Driving Around the World - The Good, the Bad...

We think we have this driving thing all down pat. We can drive, drink a Starbucks, eat a scone, send a text message and veer across three lanes of traffic to make our exit all at the same time with no problem. Then we went on this trip and things started to get all crazy on the roads. It started right away in New Zealand where the steering wheel is on the wrong damn side of the car and you drive on the opposite side of the road. Ok, we can do this, just take it slow. My biggest problem was getting used to the position your body occupies in the road. At home, you're somewhere in the left side of the lane as you make your way down the road. That does not translate well when you're sitting in the right hand side of the car, as I would tend to drift to the left to adjust my body position and consequently start hitting the “wake up jackass – you're running off the road” warning bumps. That and repeatedly hitting the windshield wiper lever instead of the turn signal seemed to be the biggest challenges. Six weeks later though, we were doing just fine.

Ernie P. Dodger

Australia brought no new major challenges. Just toll roads that you don't really know are toll roads unless you happen to spot one of the miniature signs as you are searching wide-eyed for your exit, rolling through Melbourne at 100 kph. Their toll roads are extra fancy there. Registrations for cars are put in the front corner of the dash, so as you whiz under the overpass that is loaded with cameras and sensors, they take a photo, id your vehicle and bill your account. Fortunately you can go online and pay the tolls fairly quickly and easily. But make sure you do it within the three days you're allotted or you start racking up fines. Sweet.

The Red Rocket

Bali was the same in that you're on the wrong side of the car and road. Different in the fact that there is nothing fancy, sophisticated or “ahead of the game” having to do with driving. Lanes, red lights, speed limits, seat belts, seats and all other rules seem to not really apply. The two lane road, once you get to a red light, turns into six lanes as people ready themselves for the drag race start. Of course, the one day that we rent a car I pull to the side of the road so that Courtney can run into a store across the street and a motorcycle cop blips his siren at me to get moving. Why they gotta pick on the foreigner? In addition to the apparent lack of any traffic procedure there are now also hordes of motorcycles. Or more appropriately what we would refer to as scooters. They're everywhere, they run through any space they can fit through, they beep their horns at everything, and they're used as U-Hauls and minivans when needed. The amount of people and cargo you can fit on a scooter will boggle your mind.

No name, sorry buddy.

While we were in Malaysia we were on islands where no cars where allowed or in forests with no roads, so not much to report from there. The bus drivers do like to treat the highways as their own personal Daytona though. And when might has right, most people get the hell out of the way.

To be continued...

Malaysia Photos Are Here

Beaches, jungles and skyscrapers... loved them all!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jeremy.buddress

Jer's Lights from Kuala Lumpur

KL was a pretty cool city when it comes to big cities. Probably the best one we've been to so far on the trip – minus Sydney, which is the one other big city that we feel we didn't get enough time in. While the majority of the population is Muslim, it's a big, western, go-shopping type city. Here are some of the things we found during our five or so days that we stayed.

- Malls malls and more malls. You honestly couldn't walk a block down any road without running into a mall. Some were very fancy with Gucci and Prada stores, some were dirt malls. While the extreme consumerism was a bit disturbing, it did offer some welcome conveniences. Movie theaters, Chilis, donut shops and coffee shops. Welcome to Anytown, USA.

- I got my first proposition. “Hey Mister. You want nice Malay girl? Nice Asian girl?” Being that we were apparently staying in Tranny Town, I thought I'd play it safe and politely decline.

- Malaysian people are awesome. I can't even remember how many times I was just standing around, wherever, doing whatever, and people would come up to me and want to, I guess, practice their English or maybe just be friendly to the obvious foreigner. They would ask where I was from, general questions about the USA (lots of questions about how expensive things were there), if I was married, how old I was and other small talk type subjects. Everyone was very nice and it was always an enjoyable experience to chat with them.

- There also is some unknown oddity about whitey-type foreigners that we couldn't figure out. One afternoon when we were outside the Petronas Towers snapping a few dozen pictures, a few guys from India came up to us and motioned with their cameras. Sure, we'll take your photo with the towers in the background. Um, no. Actually the request was to have the picture taken with me. Courtney ended up in the shot too, but we came to the conclusion that she was kind of unwanted. Each guy had to have their photo taken separately with me. Interesting.

- The first time we get on the monorail, of course some a-hole tries to pickpocket me. We sat down on the bench and he sat down next to me, on my right. His computer bag was on his lap and falling over onto my leg. Our digital camera was in my right cargo pocket and the string handle was hanging out, which was obviously a bad idea. He went right to work with his hand under the computer bag, working to undo the buttons on my pocket. Fortunately I felt something going on and pushed his bag over onto his lap and gave him a serious “What the f are you doing?” look. He gave what appeared to be a profuse apology in Malaysian, hand gestures and bowing included, then got the hell off of the train. Later, dick.

- It only took us about five months, but one thing is sure. In this part of the world, and by that I'll expand to all of South Pacific and South East Asia, lemon means lime. No matter where we go or how we ask for it, it always comes out green. And tasting like lime.

- The Batu Caves were pretty amazing. It's a group of Hindu temples, the largest of which is up 272 steps and set in a huge cave. You're huffin' and puffin' by the time you get to the top. The local girls soccer team that was “doing stairs” here was really putting us to shame.


- Fish spa. Commonly found in anywhere from the local market to an upscale spa, it's literally a small pool filled with fish of consistent size; small ones being for the beginners, larger fish for the pros. Their “job” is to suck at your feet, ankles, and toes, removing the dead skin and leaving your feet all soft and pampered Well the guy running the show failed to mention that the varying fish sizes mattered and oh man, you shoulda seen Courtney tweaking out as those big guys sucked away! It tickles like crazy and is at the same time incredibly creepy feeling. She couldn't stop squealing and giggling like a schoolgirl. We quickly moved to the small fish tub, where Courtney enjoyed herself but I could only handle my heels in the water most of the time. That's one weird experience under the belt. Not for me.




All in all, KL is a pretty damn cool city. Do stop by if you're in the neighborhood.

Jer's Highlight from Kuala Lumpur

I kind of felt like I was getting to live a real life Discovery Channel special. Finally, I was getting to see one of those amazing sites that they do hour long highlight reels of. The Petronas Towers are near – I can feel them! We jumped on the train, walked a country mile worth of transfer then hopped another train and voila – we're there! You walk out of the train in the basement level of what else, a giant mall occupying the bottom six or so floors of the towers and an adjacent building. Unfortunately we got there a bit late in the day to make the scheduled tours. They hand out free tickets each morning for tours at set times that run from 9:00 to 3:00. I guess we'll come back another day... Lucky for us, the mall had a Chilis and a movie theater. Sweet.

So after a few more trips to the KLCC mall (the Petronas Towers are a part of the Kuala Lumpur City Center master planned area that includes a huge park, pools, convention center, etc..) for another movie and a failed trip to the nearby Vietnamese consulate we finally made it for the tour. Well, I made it... Courtney slept in. After she'd witnessed my love affair and the ensuing hour-long photo session of the towers the day before, she decided she probably wouldn't appreciate the more intimate look (and undoubtedly hundreds more photos) the way I would. Especially given it required an early morning wakeup as well. Aka – she'd be bored out of her mind. Whatever! With the free ticket giveaway starting at 8:30 in the morning, a limited number of tickets, and huge popularity of the tours, it was highly advised by all that you show up nice and early to get in line for the tickets. I was up at 6:00, on the road by 6:45 and in line by 7:30. And yes, there was already a line – almost 200 people deep by that time. Good thing the iPod came with so I could wait for the opening with a few games of Klondike. It's a good time waster.

So 8:30 rolled around, the gate went up and the ticket handouts began. Depending on how things go, this could work out to be a long day. Each tour time has a limited number of tickets but the cool thing is that you get to pick your time once you get to the front of the line. Fortunately for me there were still spots available for the second session of the day, 9:15, by the time I made it to the counter. After a few minutes spent wandering through the small exhibit center that they have set up our tour was called. They sit you down for a short 3D (oooooooohhhh!!!) video on the Towers that turns out to be a 7 minute advertisement for Petronas (the national oil company and owner/namesake of the Towers). Then it's up the double-decker elevators to the 41st floor where the skybridge is located. I was a little bummed that we didn't get to go all the way up near the top, but hey, what can I ask of a free tour of such an amazing site? When you step off of the elevator you are told that you have exactly 10 minutes to explore the lower level of the skybridge. Essentially you have ten minutes to snap as many photos as you can, hoping that one of them turns out through the surrounding smog and fingerprint-smudged glass. Then, sooner than you can fill up the memory card on the trusty Sony digicam, you're being ushered back into the elevators and on your way back down. This tour runs like a well oiled machine.

Even though you make it less than half way up the towers, when you look out over the city you are still high above just about everything else there is. Looking up at the towers, down from the skybridge, finding a vantage point from anywhere around the enormous grounds, at night or during the day, the Petronas Towers really do draw you in. Their design is largely based on Islamic symbolism, so there's mystical allure to them that you can feel. We had three or four visits to the towers and every time we were there I had to snap more photos – finding a cool new vantage point or seeing some amazing new feature for seemingly the first time. While not quite as awe-inspiring as when we got to visit the upper reaches of the Empire State Building and Twin Towers in NYC a few years back, the Petronas Towers were an amazing site to visit. Hopefully I won't end up in a Dirty Jobs episode next week.

Bats Buzzing Heads, Butterred Breads and Torture Beds

After the rustic island paradise of Pulau Tioman, we made our way inland to Kuala Tahan and the Taman Nagara (National Forest) at the interior of peninsular Malaysia. Here the island paradise leaves the equation and you're left with rustic. Pretty much the whole point of going to Kuala Tahan is to make your way into the Taman Nagara and do a little exploring, so there isn't a whole heck of a lot there except what's needed to support the passers-through. It's a nice enough little town, albeit basic. From the main street you head down to the banks of the two converging rivers. This is where most of the restaurants in town are. Floating barge restaurants. All well and good until the rainy season comes, the rivers flood and rise 30 or so feet and your establishment is now two blocks inland and sitting on top of a half dozen parked motorcycles. Seriously, we saw the flood line markers. No exaggeration. .



Now you can go serious-style and head into the 130 million year old jungle with ambitions of conquering a few of the 2,000+ meter peaks, or you can have a nice little walk over to the suspension bridge for some photos. We opted for an adventure somewhere in the middle, choosing to hike into the jungle for about two hours and then spend the night in one of the wildlife observation huts (bumbuns). We chose Bumbun Yong for our stay and made our way to the trail one afternoon. Now this wasn't quite as much of an ass-kicker as the hike over to Juara, but there were definitely a few sections of the path that were crazy steep and seemingly never ending. The few hour hike brought us to some massive trees, tree root staircases, nomadic jungle tribes, bat-filled caves and plenty of hot jungle.



The hides are as basic of accommodation as you can get. They are little houses built up on stilts with a toilet, wooden bunk beds and a deck that looks down over the area where hopefully you'll spot some wildlife. Our place slept 12, but fortunately we were the only ones there. This bade well for walking around in our underwear while the sweat-drenched clothes had time to dry over the railing. We had brought with us enough food and water to get us through the evening and back to town by late the next morning. This consisted, of course, of Pringles, canned tuna salad (which was surprisingly quite good), crackers and a pre-buttered package of bread that DID NOT worry about sparing the butter. Oh God, there was probably a quarter cup of slightly banana tasting butter on each section of bread. Not so good a choice.





The evening consisted of lots of card games and the burning of several mosquito coils. We did get lucky and see a little bit of wildlife. A huge barking deer (yes, they sound like a dog barking when they call) made its way down to the watering hole in the early evening and drank a bit until it got spooked and ran back into the forest. The closest encounters other than that were the who-knows-how-many bats flying around inside the hide all night. They never got too close, but you could never really tell where they were so it was still a bit uncomfortable. There were also a ton of fireflies which were quite entertaining to watch.

A nearly sleepless night was assuaged by a few episodes of Family Guy and many a game of Klondike on the iPod, but alas, neither of those helped with the pain of bony hips on hard wood beds. Let's just say I was looking forward to daylight so we could make our way back to town. It was a fun little adventure – just you, a hard ass bed, creepy things going bump, screech, hiss, bark and crackle in the night and your thoughts. Well worth the sleepless night. Funny how we left our blow up sleeping pads packed away back at the hostel...

Pulau Tioman - Courtney's Turn

This place is simply too spectacular for me to pass up the opportunity to ring in with my two cents as well. Somehow I ended up as the Malaysian tour specialist, and did all of the research and planning for this leg of the journey. Jeremy is definitely enjoying the surprises in store so far! I completely changed the original plan from spending time on the west cost of Malaysia after additional research regarding the weather this time of year, as well as hearing tips from several travellers. I opted for the east coast instead, and we've found ourselves in utter paradise on Pulau Tioman; specifically, the tiny village of Juara on the east coast of the small island.

After alighting (our new fav word from the Singaporian train system) the fast boat ferry in Air Batang (which I miraculously survived....Dramamine kicks the ASS of my herbal ginger pills), I was immediately struck by the beachy rustic-ness of the place. And I knew we'd made a good choice in starting here. Air Batang was really great: very chill, very welcoming, awesome diving, great food, fun people....but honestly, it can't hold a candle to Juara. That jungle hike sweat-fest was WELL worth it!

Though I was really pushing to do the hike over to Juara, Jer, on the other hand, needed a little convincing. He was worried that it would be too hard on my knee, yada yada, but also admitted he was afraid he would get bored. WHAT?!? Crazy man! It's no secret that I enjoy island living a little more than him, but BORED?!? I absolutely love finding ourselves in some little remote spot like this where there isn't actually a whole lot to do. Especially after just coming from a big city like Singapore, where it's go, go, go non-stop. That way I don't feel guilty that we're missing out on sightseeing if I'd rather be lazing on the beach, reading, playing cards, working on my tan..... Funnily enough, he was the one really pushing to extend our time here! Our neighbors, a cool couple from Austin, TX and literally the first Americans we've met since the whopping FOUR total we ran into in NZ -- Oh, besides the dive instructor in Air Batang who was from Eugene, OR, of all places! He was rubbing in the fact that his mom just sent him a care package with Tillamook cheddar in it -- Anyway, the couple next door told us they ran into a Swedish guy in the next bay who came here for 3 days with his girlfriend and now they've been here for 6 weeks. We can definitely see how that could happen!

Jer mentioned in his blog that we keep joking about running into Kate and Sawyer, etc., but this place is seriously like the island from Lost. The beaches jut straight up to a jungle wonderland, full of sights and noises that constantly keep you on your toes. I keep looking around and I can't really believe this place exists.

For the four days we've been here now, a new crop of people manage the hike every other day or so, while travellers here bid a sad farewell to this side of the island and head back to catch the ferry onward. Still, at any one time there has never been more than a total of 7 travellers – yes SEVEN whole people with whom to share this treasure. And they are all cool and interesting, and full of awesome stories and tips for our future locales, so we don't mind. ;) We literally have paradise to ourselves!

Pulau Tioman - Part II

I will admit, when Courtney described Juara to me I was a bit hesitant at first. “It's kind of like ABC, but even prettier and more chill.” I was actually worried that I may get a little bored. But here we are, ponying up to our hospitable bungalow proprietor for another night because I really can't get away. I will qualify Juara as the closest thing to the paradise island getaway as I've ever seen.






We have our little bungalow right on the beach (which is now $8 a night), beautiful white sand beaches, perfect sunshine swimming in and out from behind the clouds, and great people. There's a little cafe, Bushman's, right down the beach, that is so tasty we can't bring ourselves to branch out from (minus our afternoon Pringles and cookie runs to the little shop down the way). The fresh banana pancake and homemade bread for breakfast, and grilled fish or squid and veggies in a peppery garlic sauce for dinner has us hooked. Everything we've tried so far has been fantastic and of course very cheap. I'm not giving up on a good thing!

We had another nice jungle walk past an honest to goodness rubber tree plantation
up to a really cool series of waterfalls where we had a well deserved dip and hung out for a bit. We tried to get some more snorkeling in, but unfortunately on this side of the island the waves crash a bit too heavy and everything gets all churned up so the visibility is no good. I'm sure we'll find something else to do.

So here we are, spending our extra and we'll assume last day in this island paradise. More reading, relaxing, playing in the waves and blog writing. Tomorrow it will be a ball busting hike, vomit-inducing boat ride to the mainland and bus ride of who-the-hell-knows-how-long until we get to our next destination. Heading into the national parks and central highlands of mainland Malaysia. See you on the other side!

Pulau Tioman - Part I

The island of Pulau Tioman is off the eastern coast of peninsular Malaysia. Hop a coach from Singapore for about $20, knock out a few episodes of Lost Season 3 (Bucholz, thanks for buying those through our Itunes, by the way. They've provided many hours of lazy entertainment over the past few months.) and you arrive in Mersing. Once in Mersing you make a quick stop in to the local travel agent guy and pick up your fast boat tickets to the island. Two Dramamine, a few more episodes of Lost (damn, they're almost over!!) and almost two hours of bone-chillingly cold AC later, you're there.

Hop off onto the jetty and make your way to the main drag. This is the main drag. Nice.


Kick your way up the sandy sidewalk and find a nice little hut just off the ocean for ten or twelve bucks a night. We stayed the first few nights in the small, northern village of Air Batang (ABC). Our place was simple with a bed, cold shower, no-flush toilet, fan and friendly? resident giant frickin' spider.


Now while Courtney is usually pretty excited to see the creepy crawlies while we're out and about, for some reason when they're in our room she has a totally different reaction. I can probably say that is the most freaked out I've ever seen her about a bug. Excuse me, arachnid. Granted the dude was about four inches across, had a menacing look about him and was wicked fast! A few dodged swipes of the water bottle later, and he had gone from the window screen in the bathroom to under the bed. This was not comforting Courtney as she was standing on top of the bed making I'm-scared-of-bugs, whining like a little girl, KILL THAT F'N THING sounds. With a distracting roll of the water bottle later and a quick swipe of a size 11 Chaco we heard that oh so distinctive “large bug just died” crunching sound. Problem solved. Can we go to bed now?

We would go for snorkels, wander around the village and relax for most of the day. We did fire up for an afternoon of scuba diving one day which was awesome. We did two dives off of another smaller island, Coral Island, that the dive shop was heading out to for the first time this year. It's still technically monsoon season around here so the seas have a tendency to be a bit rough. Fortunately, the past week or so had been pretty calm so we took the chance and made the half hour trudge out to the island. Totally worth it, minus the over-the-side fish food that a few passengers almost provided due to the rough seas, as both dive sites were great. We saw turtles, tons of big angel fish, eels, some fantastic coral and a very odd looking cuttle fish. We even got up in time on Monday morning to catch the last five minutes or so of the Super Bowl. Can't say there was a whole lot of interest from the locals to see the game, but at least they had satellite TV. Congrats Steelers.

After three nights in ABC we decided to tackle the 11km VERTICAL trek over to the only village on the east side of the island, Juara. Now from what we'd read, there is only a walking trail over to Juara. The ferry doesn't make it around to that side of the island and there are no roads that go over the island so the the only way to get there is by foot. We ditched one of the backpacks in ABC to lighten the load and made our way to Tekek, a village to the south of ABC, where the trail starts. I guess I use the word “trail” loosely at this point, but I want to be sure people aren't confused. This is not the Lief Ericson Trail in Forest Park or any other nicely cleared away, gravelled, bark dusted or paved trail you may be used to at your local green space. This is more of an overgrown, up the side of a mountain, watch where you step so you don't slip and die, ringing sweat from your shirt type “trail”.




We're pretty sure we saw Locke and Jack hunting a wild boar on the way, but fortunately no ominous black smokey thing, polar bears or Others. It took us a bit over three hours and we were pretty much down for the count by the time we made it to Juara.