Arrival: 05/03/09 at 12:00pm
Departure: 05/08/09 at 8:00am
Sight Seeing: Town
People: Friendly
Food: Delicious
Accommodations: Traveler's Lodge ($10)
Pictures: Pictures of Malaysia
Summary: Melacca, the underdog of South East Asia, has an amusement park list of things to do for just about any crowd. From bowling to museums by day, or Chinese street food stalls to lamp lite river walks at night, this town is by far the most fun and photogenic town we've seen.
Details: From the Lonely Planet travel book review, Adam and I almost skipped Melacca. It's a port town that has a similar characteristics to Georgetown, but with a much wider variety of things to do. Adam and I found ourselves strolling around the air conditioned mall where we watched the new movie Wolverine, ate McDonalds, and bowled four games until our arms were sore. Most of you know Adam and I pretty well and would be shocked to picture us hanging out at a mall, but it was quite enjoyable and all the activities were super cheap. Makes you wonder what you're paying for back home?
We also did several walking tours of the city mostly by night in the cool air, where we enjoyed the Portuguese architecture and the lamp lite river cobblestone walks. In Chinese town we enjoyed traditional Chinese tea and ate street food. The town was amazing as you'll see in the pictures. This was by far one of our favorite cities on the trip thus far.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Gemas, Malaysia
Arrival: 05/02/09 at 4:00pm
Departure: 05/03/09 at 9:00am
Sight Seeing: Small town
People: Extremely Friendly
Food: Delicious
Accommodations: Bee Hoa ($10)
Pictures: Pictures of Malaysia
Summary:Gemas is a small town with not much to do. We stopped there to break up the trip from Taman Negara National Park to Malacca. We’re sure glad we did…
Details: Getting to Gemas was quite a nice trip. We took a bus from Taman Negara to the train station in Tampin. From Tampin we took an express jungle train to Gemas. It was very comfortable, beautiful, and fast.
Our first order of duty was to find accommodations. The town was small so there were only about three options. We went with the cheapest.
The next order of duty was to get Adam a hair cut. An Indian man cut Adam’s hair and followed most of his instructions. He buzzed Adam’s hair to a short length and trimmed his beard. What he failed to do (or thought would look better) was trim Adam’s moustache, leaving Adam with the familiar Indian man mustache. LOL. The funnier thing is Adam didn’t notice his new Indian inspired look because after the hair cut, the barber/chiropractor adjusted Adam’s neck and cracked his ears. Adam rocked the mustache for the rest of the day and a few thereafter.
The final order of duty was to grab a beer. They don’t serve beer or alcohol in Taman Negara so we were a little thirsty. We walked around and saw a diverse group of older gentlemen sitting outside enjoying a few beers on a warm Saturday afternoon. We thought it looked like a good spot so plopped down at a table. A few beers later and we were chatting with them as best we could. Only one of them spoke English well. We did learn how to say cheers… sounds like “me-nom”. They were great company and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. I think Adam’s new look inspired them so much that they ended up picking up the entire tab. They were a great group of guys who really left a good impression of Malaysia and its small town charm.
Departure: 05/03/09 at 9:00am
Sight Seeing: Small town
People: Extremely Friendly
Food: Delicious
Accommodations: Bee Hoa ($10)
Pictures: Pictures of Malaysia
Summary:Gemas is a small town with not much to do. We stopped there to break up the trip from Taman Negara National Park to Malacca. We’re sure glad we did…
Details: Getting to Gemas was quite a nice trip. We took a bus from Taman Negara to the train station in Tampin. From Tampin we took an express jungle train to Gemas. It was very comfortable, beautiful, and fast.
Our first order of duty was to find accommodations. The town was small so there were only about three options. We went with the cheapest.
The next order of duty was to get Adam a hair cut. An Indian man cut Adam’s hair and followed most of his instructions. He buzzed Adam’s hair to a short length and trimmed his beard. What he failed to do (or thought would look better) was trim Adam’s moustache, leaving Adam with the familiar Indian man mustache. LOL. The funnier thing is Adam didn’t notice his new Indian inspired look because after the hair cut, the barber/chiropractor adjusted Adam’s neck and cracked his ears. Adam rocked the mustache for the rest of the day and a few thereafter.
The final order of duty was to grab a beer. They don’t serve beer or alcohol in Taman Negara so we were a little thirsty. We walked around and saw a diverse group of older gentlemen sitting outside enjoying a few beers on a warm Saturday afternoon. We thought it looked like a good spot so plopped down at a table. A few beers later and we were chatting with them as best we could. Only one of them spoke English well. We did learn how to say cheers… sounds like “me-nom”. They were great company and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. I think Adam’s new look inspired them so much that they ended up picking up the entire tab. They were a great group of guys who really left a good impression of Malaysia and its small town charm.
Taman Negara, Malaysia
Arrival: 04/29/09 at 5:00pm
Departure: 05/02/09 at 10:00am
Sight Seeing: Taman Negara National Park, Hiking, Canopy Walk
People: ???
Food: Have low expectations
Accommodations: Aki Challet ($15), Dorm ($5)
Pictures: Pictures of Malaysia
Summary: Taman Negara National Park is the jungle. It's hot, humid, and everything is big. The trees are big. The bugs are big. There are big animals, though we didn't see any (rinos, leopards, tigers, etc). It was an amazing experience.
Details: Adam and I did two hikes through the jungle. The first hike was beautiful. We walked along the water, reading signs about the local plant life. Then we walked the longest and tallest a canopy walk in the world. There was a series of about 10 rickety canopies that stretched from one giant tree to the next each ranging from about 10 to 60 meters in height. It was a lot of fun and a great way to see the jungle. No monkeys though. After the canopy, we hiked up to a peak to get a view of the jungle which stretched further than the eye could see.
The second hike started out very nice and similar. It had rained the night before and the particular trail we were on was a wet and a little muddy. We were headed to a hide – an large area where they put salt to attract local animals for people to see – which was on the other side of the river from the trail we were on. The trail indicated we needed to cross the river, but there was no bridge. After talking it over, we decided to proceed through the river to see how deep it was. If it was too deep we would head back. Adam and I were standing on some small rocks in river and Adam starting to take his shoes off. With a very direct calmness, Adam said “I don’t think we should cross.” At that point, I knew exactly what he was talking about. Leaches!!! Don’t read any further if you get grossed out by this stuff.
I panic and immediately and lifted my pant legs to inspect my boots and socks. Sure enough, my once very white sock was now very soaked with blood. First thought, GROSSSS!!! Second though, get away from the water to solid ground. Hopping, like a professional ballerina, a from rock to rock, I reached higher ground and took my shoe and sock off. Luckily, I didn’t find anything and thought the leach had fallen off somewhere but my foot was leaking blood very badly. Apparently leach bites make it harder for your blood to clot. Adam got his fair share of bites as well because his shoes were almost completely off when he noticed the leaches. After that, the hike was over for me. I high tailed it back to the part entrance where I could get as far away from leaches as possible and get cleaned up. On the way back, I got another leach (perhaps the missing one from before) that Adam helped me pull off. SO GROSS!!! I’m doing the heebie-geebie dance right now. I can handle most things in life, but blood sucking leaches is not one of them. We’re both okay now, at least physically. I think I’m scared mentally.
Departure: 05/02/09 at 10:00am
Sight Seeing: Taman Negara National Park, Hiking, Canopy Walk
People: ???
Food: Have low expectations
Accommodations: Aki Challet ($15), Dorm ($5)
Pictures: Pictures of Malaysia
Summary: Taman Negara National Park is the jungle. It's hot, humid, and everything is big. The trees are big. The bugs are big. There are big animals, though we didn't see any (rinos, leopards, tigers, etc). It was an amazing experience.
Details: Adam and I did two hikes through the jungle. The first hike was beautiful. We walked along the water, reading signs about the local plant life. Then we walked the longest and tallest a canopy walk in the world. There was a series of about 10 rickety canopies that stretched from one giant tree to the next each ranging from about 10 to 60 meters in height. It was a lot of fun and a great way to see the jungle. No monkeys though. After the canopy, we hiked up to a peak to get a view of the jungle which stretched further than the eye could see.
The second hike started out very nice and similar. It had rained the night before and the particular trail we were on was a wet and a little muddy. We were headed to a hide – an large area where they put salt to attract local animals for people to see – which was on the other side of the river from the trail we were on. The trail indicated we needed to cross the river, but there was no bridge. After talking it over, we decided to proceed through the river to see how deep it was. If it was too deep we would head back. Adam and I were standing on some small rocks in river and Adam starting to take his shoes off. With a very direct calmness, Adam said “I don’t think we should cross.” At that point, I knew exactly what he was talking about. Leaches!!! Don’t read any further if you get grossed out by this stuff.
I panic and immediately and lifted my pant legs to inspect my boots and socks. Sure enough, my once very white sock was now very soaked with blood. First thought, GROSSSS!!! Second though, get away from the water to solid ground. Hopping, like a professional ballerina, a from rock to rock, I reached higher ground and took my shoe and sock off. Luckily, I didn’t find anything and thought the leach had fallen off somewhere but my foot was leaking blood very badly. Apparently leach bites make it harder for your blood to clot. Adam got his fair share of bites as well because his shoes were almost completely off when he noticed the leaches. After that, the hike was over for me. I high tailed it back to the part entrance where I could get as far away from leaches as possible and get cleaned up. On the way back, I got another leach (perhaps the missing one from before) that Adam helped me pull off. SO GROSS!!! I’m doing the heebie-geebie dance right now. I can handle most things in life, but blood sucking leaches is not one of them. We’re both okay now, at least physically. I think I’m scared mentally.
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