The Rainforest

The last night in Kota Bahru we went out to a shadow puppet show, which is very famous in the region. We took along a gal from the UK we met at the hostel and I think she was glad to go with us and learn the ropes a little of Malaysia. She had just flown into Kota Bahru from Singapore the day before and was on an insane 6 month around the world trip so she was only in Malaysia for a week, Thailand for 10 days. I thought that was a bit too fast. The puppet show was cool, though I wish it had been in English. I was able to follow it a bit better than the rest I think, b/c it was about the tale of the Ramayana which I studied heavily in English 101 with Simonton. I thought the puppetry would just be black and white, but it was actually color, which was pretty cool.

Clare, Kim and I got up bright and early and took the jungle railway from Kota Bahru to Jerantut. It was a cool train ride through dense jungle and stopping at a few local villages along the way. It’s one of those infamous train rides I had always wanted to do. I’m doing quite well on my list of sweet train rides: Japanese death railroad (Thailand), Tsavo NP railroad over the man-eater bridge, the Gunnison fall colors steam train (I think dad took us on that one when we were little and living in Montrose, but I’d like to go on it again sometime. Still want to do the trans Canadian and trans Siberian railways sometime, and just any crazy train in India. When we got to the town of kuala lipis where you are supposed to change trains, we found out that the train from kuala lipis to jerantut had stopped running of 2 days ago! Only the night train was still going. So kim and I went out to search for a bus. We found one getting ready to leave and the driver was so nice that he picked us up, drove us back to the train station to get clare and our bags before going on. We stayed the night in jerantut, which is just a small little town and not much going on except for munching on our favorite foods (roti cani, mee gorang, nasi pattaya , and tea tarik (milk tea)). The hostel we stayed at had horrible bed bugs, so we were quite bitten and itchy all night.
The next day Clare and Kim took the bus to Kuala Tahan (the entrance for taman negara np), and I took a 3 hour boat journey to get there. The boat was a bit more expensive, but I love taking river trips in small local watercraft up muddy jungly rivers. We didn’t see much but a few monkeys, but it was cool to see the jungle over the water. I met a nice german girl, who lived in St. Gallen, Switzerland though (David’s hometown). She was quite fun. Got into Kuala Tahan, just a tiny little village right at the confluence of two muddy rivers. Met back up with Kim and Clare there who had been looking around for guides and such for the long trek we had been schemeing.
Taman Negara is the largest park and Peninsular Malaysia and is made up of all pristine rainforest. In fact, it’s the oldest intact rainforest in the world as it was not affected by any ice ages or geologic activity. It’s something like 140 million years old. It’s home to tigers, sunbears, malay bears, panthers, leapards, elephants, the highly endangered Sumatran rhino, and loads of other animals. Rainforest animals are extremely difficult to see b/c of how dense the jungle is and b/c most are nocturnal and incredibly shy. They have some hides (bunbun) set up so you can trek to and sleep overnight and watch down at a clearing or saltlick during dawn and dusk and at night with a flashlight. Before I met Kim and Clare I was going to come here and go check out lots of hides to search for wildlife, but they had suggested the really long trek, so I decided to join them on that b/c really, it is nearly impossible to find people to go on the extended treks in the jungle and I really really wanted to do one at some point, but if you go buy yourself you have no one to share the guide fee with, so it’s quite expensive. But I still wanted to check out a hide. Clare and Kim weren’t so interested, but Jenny was going that night, and b/c it’s more fun to do stuff like that with someone, I quickly packed up and we headed off into the jungle. It was quite hilarious b/c people seem so scared of the jungle b/c of leeches and bugs and such. That stuff doesn’t really bother me, maybe b/c I’ve been in rainforests and even did some research in them before…but it was just quite funny to here people talk about it…always the leeches, always asking about the leeches. The leeches don’t really bother me for some reason. I think it’s b/c they don’t sting or itch or carry disease. In fact half the time you get a leach, you never see it b/c it just takes your blood and drops off. The only reason you know you had one is your sock or leg will be bloody. That’s the only reason I don’t like them is they use an anticoagulant that makes you bleed like crazy which quite stains your clothes. We only had time to make it to a hide about 4km away (in jungle terrain that takes about 1.5 hours instead of 45 minutes), so we went there. We stayed up pretty late and got up early, but we didn’t see anything except a few bats, lots of bugs, and some rats in the hide (a big wooden structure with some wood bunks inside). I think you have to be lucky to see some things and it didn’t help that it had been raining a lot here lately, so the salt lick was underwater and the animals didn’t really need to come to this stream to drink. It’s supposedly the dry season here, but it has just been raining so much people had been telling us. Usually in the dry season I guess it rains a few times at night per week, just for a few minutes, but it had been raining hard here everyday and sometimes all night. The locals, with not much real idea of the huge climate change debate going on in the western world said that things are changing and they don’t know why. It’s funny, but this was the 3rd country I’ve been too (Thailand and the Philippines as well) where I had lots of people tell me they weren’t sure what was going on with the weather, unusual things were happening. These countries have incredibly distinct and constant weather patters with their monsoon. Like in Thailand during the dry season, it is never rains a drop the entire time, but the last two years it has been raining. And on the coasts locals would tell me they used to always be able to predict the weather, but no anymore and they are quite confused. And hear, during the wet season this year where it usually rains 6 or more hours everyday, they had 2 straight months without a drop, and now it’s raining hard in the dry season. With all this in mind it’s kind of comical to me that us western nations have had to look at receding glaciers and melting polar icecaps to hypothesize global climate change. All they had to do was ask the local farmers and such around here that depend heavily on an easily predictable weather pattern.
But even though we didn’t see anything we still had fun, sitting there looking for wildlife and eating our dinner of crackers. Reading the log book of comments and wildlife seen was quite funny. Some aussie’s claimed that the hide was the closest thing to hell that they knew of. I had to laugh at that. The hide was definitely no ritz carlton, but it wasn’t the worse thing in the world…but lots of bugs and rats and other uknown things running around. The worst thing for me was I was soaked in sweat when we got there, which turned pretty cold at night. All I had was a small sheet, but I used that to put on the wooden bunk to sleep on. So at night just in my underwear I was pretty cold. I tried to use my mosquito net as a blanket, but not like a mesh material will do much. Some Americans had written that they had been in the jungle too long and were going crazy and hadn’t seen any wildlife b/c these 2 finnish ogres sharing the hide with them wouldn’t shut up.
The next day we hiked back to the entrance and took the little ferry crossing to get back to kuala tahan. Met back up with kim and clare and we then went back to the park to hike to this really awesome canopy walk. It was the coolest canopy walk I had been on as it was really high, the longest one in the world, and unlike the others I had been on, was not built out of wide stable wooden walkway but was a rather creeky, shaky, and swingy suspension structure strung between the huge trees. We also did the short hike up to a little summit in the area for a view and then down to the river. The rainforest here is definitely quite nice with just some monstrous trees and all the rivers flowing around adds a nice contrast to the dense jungle.

Deep deep into the heart of the Rainforest: 7 day sweat trek

So when we got back from our jungle walking we went to the park office to enquire about a guide for a big rainforest expedition. We had talked to one woman at a tourist agency who had turned us off a bit about the trek. She said it was extremely difficult and that many really good climbers, climbers who had climbed heavily in the rockies and the Himalayas had been turned back. And now the conditions were really poor b/c it had been raining so much and we’d surely get lots more rain. And the rivers were all swelling and at flood stage b/c of all the rains, so the river crossings could be neck deep. It was definitely true that the rivers were really high. They have all these floating restaurants on the river at kuala tahan and the planks they usually had to walk from the restaurant to the shore were now too short as the water was so high up the bank. And she said with her guides you have to bring or rent your own equipment and go get your own food for the trek. This combined with the fact that the rainforest is definitely not a comfortable place had turned us off a bit.

But we enquired at the park office all the same. They brought out a guide to meet us, named Elmizan. He was quite enthusiastic about it and said he’d help with getting us equipment and figuring out the food. This made us much happier and we decided to go for it. Jenny and a couple of the other gals from our hostel that had gone on the canopy walk with us couldn’t believe we were seriously going to do it.

That night we hopped into a little truck with Elmi to go to the nearest little town to buy food. All they had was a little mini mart that we used. Quite hilarious really. I was glad he was there to help us b/c back home I know how to pack and get food for a backpacking trip, but with asian food…at a mini mart, I had no idea. How many kilos of rice to bring, how much curry sauce, etc, etc. We bought lots of ramen noodles, rice, and canned curry meat dishes. And I of course bought some chocolate for victory chocolates at the end of every day.

Jungle Trek: 100km total (62miles). 55km to the top of Gunung Tahan (mt. tahan) at 2187m (about 7000ft), the highest peak in peninsular malaysia then 45km to the headquarters on the other side
Day 1: (5hrs walking) A fairly easy day physically, but just lots and lots of slogging through mud (usually this whole part is dry in the dry season elmie told us). In fact the whole trip was never too physically demanding for me…definitely tough indeed, but b/c the other two were a bit slower I never really had to push too hard. But the trip was much more mentally challenging for me having to deal with the wetness. In the jungle you sweat so much and then everything is soaked and nothing dries. Even if you have a completely dry shirt and you take it out of a plastic bag, it will get damp, and if you leave that same shirt out overnight during the extreme humidity of the night, it will be soaking and you will be able to wring it out, all that with a dry shirt, now imagine a sweaty shirt. So you basically just take two pairs of clothes. One that is always wet to use in the day, and one for at night to sleep in. So dealing with everything constantly being soaked or damp was difficult for me and also a bit worrying b/c mold starts to grow and can ruin nice equipment like backpacks and such. But after a while, I got used to it and it was near so bad.
The first camp was very nice. Right next to a rushing clear creek. We set up camp, built a fire, and then all went for swims and baths in the river. Apparently as elmie said, it was bee season. So there were thousands of bees everywhere and they particularly loved the sweat on our bodies and clothes. But if you remain calm they won’t sting you. So no stings the first day even though after our swim we walked around and did everything in our camp just in our underwear. It’s so hot and sweaty that it’s easiest to just be in your underwear. No rain that day or night! We had vegetables (weggies to elmie) that night and the next as we had two days before they would spoil. Every night we had rice and a canned thing and every meal we always had milo for hydration. That night we boiled water on the fire, but b/c we just had small pots, it took forever to boil enough water for the 3 of us (we drink lots and hydration is key). After that Kim and Clare decided to drink from the stream which elmie said was ok b/c the water was clear, but I didn’t trust it and I had purifying tablets, so I switched to them. 8 leeches this day…no big deal.

Day 2: (7hrs walking) Woke up to complete dampness and put on our wet and muddy and already smelly clothes. Today the trail was much drier which was nice and we climbed up and then down a small mountain. It was steep, but not too bad. The top of the mountain had no trees and the drier air and sun was great. The next campsite was beautiful as well, next to a clear stream and a big river. Bathed in the clear stream and went for a swim in the big one. Again, the same routine as the day before doing everything in camp in our underwear. We began to liken ourselves to Moglie and the jungle book, singing jungle book songs, pretending to be moglie (which in our underwear seemed to make sense) and looking for baloo floating down the river. Elmie of course was the true jungle man. He had once spent a month and a half in the rainforest without leaving with 2 japanese researchers who were doing tiger research. They had to live off the jungle and also not bathe b/c they had to smell like the jungle and not like humans to study the tigers. They actually saw quite a lot of tigers and had a population estimate of 200 in the park. It rained a bit that night, but must have rained a lot higher up b/c the river swelled greatly. 3 leeches today. Stung twice by bees, one on the arm and once perilously close to the crotch. We didn’t sleep too well, b/c our tent was full of itchy sandflies that can get in through the holes in the tents mesh.

Day 3 (6hrs walking, 4 big rivers crossed). Normally you have 8 rivers to cross on this day, but b/c of the rain some of the crossings were dangerous, so we took a harder and less improved trail to avoid some of the crossings. Sometimes it rains so much the night before you can’t do any crossings and then you just have to wait a day, which might mean you run out of food, but then as elmie says, you just survive. I rather enjoyed the river crossings b/c they cooled you off and were a challenge. I never fell in and the highest crossing was just above my belly button, so my stuff stayed pretty dry. Another sweet campsite by a bit clear river. We arrived to the campsite about 10 minutes before it started dumping rain. We got the tent set up and then had the bright idea that it would be fun to go for a swim while it was raining as we figured it’d rain for about an hour like last time. We played in the river for an hour until we were cold. We got out and then it just kept raining and raining and pouring so hard. We sat in the rain for over an hour freezing, hoping it would stop, b/c we had no way to dry off before getting in the tent and the tent was the only dry thing we had (or so we thought). There was this plant with huge leaves that I grabbed to use as an umbrella. Unfortunately elmie later informed me after the fact that it was an itchy plant and geeze, did it burn and sting and itch so bad, and I couldn’t get it off in the river. We eventually were so cold we just decided to get in the tent. We used our soaking towels to attempt to get some of the moisture off us. Once inside the tent we saw that the whole floor was flooded and soaking. The tent was obviously waterproofed asian style. So we wrung out the towels and tried the best we could to mop up the water. The rain finally stopped around 8 or 9 so that we could eat. We didn’t get much sleep that night b/c of more sandflies and b/c of sleeping in a small puddle. Only 4 leeches today and 1 bee sting. We were now in the middle of the rainforest, 3 days walk from any civilization

Day 4 (10 hours walking) (May 27th in Asia…my birthday). Today was a big elevation gain day and by far the hardest. Straight up, and yes literally straight up. They don’t believe in switchbacks here. Just climbing straight up pulling yourself up with roots and rope laid out. It would have been quite exhausting if I was going fast, but we weren’t going too fast. In the first half of the day we were so, so sweaty as it was hot and we were working hard and with the heavy rains the humidity was just insane. But eventually we started getting up higher to shorter trees and the humidity lessened a bit, and then eventually we hit treeline. The air felt AMAZING! It would have been humid still to anyone else, but to me it felt like a burst of dry estes park air. And it was much cooler. And oh, the breeze was so nice as the rainforest is impossibly still. We still had much to climb and first we had to descent along some ridges back into the jungle again before going back up. We finally started on the final ascent which was definitely straight up. There were ropes we used to pull ourselves up and also several ladders. But when we made it to the campsite and it was great. The air felt so dry, we had great views, and the air was chilly. You could see down across the valley to some huge cliffs on the otherside with gigantic waterfalls cascading down. I just felt so good. My birthday chocolate was especially good that day. Kim was feeling quite sick and had a fever, probably from exhaustion and maybe dehydration, so he just stayed in the tent, but I had carried up a chocolate cake for my birthday and enjoyed that by the fire. I really enjoyed this day, especially getting up to the dry. It rained that night, and we got a bit wet, but not too terrible. Only 1 bee sting on my birthday.

Day 5 (6 hours walking): We climbed up the first peak which was about 2000m and then descended back into the really mucky and tiresome upper jungle before making the final ascent for gunung tahan. Both Kim and Clare were feeling quite sick and were going quite slow so elmie stayed with them and he said I should just go for the summit b/c he could tell it was quite difficult for me to go so slow. I made it up to the summit about 1pm malay time which is 11pm May 27th, still my birthday in mountain standard time, so that was pretty cool! Waited a for a while and eventually the whole crew made it up. We had lunch on the summit and poor clare just curled up in a sleeping bag b/c she was so cold. The views were nice when we saw them, but fog and clouds often enshrouded us.. It was only an hour down to the next campsite, which was another awesome campsite. Dry and cool air and great views of the two big mountains. There were also some other Malayan tourists there that were climbing the mountain from the other side (we saw a few other groups during our 7 days, but never any other westerners). It rained that night, but just a long drizzle, so we stayed dry, and we had managed to dry out a bit of stuff before that.

Day 6: (7 hours walking): Long steep descent back into the jungle. A lot of just scrambling down roots and sliding down mud. Saw a pit viper today which was pretty cool. Frustratingly slow pace, but I was impressed clare was able to make it down, she did a good job. The campsite was at a crystal clear stream perfect for a swim. The afternoon and night was gorgeous with clear skies. We had a big fire and a big feast b/c we could eat all the food we had left. We stayed for a long time by the fire just enjoying the night and our last night in the jungle. But about 5am it started pouring and of course we got wet. It didn’t stop until we had been walking for a little bit the next day.

Day 7 (4 hours walking): Started the morning walking in the rain. Today was the easiest day as it was mostly downhill, but not too streep and then flat on good trail. Went by a couple of cool waterfalls. We had 4 big river crossings today that were pretty high because of the rain. One was a bit nerve wracking b/c you had to put your bag on your shoulder as it was chest deep, and hold onto a rope b/c just a few feet down was a big rapid. But I made it across safely carrying my bag and then realized that elmie would have carried my stuff for me b/c he did it for clare and kim, but I guess that made me feel tougher. After the last river crossing elmie said it was only 10 more minutes to the end, and I was actually kind of sad as I had been enjoying my time in the jungle. We made it to one final river crossing, but it had a bridge and then we were back to civilization and buildings. We sat around a bit trying to dry out and finishing up paperwork before taking a truck to gua musang. We got there around 4 and we had to wait until 10pm to catch the jungle night train. We all had a big meal and I bought some icecream and chocolate milk! The other two were very exhausted, but I decided to go for a walk around the town. It is an extremely conservative muslim town, so everyone is wearing the proper gowns and headgear, but everyone was so incredibly friendly. My favorite town here so far. Everyone on the street was talk to me and even the people on scooters driving by would yell out a hello. The town was also in a gorgeous location with the jungle on its fringes and big karst mountains all around. We caught the night train to jerantut and arrived a bit after 1am

Day 8 (10 mins walking): Elmie put us up for free at a friends hotel that was nice (had ac and a tv). I wasn’t feeling too tired so I watched will smith’s i-robot on tv. We all slept in until 9 and then after getting some more good food, caught the 1pm bus back to kuala tehan. I immediately took all my stuff out at the hostel to dry out and just sat around and read.

Kim and Clare wanted to go back to the city so they took the next bus back to Jerantut. I still wanted to do the night safari, so I stayed another night in Kuala Tahan. The night safari was definitely worth it as we saw 4 leopard cats (a beautiful little cat not much bigger than a house cat and with nice spots like a leopard), a Malayan civet cat, and 3 paradise tree snakes of various sizes.


Favorite quotes by Elmie. “If we have to stay an extra day or get stuck in the jungle we will run out of food, and then we just have to survive”
“If you come across a tiger, either you die, or the tiger dies” hmm…in my case I knew who would die as I don’t think I could kill a tiger…but in the end that was a joke b/c he said he had seen lots of tigers and never killed a one.

June 1: took the early morning bus back to Jerantut where I met back up with Kim and Clare. We decided to pay a few extra ringitt for a shared aircon room to help dry out. And we just spent the day in jerantut getting our washing done as our clothes were so smelly and doing some internet and such. We had a rootbeer float party to celebrate my birthday, their 2 year anniversary (same day as my birthday) and climbing the mountain. In kota bahru we had gone by an A&W, and I had looked at it with a watery mouth as it was so hot out, but american fast foods here are more expensive than they are back home. They saw me look at it, and they didn't know what it was nor what a rootbeer float is. I guess that's a very american thing, summer day going to the park to play some baseball then going to the A&W drive up and ordering chili cheese fries, coney dogs, hamburgers, and rootbeer floats, and your food gets brought to you by people on roller skates (or at least back home in montrose they used to). Anyways, Kim and Clare had never had any, so I decided I'd introduce them to the tasty cool treat.

The rainforest trek was one of the most mentally challenging things I’ve done (and fairly physically challenging as well), but it was definitely worth it. I mean, what a great experience to be in the middle of a huge pristine rainforest, climbing a mountain, just us. Not many people can say they’ve truly been in the rainforest like we have. And it is definitely an experience I will never forget. And minus worrying about a few things like my backpack becoming really moldy, I became quite used to the jungle dampness and it didn’t bother me much. And the jungle is for sure a beautiful and mysterious place. The funny thing is we all noted how much trouble we had sleeping as soon as we got back to civilization even though we had beds instead of 1cm thick pads. Something about the jungle noises to put you to sleep. But yea, a great experience to never forget! And it definitely makes me appreciate the cold, dry, wonderful air of Colorado even more. How often during the trek I dreamed I was camping there where everything dries out instantly.

June 2: Bussed from Jerantut to Temerloh. Then from there to Kuantan. I had some time there and it's a large city so I checked out a couple of the shopping centers there to see if I could pick up some things that I had lost/broke in the rainforest. And hit the huge food market as well. The city was actually quite nice with a colonial mixed with asian feel. There was a cool riverwalk along a gigantic river that I strolled around waiting for the bus. Kuantan also had a huge beautiful mosque with a large green grassy field in front of it, with a nice breeze. I hadn't been in the city for a while, and usually I don't like cities, but I liked this one. I think partly because out here in asia you can be so long in places where you can't get any modern conveniences that it's nice to get to a place where you can. And I think sometimes the modernity reminds me of home, which I often like. In the US you're never really far from a place where you can easily pick up items you may need (sunscreen, shampoo, a backpack, shoes, etc), so I particularly like to avoid cities there. Like if I were to devise a tour for a visitor, it would hardly include any cities, just the wilds, but the difference is even in small places like Estes Park, McCall, Moab, Jackson hole, there are always big supermarkets and hardware stores and such. So far malaysian cities (and we're not talking about the monstrosity cities like kuala lumpur, bangkok, manila, singapore as those are on a whole other level, but the smaller cities) are my favorite of the countries I've been to. Most the Philippine cities are just really dirty, smelly, full of homeless and beggars. I didn't go to many thai cities b/c the islands are kind of far from them and you avoid them through transit, but the ones I did go to are difficult to navigate b/c the streets are confusing and nothing is written in arabic, but all in thai symbols, so you don't even know what a certain store or place is. The malaysian cities are easy to walk, very clean, very friendly people, quite modern, everyone speaks good english, and even somewhat planned out (this could be due to old british colonialism) so there are parks and playgrounds and green space. I really liked Kuantan though and almost thought about staying, partly b/c of the huge beautiful grass field with the breeze in front of the stunning mosque. I just wanted to go out there and toss the frisbee or football around, but alas I had none of those, nor a partner, so I moved on to cherating and cherating beach.

From Bratpackers to Backpackers

Just got to Kota Bahru yesterday from Pulau Perhentian Kecil. Had a good time yesterday in Kota Bahru with Kim and Clare my new found friends. As we had been chilling on the little island far from civilization (no cars, and only a few hours of electricity) which means expensive food, we walked around kota bahru today and gorged on icecream, slushies at 7-11, and lots and lots of fruit. Had a tasty fruit that looks like a nut, but almost tastes like a strawberry today. Then we hit up the delicious night fruit market.

So Pulau Perhentian was great. Had only planned to stay there for 2 days, but ended up staying for 6 days. I really liked it. It wasn't as pretty as the Thai islands I had come from (but still very gorgeous with white sands, jungle interior, and really nice aqua water, and no cars which is always a bonus), but I liked the vibe much more. The people there I feel were much more of the true backpacker type rather than the jetsetters. Thailand does have plenty of backpackers, but they're harder to find b/c they are more in the minority. Here I met so many cool people I actually had to say no to people for dinner dates and snorkel trips. The people here were all interesting, and everyone I met was on some huge trip of at least 6 months. Clare and Kim told me they call the fake backpackers in thailand bratpackers. I found that quite funny. I stayed at an awesome place that was the cheapest on the island but had an absolutely amazing view down to the water right off of my deck and from my bed. Sure it had no fan (but there was a breeze in the afternoon), little power, bed bugs, termites, lizards and frogs everywhere in my room, no sinks, and crummy bathrooms, but it was one of my favorite places I've stayed b/c the staff was so friendly, the view so incredible, and from my bed you could hear the ocean, see the ocean, and feel its breeze.

It all started off being dropped off at kuala besut. 4 other people (2 different british couples) got dropped off around the same time. They were all really young, having just graduated from high school and travelling the world on their gap year. A woman there wanted us all to sign up right then and there (it was 5 in the morning as we had been on overnight busses) for the boats. It was very expensive, but they were all ready to sign up begrudingly. But I told them to wait. The woman was so urgent for us to sign up, that I knew there would be other options. I told them all to wait until the jetty opened at 7, and of course, we all got tickets for half the price once it opened. One couple I was particularly fond of was Ian and Rosy and we hung out that afternoon and walked over to coral bay for dinner. I was staying on long beach, but I liked coral bay for eating and hanging out b/c it was even quieter than long beach and the food was cheaper with better portions. It was easy enough to get to, just a 10-15 minute walk through the jungle to the other side of the island.

I hadn't really planned on doing any diving in the Perhentians, but walking around I found a dive shop that offered a really good deal for a five dive package, so I ended up signing up for that. The next day I did two dives. The first dive to T3 was with some other irish guy. Unfortunately the visibility had gone pretty bad due to a change in current, so it wasn't the best. The next dive I went with Kim and Clare and the visibility was a little better, but it didn't matter so much b/c we were diving a vietnamese wreck and the lower visibility just makes the wreck a bit more spooky. We also fought some current to get to an area that had sea horses, and we got lucky and found a cute little guy. That afternoon I took a walk through the jungle to get to the fisherman's village which was about 2 hours away. The hike was really nice through the jungle and along the coast. There were several little white sand beaches along the way and plenty of giant monitor lizards running everywhere. That afternoon I joined up with Ian and Rosy for dinner at coral bay.
The next day I did another two dives. The first dive was to the Sugar wreck, which was pretty cool. The 2nd dive, temple of the sea, was absolutely amazing. The visibility was great and we saw everything: bamboo sharks, lots of stingrays, nudibranchs, scorpion fish, humphead parrotfish, a hawksbill turtle, lionfish, and of course all the other kinds of fish. And the coral was very colorful as well. My plan was to dive one more dive that day to complete my package, do a snorkel trip the next day, and then leave the following day, but Kim and Clare who I really liked-- Kim is from Sweden and Clare from England and they met in New Zealand a few years ago and have been dating since then--were doing there last dive the next day, so I decided to join them. So that afternoon we just hung out and then went out to dinner and shared some whiskey that clare and kim had brought from duty free langkawi

My last dive to Sea Bell with Kim and Clare was great as well. Saw lots of fish and 2 different types of stingrays. That afternoon we just hung out along with Sara and Chris who are british but work at the dive shop now as they are quite cool. Also that afternoon Kim and Clare shaved my head, so now I'm quite hairless. That night we went out to eat and then watched a movie at the dive shop. The next day Kim and Clare were supposed to be leaving for Taman Negara and the jungle. I wanted to stay one more day to do a snorkel trip before leaving the Perhentians. My plan after leaving was to go to Pulau redang, another supposedly beautiful island, but I really liked Kim and Clare so I decided to meet them in Kota Bahru on the way to taman negara. They ended up deciding to stay one day later anyways. So that last day I did the snorkel trip, which is one of the best ones I have ever done. We went to six snorkelling spots and saw all kinds of amazing things, lots of fish, and beautiful corals. I actually saw as much snorkelling as I did diving. And the guide was great, super friendly and nice, and jumped in the water with us to show us where things were. A couple spots we saw lots and lots of black tipped reef sharks up close, and another had lots of stingrays, and another we got to dive down real close to several green sea turtles. That day was one of my favorites for sure. We had lunch at the fishing village, which was much cheaper than the tourist areas. That night the dive gang at our dive shop, clare, kim, and I all went out to eat and then did another movie night.

So Kim, Clare, and I all left the perhentians for Khota Bahru yesterday. I quite like travelling with them b/c they are very nice, very fun, and are on a similar budget as me. Very, very cheap when it comes to transport, food, lodging, but they have a budget to do dives, jungle treks, etc. So they always ate at the same place as me and always would rather wait for the crappy bus than take the taxi. It was funny b/c on the boat over to pulau perhentian, the boat dropped off at several spots including coral bay (the one that is a 10 minute walk from long beach) before dropping off at long beach. After stopping off at all those places, the boat went into longbeach bay and then the captain said that we would all have to pay 3 ringitt to take a taxi boat to the beach. There was a dock nearby and I told him to go there, but he wouldn't. Now this really frustrated me b/c I'd just paid a lot for the boat ride and to just spring this fee on at the end when I could have gotten off at one of the other beaches just kind of upset me. The boat ride over cost 30 ringit. It would be like paying 300 bucks to fly from denver to boise and then having the plane stop at the runway and the pilot saying you'd have to shell out another 30 to take a taxi to the terminal even though they had the little bridge things to connect there. The rest of my boat didn't seem to care about this sudden fee and 3 ringitt isn't too much, so we all just ended up paying, but clare and kim who had come a few days earlier refused to pay and said they would either stay on the boat or get dropped off, so the captain decided to take them to the jetty and they didn't have to pay the fee. I had wished I had been on their boat. But anyways, needless to say, we all walked the day we left over to the other side of the island where you don't have to pay the taxi fee to get on the boat instead of being lazy and taking the taxi from our beach (clare and kim were staying at my same guesthouse). Here in kota bahru we're all sharing a triple room, which saves me considerably from having to pay for a single room.

Today we just kind of enjoyed being back in civilization. Doing some interneting, went to tesco's to buy some cheap food for our upcoming train ride and sit in the air con and just have eaten a lot of cheap food. They're like me, they don't like the cities too much, but they are nice to come back to for a few days to eat icecream, cheap food, go to tesco and get some more western things, and just kind of hang out and recoup. So needless to say, they are quite awesome and we really mesh great together as travellers. Unfortunately I won't be able to travel with them much longer b/c both of their parents are coming down to meet them in indonesia for a bit, but we might get to meet up later down the line b/c they have a similar schedule as me of borneo, indonesia, cambodia, laos, vietnam, etc (only difference is they are throwing in the philippines somewhere in there). They have been travelling for 5 months now and came down from sweeden through russia and china on the trans-siberia railroad (the trip I've been hoping will be my next) and then through thailand of course. THey also both worked and travelled in Australia and NZ for over a year, so they have some good experiences and good ideas for travelling cheap such as moving cars for people and couch surfing. Had my sandals break today, but got them fixed at some guy on the street, so hopefully that will last a bit longer b/c the tesco didn't have my size sandal of course.
Tonight we're going to some cultural show here and also to watch the shadow puppet plays, which is something I had wanted to do. Tomorrow, we are off early in the AM to catch the jungle train through the jungle for 12 hours to a town near taman negara national park. From there we will travel to the park and we are hoping to do a fairly long trek into the jungle as taman negara is one of the most pristine and oldest rainforests in SE asia. The town at the park border may have some internet connection, but we definitely won't have any on the trek, so it is hard to know when the next time I will be online.

Some shots from Penang and the Perhentian Islands.
Penang: feeling sick from Dengue fever and trying to find rabies shots

Perhentians: Black tip reef sharks and green and hawksbill sea turtles while snorkelling. Me swimming next to one of my favorite of the turtles we found. Stingrays and Sea Horses and bambook sharks while diving. My new found good friends Kim (swedish) and Clare (english) cutting my hair...before, during (mohawk), and after shots

random pics from thailand and the PI