Malaysia

It’s been a long time since I updated my blog. I guess it was part laziness, part inaccessibility to computers and part wanting to be devoid of any responsibility for a while. In any case, I am starting it up again. Here is a couple sentence quick recap of what I haven’t written about and I will start with my entry into Malaysia. Lots of good stories I didn’t mention, but it would take days to write it all down.

Indonesia

Yogyakarta: Only place in Indo still ruled by a king and very close to the two most famous temples south of Angkor Wat. Mt. Merapi erupted recently very near the city killing 300 people and the temples and cooled off lava coming down the river was destroying bridges. Let an ATM machine eat my card.

South Java: Spent a week at Pangandaran trekking through the Jungle and surfing. Saw a lot of cool Wildlife and ate Iguana during a big fish cooking party on the beach

Jakarta: Big, scratch that, huge endless crowded city (metro area has 26 million registered, many more not) Took a long time to get anywhere and I left to Singapore after a day.

Singapore: Cleanest city in the world, too clean and safe for my tastes. Saw the Police write a ticket to a guy doing absolutely nothing wrong. Explored the city for 4 or so days. Really good food and went to this rooftop bar where we convinced this rich couple to buy us a $40 Singapore sling. Also partied with the touring riverdance dancers that were performing at the hotel (ex-Michael flately dancers) and ended up at an after party with rich Indonesians buying $500 dollar bottles of grey goose. Food was really good.

Thailand

Bangkok: After a couple days there Tim came and visited me on his 17 days off from work. Went to Muay Thai match, markets, ect. Partied on the legendary Khao San Road.

Chang Mai: Chilled out mountain town where Tim and I went on a three day two night trek in the jungle. Rode on elephants, river rafted and more. Also took a Christmas day cooking lesson and learned to make some Thai food. Christmas night on an overnight train south – definitely different.

South of Thailand Islands: Spent 7 days there including new years. What happens there stays there.

Ton Sai: After Tim left spend a week in a bamboo hut in the Jungle and gave rock climbing a go there and at nearby Rah Lay. Made a sketchy decent to a lagoon. Probably my favorite place in Thailand.

Malaysia

So after spending 30 days in Thailand I was still not sure what I was planning on doing and I had to get out of Thailand so I hopped on the bus to Malaysia to try and figure things out. So 12 hours in a van later I arrived in Georgetown on the Island of Penang. Penang for centuries prior was a major British outpost in Asia where a lot of trade went through and that is still evident today in the architecture, and diversity of culture. Staying in little India I was quick to realize that Malaysian food is really good and cheap. About 2 dollars for as much Indian food as you can eat. My time there I spent with two English guys I met, and approached the nightlife like it was going to be like Thailand, but soon found out that despite the fair amount of bars and clubs, we were their only patrons. On Penang is also a big National Park that had a beautiful beach where sea turtles come up to lay their eggs. I didn’t see any but saw the multiple holes dug as nesting sites. While in Penang I finally made the firm decision to go to Vietnam and attempt to teach English for 6 months to try and save a bit of money to go travelling some more after it because thanks to Australia breaking my budget, I am way lower in money than I hoped. To be honest, after pushing 5 months of travel I am a bit exhausted from the constant meeting people and constant moving. I think actually living in a foreign city will be a great experience to take a break from the moving. So making this decision I took the bus down to Kuala Lumpur and applied for a Vietnam visa and planned to by a plane ticket as soon as it was approved. I spent the first few days in KL seeing the huge twin Pentronas towers and other sights in the city. A throat infection kind of put a damper on the first few days, but luckily the miracle drug amoxicillin cleared it up without having to go to a doctor. My visa also took way longer than it should of so I spent my sick days sending emails out to prospective English schools in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). While sending these emails, I also sent an email that explains me being back in Thailand. Rewinding, a couple of months ago I met a guy in Singapore who was an extra in “The Hangover 2” while they were filming in Thailand. (He had some great stories, but they are his to tell) Anyway, while I travelled around Singapore, he gave me the name of another movie that was about to be filmed about the 2004 tsunami and the number of the casting guy. I called him back then, and he told me it they need extras around late Jan early Feb and I sent him some pictures of myself. I wasn’t sure if it was still going to work out, because production was stopped around Christmas because an American extra sent death threats to Ewan McGregor. After that I didn’t know if it was still on, so I dismissed it. While in KL, I sent him an email just to see and he replied with the exact dates and where I needed to be to meet him in Thailand. After that, I decided to delay my expedition to Nam and take advantage of the opportunity to be in a Hollywood movie. Changing my plans, I realized I had about a week left to travel around Thailand. I prepared to go to the Cameron Highlands, but while in KL started hearing a lot of commotion about the Thaipusam festival and decided to stay for that. Thaipusam festival is basically a Hindu festival where basically devout Hindus pierce themselves with all sorts o needles and hooks and burden themselves with heavy ornaments to please one of their gods and have good fortune the rest of the year. It’s hard to describe but it was a pretty crazy three day event (that is banned in India). An estimated 1.3-1.7 Million Hindus come to the city where the main action is at the Batu Caves. The caves, 14 km north of the city, is where these followers mutilating themselves finish their journey and are often near passing out by the time they get there (and usually go into a crazy trance to get out of it) Taking the train there with some Scottish guys I met in Bangkok, then Kohl Phangan, then again in KL and two English girls, it took us a couple of hours just to get to the cave. The entire place was just one unbelievable crowd, and we definitely stood out being about the only westerns besides about three we saw the whole night. After waiting a while, we made the steep journey up the steps into the caves among the sea of people coming in and out. Inside we saw where the offerings were being made and were also still a little in awe of the amount of people of all ages ascending into this cave at 3 in the morning. Getting home at about 6 am, I caught the bus the next day to the Cameron highlands. Actually, because of bad information it took me two days to get there because I missed the last bus in a middle of nowhere Malaysian town. The highlands are just a little town up in the highest mountains that are sweet relief against the heat of Asia. Up there are lots of “Jungle walks” that involve no walking and mostly climbing with both hands and feet. The atmosphere up there was really nice and confirmed my preference of mountains over beaches. It was such a nice feeling being around a fire for warmth. After four days up there, I caught a bus back to Penang and then caught another bus up to Phuket in Thailand. I stayed in a really dirty run down guesthouse, that I learned was where they filmed the scene in the beach where the guy kills himself and gives Leo the map. Got out of Phuket pretty fast because was pretty put off by all the old white dudes walking around with their young “long stay” prostitute “girlfriends”. Phuket: dirty man capital of the world. The following morning caught the bus up to Khao Lak, met the extra casting director, and we start filming on Monday. Should be a fun experience and it pays about $250 for four days filming. I’ll see how it goes.