#50 Bustling Singapore

Singapore
⁃ little India, Chinatown, kampong glam
⁃ the pinnacle - MRT outram pk
⁃ Hawker tian tian - maxwells
⁃ Thian hock keng temple - open until 5.30
⁃ Merlion
⁃ Botanic gardens
⁃ Gardens by the bay
⁃ MacRitchie reservoir
⁃ Civic district

Getting to Singapore from the port town of Mersing was very easy, involving just a direct coach all the way and taking about five hours. With a population of only five million it is easy to forget that Singapore is a separate country. The coach brought us to Malaysian immigration where we left our bags, disembarked the coach and walked through immigration for our exit stamp. After a five minute journey over the bridge connecting Singapore to Malaysia, I had to take all my luggage off the bus and enter the huge Singapore immigration building. Which, apart from the inquisitive questions from the young immigration officer after her flicking through all the stamps in my passport about how I can afford to travel for so long (genuine interest and not suspicion) entry was straight forward.

Singapore was to be my first solo Couchsurfing experience. After getting off the coach with no clue where about I was and how to navigate the public transport to my address for the next few days, I asked a very friendly English lady who was working in the offices where I got dropped who much a taxi should be and she advised me which taxi was best to take. After a very friendly taxi man dropped me off at the huge apartment complex I was staying p, I took the lift to the fourteenth floor, knocked on the door of the flat and was greeted by a very friendly Chilean girl, not much older than me. She explained that my host Amandine (a French lady) and her children were not in at he moment and that she was also staying there for a few weeks. After getting settled and chatting away to Carla about the house and learning more about her, I left to go and meet a friend of a friend, Aisling, an Irish girl living in Singapore. I navigated the very modern and user friendly buses and MRT (tram) to central Singapore and had some of the best dim sum with Aisling. We chatted away about my travels, her life in Singapore and home.

Little India wall art

The next morning, Carla decided to join me to see more of Singapore. We took the subway to the Chinese gardens, a few stops past the botanical gardens on the subway. The gardens was perfectly manicured with statues of Chinese kings, pagodas and beautiful gardens. It was really quiet and we walked around in the heat for a couple of hours. Following this we went to Chinatown and sought out a 'hawker' food fall called Maxwells. Hawker food stalls are generally cheap, local places to get good food. I had to have the locally recommended chicken rice and a soya bean milk, watermelon juice. We wandered around Chinatown, trying not to go wild and buy all of the souvenirs. We ended up taking the subway all around Singapore, also visiting the 'pinnacle' apartment blocks which promised amazing views of Singapore ( it we were too cheap to pay the $6 SD) to the top. Finally we went to little India with the sole aim of buying cheap sunglasses (priorities)! We ended up getting some as well as roti prata (shop bought) for when we got home. We decided instead of faffing around on numerous MRTs we would take a bus the whole way back to Sin Ming where we sat at the front of the bus and opened up the roti. It was about 7pm by the time we got off the bus and the heavens had opened...SE Asian style rain! Needless to say we both got absolutely drenched and when we got back the house was buzzing with Amandine, her two kids Lucas (9) and Eva (4), as well as their minder Cora and cat blue.

Carla and I in the Japanese gardens

The next morning I went to Mac Ritchie reservoir, which I had read was good walking in the jungle and very conveniently walking distance from the house. I was dubious about the trails as it had been bucketing it down the whole night but I was pleasantly surprised with the majority paved or boardwalk style. I walked for a few hours, complete with a 250m treetop walkway over the jungle with monkeys skimming along the handle rail possibly looking for whatever food they could get.

MacRitchie reservoir walks

Later that evening I went to marina bay to meet Will, my Belgian friend from Tioman who had just arrived in Singapore. Unfortunately with our bad planning and going to different spots where we had planned to meet (I might add, I was in the right destination) we missed each other, and with no phones to contact each other, after forty minutes of waiting for him I walked along the boardwalk from Marina Bay to the famous Merlion statue just past the banking district, and it was as ugly as it looked in the photos. I continued walking and turned back to meet Carla at the casino at the marina bay and coincidentally as I was waiting for her I also spotted Wild curly mop through the crowd (at over 6.5ft he's difficult to miss). The three of us walked over to gardens by the bay, where we were just in time for the Star Trek themed light show. It was really beautiful and felt like we were in outer space! Managed to get up to the 57th floor in the very fancy marina bay sands hotel to see the view of the Singapore all lit up at night. After chatting and taking bets about how much we thought a berry would be at the top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel (a very posh, famous hotel overlooking the...yep you guessed it..the bay)! We decided to chance our luck at getting to the top, sneaking into a lift with some hotel guests who had their swipe card we got up to the viewpoint on the rooftop very easily for amazing views of the bay at night. Unfortunately this is as far as we got, although we did see he menu for the bar with a beery being $16 SD (actually less than I thought)..I lost the bet.

Views from the top of the Marina bay sands

The famous merlion

The next morning (and way too early), I said goodbye to Amandine and her lovely family as well as to Carla and took a coach from Little India back to Kuala Lumpur for the weekend.

Next Stop: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Stayed: Couchsurfing in Sin Min, Singapore
Food/drink: Dim sum in Raffles centre with prawn pancakes, cucumber and chilli, homemade noodles and tea.
Chicken rice at Tian Tian in Maxwells, Chinatown - $3.50SD. Soya bean milk and watermelon shake - $2

#49 Tioman Island...my favourite place in Malaysia

 Another day, another island in Malaysia and safe to say, my favourite place I visited in Malaysia. On the East coast of Malaysia, Tioman island is the lesser visited diving destination when compared to the Perhentian islands. A bigger island with lots of trekking, diving, beaches, snorkelling and less backpackers sounded ideal.

After a very nice sleep in a hostel in Mersing, Faye and I walked the five minutes to the dock to get the 10am ferry. After paying for our return ferry ticket as well as three other confusing fees ranging from national park to conservation fee adding up to about €20 we boarded the boat where we met a Belgian guy Will who had been on our bus the day before and a German called Nils who had been at our hostel in Mersing. Having chatted the whole way over on the boat we all went and got chalets located just a couple of metres from the white sandy beach called 'ABC' beach by the tourists. Faye and I booked in for four nights, already feeling like we would love it there. Even though ABC was called the 'backpacker' beach, it definitely had a much quieter feel to that of Perhentian. There was hardly anyone to be seen and only a handful of small restaurants, dive shops and corner stores along the beach front. We headed straight down to the abandoned beach for a swim. Later that evening we decided to talk to the main town called Tekek to get some 'duty free' beers from the shops there. After walking long the boardwalk for thirty minutes we ended up hitching a lift with a very rare by passing truck full of local builders, they dutifully dropped us off at the small Chinese shop selling a large array of tax free alcohol and chocolate. After having some toblerone and a beer, the four of us easily found a quiet spot on the beach to watch the sunset and drink our beer (being acutely aware that it was Ramadan on a very Muslim island).

our Chalets by the beach

The next morning I woke up early and strolled the five metres from the chalet, across the small path into the beach and had a swim....absolute paradise. Later that morning, Will and I went to Ecodivers for a 'discovery' scuba dive course. Both our first time scuba diving, it was a great way to start. Geoffrey, the owner of the small dive school was such a friendly, relaxed guy who was also living in the same chalets we stayed at. After watching a video on the principles of scuba diving and filling out an extremely easy multiple question quiz we all geared up and headed for the beach. As it was our first dive we could go to a depth of 12m, once in the water I realised that I was not a natural! I struggled with the new sensations of breathing underwater and even staying at the bottom while also being careful not to damage the coral with my flippers. Still Geoffrey was a great teacher and made sure we were both OK for the hour in the water. We saw some really beautiful coral from their coral nursery and some beautiful fish including little Nemos. Hopefully I will be able to go back to Tioman island with more time (and money) to do some more diving in the near future. We celebrated later that night with some beers at Peace out beach bar, a few yards from our chalets followed by a good local meal at the restaurant, Mawra next door to YP chalets! It's very easy to get used to island life like this very quickly.

Mid sweaty hike in the jungle

Eager to explore more of the island, the next morning Faye, Will, Nils and I decided to hike to Juara beach on the other side of the island. Geoffrey had told us it was a two hour walk along the road and was a 'little' hilly. Thanks to my navigation skills, we ended up taking the more scenic jungle trail straight through the forest (much to Faye's displeasure). It was hot and humid but the rest of us seemed to enjoy it. After two hours we made it to the road which we would follow a further thirty minutes to the beach, Faye here decided to turn back, opting to hitch back to Tekek. Sweaty and hungry, Nils, Will and I continued on and finally made it to Juara. We found a local, cheap place to eat on the beach. I had a huge bowl of very tasty vegetable and peanut curry with rice and we shared some sardine and curry empanadas. The next couple of hours we spent swimming in the wavy sea and I got annihilated by sandflies. At 3pm we decided to turn back, not looking forward to the very hilly road walk back, we did however find a lovely spot to go swimming in after the first thirty minutes of walking in Ali's waterfall (no clue who Ali is)! And after. Any failed attempts at hitching (anyone that stopped wanted to charge us extortionate amounts for a lift back), a lovely older couple in a pick up truck who lived in Tekek pulled over and dropped us back for nothing! Us and our aching legs were very grateful!

The next day we rented snorkels, flippers and masks from Geoffrey at had a beach and  snorkel day. The snorkelling was so good we just went off the beach. The coral, fish and turtles were there to see straight off the coast and Nils even saw a bariccuda and reef shark! Later that evening we went down to Nazris where there was an Irish wedding being set up and apparently 65 Irish people had descended ok the island....this had been talk of the island for the whole time we had been there and some other backpackers we met who had been on the island for a week or two had been roped into bartending. As it was Ramadan and a Muslim population on the island, a lot of the locals could not handle alcohol. The beach wedding set up looked stunning and (if) I ever tie the knot, Tioman island is where it will be!

Beach wedding set up

Alternating our beach days with other activities, the next morning Nils, a German girl we met Lena and I decided to trek to more of the island. This time we headed north for, ABC beach, again taking some snorkels with us. We trekked through the jungle to monkey bay and beach. The trail we had been warned was not overly obviously. We quickly realised that that was because there wasn't a trail...or maybe there had been at one stage. We still continued and followed the black cable lines, keeping them to our left as a local woman had advised us, while also keeping an eye out for snakes and monkeys who might grab our camera or water. Still, it was an experience and after over two hours we reached monkey bay, a small deserted beach surrounded by trees and the odd monkey hovering around. After some swimming and (disappointing) snorkelling we turned back. We stopped at a small beach resort fifteen minutes from ABC beach called panuba resort for lunch, a swim and a nap! We rejoined the Will, Faye and Lenas friend for dinner of seriously spicy Tom Yam and rice before going to peace out bar (beach shack) for some live music which I think is as lively as it gets on the island.

ABC beach

 After five nights on the island, I sadly left to make my way to Singapore. Even though I was excited for a new place to visit, Tioman is one of those places that I really loved and definitely want to return some day. Whether it be to dive, trek, eat....or even get married on the beach!

Next Stop: Singapore
Stayed: YP chalets 40RN per night
Nazris place for one night in the dorm 20RN per night
Food/Drink: Mawra, next to YP chalet for cheapest food on the island. Lots of local dishes and good breakfast, €2-3 per meal.
Johan's restaurants - local noodles and curries €3-4 per meal
Peace out beach bar for beers
ABC divers bar - good Long Island ice teas and happy hour

#48 Beach time on Perhentian Island, Malaysia

After a foodie indulgence in Penang for five days I was ready for some beach time. So the Perhentian Islands came st a perfect time in the trip. The two islands off the east coast of Malaysia are very popular with divers as well as heading beautiful beaches and good snorkelling. The smaller of the two islands, Perhentian kecil, is more popular with backpackers compared to the larger island which has large resorts lining the beaches.

Faye and I took our first overnight bus in Malaysia from Butterworth after taking a free twenty minute ferry from Penang. We boarded the bus at 9.30om and were surprised with how comfortable it was (of course, I'm true South East Asian style they had the AC up full whack causing us to whip on socks, jumpers and cover ourselves with blankets for the first time since arriving in Malaysia. We arrived in Kuala Besut, the small port town and gateway to the island at a ripe hour of 5am. We knew on arrival that the return boat to Perhentian would cost about 70RN so when we found a man selling them for this price but promising a boat leaving at 7am, an hour before all other boats we took it. The small speed boat left with us and seven other dreary backpackers, dropping me at coral beach, the smaller beach on Kecil island. Leaving the rest at Long beach, the main beach on the island. I found my basic chalet accommodation on the beach called maya chalets. In true island style, no one was to be seen, it was 7.30am after all. After an hour waiting, playing  with the resident cats, a young guy called Hazim came out wrapped in a blanket claiming he worked there and had been battling a flu all night, he let me into my room and I had a very decent three hour nap.

Later that day we discovered the island, walking the ten minute trail from coral to long beach. We had a much needed swim in the pristine clear waters before finding a small beach bar named 'Chichis blancas' (translating as white titties....no joke)! Jordan, the owner from Borneo Malaysia was also who Faye was Couchsurfing with. He was definitely a character and didn't make it home earlier than 4am every day we were there. He was 40 but partied like an 18 year old...he made us feel very old and boring.

Jordan, Me and his pet unicorn

Everything on Perhentian was more expensive than what we were used to. Food was one of these things. Jordan was happy for us to use the little kitchen out the back of the bar to make breakfast which was very handy. The majority of the time we ate in 'Ewan's', a restaurant and shop in between coral and long beach. It did huge portions and good wifi...perfect for us.

After a full beach day I decided to see more of the island and with no roads the only options were walking or taxi boats (expensive taxi boats)...walking it was. A rough 'boardwalk' has been built around the island leading to various beaches and to the small town aptly named 'Fishermans' village. The boardwalk we were told was built so that during monsoon season there is still access to the villages. Faye and I walked south from Coral beach through the jungle on the boardwalk, coming firstly to rainforest beach complete with puppies owned by the rainforest camping accommodation. We continued onto Maya beach and onto Petoni beach for snorkelling. Maya beach was our favourite, it has chalet accommodation on the small private beach but the manager running it was there and was happy for us to use the beach and snorkel. He also told us when the tide is in there is an 80% chance of seeing sharks just off the bay! I did snorkel when I was there but didn't see the promised sharks (and didn't search too hard for them either)! We continued out trekking there another day looping around the opposite direction, following the very haphazard boardwalk that had obviously been damaged through various storms to the main village on the island, Fishermans village. Most of the boat tours come here for lunch, luckily we arrived earlier in the morning and were pleasantly surprised with the calm and quaint village, away from the tourist riddled long beach. We spent a few hours on the small beach there and had a good bowl of cheap chicken noodles cooked by a lady at a little stall on the edge of town. We continued through the village and looped back through the same beaches we had walked the opposite way to the days prior. The whole walk took about 3-4 hours, not including our many stops to swim in the sea.

Finding puppies on our walk

The night Cayo finished his open water we all celebrated with an overpriced burger and even more overpriced rum in the diving resort 'Oh lala' on long beach. Strangely (or maybe not strangely) Jordan and a lot of the male resident diving instructors, bar tenders and local staff were dressed in women's bras, dresses and sarongs....apparently a common occurrence on a Saturday night. We also watched the fire show which is a nightly occurrence on long beach. Our last day was a quiet beach day, food at Ewan's and swimming in the crystal clear sea. Glorious.

Taman Negara was our next destination and a big difference to the beaches of Perhentian. Taman Negara in the small village of Kuala Tahan located in central Malaysia is now a national park, the thick, dense jungle on the river......is the oldest rainforest in the world.
With Cayo heading back to Kuala Lumpur, Faye and I left Perhentian islands on the first boat out at 8am. We were keen to see if it was possible to get public transport all the way to Taman Negara but with limited wifi on the island we hadn't had time to research. So when we were approached by numerous our operators offering air conditioned mini vans to bring us all the way to Taman Negara we reconsidered. Especially as it looked like a serious mission to public bus it all the way. We copped out and paid the 65RN (bargaining down from 80) to bring us, along with a French couple and Dutch girl the seven hours to Kuala Tahan, the gateway town to the national park. The town itself doesn't have much more than some small hues houses, tour companies a few small restaurants and shops. We found a small hostel on the river overlooking the river for only 15RN per night with cute little kittens (always an added bonus for me)!

Exploring the rainforest

Views from the hostel 

The evening we there we ate in little restaurant (and what looked like the main one) on the corner of the town. The next morning we took one of the small boats across the river for 1RN each...taking less three minutes. We paid 1RN park entrance fee and took the map given to us by the rangers. As I had been warned by other travellers about the number of leeches in the park we both opted for long leggings and thick socks (it.was.so.hot)! We hiked the basic DIY loop including a canopy walkway, up Bukit.....to a viewpoint. Thankfully it stayed lovely and dry, thus avoiding the likelihood of imposing leeches. The whole loop only took about three hours. Here were other hiking and tours available but with limited time to get to Tioman and Faye not keen to read-enter the jungle we decided to leave the next day. Later that night we found a place for food in Acha restaurant, where Acha herself made us a really nice chicken ginger (with three chillis in it for me) and a beef sweet and sour for Faye (with no chilli). She showed us pictures of her two sons and introduced us to her husband. We chatted away to her as we ate the tasty food she has prepared. By the time we left we knew what age her whole family were as well as their birthdays and we had arranged to come back the next morning to have roti and coffee for breakfast. After all, a roti a day.........

Hostel kitten

The whole SMART team came for training. The hostel was full of young Malaysian men in uniforms. The next morning, after it was raining all night we awoke to see the whole rover flooded (I think a regular occurrence) and affirmed our decision not to trek further that day. We managed to take a public bus from the town after everyone telling us that sometimes it comes.....sometimes it doesn't! Thankfully to both ours and the locals surprise the rickety bus came at 8.20am and we avoided having to pay the expensive tourist van fees. We took the bus along the main road through the jungle with moneys running across the road to Jerantut, a city south. From here we took two more coaches, one to Kuantan and the second from Kuantan to Mersing. We arrived in Mersing at about 8.30pm that night. Mersing is the port town and ferry port for the boat to Tioman. We knew we would have to stay a night here and ended up getting a really nice hostel for the night close to the port to get a ferry the next morning.

Next Stop: Tioman island, Malaysia
Stayed: Maya Chalets, Perhentian Kecil. Lianas hostel, Kuala Tehan.
Food/Drink:

#47 Eating....a lot in Penang, Malaysia

Needless to say I was extremely excited to go to Penang, an island in the north west of Malaysia and linked to mainland by a bridge. It is considered one of the worlds food capitals! It also has the famous Georgetown heritage walk, complete with alternative street art designed by Ernest Zacharavic. It also has a big national park, famous Penang hill which is popular with hikers or non hikers who choose to take the cable car up as well as beautiful temples and big malls. It has everything really. Faye and I took a bus straight from Cameron Highlands, through Butterworth and over the Penang bridge, taking about four hours. We were Couchsurfing again in Penang thanks to Faye who organised it.

When we got into Penang we met Jim, our host. He is a Penang local and told us he was a financial advisor, thirty years old and had hosted over three hundred times on Couchsurfing! Wow! He was so friendly and knowledgable about the area, he also had great enthusiasm for the local street food (this made me very happy)! In our first day alone I ticked off four new foods I wanted to try; Penang laksa, roti canai, putu mayam and Chendul. Chendul was the first Penang delicacy I tried and I must admit, it was a good first. Jim brought us to a little stall down a side street which was so busy and was producing colourful bowls of creamy iced looking soups. Jim ordered us one and showed us how to mix it all up, turning it from a white milky pudding to a light brown. It tasted like mushy weetabix in coconut milk. A mixture of coconut and condensed milk, ice, red beans and grass jelly (yep)! It was strange and somewhat refreshing but I am not rushing to try it again. Penang laksa is a type of noodle soup and a tasty mix of flavours from mackerel, sour tamarind and chilli. It came in a big bowl with noodles, shallots, coriander, cucumber and sometimes also pineapple. It definitely had a kick to it..luckily I like my food hot and spicy! Roti canai Faye and I tried later that evening in Little India, a popular snack of flatbread served plain as a snack with some curry to dip into or stuffed with egg, fish and meat. It was so cheap and tasty, we were hooked on roti for the rest of our time in Malaysia.

Penang Laksa

Jim told us the street art has come in the last three years. Later that evening we spent a few hours discovering some of the street art on the heritage trail and little India at night. Little India, the Indian quarter just off the heritage trail was great to visit at night with local music blaring from the various sari and music shops, lights lining the streets and plenty of great local food places. We also stumbled across a food court just next to the heritage trail. Most of tables were taken up by older Malaysian men enjoying their Saturday night drinking carlsberg and eating big bowls of noodles. I had a beer and we were kept entertained by three Malaysian singers on stage in the middle of the chairs and tables....they even sang the Corrs in Malay.

The next morning we took the bus to Penang national park. Not before Jim brought us for breakfast (I had already had porridge so declined breakfast) but that didn't stop Jim ordering three portions of hokkien mee (a big bowl of thick egg noodles and white rice vermicelli in a pork and prawn broth topped with a boiled egg, crispy shallots, spicy sambal (chilli sauce) and small prawns). Apparently a very common breakfast dish usually eaten with black coffee! They were very tasty so I managed what I could on top of the porridge wth Jim ordering anther portion of curry noodles on top of his hokkien. After being completely stuffed with noodles we left Jim, Faye and I took a public bus straight to Penang national park which was free entry! They provide you with a map and the trails were clearly signposted. There were two beaches to visit, a lookout, lake and  swing bridge. We decided to go to....beach where there was a turtle sanctuary. We hiked into the jungle for an hour and a half until we made it to the beach. We crossed the bridge over a meromictic lake (a rare lake where there is fresh water on top of salt water)! Further down the beach we found the turtle sanctuary which consisted of five different tubs containing various rescued turtles and one with about twelve baby turtles inside. We couldn't swim at the beach unfortunately due to lots of jelly fish in the water but we did stop to watch a very serious game of volleyball being played by a group of school students who had been camping in the national park on a school trip. On our way back out of the park, the heavens opened and I mean they were widddeeee open! Within about two minutes we were soaked. Even my very attractive plastic poncho didn't help that much, after an hour we had made it back out and the sun returned. We had a celebratory roti and curry (soooo good) before heading back on the bus... oh so very soggy.

The next day we explored Georgetown. Famous for its heritage trail and inventive street art. We spent the morning wandering around finding the pieces of art tucked away on side streets being typical tourists and taking pictures of it all list trying to dodge the boards of Chinese tourists. For lunch we headed back into Little India and had a really tasty lunch. I had a 'set vegetarian lunch' which consisted of small portions of a cucumber salad, picked onion in spices, a Dahl and curried vegetables with white rice all served on a banana leaf with ginger tea. Very tasty.

Georgetown street art 

Banana leaf vegetarian Indian lunch

During our stay I was keen to traipse up Bukit bendera, also known as Penang hill. Despite Faye's reservations she agreed to join me, Jim rather conveniently was too busy with work to come but he did say he had hiked it numerous time before. The hill is 833m tall and has a very steep 'jeep track' sloping the 5.1km up which can be walked up. Most people however choose to at 30RN return for a cable car to the top which is found on the other side of the hill. The hill is free to enter otherwise, and is surrounded by lovely botanical gardens with lots of monkeys roaming around. After fifteen minutes Faye bowed out so I carried on alone, thankfully with some pumping tunes I made it to the top in about an hour and half. As we had set off so early (7am to be exact), I made it to the top before the cable car had started running so there was virtually no body else at the top! I was able to wander around the two temples at the top, the love lock railings and enjoy the (very hazy) view of Penang all alone. On the way down I decided to take the quicker and easier option of.....running down. Despite getting very weird looks from the various people going up and down in jeeps and on scooters. Safe to say I made it back down in a sweaty 35minutes, meeting Faye at the bottom...her looking a lot fresher than I.

On our last day in Penang we ticked another site off my list of things to do in Penang. We visited the famous 'Kok Lek Si' Buddhist temple situated in Air Itam. It is said to be the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. It comprises of a few different temples but the main attraction is the towering 36 metre tall 'Pagoda of ten thousand buddhas'. We went quite early in the morning meaning the temples were quieter however they were quite touristy with plenty of souvenir shops on all levels. The details and good cladding of the buildings were beautiful. I took the small cable car up the towering statue of Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy which overlooks the city of Penang. We also took the chance to make a small donation to choose a coloured ribbon, each representing a different wish to hang on the 'wishing tree' in one of the prayer rooms. After walking around the temples for a couple of hours we descended back down into the bustling market street of Air Itam. On a small side street we found a famous street food stall called Sisters curry mee which specialises in..surprise surprise; big bowls of curry mee. A spicy coconut curry soup with thick egg noodles, tofu, shrimp, cockles and pigs blood! Topped with mint and sambal. The two sisters have had their stall since the 1940's so you could say they have perfected the dish! They were also both there when we visited. I had a big bowl of curry mee for 5RN even braving the porks blood which actually didn't taste of much thankfully. Later that evening we said goodbye to Jim who dropped us off at the bus stop where we embarked on our next journey and reminisced about the amazing food we had eaten and culture we had absorbed in beautiful Penang.

Jim, Faye and I 

Kok Lek Si temple

Next Stop: Pehentian Kecil island, Malaysia
Stayed: Couchsurfing with Jim
Food and drink: Penang Laksa (5RN) at Air Itam market, Penang. Roti Canai (1.80RN) in little India, Chendul (4RN) in Georgetown, Curry mee in Air Itam (5RN), Hokkien mee, Air Itam market (5RN).

#46 Tea drinking in the Cameron Highlands

Five days in Kuala Lumpur flew by and what a great introduction to Malaysia it was! I'd had the chance to try some of the famous food, sample the night life, see the sights and met some great people. 

The next Stop in Malaysia was the famous tea land, known as the Cameron Highlands. North east of Kuala Lumpur and at an altitude of 1000-1600 metres, the Cameron Highlands is a popular place to visit the famous tea plantations, strawberry farms and to do some walking. 

Faye and I took one of the regular buses that leave from the TBS bus terminal in Kuala Lumpur to Tanah Rata, the main town in the centre of the highlands. The bus took about four hours, the last two of which were very windy roads. When we had initially boarded the coach in Kuala Lumpur we wondered why there were lots of little plastic bags tucked into the front of each seat. An hour into the winding roads we quickly realised as the three men behind us took it in turns to very casually vomit into these little bags, hanging said bag on the back of the chair until the next succession of bends in the road caused them to reach for it again. Gross. Apparently this is a common occurrence on SE Asian bus journeys! I guess we are more seasoned to bumpy bus journeys or have stronger stomachs. When we pulled into Tanah Ratah we quickly dismounted the bus. We hadn't booked any accommodation but with numerous guest houses all in the main little complex in town it was very easy to find a cheap guesthouse in TJ's. Mas, the girl at reception was really friendly and showed us all the different hiking routes we could do ourselves. It didn't long for us to find a 'food court' type set up of little eateries where I had some local food of Nami (fried rice) and paprika chicken before the torrential rain came and didn't stop all evening. 

The next morning, thankfully the rain had stopped. We got up early and opted to not take a standard bus tour that brings you to the tea plantations, strawberry and butterfly farms. Instead we hitched (after Mas advised us it was safe to do so) to Brinchang, the next town about 8km from Tanah Ratah, from here we started a trail (which turned out to be a road) up to mossy forest! It was a nice uphill walk all the same, passing tea plantations, strawberry and vegetable farms as well as the local tea farmers small blue cabins where they lived. It took us about two hours up. Unfortunately as we made it to the top so did all the tourist vans who were also entering the mossy forest. The mossy forest was essentially, well, a very mossy forest. It grows in high elevations, such as in the Cameron highlands, the clouds are at low levels bringing lots of rain and shade to the forest. We walked the 2km boardwalk through the forest getting glimpses of the view through the trees. After the forest we walked (and then accepted a lift from a lovely couple who stopped and offered us one) down to Sungei Palas 'boh' tea factory. It was full of tourists but the rolling tea plantations and tea pickers village we walked through to get there was beautiful. We got back to Tanah Rata for a lunch of local dish; chicken rice ball in local restaurant which didn't exactly live up to its reputation. 

Boh Tea plantation

Local Indian food

Later that night however we went for a 'snack' at a small Indian stall just around the corner from the guesthouse. I had chapatti and two small scoops of curry for 1.50R which was delish! The Indian lady there and her family were really friendly and we chatted to some other travellers and the family there. 

The next day we hitched back to Brinchang (expert hitchers by this stage). An Indian man who owned a ranch nearby and a Pakistani vet picked us up, before we had even sat down in the truck the Indian man was asking us if we wanted to ride his horse! We politely declined and instead he dropped us off at Big red strawberry farm. When we got into the farm, Faye was very disappointed that her wish of picking strawberries couldn't be fulfilled as it wasn't 'strawberry season'. 

 On the way back we hitched (again) to Tanah Rata. Two cars stopped for us with an extended Indian family occupying them. They seemed very friendly so I jumped in the back of one with two elderly Indian women and Faye got in the other car. The Indian women, who did not speak a word of English were very interested in me. One the women's daughters was in the front seat with her husband who was driving. The daughter translated for the Indian women, they asked my why I was travelling and where I was from. The inevitable question then came up of how old I was and was I married! Shock horror when I told them I was 27 but not married...'but why'? One of them asked. I joked saying I didn't want that stress. She the offered me up a Malaysian man to marry, she said I was too blonde and slim not to be married. I'll take that one as a compliment I guess. We had a good laugh and when they dropped us off we got a group picture with them.  You don't meet people like that on the bus at home anyway. 

Some of our lovely hitch-hiking family 

The one thing I really wanted to do before leaving Cameron Highlands was a visit to Brinchang night market in golden hills. It started off with the usual clothes, toys and souvenirs. We walked further up the market stalls and were overwhelmed with the amount of enticing food stalls loaded with strawberries (of course), corn on the cob, sweet potatoes in many forms, sweets, fried chicken, fried rice, pancakes, spicy stir fries and juices. We didn't know where to begin and after two laps of the market we managed to devour; Sweet potato balls, deep fried sushi, noodles, pancake with corn, peanuts and sugar and of course we bought some fresh juicy strawberries for the road! A very well spent last night in the highlands. 

Next Stop: Penang, Malaysia

Stayed: TJ's guesthouse, 25RN per night 

Food and drink: night market in golden hills, brinchang, try everything. Especially the sweet potatoe balls, strawberries and thin peanut and corn coated pancakes. Really good Indian curry, chicken and rice in a local Indian stall in Tanah Rata. The tea plantations at Boh plantations. 

#45 Hello Malaysia, first stop Kuala Lumpur

After a stunningly beautiful month in the Philippines (it didn't feel like enough), Amy and I rounded it off by booking a very fancy hotel in Cebu city for our last night in the Philippines (what backpacking budget)?! We enjoyed the rooftop pool all day,  our massive double beds for a much needed sleep that night and milked the buffet breakfast for two hours the next morning before flying from Cebu airport to Manila. I said goodbye to the best travel buddy I've had and new life long friend before I headed off for my flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and she departed back to Perth, Australia. 

After nearly 12 hours of travelling I arrived in Kuala Lumpur (KL as the locals call it), Malaysia (country number 15 on my trip) and met my friend Faye in the airport. We made our way from the airport to our accommodation which would also be my first Couchsurfing experience! Couch surfing is an online community of like minded travellers or locals who offer up their couch, spare room, floor etc for free to travellers passing through. Faye is an adamant couch surfer. It's a great way to save money while traveling and also to get shown around a new city or town by the people that live there. Win win! When we pulled up to the huge apartment block just around the corner from the Petronas towers I was 
wondering if we had the right address. We arrived up at Bens apartment and he greeted us straight away with a warm welcome and a Belgian accent even though it was 11.30pm on a school night. We ended up sitting up chatting, playing pool and cooing over his beautiful cat Nana. His friend Eva from America and his Spanish housemate Cayo also joined us. Over the next few days we felt so at home, using the pool and gym that his apartment block had as well as being shown around the best places to eat in KL (the food here is amazingly delicious) and even being taken to parties by Ben. 

Me, Ben, Nana (the cat), Eva and Faye 

The famous Petronas Towers 

On our first morning, Faye and I went to the Batu caves, a limestone hill about 12km from KL. It is a holy site with temples inside and is a well known tourist attraction. We navigated the train/metro system easily across KL and made 
it to the landmark long before lunch. On the train to the caves we ended up chatting to a retired widower from California called Tim who was also heading to the caves. Tim told us after a while that his wife had recently passed away, they had planned to travel around South East Asia together so he took the plunge, coming away by himself for the first time in over forty years. He was really interesting and loved hearing about our travels too. After dodging monkeys, pigeons and other tourists at the caves and being generally a bit underwhelmed by the landmark, the three of us took a metro to central market and Chinatown. We went to a food court in Chinatown with every type of Asian cuisine you could imagine. I had a very spicy, tasty seafood Tom yum with noodles! A great first meal in Malaysia. 

Bath caves 

The next day, after a long overdue gym session (I still ache when I walk), Ben took Faye and I to meet some of his friends to play some board games in a cafe. After multiple games of UNO we went back to Bens to get ready for a party he invited to us that night in the Belgian Ambassadors house! After eight months of travelling, I felt out of my depth trying to make myself look presentable. Thankfully when we arrived most people were very friendly especially the ambassador himself, Daniele. We spent the night enjoying the free wine (and gin), really good food, salsa dancing and the swimming pool (it was a pool party after all)! Eva and Cayo also came and we met a really nice group of Canadian students who were over in KL on an internship for 6 weeks. It ended up being a late night so Sunday was not extremely productive but Faye and I went to meet three of the Canadian girls that evening from the party for some Indian food. 

Acting classy at the embassy's party 

We also took a day trip to a UNESCO world heritage site town called Melaka. The bus took about three hours each way, costing 20RN return (about €4). Melaka is known for its food, specialising in coconut shakes, chicken rice ball, Nyonya cuisine among other dishes. We got to Melaka quite early and spent the morning wandering around Jonker street which is lined with quirky souvenir shops, small cafes and restaurants. There are numerous Chinese and Hindu temples around the area which are free to enter. After trying some of the local Chinese food and a coconut nut shake (really good) we visited the temples, local churches and 

walked along the canal. There a pimped out tricycles called Trishaws zooming around covered in various paper maché cartoon characters blaring random music and covered in flowers. They definitely add to the quirkiness of Melaka. After a few hours we wandered past a place renting the tiniest electric cars so decided to rent one for twenty minutes to zip our way through the town. Faye took up driving position first and it was hilarious zooming around. We stopped to swap over only to realise that the hand brake was jammed....with cars struggling to get around our little 

green mobile I walked the few hundred yards back to the office to get some help. I managed to get two of the people from the rental place to walk back with me, clueless as to why the car wasn't working. Just as we were approaching where I had left Faye with the 'broken down' car she whizzed past in stitches, apparently we hadn't been putting the brake down to activate the hand brake (i'm blaming Faye for this one). With red faces and lots of embarrassed apologies to the rental company we headed off the get the bus back to KL.   

In our jazzy electric car pre break down 

Melaka 

On our last night in KL, Cayo took Faye and I to the main hawker food street in KL called Jalan Alor, only a twenty minute walk from the apartment. I was in food heaven! The place was bustling and lined with Indian, Chinese and Malayan street food. Colourful little dim sum dumplings and steamed buns, noodles, fruit, fried ice cream, coconut shakes, skewered meat, fish, vegetables and various rice dishes lined the long street. We found a Chinese restaurant and sat outside, we all shared a beer, Singapore noodles (sooo tasty) and spring rolls. Rounding it off with chocolate 'fried' ice cream (rolled ice cream)! I am definitely going back next time I'm KL for a dim sum binge! 

A Melaka coconut shake 

Paprika squid and chicken at Tepak Urban dining 

Jalan Alor street food 

The next morning Faye and said our goodbyes to the boys and beautiful cat Nana. We headed to the TBS bus station in a GRAB taxi and took a four hour, very windy journey to the Cameron highlands. 

Next stop: Cameron Highlands

Stayed: Couchsurfing 

Food and drink: Assam pedas (spicy paprika chicken and spicy squid with rice and vegetables) and a mango shake at Tepak urban street dining for less than £3.

Singapore noodles with chicken and shrimp at Jalan Alor (shared), £1.

Rolled chocolate ice cream at Jalan Alor, £1

Traditional curry and rice at a small Indian restaurant in Masjid Jamak, £1
Tom ham seafood noodles in Chinatown, £1.50 

#44 Camiguin island...or 'come again' as the locals say

After taking a ferry from Bohol, taking about 3.5 hours we arrived in Camiguin island. We hadn't met any other travellers going to Camiguin but I had read about it in a guide book I had picked up along the way. It described it's good hiking, waterfalls and adventure sports. We had a few days left and enough time to visit another place so we decided to take the ferry there from Bohol. 

We hadn't booked accommodation in advance but unbeknownst to us, it was a bank holiday in the Philippines. We became aware of this firstly when we got to the port in Jagna, Baohol three hours before the ferry was due to depart to be told that the ferry was full and we had to be put on a waiting list (thankfully we were number three and four on the list). We managed to make it on the ferry thankfully. 

When we arrived in Camiguin we took a tricycle from the port to Yumbing. Our lovely driver Sonny said he would bring us around until we found somewhere to stay and recommended some places. The first few were fully booked for the weekend. He then brought us to Medano resort, a family friendly basic hotel with big swimming pool backing onto the sea and views of famous White Island about a kilometre away. We immediately thought it was too expensive but enquiries anyway. The Filipino owner Rolien, a happy man in his fifties immediately welcomed us warmly, asks us where we were from. When I told him I was Irish he was quick to tell me that he was taught in school by Irish nuns and sang when Irish eyes are smiling. He told us they had a fan room available and as we were staying for four nights we negotiated the price down. 

Balcony views in Medano resort 

BBQ and beer st checkpoint 

We looked into what we wanted to do while we were there as we had three full days. We decided to rent a scooter (with Amy driving) and the next day and I was keen to hike the volcano 'Mount Hibok Hibok' which towered above behind Yumbing. On our last day we planned to take advantage of the pool and go to 'White Island' which we could see from our hotel. White Island is one of the main attractions of Camiguin. It is a natural white sand bar in the middle of the glistening sea, small engine boats chug there and back all day bringing tourists to enjoy the pristine beach. Sunset out there looked exquisite so we made that our plan for our last night. 

That evening we had traditional BBQ of meat skewers (chicken and pork for us....no intestines or pigs skin), rice and red horse beer at the very busy checkpoint restaurant which seemed to be the main point in Yumbing for people to go for food. They also had a small shop and bakery. When we returned to our room, it dawned on us why this was the only vacant room left...when we opened the door, the
stagnant heat hit us in the face. We turned the fan on, left the doors and windows open and tried to sleep which we both quickly realised had less chance of happening than Trump declaring his hair is actually not his. 

The next morning after a restless oh so clammy sleep we rented a scooter for the day from the hostel for $6. There were loads of different attractions around the island. We decided to focus on the south west side of the island first. We set off (Amy driving of course) and firstly visited the sunken cemetery. Apparently a real cemetery was originally to be found at this spot until four different eruptions from mount Vulcan caused  the cemetery to be emerged completely  underwater. The last eruption occurred in 1948. It is still possible to dive down and see the original cemetery. Now it is marked by a ladge cross a few hundred metres out to sea  from the viewpoint. After, we visited he Gui-ob church ruins, the Bura soda water springs and Tuasan falls, making our way around the island in an anti-clockwise direction. 

By lunchtime we weren't too far away from the capital of Mambajao, we went and ha ramen (noodle soup with vegetables, chicken and s boiled egg) for lunch in a local eatery. We chatted to two localme. Whom were sitting outside and when we were leaving one gave us Camiguin bananas from his home for our trek the next day. After lunch we continued driving around the island and drove the 5km up into the jungle from the main road to Katibawasan falls, my favourite site of that day. It was around 4pm so there were less people swimming below the towering 250ft high   waterfall.We went swimming, chatting to a lovely elderly couple on their holidays from a nearby region. We also kept getting asked to pose for numerous photos with other groups of teenagers and groups of friends. We joked that we had to start charging for photos. 

Posing with the locals 

The sunken cemetery 

Admiring Katibawasan falls 

Later we went to the checkpoint bakery to stock up on snacks for our hike the next day. We went in search of a local eatery to get some food, only to find another BBQ eatery...meat and rice again so! The man BBQing was keen to know where we were from, once he found out I was Irish he started asking me if I knew Conor McGregor, telling me that he was his idol. As we were leaving after our rice and meat (I was seriously craving some vegetables by this stage) there were tiny kittens huddled at the side of the road outside the restaurant. The McGregor devotee told us there were six strays and that we could take them if we wanted!  This broke my lil heart and I was seriously contemplating taking them but didn't think they (or the airlines) would take too kindly to being stuffed into my backpack. I did however ask Rolien back at our hotel if he wanted any cats....he was quick to decline my offer. When we got back to the hotel (kittenless I may add) we met our guide for the hike the next day 'Be-bot' as well as a French guy called Coco (we couldn't pronounce his real name) who was also doing the hike with us. Coco of course turned out to be a super fit trail runner back in Brittany where he was from! Be-Bot a Filipino man in his forties from the town next to Yumbing gave us a quick briefing for the next day- to bring water and snacks, wear appropriate hiking shoes and clothes. He told us the hike could take anywhere between seven and a half to nine plus hours, I could feel Amys gaze on me (she was NOT overly keen for the hike)! We had another horrendous night in our oven roasted room sweating buckets and listening to the questionable eighties hits being sung by the live band on the rooftop (it was Saturday night after all). I finally caved at about 11.30pm and went downstairs to ask Rolien if he had another fan, tears in eyes, he saw my desperation  and quickly located another fan. It didn't help and we continued to sweat the night away until our alarm went off at 4.45am (WHY DO I DO THIS)!?

Wearily we grabbed our backpack, setting off at 5am on be-bots motorbike, five minutes down the road to the bottom of Mount Hibok Hibok. The four of us (Myself, Amy, Be-Bot 

and super fit Coco) started hiking at 5.30am and set off at a pretty decent pace uphill (I was struggling to keep up). We hiked up through the jungle for nearly four hours, including a break in the old crater of the volcano which used to be a lake. 

Mount Hibok Hibok hike 

At points we literally had to scramble up rocks, clinging onto tree branches or me having be-bot pull me up via my 'good' right arm. I definitely felt I was a lot slower due to my left shoulder being more or less useless. When we finally got to the summit it was still only just after 9am! We were disappointed with the lack of view, clouds blocking it and not clearing for the half hour we were up there. Still we felt proud of our achievement, even though we were saturated with sweat from ascending up in the humidity. Little did I know that going down was going to worse. We descended down a different route, I won't say it was trail as it definitely didn't feel like one. We climbed al let vertically down rocks and mud, again using vines and tree trunks as aides. It took us almost three and a half hours to scramble down. Finally rejoicing as we reached the bottom and ending at some hot springs. 

We hiked over 11km up and down, taking seven and a half hours and leading us to slip and fall repeatedly (I've somehow managed to perfect falling on my left side, avoiding my bad shoulder but I guess putting my right side at risk). Be not told us stories of the cock fighting that is extremely popular in the Philippines, particularly on Sundays after church. He even invited coco to go with him later that day to watch it (I think it's a 'mans' Sunday activity however coco didn't seem that keen to partake. He also to,d us about 'spider fighting' but we weren't too sure if this was true and he seemed to be full of extremely sarcastic stories. After an extremely stressful and tricky descent we arrived at the other side of the volcano to the ardent hibok hibok hot springs. Amy and I went for a dip in the (thankfully) chilled water before going back to the hotel to an attempted ( it failed) nap attempt in our microwaveable heated room. 

That night we went back to checkpoint for dinner and invited coco to come along too. Portions were massive so we shared a chop suey, rice and some red horse. There was a fiesta just down the road so with coco heading back to the hotel for a nap, Amy and I ventured down. It was full of local families with a Filipino comedic act on stage. We couldn't understand a word they were saying but I'm assuming they were pretty entertaining based on the howls of laughter coming from the crowd. With little understanding what was happening we decided to head back to the rooftop of Medano for some cards and music. 

Our last day on Camiguin we spent relaxing by the pool (typically I got burnt at the end of the holiday and resembled a roasted tomato by the end of the day). We had planned to go to White Island later that evening to watch the sunset (they really are incredible here). We sauntered down to the port where the boats depart at 4.30pm only to be told by the (not so friendly) lady that the last boats come back from White Island at 5.30pm (I.e: before sunset). We almost kicked ourselves for not going out earlier that day and couldn't really justify spending 490PHP (only $10) for less than an hour on the beach. Instead we decided to sit at the small cafe/bar in medano with a beer and watch the sunset from there. Which was beautiful but much to our dismay we could watch all the boats going out and coming back from White Island, the last ones returning up until after 6pm! Whhhy!??! Anyway next time I 'come again' to Camiguin (as the locals say), White Island is on my 'to do' list. 

Next Stop: Cebu city

Stayed:  Midano island resort, $7 night for private fan room (was discounted due to multiple night stay) 

Food and drink: checkpoint is the main restaurant in Yumbing. The mains in the restaurant are huge so you can share! $2 each for chop suey, rice and red horse beer. BBQ and rice at Checkpoint. Shawarma from Alex's across the road from checkpoint ($1). Rum and red horse beer in Medano.