Malaysia - Taman Negara National Park - Leeches, Wild Pigs & Tiggy

We arrived in the Taman Negara National Park (the oldest jungle - the ice ages didn't even effect this one) on a hugely comfortable minibus (almost too easy compared to the bus rides in India) and had dinner with a group of people from all over, and had an early night ready for the activities of the following day.



We woke early (ish) and made our way into the jungle and trekked until we found the famous canopy walkway. It was amazing walking so high above the jungle on swinging ladders. We then attempted another trek which tured out to much much steeper than was expected to a nice view over the jungle.
This is us at the top. Well, what we thought was the top at the time. We were informed later on that we had only made it half way but this was good enough for us! It was so steep that you had to pretty much rock climb with the provided ropes along the way.









This is Clare's war injury. We were told that there were heaps of leeches but as we don't have much trekking gear had to make do with crocs. A man ran past after she had finished flicking it off and after rudely mimicking her shrieks "eeehhhh! what is it?" said "give it to me, ooohh yessss it has got heaps of your blood, nice and fat it is now!" She was pretty horrified. We also saw a snake and a family of wild boar that presented themselves with a huge chorus of "ooooiiiinnnnnnkkkkkkk" along our path. Turns out that we scared them just as much as they scared us.

There were heaps of floating restaurants just near where we were staying. It was hard to get used to being bouyant whilst eating.









We did 'rapid shooting' that afternoon. The flyer read something like: "Be thrown about in one of the local long boats in the exhilerating white water rapids along the river. Be prepared to get wet!" So we did prepare to get wet and it was a good thing we did as the guides took it on themselves to thow buckets of water over our heads along the way as it turned out that the rapids weren't so exhilerating afterall. The highlight for us was when we stopped to swim in a local water hole and the teenage guides painted our faces with sandstone rock paint. We were then talked into playing 'tiggy' with the youngest guide (much to the disgust of the older one who knew that it wasn't meant to be in the itinerary). All in all it was heaps of fun though and we did return very wet as promised...
This is us leaving on the water taxi.

Malaysia - Perhentian Islands - Heaven on Earth

Well we made a visit to heaven on earth - the Perhantian Islands (Kecil island) in Malaysia and it was absolutely amazing. Picture perfect beaches with white sand and the clearest water ever! When swimming we could see our toes clearly! We met up with our mates from England Charlie and Lyndsay and met a Canadian couple Katie and Brad who stayed in a beach hut opposite us and hung out with them for the best part of a week. Basically our days consisted of an early start (the power cuts out at 7am and so the whole beach wakes at the same time as no-one can stand the heat without the fan!), breaky at one of the many beach restaurants, lazing on the beach and swimming and then meeting again for a dinner of cheap fresh seafood followed by a free movie! Of course a few days differed from this but this was the general plan.

We did an absolutely amazing snorkelling trip where we saw 6 or so reef sharks on our first stop, followed by a lot of coral and fish and the higlight for us was the huge sea turtles. We got so close that Kristen was able to dive down and give one a pat on the back! It was beautiful and heaps of fun.

Believe it or not we had taken our snorkel masks off and this was the mark left!

This is us on our way over to the island on a speed boat. As soon as we got there we had to haul our oversized backpacks along the beach (and believe us it's a good work out doing this on sand!) to find some accommodation which is always rather trying in the heat. We had just plonked our exhausted bodies in the water when we heard "hey there are the Aussie chicks!!" and got bombarded by a huge group of Aussie guys doing their training for the Australian army in Malaysia - "hey were you two the ones in the yellow t-shirts hauling your huge bags along the beach earlier? We heard your Aussie twang when you said 'my god, how good is this water?' and knew immediately that you were Australians." We have accidently been caught wearing the same clothes a few times...

Malaysia - Penang to Kota Bharu

After the cool climate of the Cameron Highlands we headed to Penang where we wandered around for a few days sweating and trying to find places of relief as we had lost all energy as it was just so hot! That explains why we can tell you more about the shopping centres in Penang than much else (bring on the air con!)...

We weren't that bad - we did manage to find a local food market to get amongst. It was the heat of the day and so we decided to get some relief and catch what they call a 'trishaw' (basically an enlarged pusher with a push bike attached where the driver sits) to the next station of relief.

So as usual we bartered the price - starting from 10 ringitt we got him down to 4 and hopped in quite pleased with our decision. We then found ourselves turning crimson as the 95 year old or so driver peddalled us spring chickens in the steaming heat for about 5 kilometers at a 'slower than walking' pace whilst yelling at the top of his lungs to any passer by something like 'five ringett, five ringett' followed by a string of Malay that we could of course not decipher and a huge hysterical fit of laughter. We thought that we were going to kill the poor man in that heat and so gave him something that resembled his original price in the end. Who knows if he was gloating about the price or commenting on how tight we were being!

Here is a pic of our lazy feet kicking back - note the lovely DIY nail polish...

Another reason that were absolutely exhausted this day too was our disaster of a start to the day:
Try this: being awoken by some extremely *inconsiderate* individual in the room next door praying and chanting in what seemed a very angry manner on the dot of 6am... waiting waiting waiting, "clare what the hell is that?", "tell me about it, it's driving me mental, hurry the hell up!"..... waiting, waiting... "my god it's quarter past and he's STILL going! what is that beeping noise anyway?", waiting, waiting, waiting, "he could at least turn the light off...now he's doing something with a plastic bag or something"................silence waiting waiting, door open, door closing, door being locked........... "hey ok he's gone let's go back to sleep..." ...........................................................................beep beep beep "my god that thing could go off all morning in his absence, we're outta here!". So we enjoyed an unusual and unwelcome early start to the day that day. We changed rooms to one equally *special* with a bed that was shaped like a banana. Beggars can't be choosers. Clare was lucky enough to be able to hook her leg over the edge to keep from rolling into the middle where she would have had to spoon hot and sweaty Kristen who had the side next to the wall and so justified snuggling into the cosy dip all night.

We decided to catch the night bus to our next destination and after learning that it was booked out had a look online to see if we could get a flight! We got one for about 10 dollars more each and booked it and by that night we were on our way to the Perhantian Islands! We arrived at the domestic terminal with our bulging backpacks patting each other on the back for finding such a great alternative to the bus when the lady at the check in counter informed us that domestic regulations are such that 15 kilos is the limit and that we weren't even close to that. We were in fact 270 ringgit (100 AUD) away from that limit. (How money makes it better we can't work out...)
This obviously created quite the predicament, and after minutes of scratching our heads we found ourselves with our ever so carefully packed backpacks sprawled out on the airport floor (with the usual gathering of interested onlookers) shoving all heavy items into our carry on luggage. Back and forth from the scales we went until we reached the perfect weight of 14.95 kilos with 10 minutes to spare (of course all the extra weight was essential purchases)!

In Kota Bharu we seemed to have no luck as we trekked around all day in the heat to a cultural centre to see some kite making and were turned away as it was the only day that it was closed for the week (typical) and then spent the night searching for a market that doesn't exist! We did however come across an awesome food market where we trialled some of the local cuisine including chicken skewers (could have chosen between 'nuggets', 'liver', 'wings/necks', and 'body' and strangely enough went with 'body' hoping that didn't include any chewy bits), noodles, and an interesting array of Malay desserts (strangest one being what looked like a piece of watermelon but was like jelly and has the weirdest texture in the world and tasted nothing like the fruit).

They have all these weird but wonderful drinks over here - this is Kristen trying her luck with one (after pointing at a picture). It was amazing - tasted like musk with little black jelly pieces (weird texture) and a big dollop of icecream in the middle, yummmm

Malaysia - Cameron Highlands - Steamboats and Butteflies

We spent a couple of nights in the Cameron Highlands in an awesome backpackers that has juicy things like a big TV to watch one of 800 movies for selection and a bonfire every night with a pool table and a juicy little bar. The bonnie was really nice (reminded us of home) and there were people playing guitar. It's such a beautiful place surrounded by mountains and tea plantations (not unlike Munnar in India!) and it had a very welcome cooler climate. We enjoyed rugging up in jeans again, having hot showers and having a break from the constant sweating!

We met a couple from England Charlie and Lyndsay that we spotted and exchanged glances with in Chennai in the Malaysia airway ticket office and who we have been accidentally stalking ever since! We have seen them everywhere so we finally introduced ourselves in KL and then went to the Cameron Highlands on the same bus the next day by coincident too which was weird! So we have kind of been hanging with them.

We had an awesome meal the night we arrived in the Cameron Highlands - a Malaysian Steamboat - they bring out a big cooker with tom yum soup (or other soups) and then about 10 plates of various uncooked foods like noodles, bok choy, chicken, fish, beef, tofu, squid, wontans, fish balls and heaps of other items that you don't recognise and you get your chop sticks and put them into the liquid, put the lid on and wait for them to cook. It's awesome.

Today we went to a nearby butterfly farm and saw all sorts of creepy crawlies like scorpions, tarantula spiders, snakes, turtles, birds, beetles, camouflaged bugs that took us a long time to spot and of course butterflies!

The most interesting was probably this bug which looks like a human face (look at this picture upside down).

This one is called a Rhinosaurus beetle.

There were also some amazing gardens with some interesting flowers! It's just SO green here...

This is Clare waiting patiently for the extremely late local bus that was meant to pick us up and get us home in order to check out, gather our things and get to the bus stop to move on to Penang, our next destination. About 5 seconds after this photo was taken it started pouring rain and the both of us got soaked, missed the stupid bus and ended up hailing a taxi at the last minute and screeching in to only just make it to the bus station...

Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur - 'Shop till you drop'

We arrived in KL in Malaysia and found that it's probably the best city ever for shopping! It's also extremely easy to navigate with a great public transport system and we spent a few days sight seeing and wandering around and of course shopping! We had to limit our purchases though for two reasons - firsty there is the budget and secondly there is the issue of shoving anything that we buy into our overcramped and increasingly heavy backpacks! Somehow we are managing but the shopping has simply got to come to a halt! You can imagine the long discussions of justification we have before each and every purchase!
Another issue we had was that we had to ask each and every shop attendent "um do you have this on extra large??" as the clothes are all miniature and just don't cater for gals like us!
By the end of the day we were shouting in frustration "ok then where is the Big City Chick store in this place then?"!!!!!

KL is an awesome city and we really saw the difference coming from Chennai in India - it's prestine and we noticed on the bus to the Cameron Highlands that all the way the gardens are manicured!

Here is a pic of the Petronas Towers. We lined up at 7am to get a ticket to go to the viewing floor and waited 2 hours before realising that we didn't have enough time to do it as we had to check out of our room at 12 noon and head off so we are going to do it on our return to KL on our way to Singapore.

Another highlight to being in Malaysia is that it is Monsoon season so we're experiencing real rain for the first time in so long! For us Victorians this is a real treat. It wasn't so funny when we have been caught out in it though. We just forgot what umbrellas were and what to do with them!

Oh and we're loving the choice of new food! Noodle soups all the way! There are heaps of Indian restaurants here too but it's sad to say that we won't be eating it for quite a while as 3 months of the stuff calls for a good break. Back to mastering our chop stick technique for now! Heaven...


We stayed in a backpackers in Chinatown and just around the corner there is a charasmatic pokey market with everything from fake Dior wallets to fake purfumes. We went to the movies on night too and watched the new Hannibal Rising movie which was pretty disturbing!

Another little plus is the number of opportunities to meet other travellers.

Farewell India

So here we sit at the airport on our way out of India... Weird...
Our original plans had not been to stay this long, however after our initial reservations and perhaps you could say 'culture shock' we fell in love with this country and it's people and had to see more.
So we guess it's time to reflect... India has presented to us many sights, sounds, smells and tastes that we would never had dreamed existed.
Here are some of our observations along the way:

• The Signature Indian head wobble - it's hard to describe but is not unlike those miniature dogs people put in the back of their cars but a sideways version - it can apparently mean yes, no, maybe, unsure or a combination. As you could imagine this was frustrating at times but believe it or not we developed our own little versions by the end of our stay. We never quite mastered understanding exactly what the answer was but had progressed.
  
• People everywhere - this is no understatement! No matter where we were, even if we were driving in the desert or farmland there were people to be seen.
  
• Awesome chai tea - chai stands everywhere - at first it was like a shot of sugar as they put so so much sugar in everything but we soon got used to it and ended up with an unhealthy obsession!
  
• Coconut stalls - the owner will slice a green coconut with a machete looking tool with such ease and hand it to you (while you watch scared for the safety of his/her limbs), wait for you to drink the juice from a straw and then take it back off you, slice it up and give it back - ready to eat the flesh - delicious.
  
• Urine and poo smells - not unlike the rest of Asia I guess but we never quite got used to the sight of people doing their 'business' in front of us.
  
• Women Dress - bindis, numerous pearcings, hennae, colourful saris, toe rings and a general abundance of bling each and every female exhibits
• Male Dress - 70's! - mustaches, flared jeans and brille cream are all the rage. In a state of extreme boredom on one of the unnecessarily long train rides we actually invented a game called "Spot the No-Mo" that we were very unsuccessful at.
  
• Everything is deep fried and full of sugar.
• The use of the horn is imperative in Indian traffic - they even have "HORN OK PLEASE" and such phrases painted on the back of vehicles - blinkers are non existent and each and every vehicle exhibits remnants of where the mirrors used to be - they just wouldn't last 5 minutes!
• Dogs that have pieces missing from their ears mean that they have had their rabies vaccine
• Red hennaed hair - not a good look
  
• Personal space is simply non existent - "Where you going?". For example - whilst using an ATM you have about 10 onlookers determined to check out our bank balance at any cost - this includes pushing for a front row seat. The same thing happens when buying train/bus tickets, ordering food, eating,using the Internet (personal emails are just not personal in India) and reading books etc.
• On the personal space topic - we were constantly being stared at with no shame whatsoever and would sometimes get so frustrated that we would start unrelenting staring competitions with our onlookers and just never win...
  
• Religious stickers, statues and posters everywhere
  
• Alcohol is named 'Pop' on the bill where sold without a license (which was most places as a license is apparently extremely costly)
  
• A typical landscape consists of colourful saris dotted along barren land, dirt and rubble.
• Rubbish piles everywhere - often you will see women sorting the rubbish for resale.
  
• Cows can be found everywhere - grazing on rubbish even in the most cosmopolitan cities and lazing on the beaches.
  
• Traffic consists of the usual cars, trucks and buses but Indian drivers must give way to camels, elephants, pigs, dogs, donkeys, monkeys, buffalo and the almighty holy cow - god forbid an accident with ones of these - those who hit animals are demanded to pay upfront a hefty fine to the villagers (and some are beaten on the spot for the same crime).
  
• So many times we found ourselves the only customers in a restaurant and still had to wait for hours clutching our starving stomachs for our meal. Clare - "what if the restaurant was full!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (clutching). On top of that there were always an abundance of staff with 'seemingly' nothing to do.
  
• No assumptions here - we had to ask for everything - "can we please have a menu?", "and another one please", "can you please take my order?", "can I please have some cutlery and a plate?", "can we please have the bill?"
  
• Technology mixed with tradition - a common sight was women in the complete traditional dress clutching a state of the art mobile phone and laptop whilst zooming along the highway on a motorbike.
• The food! - masala dosa, thali, chappathi, naan, parotta, idly, tandoori, peanut brittle, chai, curries - butter chicken, kofta, paneer - not all that healthy and we had forgotten what vegetables looked like but tasty all the same.
  
• Sugar coated aniseed and toothpicks after each meal.
• Some common sayings directed at the *tourists with money* -
  
• "Come look my shop"
• "Looking is free"
• "You want tuk tuk?"
  
• "Rickshaw?"
• "Taxi?"
• "Bananaaaa, pineappleeeee, watermeeellloooonnn, coconuuuuut, papayaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa???"
• "Chai, chai, chai, chai, chai" - monotone chant frequent on buses and trains that would brainwash us to the point of "must have chai, must have chai, give me some chai"!
• "Where you coming?", "Which country?", "Where from?", "Country?"
• "Ahhhh Australia....... Ricky Pontinnnnnggggggg, Brett Leeeeee, Shane Warnnneeee - problem with the ladies??"
• "Ahhh Australia!!! Doing well in Cricket World Cup. My favourite... India is very bad. I hate India team. They make me so angry I throw mobile phone and buy another one... Sachin so selfish!"
• Children - "Helloooo madam!", "One school pen? One rupee? Chocolate??"
• "You give me good price, you my first customer, you give me good luck" -
  "even though it's half past six???"
• "No problem, everything is possible in India"
• "Not possible Madam" - for example Clare really wanted her coffee in a glass not a mug and she pointed to the glass - a seemingly simple request and was furious at the stubborn response of "not possible madam".
  Clare - "but, but, but, can you please just make it and put it in the glass?"
  
• "Where you going? This way shortcut. Shortcut to spending money"
• "Feast your eyes..." - shopkeeper says whilst seductively pointing to his shop front
• "You want your mineral water hot or cold?"
• "You come to my shop and look at my cheap rubbish?"
  
• Strange pickup lines in broken English -
  
• "Hey beauty - you want to buy watch?"
• "Which country is having to cope without you right now?"
• "You have nice figure" - this one left us dumbfounded with mouths wide open as it was exclaimed by a 12 year old who we passed in the street! Now that is just wrong!
  

Mamallapuram - Easter - no eggs to be found

Well we had an ok Easter but it was nothing compared to Easter at home of course. We searched for days upon days for anything even resembling a chocolate Easter egg or bunny but resigned to the fact that it is to be expected in a predominately Hindu country and that the only egg we would be eating was a boiled one on toast for breakfast (like every other morning)...
We were lucky enough however to be in a state with a mostly Christian population and so joined in with the locals as they walked the 'way of the cross' just like at home.

On our walk we dropped into a local orphanage run by a gorgeous couple. The home comprised of 11 bubbly children who greeted us on the road with the promise of 'dancing madam, games! Come inside pleeeaaasssee'.
We watched them sing and dance excitedly for us (in a Bollywood fashion of course) and then played a number of games with them (most of which we sucked at). We went back the next day and brought toys and chocolates and a donation (the couple had no government assistance like the other orphanages in the district and so rely heavily on donation).

Clare playing Dog/Cow with the kids.

Easter for us (consumeristic beings) is not easter without chocolate so we did oourselves the favour of buying some for each other and hiding it in our hostel room before we went to bed. Yes we felt like losers - "Ok Clare, you go outside while I hide mine for you and NO PEEKING!" and then in the morning: "Kristen, enough already!! Where the hell have you put it? I have looked everywhere! Just give it to me!!!".

Mamallapuram - Yoga, Crocs and Holy Cow Steak

We are in our second last stop before leaving India - Mamallapuram (what a mouthfull!). It's like a mini Palolem beach with cheap accommodation, good seafood and a reasonable beach. We haven't swam in the beach as it's very dangerous (apparently 9 locals have drowned in the past few days!!!) so you can understand us making preferance for the hotel swimming pool to cool off. It's just so hot here now so the pool provides a little relief (only a little - the water is almost as warm as we are!).

We tried a Yoga session the other day and found ourselves with our eyes closed, cross legged listening to a pre-pubescent Indian teen chanting "Reeelllaaaaaarrrrks, bend your baaaaaarrrrrcccckk, focus your miiiind" when the only things we could focus on were the rather large mosquitos taking advantage of our stationary state, our degree of inflexibility, trying not to laugh and what we were having for dinner (never far from our minds). Speaking of dinner it is official - we have sinned beyond belief - we have had the best steak of our lives right here in India - a holy one!!! We found ourselves sitting like deviates in the corner of a deserted restaurant chowing down on steak and chips.

Unbelievably steak in Tamil Nadu is actually completely acceptable and is on most menus as there are more Christians here than Hindus so we took full advantage to supplement our iron levels (and our appetite).


We visited a crocodile and snake farm today. It was amazing to see so many different species of crocs and alligators in one place. We thought that they may have been a little overcrowded in their small enclosures though which was a bit sad but some of the crocs had way more space than they needed in other enclosures so we thought that maybe the ones in the over-crowded one had been naughty?

It was quite a different experience from a visit to an Australian Zoo where you can meander about knowing that your safety comes first. In this place there was only a fence less than a metre high separating us and the HUGE animals which was quite daunting.


We also wandered around the rock carvings that this town is renouned for. Here is a pic of us in front of Vishnu's 'butter ball' - so named because the Hindu god apparently ate a lot of butter. There was also a butter pot believe it or not!!!!!!!!!????????
...Or at least that is what we deciphered from our guide.

Chennai - Lights, Camera, Action!!

The other day we were asked to be extras in a Bollywood movie - something that we had the chance to do in Mumbai but couldn't because of a lack of time.
So we boarded the bus at 7am with 11 other tourists and drove 1.5 hours to a massive building where a Bollywood Tamil movie was being shot in Chennai. I don't know if any of you have had the exhilerating experience of watching a Bollywood movie but if not they are filled with enthusiastic dance scenes with middle aged male stars sporting impressive mustaches and very young gorgeous women dancing around energetically flirting with the camera.

The set was meant to be a Sydney nightclub - not sure if they will portray this too successfully as I have never seen a nightclub in Australia filled with weary, hot and sweaty backpackers wearing shorts, t-shirts and thongs. We have never been so hot and sweaty in our lives! There was no air-conditioning and not enough fans to go around (first preference goes to the stars and then us last) and we estimated that it would have to have been 45 degrees in there!

Here is a picture of us happy for the first time in the day for the fleeting 5 seconds we managed to steal the fan...







We were a sad contrast against the pristine appearance of the Bollywood stars and their group of too-tiny Russian dancers wearing clothes that would even make Britney blush!

The 'heroine' as they call the leading lady was also dressed in a revealing black mini dress with some serious cleavage.

However we noticed a strange white hankerchief device was threaded throughout her dress when not filming. We got chatting to her and asked her what it was (we asked if it was to catch the sweat that would have to have been dripping off her) and she laughed and told us that the filming crew require Indian female actresses to wear it, as it is not acceptable to show so much skin when off set - it is however fine in the movies. It's like their weird fantasy world. It was interesting to see the contrast between the group of western women who were 'expected' to wear as little as possible and therefore dressed that way, and the lengths that the Indian women were required to go to in order to cover up and remain 'respectable'. She was absolutely gorgeous and was interested in us just as much as we were in her! She promised to take us out in Mumbai if we ever returned.

The hero (male star) was like an Indian version of a cross between 'The Hoff' and Ted Danson. He only removed himself from his 5 star luxury pink trailor to appear on set when completely necessary and then strutted around the stage demanding the makeup man bring him a mirror and hair gel spray after every single take and meticulously groomed his hair like something out of Happy Days but actually serious! Go Fonzy!