Malaysia here we come!

Flew to Kuala Lumpur
Our lovely taxi driver, Emir, talked to us about Malaysia and Arsenal football club although couldn't find our guesthouse even with the help of 2 local taxi drivers, 2 local people and 2 hotel owners!!! So we got out at Pizza hut and found it ourselves!!! Jon and I decided that we would stay put in one place during our stay in KL. Casa Embon was very friendly and welcoming but a smokers paradise! We spent some of our time trying to watch pirate dvd's which seem strangely legal over here, although most didn't work even the so called dvd 9 quality.
Visited the Petronas towers, the tallest building in the world, which was awesome. The views of the city at 170m above street level were spectacular.
Went to Masjid Jamek mosque as advertised in Lonely Planet. Was uninspiring but had a giggle at Nat in her special outfit!
KL museum was full of information and school children - reminded me of school trips at home. It made us realise how multi-cultural Malaysia is. We still havn't worked out what Malaysian food is!


Taman Negara Rainforest
Journeyed on local buses from KL to Jerantut. This was my favourite journey yet. It was lovely to be seated on a bus surrounded by chearful, chatty locals with the engine smoke blowing through the bus.
Caught the 3hr river boat to Taman Negara. On the way we saw beautiful scenery and some great wildlife. I even thought I saw a crocodile, although found out later it was probably a monitor lizard!
The accomodation was ok although we were woken in the night to the sound of gnawing wood coming from the ceiling. We couldn't work out what it was and decided that it must have been the very rare "Malaysian Wood Chewing Jungle Cat" which somehow made it much easier to sleep in the electricity-less hut. This is great when you've splashed out for a fan room to keep yourself cool!!!
The jungle canopy walk was a big achievement for Nat. We got very excited thinking we could hear monkeys but later found that this was just the queue of tourists and school children waiting to get on the walkway. This scared off any wildlife that might have been lurking. We then took a walk to a view point and got lost in the jungle on the way back. Being an hour deep into the jungle with no water was a bit of a scary experience. We retraced our steps and ended up walking a lot further but made it back alive! Phew!


Kota Bharu
Took the overnight train which was an hour late so didn't leave until 5am. Could have done with the extra hour sleep! Arrived to overly helpful taxi driver who insisted we should try the new ideal guesthouse. Then ripped us off taking us to the one we wanted to go to in the first place. On this taxi note please see Malaysian taxi description below. So far we've had ...
Taxi with only 1st, 3rd or 5th gear - very amusing for hill starts.
Machetes on the front seat.
No seat belts - apart from the driver puts one on passing a policeman.
No working speedometers - although the clocks work so thats ok!
No suspension - or foam in seats.
Doors which only open from the outside - useful in the event of an emergency!
All taxi's we've been in would not have been accepted in a UK scrapyard let alone passed an MOT.
Various bits of body-work that exist are held on with parcel tape or body filler
The best one - wobbly steering wheels which don't drive in a straight line - just a series of small curves!!!

Tonight we are going to do a Malay cooking course at the Tourist Information Center owners home. He's such a laugh with his British phrases - Lovely Jubbly, cor blimey love, lemon squeezy love etc Will let you know how it goes.

ps Just got back from the Malay cookery course. Had a lovely time and was a great laugh watching Roselan cook for us. We've written down the recipes so will cook for you when we come home!!

Check out all the previous posts as we've added a taster of photos!!