, and everyone disembarks to go through Singapore Immigration (yes, it is an odd system). This was nice and easy, although I found out that I can't get my tax back for the camera stuff I bought. Apparently I can only get my tax back on large purchases if I leave Singapore through the Airport. Oh well, no great loss.

I spent most of the train ride reading my book, and watching the endless rainforest jungle roll by. The train stopped and just waited for several minutes a few times. I don't know why, they made an announcement in Malay and English, but the PA system and the unfamiliar English proncounciation were gibberish to me. As were the (very badly acted) Malaysian soap operas they were playing on the screen. Come to think of it I have no idea if it was a soap opera or not, but it definitely had that cheesy sense of drama and plenty of wailing woman.

Just after midday the train arrived at the small town of Gemas. There isn't really much to Gemas at all, you can walk around the whole place in about 10 minutes. The only reason I am here is to catch the jungle train through the eastern part of the Malaysian peninsula, and this is where it goes from, unfortunately it leaves early in the morning, and so I will be spending the night here. The town is so small, it doesn't even have an entry in the Lonely Planet guide. I walked around for a little while trying to find a place to stay, I could only find two places, one was a dodgy looking hostel and the other was 'Hotel Tropicanas'. As the price for the room at the hotel was cheaper than the a/c room at the dodgy hostel, I opted for the hotel. For a mere 30RM (~$12NZ), I have my own air-conditioned room with bed, ensuite bathroom and even a TV! What luxury! Although I must have looked dodgy because they asked for a 100RM deposit! The place is pretty big, with heaps of rooms, although I haven't seen any other guests.

After having a wonderfully cooling shower, and setting the a/c to maximum cool, I wandered around Gemas. There really isn't much here at all. The main highway from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore runs through it, and so there is a lot of traffic and trucks. It mainly seems to be a transit town and rest stop for travelers. I had some lunch at a random little food place - some spicy chicken and prawns with rice. After a few minutes eating the owner of the place asked if the food was too hot for me. I replied with a big smile that I like spicy food and that it was good. Him and his friends seemed a bit disappointed that the white guy could handle it.

I went back to the train station and got my ticket for the Jungle Railway tomorrow. It is not the fastest way to Jerantut (my next destination, en route to Taman Negara National Park), but it sounds very interesting and travels through the day, allowing you to view the scenery. After worrying that the hotel deposit had robbed me of too much cash to pay for the train ticket, I was pleasantly suprised when the ticket price came to 6.50RM, about $2.50NZ! Pretty good for a 3-4 hour train ride.

I will probably spend the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing my room, might even try and learn some Malay phrases. This part of Malaysia is definitely very different to Singapore, not many people speak English, and I have seen no other tourists at all. In fact I am getting a few odd looks from the locals, maybe its because I am the only blonde in town?