James takes on the world!

I spent my final 6 days in Indonesia on the relaxing beaches of Bali. I hired a surfboard and a motorbike with a surfboard rack and traveled south to  a place called Balangan Beach which I had been told about by another traveler that I met in Lombok. Before reaching my destination I was stopped at a Police roadblock where I was quickly informed by the overweight ‘law enforcement officer’ that my UK driving license doesn’t cover me to drive in Indonesia. I had heard stories from other travelers about the corrupt Bali police who will quite happily accept bribes. It was a simple “how much is it going to cost me” and I was given the option of  Court or Rp100,000 (£6.50) bribe, so I quickly paid up and I was ushered on my way and told to “travel safely”.

I had booked to stay in a wooden shack on the beach which I had also been told about by a fellow traveler. I arrived and was stunned by how beautiful the beach was. The shack, which was to be my home for the next 6 days, was made from bamboo and somehow balanced on stilts. It was situated so close to the water that at high tide you could see the waves through the floor boards.

As if the beach and my accommodation weren’t enough then there was also amazing surfing situated right out in front. Sadly I over did it a bit on the first couple of days and I suffered from mild heat exhaustion. I took it easy for the remaining days and tried to stay out of the relentless sun.

The day finally came when I was due to fly to Kuala Lumpur to meet Gisella. I left Bali at 6am and arrived in KL 3 hours later. I quickly headed into the city to drop my bag at our hotel and then went back to the airport to meet her. Her flight landed early but it took over an hour before she came through the arrivals doors. It was one of the longest hours of my life but she arrived safe and tired after only having slept for 3 out of the 13 hours of her flight. We went back to our hotel called the Rainforest Bed and Breakfast which was the nicest place that I had stayed since I had started my travels. That evening I took her to see the beautiful Petronas Towers and then we went out for a nice meal. We spent the following 2 days visiting markets, eating nice food and exploring China Town and Little India.

We then took ‘the bus from hell’ to the Cameron Highlands in Central Malaysia. We originally intended to leave at 9am but after discovering that the bus station where we thought the bus departed from had closed down we then had to take a bus out of the city to a temporary terminal, this in turn meant that we missed the 9am bus. We then waited for the 10:30am bus which didn’t arrive until 11:30. We finally set off only for the bus to break down on the side of the motorway after 30minutes. We waited for 1 hour until a mechanic arrived and then continued for another hour when the bus broke down once again on the side of the motorway. The bus driver quickly arranged for his family to pick him up and we were left stranded, with no driver, in the middle of nowhere for 1 ½ hours before another bus picked us up. We finally arrived in the Cameron Highlands at 8:30pm, 7 ½ hours later than originally planned.

We spent 2 days in the refreshing highlands situated at around 1500-2000 Meters with a comfortable temperature of 21degrees (compared to the 35  degrees in KL). During the first day we did a 3 hour hike which ended with us taking shelter from the rain at a wedding reception hall. We were invited inside by some very friendly and welcoming wedding guests who told us to help ourselves to some of the tasty Malay food. This was an Islamic wedding where all of the guest where dressed in beautiful head scarfs and traditional outfits. You can imagine how much Gisella and I stood out in our wet and muddy hiking gear but to our surprise nobody seemed to mind.

The following morning we hired a taxi for 3 hours driven by a friendly old Malay local in his beautiful old Mercedes. We did our own private tour of one of the nearby ‘Boh’ tea plantations which are famous in the area. After taking in the stunning views across the plantation and sampling a cup of tea we then moved on to visit to a Bee Farm.

That afternoon we took a ‘bus from heaven’ (it left on time, from the correct departure point and didn’t break down) to the culinary capital of Malaysia, Penang Island. In 2009 New York Times readers voted Penang as the No.2 must visit location, the main reason for this being the food. I can tell you that the NY Times readers were correct, the food here was incredible. The mixed population of Chinese, Indian and Malay has resulted in some great fusions cuisine. We enjoyed some mouthwatering food such as Indian Biriyani and Tandoori, Chinese Dim Sum and noodles and Nonya (combination of Chinese and Malay traditions) Otak Otak (a mousse-type of fish cake with a taste of spices, then wrapped in banana leaves and steamed).

We hired a motorbike for 2 days and spent the first visiting the Penang National Park which is home to the beautiful beach, Teluk Duyong. We spent a few hours lying in the sun so that Gisella would look less like a pastey ghost (her words) and playing on the rope swings. We then visited a nearby waterfall before sampling one of the locally grown Durian (a fruit with an odor so strong that it has led to it being banished from some hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia) at a roadside stall.

The following day we visited the beautiful Kek Lok Si temple which is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia before returning to Georgetown where we were staying to take in some of the famous colonial architecture and visit the perfectly restored 19th-century Penang Peranakan Mansion.

Today we moved onto the ‘tropical paradise’ of Langkawi which borders Thailand and consists of 99 islands. We intend to stay here for a few days before heading to the East cost of Malaysia to head south towards Singapore.

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