KL Round Two

We had plans to wake up nice and early and get tickets to the sky bridge at the Petronas Towers, but somehow didn’t make it there till about 11, and of course they were sold out already, so instead we walked around the park right there since we had been to look at the towers a couple times, but never had a chance to look at the park. But as soon as we walked back outside away from the damn evil AC’d mall (where the ticket booth was) we got blasted by the heat heat and humidity.  So decided to sit outside and have a tasty beverage first to help get used to the temperature again.  I decided to get a chai and it came in a glass that would have been to hot to hold, but it came with a clever holder to help keep away the burns, or to help them keep fewer types of cups.

After getting used to the temperature we starting walking around the park, and heard the call to prayer.  This has been petty standard throughout the trip, but this one sounded very close, so we decided to check it out.  So stayed around for a while to listen to some of it, after a while we decided to head to the central market since I was running very very low on time to find prizes for the trip.

The central market was covered different places all selling potentially amazing prizes.  Of course I had to look at every place to find the perfect items, so we ended up spending quite a bit of time there looking at all the random stuff.  It was also a bit hard since a lot of it just felt like the crap you could buy at any china town in the states, but after enough rooting around I found what I hope will be some great prizes.

After the search for prizes was complete we headed back to the room to unload and unwind a bit. Instead of taking a cab, we opted for the subway.  The ride was very pleasant and it took us within a few blocks of where we wanted to go.

After a nice rest we headed off to the Sky Bar since we weren’t sure we’d be motivated enough tomorrow to get to the towers early enough.  The view was great if you made reservations, and if you didn’t you ended up with a nice view of about 10 plus empty tables with perfect views all of which were “reserved”.  We stayed for a few drinks, but got a but annoyed that the hour or so we were there they never filled more than two of the “reserved” tables.  But of course before we headed out we just sat in one of them for a few minutes and took some pictures.  Which started a trend and three other groups of people came over and did the same thing.

Starting the Final Leg

The trip has been going far far to quickly.  I can’t believe it’s already been 24 days.  I need more vacation time, this trip is far far to short….  Today was pretty much  just a travel day, back to Kuala Lumpur.  We walked around a little, but the taxi ride from the airport was during rush hour and took at least twice as long as last time.  So we were fine to do nothing today.

More Singapore

Now that we had a good map of the city, we decided to start on foot today and skip the cab since we could guess about how far it actually was now. So we walked down to the Chinatown Square for breakfast and to find the Buddha tooth temple. Both were successful without the need of a cab and took a nice amount of time.

We decided to stick with our theme of walking and walked to Fort Canning which was a pretty long walk but luckily the weather is much cooler in Singapore.  Mind you it’s still pretty damn hot, but at least cool enough to walk a couple miles at a nice leisurely pace.  I really wanted a nap on the hill at Fort Canning park, but after a nice break under a tree we both cooled off enough not to feel like sweat and death, and we were full of energy to keep looking around. So after a but of looking around the park we went to the battle box, a large under ground fort and got to watch some sweet animatronic people reenact the day Singapore surrendered to Japan during WWII.

After all that walking we of course needed to stick with the tradition of passing out in the middle of the day, so  we broke down and took a cab back to the room.  Then in the evening we went down the street to what looked like could have been some kind of Indian Festival at the temple, and then to Orchard Road for sushi and after wards we found a little ice cream stand.  And picked up a nice sized piece of durian flavored ice cream.  I mean all the hotels hate the stuff so it had to be good right?  We first off if you know about it the stuff reeks, which is why hotels don’t want it.  And yes the ice cream stank something proper.  But knowing it was supposed to smell bad I assumed this was a good thing and took a nice healthy sized bite.  And it actually was pretty decent, assuming you were fine with the smell, but nothing amazing like I was hoping for. So we finished it off, happy with our choice, and knowing we at least both tired it.  But then came the burps…  That tasted horrible, and had the nasty smell like the ice cream, but it kept coming back!  All night, little nasty burps…  At the end of the night I thought it was invading the city and smelled it before we had a chance to burp up the are, but luckily it was just a stand with the fresh fruit.  So our noses were fine, and we just had to run away from the both that smelled exactly like our burps.

Singapore Sling

We started out the day with a bowl of tasty stuff in China town, and then headed to the see some of the Singapore Botanic Gardens.  The were pretty sweet and we spent quite a bit of time just wondering around trying not to get eaten by to many bugs.  But I’m not sure it matters any more, my legs and arms seem to just have a continual onslaught of bug bites.  But I got some funky little patches a few days ago and they seem to be doing relatively decent.

After the gardens we headed to a temple, followed up by complete random wondering.  We went through Bugis Street, the largest street shopping location in Singapore which had a ton of cheap random shit, and was covered in tourist stuff.  After Bugis Street we decided to try to figure out how to find Little India without the use of a cab, so we jumped on a bus, and started on our way.  We didn’t really know where we were going, but had at least half an idea.  I really wish we had a better map of the city, the book is ok but nothing like a nice sized map with all the roads on it. After a slight detour we found it, so yes a cab would have been faster, but the bus worked out quite well.

After far to much walking around the city sight seeing, we headed back to the room for a quick rest so we wouldn’t pass out at 7pm tonight.  Then after a bit longer than needed we headed out for some drinks and a great view of the city. And on our way Nataly spotted a GOLD MINE at the hotel that I somehow missed.  A MAP of the CITY!!!  And actually a pretty dang good one at that, so at least now would could figure out where in the world we were at, and were our next destination was located without randomly guessing.

The view at the bar was great, and the drinks were tasty even if the price was a bit excessive, but the view was worth it and wasn’t much more than paying S$30 a ticket on the observation wheel. After a couple drinks we decided to check out the Merlion and then headed back to the room to make sure we’ll have enough energy for another day of sight seeing.

Off to Singapore

Off to the airport yet again!  We showed up a bit to early, which required wondering around the airport, but as luck had it one of the three prizes has been acquired!  And as I feel bad for everyone who is kicking them selves for not snagging one of the awesome prizes you’re in luck!  I’ll pick up some low level prizes for anyone else who comments on this post!  They won’t be nearly as cool, but I don’t want to keep talking about the search for prizes when there were only three winners.  So quick make a comment, do a back flip, whatever sounds like fun. But without a comment you get NOTHING!!!

Anyway today will probably be a boring day, since we’ll probably be figuring out what to do tomorrow this evening.  Or maybe hit a cub, get to drunk to walk, and wake up in a bath tub full of ice missing my kidneys or some other vital organ!  As long as I can keep ahold of camera I’ll be happy.  Ok I’d probably rather have my organs.  I’ll do my best to keep everything I came to Singapore with.

Oh and here’s a picture of my eye, why because it’s the only picture I’ve taken today that’s on the laptop…  I’ll probably have some more pictures later to add, but for now this is all you get.  Don’t forget to comment for some sweet prizes!

A Random Day in KK

Oh the joys of waking up with nothing planned.  Sleeping in late, and just wondering around the city with no real goal in mind. Yes we could of hit a museum or something, we still haven’t bothered with one of those on this trip, but aimless wondering sounded great.  Plus we were hoping to find something amazing for gifts and prizes.  I didn’t find anything worthy of prizes yet, it was either to big or crap.  So I might wait till KL for the three awesome prizes, since there are still two local flights ahead of us, and I don’t want to be forced to expand my bag and check items for those flights.

Our wondering took up to the handicraft market again with a bit more time to look around.  Nataly found some gifts, but I was of course to picky and nothing said buy me.  At least not yet!  Then we wondered around some other markets, and we had dinner at a very Malaysian restaurant.  Even more Thai than 7-11 is.  We went to Pizza Hut.  Mind you, you might be thinking, you’re crazy Pizza Hut isn’t Malaysian…  Well maybe you’re right, but the menu was not what I was expecting.  We had a super meat pizza, the curst was covered in chicken meatballs.  And the heart of the pizza has covered in tuna, crab, onions, and pineapple. And the sauce was thousand island…  Yea that’s right try to get that at a pizza hut back home! There were also quite a few non-pizza items on the menu, but I was fine just braving this pizza, and it was actually pretty tasty.

Leaving Pom Pom

We woke up this morning to a very gray morning, with a nice amount of rain.  So of course the first thing we did was head to the breakfast buffet, and eat till it hurt one final time. Afterwards we tried to snorkel a but more but the storm killed the visibility in the water, so we just wondered around not quite sure what to do until the boat left at 2, and we had to be out of the room by noon.  We ended up playing billiards for awhile, and just messing around the resort until the boat was ready to leave.

Once the boat was ready we headed back across to town, and an hour trip to the airport, followed up by a flight at 9pm.  So a nice 6 hour wait till the flight.  We thought about trying to wonder around town, but all the relaxing made us both lazy, so we sat down and waited.  I watched a few episodes of Boardwalk Empire, which seems pretty decent.  Oh and about half way through the first episode I noticed I accidently stole the room key, so I sent a quick email in hopes I could get it back to them.  In about an hour someone showed up to grab the key, so at least I didn’t steal there key along with accidently breaking the towel holder.  Oops, but it was pretty damn cheap since I just leaned on it slightly and it tore of the wall.  And I just very carefully pushed it back into place, and assumed it happened often enough for me not to bother mentioning…

The wait as the airport wasn’t to bad, but I was definitely happy once we got back to KK and to the hotel room. So we have another day and a half in KK with no real plans, which sounds great to me!

Island Day 2 of 3

Another wonderful day on the island.  We slept in, and lazily walked down to eat far to much breakfast.  We were told the resort had a lot of people but we counted about twenty guests.  There was room in the dining area for at least four times that many, so to us it felt pretty deserted.  Which if course was fine, both the beach houses seemed to be empty right next to us.  So it was a very nice very quite spot on our beach.  Every now and again someone would walk by, but we never saw anyone else on the beach.  And we spent most of the day snorkeling off the shore, relaxing on the beach, and eating at the buffet. The perfect relaxing island atmosphere, and best of all tomorrow we get to sleep in again!  I love not being rushed when we wake up.  Unfortunately the Olympus isn’t turning on still, so no pictures from the snorkeling…

Pom Pom Island Day 1 of 3

We woke up without an alarm this morning, it was fantastic!  Jumped on the boat and shot over to the island nice and early.  Then spent most of the day relaxing on the beach, and spent a couple hours snorkeling.  The Olympus is still scaring me, today it wouldn’t turn on without a lot of work.  I can’t seem to keep the water out of the battery compartment, and it doesn’t seem to have any sand in it.  I’m hoping tomorrow after getting all the pictures off of it to take it snorkling, in hopes it will either explode or give me some pictures.

Pom Pom Island is great so far, the room is HUGE I think it’s bigger than my living room, kitchen and dining room combined.  Along with a nice sized porch, and a huge door that opens the room up right to the ocean.  The beach is has quite a few huge shells, and a nice shallow reef a couple hundred feet out.  It’s not the best one I’ve seen, but there’s a ton of little fish and other critters.  Also a lot of large shell fish that could easily take my hand off!

The trip is going far too quickly, I need more time off! Oh and I saw the first American in the jungle the other day, can’t remember if I’ve mentioned that.  We seem to be quite rare here.

Just for fun

First three messages to this post get a prize from the trip!  Valid to Reno area readers only, I’m far too cheap to ship something, sorry!

I’ve been meaning to write some post cards but instead I’ve been trying to keep the blog updated, so I’ll probably send a total of zero cards on this trip.  So instead snag a prize!!!

Too many early days…

Once again, up far to early, but at least today I’m feeling much better.  Still not great but the lung butter has started coming out!  Sounds tasty doesn’t it?

Anyway back to fun, the jungle cruse was much less exciting today, I was hoping to see some crocodiles, but we had no luck.  We saw two new types of birds but otherwise just a lot of monkeys.  So not nearly as exciting as yesterday’s cruse, but still quite entertaining. Then off to a quick breakfast, and heading back to civilization.

We were dropped off in the middle of what felt like no where to take the express bus, and within a few seconds it showed up! The bus was nice, and when we got on it was showing the three boobs of Total Recall! Then two other Arnold Schwarzenegger, I didn’t know we’d get a marathon movie day on the bus, SCORE!

We arrived in Semporna, got a room, verified at 9am pick up, and will spend tonight getting some extra rest so I can kick this damn cold.

Going to the Jungle!

Once again up far to early, cold still trying it’s best to take hold but I refuse to let in. When we got to the ticket counter at the airport, the lady said sorry the gate is closed…  Please book another flight…  Yes we were running a bit late, but it was still thirty minutes till the flight was supposed to take off, so I thought we had at least four minutes until the gate closed, and it was a tiny airport.  Great so we have someone picking us up at the airport, and no flight…

Luckily she didn't know what she was talking about and someone else radioed in, and all was good.  It definitely got my heart rate up; note to self don’t forget about potential traffic, and jerk in front of you at the hotel taking ten minutes to bitch about something while you sit there waiting knowing time is running out for your flight.  But in the end all was good, and we were on the plane, and I was passed out in about thirty seconds after sitting down.  And slept all but the last five or so minutes of the flight.

We found our ride easily, but the ATM still wouldn’t let me get money out since I maxed out my withdrawal limit for the day yesterday evening to book the next few day’s adventure.  And technically it’s still yesterday in the states so my daily limit is still going against me.  But we still had RM15 (5 USD), so no worry's, just not picking anything extra up until we find an ATM.

The ride to the first stop was about an hour, and I slept most of it too, sweet sweet sleep… So we arrived an the orangutan rehab, watched a movie, and got to see lots of monkeys trying to steel the orangutan’s food.  But none of them tried from the camera, since I know to give them a good hard stare now, and they keep there distance.

After the feeding, we got another nap in the van for about an hour or so.  There was probably lots of interesting stuff, but I have no idea needed some more beauty sleep.

I woke up just in time for lunch at a local restaurant where we ordered some honey chicken, and seafood fried rice with egg. Then off to more sweet sweet sleep, followed up by jungle!

As soon as we were dropped off, we headed to the room for some more rest, and a 3pm river curse.  So another hour of sleep, sweet sweet sleep…. The rooms were very nice, power 24 hours a day, our own shower, and a fan to help keep the heat away.

We didn’t actually end up sleeping, but went down to find out if they had free WiFi so we could work on Nataly’s stuff for her visa to Singapore.  Yes Russians need to apply for a visa there, so we have to book travel in and out, along with a hotel.  Then send all the info off and hope everything goes well. We should find out in a couple days if we’re good to go.

Before we had much of a chance to get everything finished up we were off the a jungle cruse.  In hopes of seeing, birds, monkeys, crocodiles, and pigmy elephants.  We were in luck and saw a ton of stuff, but no crocodiles.  We did get to see a ton of monkeys and quite a few pigmy elephants. And on the way back right before dark we saw at least 50 huge fruit bats flying out for the night.  So we ended up seeing the world’s largest bats, and the world’s smallest elephants!  All in all a great trip with a very small amount of bug bites.

Then a quick dinner, finished up the visa process, and a jungle night trek!  Forty minutes walking through the jungle at night in search of little critters.  Oh, and if you ever do this, and they offer to rent you some boots, RENT THEM!  The jungle is not a fun place to walk, a good portion of the trek was in six inch or so deep mud, there’s no way my shoes would done anything against the mud. The couple that went with us didn’t see anything the night before, but we did great!  We saw a dogged tooth cat eyed snake, some random bugs, a deadly scorpion. Our guide sounded very jumpy at the scorpion and make sure we didn’t get within fifteen feet of it, and wouldn’t get anywhere near it.  He said they can be very aggressive, and to stay back.  We were promised to be covered in leeches by the end of the trek if we didn’t apply enough bug spray.  We did, lots o fit, and had to tuck in our shirts even.  We made it out without seeing a single leech, which I guess is a good thing, but I kind of wanted to see at least one, but we our group was 100% leech free.

After the trek we went straight to sleep, thinking we’d be asleep early, but it was already after ten.  And we get to wake up at 5.30 again tomorrow morning for another jungle cruse and a day on a bus.

Leaving Paradise

We woke up bright and early since I passed out right after sunset, and the power was only on till 6am.  Note without power you get no fan, with out fan, fuck it gets hot quick!  So we had breakfast and decided to walk down to the local village on the island.  A very small, and very friendly place.  Everyone we walked by said hello and waved, we were even lucky enough to see a sleeping turtle!  Sleeping, not dead, just sleeping that’s the story we’re sticking to.  We didn’t stick along long enough to find out, but did get a quick picture.  We also saw a lot of sea cows, roaming the beaches.  I call them sea cows  because the were on the beach, but really they were probably just normal cows.

On our way back through the village a young boy gave Nataly a really cool looking shell.  I was a bit jealous, but I did get to hold it at least.  Maybe in one of the small villages I’ll get something given to me!  One can hope, but for now Nataly is winning!

Then after the walk we tried laying on the beach for a while but every time we walked out it started raining, and I was still feeling under the weather and just wanted to sleep.  So we ended up under our room just relaxing, and or sleeping.

Right when I entered a blissful sleep, I was awakened to shouts that the boat had arrived to take us back.  How dare them! The ride was better on the way back, but then again I was half asleep for most of it, very ready for a much needed nap.

We headed back to our hotel from the day before in hopes they had a room, and we were in luck!  So if worst came to worst, at least we had a place to sleep tonight.  And after calling the travel agent, we had the rest of the week planned.  Two days in the jungle, and three days on the beach.  With a potential one day layover on the coast.

So another day of getting to wake up a 5am while just wanting to lay in bed all day.  I was hoping to pass out super early but we had to run to the store to get Nataly some pants, and a long sleeved shirt for the jungle. Note a lot harder than it sounds, not because they didn’t have something that would cover your arms and legs, but because everything that did looked like something you’re wear in the middle of winter…

Oh! I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned the Malaysian bakeries that seem to be a ton of places.  Essentially it’s a pastry shop that sells sweet rolls, and food rolls.  The have donuts, pizza, chicken, sausage, tuna, and a a ton of others.  And the best part each on is only around 30 to 60 cents each!  So we picked up breakfast for tomorrow morning.

Island Paradise

We grueling woke up at 5:30am so we’d be ready for the 7:00am pickup. And we just finished breakfast when the driver showed up, so perfect timing!  And off to island paradise, or an hour or so on a bus to get to the island paradise.  The drive was very nice, and we had plenty of leg room on the bus ride.  Then after a nice comfy bus ride we had the pleasure of a bump 45 minute boat ride.  It wasn’t to bad but it did keep us nice and wet for the majority of the ride.

Then we just laid around the white sand beaches, and relaxed until 3pm, when we went snorkeling.  The reef wasn’t anything special, but it was still a lot of fun.  Oh, and the Olympus is having issues with water resistance.  It kept saying door open, and would be pretty wet around the battery, but it’s till fine.  I just need to keep it out from underwater until I figure out what’s going on.  Good trip for cameras this trip so far, lol.  But at least it’s still with me and working.

We fell sleep super early since I’m a pansy and I’m starting to feel a bit under the weather.  Hoping it won’t turn into anything, and I can kill it quickly.

Kota Kinabalu

We woke up “bright and early” today starting the day without any plans for tomorrow.  Step one find a camera, yes I’ve looked a few times, but I’m a cheap bastard and want a good price.  Unfortunately everyone here are jerks and won’t sell me one for a good price.  So I broke down and paid RM 1700 for the fancy new G12.  A bit more than I wanted to pay but I needed a good camera again, so it’s worth spending it for some good pictures. I found out after buying it that it came with a “leather” case and 4GB SanDisk card, but things I didn’t need or really want but they wouldn’t budge on the price, so at least it came with some crap to make the price a bit better. So overall it was the best price I could find at 5 or so different places, counting it as a WIN! After that I followed Nataly blindly around to a few stores to find a top, while I just played around with the settings on the camera.  I didn’t even notice we went up 3 flights of stairs. Oh the joy of a new toy…  PS damn monkeys! Oh as a side note if anyone wants to buy a G9 with underwater housing (great diving camera) let me know.  I’ll be working on selling it when I get back, not quite sure how much it’s worth but I hope it helps cover this cost of the upgrade.  Anyway I should shut up about the camera, I have a new one so expect some more pictures again.

So after running around for about an hour from store to store trying to get them to give me an amazing price on a camera, we headed back to the room so I could ditch the box and pack the messenger bag for walking around town.  And we looked a bit for things to do in the guide book and online.  After a little while we decided to hit a travel agency and see what they could find for us.  So it was off for a short walk across town.  Overall the city is a bit concrete, and bland;  just like the book says!  Due to war time building, or rebuilding or something like that.  But there was plenty of place to eat, and a ton of shopping.  No jungle paradise that’s for sure, but a nice modern city with all the amenities you could dream of before an adventure.  Once we found an agent we looked at all the things available to do, and settles on two packages. The first a 2 or 3 day jungle adventure, with a night jungle trekking, orangutans, and a river cruse. Then followed up by sandy beaches, and sleeping over the water. So we had our game plan, so <insert name here> started making some phone calls to make sure they were available.  But no one answered his calls, and after about 10 minutes of call the numbers that are supposed to be anwsered 24/7 he said he was very sorry but they weren’t anwsering.  So gave him our cell number, and booked a 2 day one night island just a little ways north of the city.  He said it was very nice, and it was much cheaper than the other locations we wanted.  So I’m hoping tomorrow or the next day he’ll send us a text saying they’re available.  Buf for now we’re still playing it by ear.  Which has been working great so far, it can be a little unnerving not knowing what you’ll be doing the next day, or even where you’ll be sleeping, but you get used to it pretty quick.  Plus there’s always a place to stay, and worse case we loose a day on the trip.

So since we had the next day and a half planned, we headed for drinks and some grub.  Along the way we of course stopped and gazed longingly at the sea.  Then I looked over and say the nice looking raid cloud, a mile or so away.  A nice wall of rain by the looks of it, but didn’t think much of it.  Then in about five minutes we had the pleasure of running for cover as it started to rain, quite heavily.  Nothing biblical mind you, just a nice strong rain. There was a building about half a block away that had a nice overhang that we took cover under along with everyone else that was on the streets. And walked down about a block to a horrible looking open area with no cover, then low out of no where, or across the street, rose a towering mall, beckoning us to enter.  So of course wondering around stores seemed much better than just standing next to a building waiting. So we wondered around looking at cell phones for about thirty minutes.  So I found an iPhone4 for RM498 ($166), slightly confused I had them turn it on.  And it came up with a nice apple OS and everything looked like an iPhone, but the price seemed way to low, and it seemed a bit slow.  But of course since I haven’t ever used one I had not idea.  The one of them had a stick on it, and they were mPhones!  Damn chinese knockoffs!  A little to spendy for an mPhone, even know it could be a lot of fun to have one. So with we checked back outside and the rain had reduced to a light dirzzle, so we werw off again!  In search of a cool refreshing beverage, and found it about two blocks away.

The drinks were very tasty and the prices weren’t to bad compared to US prices, but wow were they expensive compared to what I was used to around here.  So we only had one drink and walked down a bit further to Ocean Seafood.  A place we were recommended as a good place, but a little pricey, but I wanted somewhere nice since today Nataly and I have known each other for 8 months, and great 8 months at that! The place was packed, and we had to wait for about 15minutes. After sitting down our waitress came up to us before I even sat all the way down, asking what would you like to eat? So I asked if we could get a menu, and she motioned behind us… So I turn around and saw a menu on the wall, thinking that was a bit odd, we started walking towards it.  And our waitress wondered off to help other customers, then we saw what half of the restaurant was being used for; fish!  Not just piles of them, but tanks full of them. So we got to pick our food while it was still alive.  An entire restaurant full of them, I would have been just fine with a menu and them showing up fully cooked, but at least I know there were fresh I guess.  The food was great, and of course very fresh tasting.  One annoying thing about the restaurant was that when we came back to our table they had a little bowl of peanuts, some fruit, which afterwards we found out cost us money. Annoying but whatever, but there were also two wet nap on the table, and those cost money too?!?! WTF, jackasses… But other than those hidden costs, everything was great.

Then we headed back to the room, since we are going to be picked up tomorrow morning at 7:30.  But of to an island tomorrow morning!