Georgetown & Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

The Orient Express stopped in Georgetown/Penang Malaysia before continuing on through the jungle of Malaysia to Kuala Lumpur where we ended our Orient Express journey. Here are the photos from that leg of the trip:



Approaching Georgetown/Penang, Malaysia     Khoo Kongsi Clan Temple


Inside clan temple                       Kuala Lumpur Skyline from Subway


Ice Kachang - yummm!

What is Ice Kachang?
Ice Kachang is a yummy Malaysian/Singaporan dessert of shaved ice topped with a variety of yummy toppings. Usually there's some sort of red bean, grass jelly, sweet corn, syrup, aloe jelly, etc, etc. Sounds kinda gross, huh? When made right, it's not, it's great actually. (Unfortunately I tried some stateside when I got back from my trip, and umm, not so yummy. I'm still searching though for a great US ice kachang).

Orient Express

At about mid-point in my trip we took the Orient Express from Bangkok, Thailand to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Here are some photos of that trip.


Orient Express in Bangkok Station     Bar Car


In My Cabin                                                 Morning Breakfast in Cabin


Interior Hallway                                         Observation Car


Where We've Been                                     Bridge Over the River Kwai

Trekking Photos Continued

Neighborhood TV                                       Weaving: White Karen


Milling Rice                                                 Trekking Crew

Trekking in Northern Thailand

Photos from the 2 days we trekked in Doi Inthanon National Park in Northern Thailand.


Rice Field                                                     Hut Life


Campsite: Day 1                                           "Bed"


Campfire: Making new friends               Falls at campsite


Rice Field                                                     Water Crossing

Chiang Mai: In Photos

After Bangkok, we travelled to Chiang Mai, which is a town in the northern part of Thailand. It is known for it's hill tribe people and it's extraordinary number of Buddhist wats (temples).


On the sleeper train to Chiang Mai


Warorot Market                                           Export: Bad Movies


Wat: Chiang Mai                                       Inside Chedi: Doi Inthanon

Bangkok in Photos

Well I've finally started uploading my photos, here's the first of the series. All of these were taken in and around Bangkok

Wat Pho

Reclining Buddha

Outside the Royal Palace

Prayer Bowls

Soi Khao San

Bangkok breakfast

Street Pad Thai

Singapore: Wrapup

Well after 35 hours of travel, I'm back home. Here's a recap (pics should be coming soon)

Tioman --> Singapore
Getting to Singapore was a pretty long day. We spent our last night on Pulau Tioman hanging out at the only bar in Salang, the Four S with our new backpacking friends and dive instructors. That made getting up at 6 a rough way to start the day. We then boarded the 7:30 ferry to the Mersing on the mainland. Once at Mersing we had to scramble to find transport to Singapore. We were extremely lucky to get a ride on the only bus of the day to Singapore. It was a mini van with 8 seats. We made way to Singapore through southern Malaysia. Once at the border we had to get out of the van and go through Malaysian customs at Johor Bahru. We then boarded the van again just to get out a few minutes later to go through the Singapore immigration checkpoint. From there we were dropped off in Singapore and made our way to Little India by subway.

Upon getting to Little India, we ate of course, and then headed to John's cousin's house in a suburb of the city. Once there we ate again and visited with John's family for the evening.



The next day we spent seeing Singapore by bus ... in the rain. Of course we took time out to eat some Malaysian food laksa which are noodles in a tangy fish soup, and cendol which is a crazy good coconut ice frosty dessert. That night we had a drink in the trendy Clark Quay area and then headed to our dorm for the night. Yes dorm! For the only time of this trip we were forced to sleep in a dorm type hostel as all the three person rooms were booked. The first night we had to share with 3 tremendously smelly Germans. The second night was better as it was a normal Malaysian family of three on vacation.

My last day in Singapore and on the trip I spent by myself as Angela and John left in the early morning for India. My flight wasn't until the afternoon. I spent the day walking around, shopping and eating some last minute Indian food.

Salang, Pulau Tioman and Scuba Steve

Pulau Tioman is a small island off the west coast of peninsular Malaysia. It's very small and fairly rustic. We took a quick (approx 1 hour) flight from Kuala Lumpur and landed on the lush jungle island. The jungle is so think, that to get anywhere on the island, you have to take a water taxi. We arrived at the airport, which was the smallest I've ever seen. One small runway (so small, only small planes are able to land there), and a small building for a terminal. The "terminal" is just a pavilion type structure (no inside!)

From the airport we hopped on a small boat (large backpacks and all) to Salang, the town/beach where we'll be staying. Salang is teeny tiny. It's also very campy (campy as in stay-away camp when you were a kid, not like drag queens romping along the shore). It was made even more sleepy because many places were closed for Hari Raya.

We made a few fast friends, a Japanese guy, some Dutch, the usual sort. The days just floated away ...

Though, mostly in Salang we dove! We dove! My first time and I made 4 dives. We saw hundreds of fish, tons of coral, a few quid, some large turtles. Angela and I made our best impressions of Scuba Steve, it was great!

Next stop ... Singapore

Kuala Lumpur

What can I say about Kuala Lumpur. It's big and city-ish and we were only there a day and a half. We got to Kuala Lumpur at the end of Ramadan which is the Muslim month of fasting. Malaysia is a Musim country and it's a noticable change from Thailand with which it shares a border.

It was a few days before Hari Raya (known elsewhere as the festival of Eid) which marks the end of Ramadan. It's a huge holiday and as a result many things were closed and it felt at times as though the entire country was on the move. Everyone goes home to their family to celebrate Hari Raya. As a result we had a hard time getting out of Kuala Lumpur (more on that in a sec).

So for those unfamiliar with Ramadan, it's a time in the Muslim calendar where Muslims fast from sun-up to sun-down. No, food, no water, no spit, all day ... and it's hot here. So at the end of the daily fast, everyone is extremely anxious to get to eating, and probably more important drinking, since I can imagine it's very dehydrating. We were in the evening Ramadan market at the end of the daily fast one day. Everyone was getting prepared to end their fast. Everyone bought food, bought drink, and then just sat ... waiting ... cups full, plate full, just waiting. Then all the sudden over a loudspeaker somewhere, was the call of an Imam. Then everyone, drink in hand, took a long gulp ... the fast was over ... for today.

So we were trying to get out of Kuala Lumpur, because, well I wanted to get to the beach. Unfortunately because Hari Raya was in a few days, all the routes out of town were booked. Buses, trains, flights, everything, but tiny Berjaya Air. Miraculously we were able to go to the airport and buy a ticket to Pulau Tioman ...

Hey You!

Thanks for reading my blog!

Here's some notes:

1. When in Rome, err, Bangkok - I've gotten a lot of notes on the whiskey! Haha. No I'm not a whiskey drinker now. It was just the cheapest bucket they sold (200 baht - approx $6 shared with a group, can't beat that). So hey, we were sold! And no, it wasn't a lot I drank, so I can't really justify the bugs. I dunno, I like to try new things. They did not taste like chicken though. They taste like ... well ... one word ... guts!

2. Fam - Thanks for reading cousin and KG and FG! Kelly will have a great time in Europe.

3. Culture and stuff - yes, I've actually been seeing some cultural sights, but honestly they don't make such good reading. Bugs and whiskey however!

4. Photos - I haven't been able to load my own photos just yet. When I come home I will and will put some on here. For the time being these photos are ones I've found on the internet.

Incident on the Orient Express

I'm a little behind on these updates as I haven't had internet access for a while. Anywho ...

So we boarded the Orient Express in Bangkok. After the trek and roughing it out backpacker style, it was nice to get a clean bed and a hot shower. I had a bathroom all to myself! The food was great. The free bath products were divine. The personal tea service in my cabin, exquisite. Then ... well there might have been a slight incident on the Orient Express seeing as we didn't have proper attire. Well Angela and I had passable attire (although, really people, flip-flops are the best I've got right now), but John apparently made a major faux-paus by not having a jacket and tie. It was slightly uncomfortable, I'd say.

On the Orient Express we made our way through southern Thailand and crossed over the border in the middle of the night into Malaysia. As we travelled through Malaysia we passed thick, thick jungle. I've read that it's some of the oldest jungle in the world; older than that in the Congo and the Amazon! It was incredible. Once in Malaysia we stopped in Butterworth and took a ferry to Georgetown/Penang which is a small island on the west coast of Malaysia. It was a very quant town although they only gave us 2 hours on the island and our movement was very controlled. Don't want the grey-hairs straying off the path I guess? We also took a trickshaw ride while we were there (although it was nicer than in the picure I posted here).

In the early morning hours we arrived in Kuala Lumpur. Luckily we had already booked our hostel ...

Eat this ...

Why yes, I have been obsessing about food. It's just that it's so good! I love you food! Here's some to look at:




Pad Thai - always yummy. Had one about an hour ago!

Mango Sticky Rice - The new love of my life!

The story of how I got to eating silk moth pupae starts on Soi Kao San (Kao San Road). Add some newfound Swedish friends, a cheap bucket of whiskey, and well the rest is history. I had to try it, right? Here's some advice, you don't need to try it!

Comments Enabled

I've now fixed the comments section so now you don't have to log in to post one. I expect the comments box to be overflowing ... Really

Look! I'm Trekking!

Trek Day 2

We wake up pretty early on day two of the trek. After the night on the wooden floor, I'm slightly worse for wear, but ready to go! Ugh, but not for long. We keep walking, and walking and walking. Which would be okay, but we are walking up and down mountains and the terrain is tough at spots. I almost fall down at times, and then I do fall down at times, and then at times I wish I just would fall down. Then there are times that I I think about is me ending up flying down the mountain just like in Romancing the Stone, but I probably wouldn't laugh at the end. The paths are so steep that going downhill causes my legs to ache and is almost as bad as going up. The only thing worse than going downhill is going uphill and it's plenty worse. Somehow the flat stretches are almost nonexistant. We've been promised an elephant ride and are told that it will be in the morning. While I have qualms about taking the elephant ride, I'm now dreaming of the moment where some poor elephant will have the opportunity to carry my weight up and down this mountain. Finally I hear a bell in the distance, and in my mind I'm already on the elephant. Then up along a ridge we see a lone vilager. Unfortunately for us, she's just shooting birds with a slingshot and there are no elephants in sight. The morning hike ends 3 1/2 hours after it starts.

There would be no elephants on this first day. We did stop by a stream and bathed alongside the falls. In all this second day, we hiked (a long hard hike) for approx 5 1/2 hours. We finally got to our hut for the night. It appeared on the top of a mountain. This time instead of by the falls we slept in a White Karan village of 40 people (all one family). This is Jovi's village. The White Karen are so called because the unmarried women of the tribe wear white tunics. While they are Karen, they are separate from the Karen who wear brass rings around their necks.

I'm not sure you could get a whole lot more villagey than this. The settlement just got solar power and running water (a large water tank - brought up by pipes from the river at the base of the mountain) last year. At nighttime one hut turned on a tv on their porch and many villagers gathered to watch.

Again we slept in a bamboo hut on a wooden floor. This night I'm not that certain that I haven't been bitten. (Luckily?) I believe I was only bitten by fleas!

(the photo above is of an Akha (another tribe) village, but looks very similar to where we stayed.

Water Buffalo and Rice Fields

Trekking Day 1 - Cont.

So here I am in the mountains of Northern Thailand (closer, but not too close for comfort to Burma), aside from our group of 3, along for the trip are a Dutch couple and an Israeli guy. In addition leading us is the guide, Sonny and a young boy (approx 12 y/o) Jovi, who is from the area and is helping out. Our short hike for the day consists of walking through a few vilages, past many rice paddys (the pic on this page is from Vietnam, but you get the idea), and by a dozen very curious water buffalo. One of the villages we walk past is part of a Royal Thai project. The King pumped money into the village and started new flower and fish cultivation projects in an effort to get the villages away from cultivating poppies for opium production. We walk past a hut where a man is intently smoking from a long (approx 2 feet) wooden pipe. We are told he is just smoking tobacco, but I have my doubts. I have read however that the Kings efforts have caused the opium production in Thailand to plummet 80 percent.

It's quite a bit colder up here, but still hot during the day. For a bathroom there is an outhouse, but instead of a standard outhouse, it's an asian style toilet inside, so that's ok.

During the night we go to sleep in a semi open bamboo hut. Like I said before, we are sleeping on the wooden floor. A flat woven straw mat is all that separates us from wood. For covers, we sleep with approx 4 or 5 blankets (it's cold remember) that look like they were made a hundred years ago, and likely washed at about the same time. I am fairly certain however, aside from some mosquito bites, nothing else bit me while I was sleeping. That would change the next night however ...