Ingrid and Marcel World Journey

Today is our last day in Malaysia, we are flying to Bangkok this afternoon.

After more bus rides, one night and a speeding boat carrying us across we reached the Perhentian islands.

Program: beach and ocean.

Which is exactly what we need for 4 days, until we ran out of money (island = remote = no ATMs) We thought the room would cost us much less but we arrived on a Friday and all was booked except something triple the price we expected to pay…. we liked it so much though we didn’t bother moving to a cheaper place later on, just stayed a shorter time.

The ride back on the boat was interesting. First of all, the boats carrying people from the islands to the mainland don’t go up to a jetty, when you arrive on (or leave) the island a small boat (rowing boat size, but with a motor) driven by a 10 year old comes to pick you up. So you try to transfer from one boat to the other without falling in the water with your packsack (no step or any passerelle), and the kid brings you to the shore for 2 RM (about 60 cents). The days we were lounging on the beach we watched them, and some take so many people the back almost goes underwater. But he, easy man! So we left the island, and since there are many companies offering the boat transfer to the mainland, we ended up side by side with another one. Then the race started….who will make it there first?! You should have seen the boats, going up in the air and SPLASH down! And vrooooom and splash again! Our boat won. Our bums were a bit sore though.

Our next destination was to be Penang, on the west coast of peninsular Malaysia. We took an overnight bus there, and since we hadn’t had any dinner we had some good old peanut butter sandwiches. Bad idea. I guess I didn’t mention that since a week or so I had been having stomach cramps every time I ate something, especially at night, and had to get up to go to the toilet in the night for an explosion. So there I am, sitting in the bus, having stomach cramps from hell, and there is no toilet on board. Ye!

Lucky me the bus stopped to tank and I could run out and tell the driver I NEEDED to go to the bathroom. For the record: squat toilets are not that uncomfortable actually. Even for major events.

When the bus arrived in Penang at 5h30 in the morning we had of course bags under the eyes and thought we’d need to waste time in the street until anything opened up, but no! 2 French suggested we share a taxi into town, and we could just follow them to the hotel they had booked and which allowed early check in. So no hanging out on the street, we could zzzz peacefully in a proper bed.

Since then we’ve been walking around Georgetown and enjoying good food here.

Now we’re off to Bangkok.

I still need to tell you about Remi at KFC, remind me if I forget about it….

He Marcel uploaded some pictures today, go check out these older posts:

A night in the desert

from Singapore to Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur

Une nuit dans la jungle

2 jours de bus

Apres la jungle, on se rejouissait a l’idee de passer quelques jours sur la plage aux iles Perhentian (nord-est de la Malaysie). Evidemment on est d’une part cheapo, d’autre part on peut pas faire comme tout le monde, et si c’est trop facile c’est comme moins rigolo…. On s’est donc embarques pour aller a notre destination par autobus. On sait pas trop comment, mais on s’est ramasses a voyager non pas en bus longue distance, mais en bus local. En tape-cul local. Genre les derniers dans le siege en arriere pognes avec nos sacs a dos et le bus est plein a craquer (Marcel se sort les bras par la fenetre pour pas mourir de chaleur ou de claustrophobie) et y’a un embouteillage qui fait que ca prend 2 heures pour faire 40km.

On doit faire un arret pour la nuit, et on repart le lendemain matin. Selon les instructions du monsieur au resto le bus passe toutes les demi-heures sur la route principale, y’a qu’a se mettre au bord de la route et attendre. On se place au bord de la route et on attend. Jusqu’a ce qu’une gentille dame vienne nous montrer l’arret de bus 15m plus loin….les cons…. Et on commence a attendre…. Jusqu’a ce qu’une voiture s’arrete: un monsieur dans la quarantaine qui nous dit que le bus….ouais bien on peut attendre longtemps hein….2 heures, 3 heures….qui sait? Si on veut il nous emmene, il va par la et nous deposera a mi-chemin de notre destination. Il a l’air correct alors allez hop on met les sacs dans le coffre et on monte. Et comme on fait une bonne vie et bien le monsieur il s’appelle James, et il est vraiment gentil. Et il repond a notre bombardement de questions, il nous raconte a propos de la Malaysie, et quand on fait un arret chez McDo il nous INVITE! Et quand on arrive la ou il doit nous deposer il demande et cherche pour trouver la station de bus, et rendus la il sort de la voiture pour s’informer au comptoir et nous dire ou prendre le bus. Et quand on part je prend sa photo, Marcel sa carte avec son telephone (“en cas vous m’appelez hein?”) et il nous dit aurevoir en nous serrant fort la main….

De retour apres un long intermede avec les dernieres aventures de la jungle….

J’ai mentionne que le sentier entre l’accueil et la cache etait environ 4 km, donc une jolie marche dans la foret, curieusement pas vraiment de moustiques, assez agreable somme toute, mis a part le fait que le taux d’humidite doit etre de 98%. J’ai jamais autant sue de ma vie. Et Marcel alors…. HA! HA! HA! Quand on est arrives a la cache, il a epluche ses vetements un par un, chaussettes incluses, pour les tordre! Et il sortait pas juste 3 gouttes, je dirais en tout certain une tasse. Et c’est sans compter les bottes qu’on ne peut pas tordre, ca faisait flouc flouc quand il marchait!

Au debut du chemin d’ailleurs, on s’est arretes pour regarder un buisson de bambous immenses. Tres beau….on leve la tete pour admirer….et qu’est-ce que Marcel apercoit, “assis” tranquillement a 4m au-dessus de nous? Un joli petit serpent vert pomme! Comme il ne semblait pas faire de cas de notre presence, on ne s’est pas manifestes et on a passe notre chemin….

Jusqu’a ce que plus loin Marcel qui marchait devant s’arrete brusquement et me recule dedans. Cette fois c’etait pas dans les branches, mais a 1m devant lui sur le sentier: un serpent de 1-1.2m dresse comme pour attaquer…. L’attaque cardiaque passee Marcel s’est rendu compte que le charmant reptile avait deja la bouche pleine d’une grenouille pas encore avalee, donc pas de soucis pour nous. Mais pour la frousse c’a ete tres bien reussi. 10 sur 10 pour le serpent.

Pas besoin de dire qu’on a marche en frappant du pied le reste du temps!

Sinon au retour on a rencontre une famille qui allait visiter une caverne dans les environs, on les a suivis. Et comme la maman n’avait pas le gout d’aller explorer et Marcel non plus, elle m’a laisse sa place avec le guide. Apres des entortilles et de la boue (plutot de la merde de chauve-souris oui) sur les mains on a vue une grenouille geante (pas si geante que ca en fait, ca devait etre une petite, ou celles qu’on a entendues pendant la nuit etaient entrainees au chant) et une colonie de chauve-souris tres mignonnes. Elles ont meme acceptees que je les prennent en photo.

En sortant on etait tellement degueus…. Un jour seulement, mais ca equivaut a 1 semaine dans le bois chez-nous! On a trouve un endroit ou ils avaient une laveuse et on a fait laver nos vetements. La pauvre dame….ca sentait pas les roses hein!

Apres la capitale nous voila dans la jungle!

Au parc national Taman Negara, la plus vieille foret tropicale au monde dit-on (130 millions d’annees). Vrai ou pas, elle est vachement chic la jungle! Le premier jour on est alles prendre une marche sur le canopy walkway, une serie de passerelles totalisant 300m a 40-45m de hauteur. Assez cool de voir le monde du point de vue d’un singe! Apres on a continue et monte une colline d’ou on avait un point de vue sur les environs (des arbres). Le truc c’est pas le point de vue….c’est la marche a travers la foret incroyable pour s’y rendre! On se croirait dans Indiana Jones!! Les plantes, mais les plantes…. Des lianes immenses entortillees partout, des fougeres parasites poussant des arbres, des palmiers a epines, des arbres si hauts qu’on n’en voit pas la cime. Ca fourmille de termites qui marchent parfois 4 ou 6 de large, on dirait le croisement Henri IV-Charest a l’heure de pointe!

Mais bien sur c’est assez pour nous ca…. Il existe des caches ou on peut aller “dormir”…. :))))

On a donc loue des tapis de sol, une torche et une gamelle au magasin flottant chez Mat Leon, on a achete du gaz (ben oui….le rechaud de chez Carrefour a Oman on l’a garde….au cas-ou), des nouilles et du Nescafe et on a paquete un sac a dos. Pour 5 RM (1.70dollars) on a entrepose l’autre sac et on est partis dans la foret. La cache est pas trop loin, 4 km de l’accueil. On est arrives a temps pour souper a la clarte, puis on s’est prepares a observer…. Assis sur un banc devant la fenetre qui donne sur un ruisseau, ben on attend! Le mieux c’est les bruits! Les crapauds geants, les oiseaux, et dieu sait quelles autres creatures font des sons jamais entendus. Et c’est fort! Pour rigoler on en a nommes quelques uns…. y’a fax-modem, ah-wow, moteur-15-forces-qui-part-pas, violon, telephone engage. J’ai oublie les autres y’en avait trop. On a eu de la chance, on a reussi a voir 3 tapirs qui buvaient.

Zut mon temps internet est fini.

La suite la prochaine fois!!

After the Busride from Singapure to Kuala Lumpur we were kicked out of the bus in front of a hotel. Somewhere in the middle of the city. Eelin and mat gave us a citymap (lucky us). With this map we could find the tourist information after a 20 minutes walk. The good thing was the AC in the building. After we spoke to the person there we headed up in the rush hour in the sky train (Eelin told us before in Singapore, don’t be swiss.. Push to get in or out.) to Chinatown. Because the Hotels are cheaper and the food of course more “local”. We found a hotel for a OK price just in front of the Chinatown mainroad. (cool spot to smoke and watch the people down there.)

The first few hours we/I saw everywhere someone who wants to steal our wallet/phone/camera 🙂 after that we started to enjoy chinatown more and more. Especially the food is jammy. Then we started to explore KL. Knowing us walking of course. The big surprise is, KL is actually quite small. To go to the towers/center, museums, shopping malls  everything is within 30 to 45 minutes walk. We like to get the pulse of a city and this works well in walking speed. After a few days KL is quite “too normal” so nothing to add. We bought a Travel guide for malaysia went to the local bus station and headed up towards the oldest  rainforest/jungle in the world. (two bus-versions possible 7.– or 30.– of course we took the local without AC for 7.–)

Leaving Oman was easy enough, Rashid dropped us off at the airport at the evening, where we took a plane to Mumbai at 00h45. We got lucky, we asked simply if we could have a window seat and they upgraded us to business class for free, cool.

The hard part was the transit…. No visa for India + cheap ticket = 19h to waste in the airport in Mumbai. Luckily we could go into a lounge where they had food and drinks, internet, a few reclining seats, all for free. So don’t ask me how is India, I only saw the 4 walls of the lounge. You may want to ask Marcel, who had to cross the airport to another “lounge” to smoke and had interesting encounters with the guy in charge there. I can only say convicing him to go back to India would prove to be a challenge….I won’t try it for now.

Anyways, we did of course finally land in Singapore, where our old neighbours from Egetswil Mat & Eelyn now live. They welcomed us with open arms and took us to all the cool places in Singapore and introduced us to a few highlights of the asian culture…. We had bubble tea (a cold drink of milky iced tea with huge tapioca balls in it, yum!), took a foot bath with munching fish (it’s freaky the 1st dip, but afterwards really funny tickling, the little fish eat the dead skin on your feet!), had lunch like the locals at a food court (at the ground level of every housing estate there is such an assortment of basic counters with yummy local food), learned about the existence of durian (a local fruit that stinks so much it’s forbidden in the public areas in Singapore). We had a great time with our friends, and after Eelyn equipped us with maps, Malaysian money and instructions we boarded the bus to Kuala Lumpur 2 days later.

After leaving the desert we did head out to the coast to watch giant green turtles nesting.

When we arrived at the reception hall we were offered a room at an exhorbitant price and anyways we had all the gear so we figured we’d just camp in the neighbourhood. Next to the lodge there was a field of rocks and hardened dirt where we were showed to to install our tent. We found a spot where we figured there was not too much wind and rocks, and started to clear the area. Marcel tells me to watch out when lifting rocks, that scorpions like to hide there during the day….he lifts himself one or two, and hallo! Here is the first scorpion! A tiny one, but nevertheless, a SCORPION!! I decide to change my sandals for boots and we manage to get the tent up and cook some water for noodles in the blowing wind that’s getting stronger by the minute. We sit down and start to slurp our noodles, when I see something crawling in our direction from underneath the tent…. YES!! But this time a HUGE one! About 8 cm long, black. Beurk! I’d like to say I kept my cool and reacted very reasonably. But no, I was not reasonable. After some screams and tears we finished our dinner and then went for the guided tour on the beach to watch the turtles which was really impressive. When we came back we hopped in the tent and spent the worst night. It was so windy we thought our tent was going to fly away with us in it. Luckily we go away with just one broken post and baggy eyes before starting our drive along the coast in direction south.

We had thought camping would be easy, but figured out the wind was not only at the turtles beach but basically everywhere on the coast, so we had to go further south before finding an idyllic spot right besides the sea. An empty beach close with only lots of cute crabs, we thought. Until we looked closer at the tracks in the sand and figured out they were not all of crabs. Viva el telefono, with Mike’s help our suspicions were confirmed, the gazillions of funny tracks were those of scorpions. Hourra!

From then on the whole camping idea took another dimension…. Organise all before dark, watch every step where you put your feet at night, don’t leave stuff out on the ground at night, etc. Actually we got used to it, never saw again so many tracks but were careful nevertheless. The next week was spent visiting the south of Oman, camping on a deserted beach again. It’s really amazing, they have these hundreds of kilometers of beach, totally empty. The light breeze in the night, watching the moon over the sea before closing our eyes to sleep. Smile.

Back in Muscat to give the car back we called Rashid to give him our camping stuff, and after going to dinner with him and a friend of his he invited us to spend the next day at his place while we waited for our plane to leave at night. So we spent our last day in Oman at his house, lounging on cushions and talking and eating and talking some more. It was a wonderful day. We’d never thought we’d make friends there, but sometimes the best things do happen in life.

Als Ingrid und ich vor zwei Jahren die ersten Informationen ueber die moeglichen Destinationen unserer Reise zusammensuchten, sprang uns Oman in die Augen.

Wir haben sodann Buecher gekauft, gelesen und im Internet gesucht.

Was wir gelesen hatten war vielversprechend, aber wir haetten nie gedacht, das dieses Land so Genial sein koennte.

Die Leute sind einfach “natuerlich nett” nicht schei.. freundlich. Kaum zu glauben, das gibt es wirklich

Das Land hat Kilometerlange  weisse Sandstraende (LEER… kein Mensch), Berge bis 3000 m hoch und Wadis. ein Wadi ist ein Flussbett, welches Trocken sein kann, aber auch wasser zum Baden mit Palmen ueberall.

Die Temperatur kann 50 Grad in der Schlucht und 30 Grad (genial mit frischem wind) auf dem Berg sein.

Die Strassen durch EIN Tal (Wadi Bani AWF) war das Abenteuerlichste, was ich erlebt habe. Wenn du dich fuer diese Strasse entschieden hast, gibt es kein zurrueck und kein anhalten, da du rueckwaerts rutschen wuerdest, sobald du die Bremse trittst. Dass ein Auto ueberhaubt solche Steigungen bewaeltigen kann ist Wahnsinn (4 Rad antrieb, Untersetzung und im ersten Gang) . Genau ein Auto breit, Sand mit Steinen und Loecher, eine Seite der Berg und die andere Seite niiiiiichts.  Den ganzen  Weg hatte ich ein Laecheln im Gesicht :-). Wir hatten Glueck, dass uns nur zweimal ein Auto entgegen kam, aber jedesmal an einer “breiten” Stelle.

Die Wueste hat mehr Fech Fech (luftiger Sand, wo das Auto reinfaellt, als ob es ein Loch waere. Zu Fuss versinkt man bis zur Huefte) als man sich wuenscht. Ich wuerde trotz Namibia Erfahrung ziemlich alt aussehen. Buddeln, Buddeln und Buddeln 🙂

Rashid der Beduine kam ein paarmal rein, hat aber einen coolen trick, um wieder raus zu kommen (muss ich ueben)

Das Benzin kostet 40 Rp. waere sogar fuer Fordchen (Auto in Namibia) billig.

Ah und Mike auch die Omanis sagen, der alte Land Cruiser ist das beste Fahrzeug.