Journey to Pangkor (Malaysia) - September 1st & 2nd 2007

It was a pre dawn wake up this morning as I had a sunrise shoot planned with a local model by the name of Geraldine (more on this perhaps in a later post).  After that is was back to the backpackers to frantically pack and push the 11am check out time.  

A huge lunch (thanks to Celine ordering half the food court) later and we were struggling on with bursting bellies down to the Golden Mile complex to try to negotiate our way into Malaysia.  Unfortunately as we found out when we got there it was some sort of national holiday and most busses were booked.  Only ticket we could get was on a ‘luxury’ snoozer coach for S$42 a ticket - about twice what I wanted to pay…but on finding out it had wireless internet, private movies, tv screens & headphones for each person we figured it wasn’t too bad a deal.  And it might not have been if the headphones had of worked or the wireless internet actually existed…

Anways early evening saw us in Kuala Lumpur and I’ve got to say it was a pretty nice time to be rolling in - with the twin towers lit up against the fading light of the post sunset sky it was a bit of a postcard moment.  The postcard got a little crumpled though on stepping out of the bus into a blast of heat, refuse & hawkers cries.  We decided to check in to one of the backpackers straight across the road from the bus terminal as it was already night time and we wanted to leave as early as possible the next morning.  

I don’t think I need to say much on this aside from posting a shot I took the next morning of the view from the window of our room:

There is one part of KL though that is quite clean: the public waste bins, quite simply nobody uses them….

Ironically (just like Singapore) it wasn’t until we got to Chinatown that I actually started seeing other foreigners. The night market there was something of an experience, a cacophony of sight smell and sound.  I’ve now a whole new definition of ‘sales’.  Celine wanted to eat at a place that was full of obvious tourists but I vetoed that plan on looking at the menu prices and instead opted to find some street vendors serving the locals.  Food was pretty good and at a quarter of the price of the touristy place but we did get very swiftly chased from our seats the instant we finished eating…

Next morning we awoke at around 8, booked our bus tickets to Ipoh (a much more reasonable RM13 a piece) and went in search of breakfast & sandals (hiking boots & sock combo starting to get right smelly).  11am found us at the bus terminal and about 12:15 or so our bus finally decided to turn up.  Trip was pleasant with some amazing scenery.  The entire country seems to be lush jungle & pine plantations.  It was a wet day and all around were mountains shrouded in low lying mist, there were some spectacular cliffs (a couple with temples built into/carved out of them) and one HUGE waterfall.  Unfortunately I couldn’t get any decent shots from the bus - will have to perhaps rent a car for a few days when I come back through and take my time with the area.  A couple hrs later and we were in Ipoh wondering how in the hell we were to get to Lamut.  Celine earned her keep here by finding a Chinese family to ask directions of who then went on to give us a lift across the other side of town to the correct bus terminal - not sure how I would have found my way without her as this deep in Malaysia nobody seems to speak any English at all.  I was quite literally the ONLY Caucasian either of us saw in the entire town.  Anyways at the second terminal Celine befriended another Chinese dude who filled us in on some local info and later on (on the bus) gave us a packet of tasty nuts.  As we were waiting for our bus another one fired up and started to move from the parking area to the passenger pickup area, as it did folks started sprinting from all around and in a surge of bodies jumped into the moving vehicle.  I could only guess that they were fighting for seats and when Celine asked her Chinese fried (who I think had the hots for her) my suspicions were confirmed when he replied “Yes yes, bus always very full, very dangerous, you stand you die!”

Comforting words considering we were about to hop on one of these things…

It wasn’t as bad as foretold actually and the bus was remarkably roomy, especially seeing as Celine’s Chinese boy went sprinting in with the crowd on our bus and managed not only to snag himself a seat but somehow keep a couple reserved for us as well.

Once at Lamut we were greeted by a happy fellow who helped us organise our ferry tickets, offered all the info we needed on how to get where we needed to go on the island (Pangkor) and then offered us a 35 RM discount on a room…I was a little suspicious of this but on checking prices in my trusty lonely planet guide it seemed the price he got for us was actually about on par with the best we could manage to get just by rocking up ourselves and he was completely up front about the 20RM commission he would get if we booked with him.  Gave him a go and all went smoothly, am now typing this in a decent air conditioned room on a beautiful island for about US$20.

After a fun though wet (storm came through) ferry ride to the island we had a good feed and a swing on a big rope & driftwood swing set up on the large trees that grow up and out over the beach….tide was in and the swing goes almost over the top of the breaking waves…I’ve had worse evenings…

 

Comments

[Dan - Cre8tive Pixels]

Hey mate,

Love reading your blogs....not only are you handy with a camera, but you are also a wordsmith.......looking forward to more posts.

Dan

[Ben Heys]

Cheers Dan...I'm actually really enjoying writing them, just too busy to get in as many posts at the moment as I'd like. Soon that will change though when I start traveling by myself and the pace slows down a few notches...