Malaysia Part 2

After we left Mukut and hit the mainland, we made a B-line for Taman Negara, the famous national park near the center of the country. We stayed a two nights there, and did some hiking, walked a jungle canopy rope bridge system almost 2 km long, and saw the Orang Osli, the native people. Lonely Planet warned us of the leeches, and of course it rained while we were there and by the end of our first day hiking they were out in force. They were little, but just scary. After not getting any and seeing the guides running around in shorts and flip flops, I figured they were overhyped and did the same since it was brutally hot. Nath, of course, was in shoes and pants and got the first leech. I got it off with a match and then, unfortunately, I got one on my toe inside my sandals and the resulting hole wouldn't stop bleeding for over a day if left uncovered. We did a night safari where you ride around in the back of a truck and they point out animals with a spot light. That guy was just amazing at finding wildlife, a true expert.

From the Taman Negara area, we took the "Jungle Train north east to Kota Bahru. It heads off into the jungle and stops at endless little villages. The Lonely Planet described like an adventure, so we did it. It was hot, and amusing to see hundreds of school kids pile on and off, and it was definitely an experience. If you got hot, you could just walk to the opening between cars and hang out in the open air. No safety measures there! It was a nice change. There were quite a few amazing limestone walls along the way that I saw that called out to be climbed, but with a schedule and no ability to place a bolt that just wasn't going to happen.

Kota Bahru has a famed night market. We gorged ourselves on everything from Roti Murtabak, an unhealthy egg filled version of the roti canai, to blue mango sticky rice. We ate and drank from as many stands as possible for about an hour and a half. The total cost for amazing quality dinner, drinks, and dessert was about $5 for both of us. In Kota Bahru we had our first taste of sugar cane juice. There was a guy along the street who was shoving what looked similar to bamboo into a press and the juice was falling into a container. I stopped to watch and when I realized what it was, we immediately went over to give it a try. Damn is that good on a hot day! Now I stop anytime I see it, which isn't often unfortunately.

From Kota Bahru we headed to the Perhentian Islands, the large one specifically. A friend who is a dive master recommended a dive school and we headed there for our Advanced scuba certification. After two days of great diving and some fun learning, we had our new certification! The whole time we were staying there, I was just waiting for the opportunity to play on some boulders on the east side of the beautiful white sand beach. They were granite, and there looked like there were some promising features, dikes, and cracks! Our last day there, I wandered through with shoes and chalkbag, and climbed as much as possible. It was really fun and I found some nice hard dihedrals, slabs, and dikes to climb.

From the Perhentian Islands we headed to Cameron Highlands, a higher elevation jungle area known for its tea plantations. We did the mandatory 1/2 day tour of the area and were shuttled around to many different stops of varying interest for about 5 hours. My favorite was the "Butterfly Farm" where they had much more than butterflies! There were endless fascinating insects, snakes, and flowers. We liked the insects the most. They had rhinosceros beetles, beautiful preying mantis', and we'll never forget the scorpions. Again, no camera, but Nath and I each "held" one which they put on our arms. The scorpions were the enormous black ones about 5-6" long!

Kuala Lumpur was the next stop! We managed to get in a few climbing workouts. We made it to the climbing gym once, to the Bathu Caves once. We went to a few other places, but the mass transport which criss crossed the city was pathetic to say the least, and getting around as a backpacker was a nightmare. It was a minimum of 2 hours of mass transit, sometimes changing between 3 different types to get somewhere 10-20 miles away. Quite frustrating, really. We did find more good food though, and the climbing gym Camp 5 was the best I've ever climbed at. They had immaculately clean walls, loose chalk was banned, friction was perfect, and they had an entire wall of natural cracks of ranging sizes and types that included a 7a+ (5.12a) roof crack. Unfortunately, since it took us so long to get there we didn't get to climb for long, and part of that time we had to spend flipping through the guidebook trying to figure out if we could climb at the Bathu Caves for a day without buying a guide. The Bathu Caves are an area of mountains with one main limestone cave that serves as a very important Hindu temple but as a result has no routes. The surrounding hills are dotted with limestone faces. We took another obscenely long bus trip out there, and after a quick stop at the temple for some sight seeing and picture taking we wandered off toward the suspected direction of climbing. Eventually, we saw a few climbers doing their thing and joined in. We found a few routes of medium quality, and I ended the day trying to onsight a very bizarre 7a+ slab route with strange knob like features. I felt like i was in Tuolumne or Yosemite! I blew the crux, felt tired, and we had to start figuring out how to catch the bus back. It was a good day of getting the muscles working again.

If you noticed above, yes we took some pictures. We bought our 2nd IXUS 860 in KL. We're getting this bargaining thing down... Hopefully our 4th camera can go the distance!

Nath took a cooking class one day, and while she was preparing food, I was eating food on the street. Her class didn't take long, and she brought me the leftovers, which were great! From KL, we caught a flight to Cambodia. It was finally time to see the ancient Ankor Wat!