SouthernMost Point

This morning started at its usual time with its typical hostel breakfast: toast/ PB and J along with tea or coffee. We got on our bathing suits and then took off for the MRT station. We took it all the way down to the last stop and it ended in a huge mall (one of the many here). I swear some people probably come to singapore JUST to shop! Anyways, from the mall a monorail ran over the water and to Sentosa Island. This place was absolutely stunning. It is a natural island but if I hadn't of known it I would have thought it was man made just for tourists and vacationers in general. We got off the tram and went to the left where the proclaimed southernmost point is. We walked across a suspension bridge and took a picture by the sign that said southernmost point and on a palm tree that hung out over the water! We went back across and saw a show starring some more pink-butted monkeys and decided we would swim/ lay out some. I don't know what was up though because after we swam for a little while and started to lay out, about 15 minutes into it we were both bored. It might have been because we were hungry, but we decided even if it wasn't, food sounded good anyways! However, it was the worst meal we have had on this trip. I had some kinda roasted chicken with rice and jen had spring roll with noodle soup. Doesn't sound too bad right? I don't know what it was, but it just tasted horrible. From there we decided we wanted to do this downhill luge option. We got to ride a skilift type thing up a small, but long hill, and then ride these go-kart/luge like things down to the bottom. It was short, but reallly fun. We both decided we want to try real lugeing sometime! At that point though the weather just started looking ugly so we decided to leave the island for a while and come back to see this aquatic/light show later on. We caught the monorail back to the giant mall and shopped around a while. We couldn't afford a thing but the place really was amazing. This one woman even asked us is we wanted to be actors for a day, she worked for the local tv station and they were looking for foreigners to act on monday. Sadly, we told her no since we would be gone but we thought it was cool to be asked! Wecould not have looked more foreign though, with Jen in a cover up and her chi-o sandslam hat, and me in my frat tank and boardshorts carrying a mat to lay out on the sand. We stood out plenty. We watched pirates of the carribean to pass time (which was GREAT by the way) and then went back to the island to watch the show. It was kinda corny but the effects were spectacular! From there we made it back to the mall, grabbed a bite to eat, then back to the hostel where we are watching sucker punch! Bedtime in a few. Since we are leaving tomorrow night, this will be the last post! Its been fun recounting every day, but if you want to know anything else, youll just have to ask us in person! See you all soon!

Daycare

Yet another great day has come and gone in this beautiful city. We woke up fairly early this morning, around 9 am, then went downstairs for the free breakfast provided by the hostel we are staying at. Once again, the breakfast consists of bread, jam, peanut butter, and stale cereal. However, there were many different choices of jam so I (being picky) made a piece of toast with Pineapple, Strawberry, and Orange jam and even ventured to put a little peanut butter on top and dare I say, it wasnt too bad! This place even provided fresh oranges and either tea or coffee so i was content. After breakfast, we got dressed, packed up our stuff, and checked out as we had to move rooms. We couldnt check back in until after two though so we left our bags in the staff closet downstairs and ventured into the city. We were told the fastest way to get to the zoo was to take the express bus a few blocks down straight to the zoo. The bus was supposed to be at the bus stop at 11:25 but after waiting 20 minutes, we decided just to take the MRT. Once there, they told us the bus schedule had been changed and the next bus didnt come until 1:25pm so we made the right decision to stop waiting. We bought our tickets (which ended up being even cheaper) and then got on the MRT and rode to the station where we would then take a bus the rest of the way to the zoo. Before we got on the bus, we decided to grab a quick bite to eat so we didnt have to pay for food at the zoo. We shared a footlong sub and cookies and then headed to the bus. After about 40 minutes, we arrived at the zoo. We decided to just purchase the zoo tickets as oppossed to a multiple park package deal and  finally entered the zoo around 2 PM. We made our way through the park to the first show on our list, something about animals saving the rainforest. We sat down and birds flew from every direction and monkeys and lemurs crawled on some rope directly above us onto the stage. Then a man dressed as an indian tribe dancer came up to Blake and asked him to follow him up to the stage. Blake did and they had him take off his shirt and do some tribal dancing. It was hilarious!!! Very much worth the price of getting in without even seeing the rest of the zoo! After Blake got embarrassed, we walked around to some of the exhibits on our way to the next show, Elephants of Asia. We saw monkeys, kangaroos, pygmy hippos, and some BIG butted babboons. Say that five times fast! Then we got front row seats for the elephant show, in what they call the "splash zone". They elephants immediately came out and sprayed us with their trunks, and then did a series of tricks such as balancing on a log, moving trees, and just following commands in general. It was amazing! After the show, we walked the rest of the park seeing snakes, Komodo dragons, small bears, giraffes, zebras, white rhinos, leopards, and many more. We capped off the day with a "Splash", one last show before we left. This time when the host asked for a volunteer, Blake raised my hand and he called me up. I guess we stand out because we are Americans in a sea of Asians/Indians. After the host flirted with me for a bit in the funny joking around way hosts do, I was asked to throw a frisbee to a sea lion and if I made it I had the priviledge of taking the first picture with it after the show. If not, I was to be "thrown in the water". Luckily, I made it on my first try. It was really fun and after the show, I got my first sea lion kiss! SOOOO cute :) I told Blake I'm never washing that cheek again. The park closed at 6 pm so after the show, we heaaded towards the gift shop. We looked around awhile and then left to head to Chinatown. Once in Chinatown, we walked up and down the different streets going into so many different shops that were all alike. We ended up buying a few things and then got back on the MRT to head back to the hostel. We checked in, moved our stuff back upstairs, and then walked to the bar down the street for a pizza and fries. The food was delicious but the entertainment was even better. About half way through dinner, a guy came in with a guitar and was taking requests. He could sings just about anything and was amazing! We stayed around listening for awhile after dinner and then came back to the hostel and made our beds up. We are now downstairs listening to a bunch of kids shriek with excitement over NOTHING. Hence, the name Daycare, which we have given to our hostel. There are at least twice as many kids as adults here and Blake is going crazy. Anyways, I guess we are going to bed soon. As of now, our plans for tomorrow are to go to Sentosa Island and just chill on the beach all day. That may change depending on the weather as it was rainy today. Last two days here! We miss you guys! Love you :)

Travel

What originally was scheduled as a 5 hour trip turned into an entire day of travel. O well, not much to do about it, we just enjoyed reading our book the whole day (although jen is becoming less and less of a fan of it as it looks like the ending wont be happy). The day started out great. We woke up, facebooked a while, got ready, and left our hotel in chinatown around 945ish. The LRT which is a monorail was right near our place so we walked there in minutes and were at the GINORMOUS bus station by 1015. We bought tickets for the 11 o clock from KL to singapore, a 5 hour trip. So we grabbed some baked goods for breakfast and a midride snack, and then went to board the bus. All was going great on the trip, sunny day, good book to read, relaxing ride. We stopped at the same place we did when we came into malaysia for the first time, but instead of buying food this time we just got out and ate what we had already bought this morning. Once back on, things were still going smooth, until around 245 when it started raining. No big deal, a little bit of rain never hurt anyone, especially on a bus. Except apparently, i dont know if there was an accident or what, but the rain GREATLY affected traffic. We literally sat in the same spot for an entire hour, moved maybe 5 miles, and did the same again. Once we got to departure station for malysia, we stayed there a good 30 minutes longer than necessary because a lot of people had trouble getting through immigration and back on the bus, like the couple in front of us in line. That same couple held us up for another hour at the immigration IN to Singapore. So when we should have been at our bustop in singapore at 430, we instead got there at 8. We got off, tired from laying around on a bus all day, and started walking towards little india. We knew we wanted to stay 1. near shopping 2. near the MRT (monorail) and 3. near the north of the city, close to the zoo and botanical gardens. After about an hour of walking we finally found a nice place for a good price, settled in, and went down the street to a little thai restaurant. They were out of Pad Thai but the noodle-chicken and noodle-pork dishes we got were just as spicy and delicious! We then walked back to our hostel, and right next to it is a bar so we went in, i got a beer, and we watched the hockey game of the TB lightning v Boston Bruins. I got an Asahi beer and Jen didn't want anything, so we just chilled there for awhile. Eventually the owner introduced himself and started talking to us about his life, ours, and stuff in singapore. He even bought jen this fruity cocktail that she LOVED. We talked for a while and he offered to show us some of the nightlife tomorrow night so if we can afford it well probably take him up on that offer! We just got back to the hostel, and are getting ready for bed. Tomorrow, were going to see the zoo which is supposed to be AWESOME so we cant wait! Goodnight!

Hello again KL!

Overall, today was another great day! It started off kind of slow. We woke up around 8am to head down to the dock to wait for the boat to take us into town.  We got to the dock/resturant with more than 30 minutes to spare so we had fruit and eggs for breakfast. We thought taking the boat would be more scenic than the bus since we did that on the way up. However, while the boat ride started off fun, it soon grew annoying and then painfully long. Having a bladder the size of a dime, I had to pee more than half of the two hour boat ride which was managable until the last 10 minutes when I thought I was just going to jump in the river and go. We FINALLY got to the release dock and I RAn up the stairs to the tanda (toilet) while Blake got the backpacks. After that, the day got better :) We took a short bus from the boat dock into town and got dropped off at the bus station that would take us into KL. We only had to wait about 30 minutes at the bus station before the bus left so we got KFC to go and waited to leave. The jourmey to KL was only about 3 hours long. We read and slept most of the time. It started pouring about 30 minutes before we got off the bus amd continued until we got on the metro to take us into Chinatown. Once we got off the metro, we were only about a block away from Chinatown. We soon found a place to stay, dropped off our backpacks, and went back to the bus station to purchase our tickets for Singapore (for tomorrow). The bus station near Chinatown is VERY nice and only about a month old. However, for being the biggest bus station in the nations capital, it didnt have a single bus going to Singapore so we just decided to wait till tomorrow to buy the tickets. We then went in search for food. We went back to the street of vendors and road side resturants we found the first time we were here and finally decided on a place to eat. It is amazing how many menus we looked at before we fianlly picking one. Every single resturant has a person dedicated to standing in the road to bring people in to get them to eat so we were pestered into looking at a LOT of different places. After everything started to blend together (and we realized the fish head curry was to expensive to waste our money on- maybe in Singapore), we decided on a place that had springrolls because that is what I was in the mood for. We shared chicken egg rolls, beef and chicken satay, and a large beer (the second of the whole trip). It was delicious! Then, finally, we went to Chinatown. Once again, we got great deals! I was on a shopping high and bought lots of goodies. Blake did pretty good himself :) After about 2 hours or so, when we were content with our purchases, we walked to McDonalds to get an ice cream cone. Across the street, we stumbled upon a Malay parade. All of the floats were beautifully decorated with flowers and lights, the music was very oriental and pretty, and occasionally some of the floats would splash water on you. We have no idea what it was in honor of but it was certainly fun to watch. Now we are back in the room watching desperate housewives and about to read the last book of the trilogy we have been reading. Tomorrow, we are heading to back to Singapore. Sad this trip is coming to an end but we cant wait to see everyone when we get home! :)

Beginning of the End

Today was our last day in a new place. From here on, we will be backtracking, making our way back to Singapore and the airport. Tomorrow is the beginning of the end. But for now, I will recount today. We woke up around 9 as we usually do and we took our time heading down to the city from our guesthouse (I'd say we're around 300 meters away). Once down we went straight to the travel people's floating building so we wouldn't forget/spend too much money and not have enough to get out of this place! There is no ATM so I really don't know what would happen if we ran out of cash, but this has kinda been how the last 4 places we've visited so we're becoming pros at planning ahead. Once we booked our boat ticket out of here, we went to a floating restaurant next door and grabbed a little breakfast to start the day. Jen had a fried egg and a banana+chocolate+ice cream pancake...interesting combination of orders, I know! I had a vegetable omelet, so whoever bet that I would be healthier on this trip, congratulations you've been winning (surprisingly lol). The way they cook things over here is the same for everything they cook though. So the fried egg isn't fried on a griddle like back home, but it must be simmered in grease in a wok because the whole thing comes out crispy. Same with my omelet. It isn't half bad, however, and we pay a ringgit each to get a ferry across the river to explore the park. Once there, we began a trail to the canopy walk. The walk is the largest canopy walk in the world but almost half was closed for renovation so that was a little disappointing. We still did it, however, and it was still amazing. A little scary as it was quite wobbly, but fun nonetheless. From there we took a trail up to a vantage point at the top of a mountain-hill (I don't know what to call these things, I feel like I'm overestimating if I say mountain, but a hill doesn't come close to describing it). It was long and very steep, and both of us were exhausted by the top. Little did we know the path down on the other side was even steeper. I couldn't imagine going up it because going down it was hard enough. It also got quite hard to follow as it began to level out.Right when we thought we were lost (after JUST telling our parents not to worry we would be fine over here lol), the trail connected to another larger, more defined trail with a sign showing it led back to the beginning. On the way back though, we ran into a place to swim in the river so we jumped in, clothes and all, to cool off a bit. We finally made it back to the beginning of all the trails and thought we were dead. Our legs will definitely feel that mountain tomorrow. We rode back across the river, grabbed a VERY light lunch (since it was already 3, we knew we would eat dinner in not too long), and right when we finished it began to downpour. Luckily we had cards so we played an epic game of war for at least an hour so Jen could finally prove I was legitimately a lucky person, war being a game of pure luck. Sadly, I won. By then the rain had stopped so we looked around town for someone who would give us the password for their wifi even though we weren't staying with them so we could download a book on kindle. Finally someone did so we downloaded it, went back to our place, and read for the rest of the dreary afternoon. Sadly I couldn't find the blow gun I wanted to get Bryce anywhere in town while we had walked around, so he'll just have to settle for something else.  We eventually came back into town for dinner, which we will admit wasn't our best since being here. Afterward we came right to the internet cafe to catch up and for me to update the blog. Now, we will go back, read some more, and get ready for another day of travel. Tomorrow, Kuala Lumpur. The next day, back to Singapore until we depart. It truly is the beginning of the end.

Taman Negara

Today was a long one. Nothing special though. In fact, probably the ONLY blah day we've had so far. The guy at our guest house knocked on our door at the late hour of 7:15AM this morning to make sure we were awake to catch the boat at 8! Of course, we weren't so we were thankful for the wake up call. We stumbled out of bed, lazily got our stuff together, and headed out the door. We walked down the beach to the pier and waited for the boat. At 8 am sharp, the boat left the dock to start making its rounds around the island. It started off with only three people on the boat, including Blake and me, but after a few stops, the boat was loaded down with people and luggage. Although it was early, the boat ride was probably the most exciting part of the day, which is saying something. Once we got off the boat, we purchased tickets to Taman Negara and had some breakfast while we waited for the bus. We had fried rice pattaya and a chocolate, banana pancake. Yummy! After shopping around for a bit for a few "touristy memorabilia", we got on the bus (which was a van... and we were the only two passengers). It took us FOREVER to get to our final destination. We first stopped after about 2 hours and had lunch at a semi- fancy restaurant and then hit the road again. We tried to read in the van but the roads and drivers in this country are awful so we soon gave that up! 10 hours after we left the island, we pulled in to the bus stop here in a town outside of Taman Negara. It's a National Park (literally translated) so there's no staying in it, but its a RM1, 5 second ferry ride across the river into it. We found a place to stay shortly after being dropped off. Its is not far from the little town, that includes floating restaurants and that's about it. After settling in, we walked to the tourist office to get some ideas for tomorrow but ended up just deciding we would do our own treks and canopy walk. Then we found a place to eat and had an apple shake, fried rice paprik, and fried beef with rice. There's nothing at all to do at night here, besides jungle treks that we've heard are a waste of money, so were now just perusing the internet and then going back to our place to read. We'll update you soon :)

Final Day in Paradise

Today was a sad day. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful, relaxing, filling, everything weve grown to expect it to be. However, it is our last day on this island. This place is absolutely perfect we definitely want to visit again. Perfect water, perfect people, perfect animals, and definitely perfect price! We pay RM50 for beachfront property per night. Yes, that comes out to less than $20 a night, split between the two of us, to stay ON the beach. Winning (credit for this expression goes to our Australian friend Maddy, not Charlie Sheen). Today we woke up around 9ish. Since the electricity goes off at 830, in the 15 minutes the fan is completely stopped it gets warm enough to wake you up! We sauntered down to the cafe at the reception desk, right on the beach, and had some eggs and toast to wake up. We then dropped off our laundry for a much needed cleaning, rented some snorkels, and took off. We went the opposite direction than we went the first day (south this time) and saw some beautiful coral and wildlife. Nothing we hadn't seen already, and no turtles or sharks, but still it never gets old. Plus it was nice little bit of exercise! When we got back, we rinsed off, put on some dry clothes, and went down to get a light lunch. We planned on a big dinner later so we both just split a chicken sandwich and fries, but even the chicken sandwich here doesnt taste like a normal chicken sandwich. It has an island flare that our palates couldnt place their finger on. After settling up the bill, we splurged and got a big coke to last us through dinner (buying drinks at every meal, including water, is the most annoying part). We then went back to our room, grabbed some cards, and played egyptian war, speed, etc while clouds blew over (weather was still NICE it just wasn't sunny enough to lay out. After I got tired of Jen winning, we went down to layout and read on the beach. We were there for probably about an hour and a half before we got hot and jumped in the water. We sat there talking and throwing bits of dead coral that had washed up for a while until we felt we might be getting burned, so we went inside once again to rinse off. At around 630 we walked down to a restaurant just a hop skip and a jump down the beach to have the infamous BBQ that is so good on this island. It didn't start until 7 though so we walked down the peir to watch the sun sink a little lower, then walked back to eat. We first split a fried noodle pataya, which is fried noodles with chicken and a little veg wrapped in an egg basket. I dont know how they actually cook it but its delicious! We finished that and it was a little while before our lobster dinner came out. We loved it so much the night before we had to have it again for a whopping $5 American dollars (once again, split between the two of us!). We walked back down to our place's restaurant and got a fried snickers and watched some of the Man Utd-Blackburn game (soccer for those who don't know). The fried snickers isnt fried in funnel cake batter like at home but in something along the lines of that stufff inside butterfingers. Amazing! We were so full but to get free internet at this one place you had to order something, so we went back to the room, let our food settle a little, then went to the restaurant with free wifi. We are currently there, updating yall while sucking down a snickers milkshake! Tomorrow, well head off to the rainforest/jungle of Taman Negara! If we don't update dont freak (parents), it just means we dont have internet! Well update in Kuala Lumpur in a few days worst come to worst! As for now, were going to enjoy this milkshake! Goodnight/Goodmorning!

Perhentian Islands

Wednesday
After leaving the internet cafe, we got a taxi to the Kinta City Mall (as there was nothing else to do that didnt involove us dropping dead in the heat carrying our backpacks all day). In fact, there wasnt really anything to do even if we didnt have our backpacks. We decided on a price with the taxi man (who ended up being crazy) before we got in the car so he didnt rip us off like we had been told so many cab drivers do to foreigners. The driver was really nice but talked way to fast for us to understand his malay english accent and went on and on about something about gangs and shooting in new york when he went over 20 years ago. Once we got to the mall, we were starving and Pizza hut was there right when we walked though the doors with a special on a personal pan supreme pizza with double stuffed crust. We couldnt resist! After lunch, we walked around for about an hour then read in the middle of the mall with our backpacks on looking like super tourists. We then decided we would watch a movie since we still had so much time to kill. We wanted to watch the new fast and furious but it was completely sold out and the only other movie in English was Thor so we watched that (sorry Brad... Blake didnt want to watch it because he told you he would wait but I begged because we didnt have many/any other options). While we were waiting for the movie to start we had dessert. Blake had peanut butter chocolate ice cream and I had the most amazing oreo cheesecake ever!! The movie finally started and easily met our high expectations. By the time the movie got out it was around 8pm so we decided to start heading back to the bus station for our 10pm bus being that we had nothing else to do. The local bus had already stopped running so we were about to get a cab when this nice man overheard us trying to get a cab and offered to drive us FOR FREE!! It was great... probably saved us a good 20 or 30 ringgits! We got to the bus station way faster than we thought we would since we didnt have to try to get a cab or take a bus or anything so we ended up sitting and reading for a good hour and a half before we got on the bus. Around 10pm, the bus FINALLY came and we got on. It was too dark to read so we pretty much slept the whole time.

Thursday
We got to our stop around 3:45 AM!! They woke us up and kicked us off the bus. We were obviously tired and a little out of it but they had taxis ready to take us to the port where we would wait for the speed boat to take us to the island. We split a taxi with two guys from Australia also going to the island. Once we got to the port, we bought our boat tickets to and from the island and then slept in some chairs outside the office until around 7:30am! The gates opened at 8am and we were allowed to get on a boat to take us to the island. The weather, temperature wise, was perfectt! It felt amazing out but it was not as sunny as we would have hoped. The waves were big though so the ride over was really fun!! Once we got the island, we walked across to the beach opposite of where we got dropped off then found a place to stay. We dropped off our stuff and out on our bathing suits and went to explore. The island is BEAUTIFUL!! We rented some masks and snorkels and then went snorkeling right around from where we are staying. There was soooo much to see!! The coral was gorgous and we saw soo many fish (including these beautiful rainbow ones)! We also saw a huge turtle and a smaller shark just swimming around underneath us. It was crazy! After about an hour or two in the water, we got out and put on some dry clothes and then bought a mat thing to lay on on the beach. We ended up falling asleep on the beach for over an hour without much sunscreen on because it was so overcast and, ofcourse, got a little on the burnt side. I was wearing a tank top rolled up so only HALF my stomach got burnt and I ended up with the craziest tan lines ever! When we woke up, we decided to put our bathing suits back on and go explore the beach on the otherside of the small island. It was equally beautiful but we only rented the masks till 6 so we didnt have long to swim. We returned the masks and then walked around in the windy (prestorm) wheather before deciding to eat dinner. We shared a "BBQ speacial" which isnt really BBQ but because they grill it thats what it is called. We got chicken with garlic sauce and it came with potatoes, vegetable salad, watermelon, banana bread, and a "welcome" drink (different fruit juice everynight). Dinner was great! Then we called home and called it a night!

Friday
Today was AMAZING!! We woke up around 9:30, got dressed, and then went to the restaurant at our place for breakfast. We booked a snorkeling tour at 10:30 that took us to 5 places plus lunch in the fishermans village. most of the places the tour went were around the big island so it was nice getting to see that while also snorkeling. The first place we went was Turtle Beach. We didnt see any turtles but it was by far the most beautiful and colorful place we visited all day. The coral was amazing and there were SOO many fish. We also saw the most colorful stingray weve ever seen. I didnt even know they had colors! After that, we went to turtle bay where we saw around 4 turtles. It was funny though because we were in deep (crystal clear) water with only sand at the bottom so we would drive until we saw a turtle, jump in, follow it until it swam away, then get back on the boat, find another turtle, and do it all again. It was fun though! Blake and I liked seeing how far down we could go. My ears hurt to bad to touch the bottom but it was still fun! Then we got some lunch in the fishermans village. the whole tour group ate together, which was cool i guess, but the restaurant was too slow for that many people. It took forever to get our food! Blake and I shared sweet and sour beef with rice and roti canai. After lunch, we went to shark point! It was VERY exciting! We saw at least four (usually all at once swimming very nearby us). The coral and fish were also very pretty and Blake and I saw another turtle that we got so close to we could touch. Continuing on with our tour, we went to the lighthouse. The snorkeling was not very good here but it was known for people jumping off of it! We jumped off the first floor first and it was fun but then Blake decided to jump off the second. It was VERY high up and I was not about to do it! Blake survived though and somehow him, along with others, talked me into it. It was definitely the scariest thing Ive done on this trip. On my way up, i almost backed down at least three times but once I was up high enough climbing down was just as scary as jumping. Once we got to the top (Blake decided to jump with me), I freaked out! Poor Blake had to listen to me go through the whole spectrum of emotions. First nervous, then scared out of my mind, then pissed he talked me into going up so high (sorry Blake), then anxious to get down, then sad/ wanting to cry because I was so freaked, then, finally, happy AFTER I jumped and faced my fear. It took me a good 10 minutes to jump once I was up there and a whole lot of clapping and cheering and convincing/begging because the boat was ready to leave to get me to do it but Im glad i did. First words after jumping though... "NEVER again!" haha After the light house, we went to romantic beach. Which was pretty nice but after being in the sun and water all day we were tired. I think we are going to sw3im back there tomorrow and explore it more. We got back around 5:30 and got dressed to go watch the sunset. It was absolutely breath taking. We took lots of pictures before, during , and after! We then feasted. We each got a BBQ special (with all the same stuff as the night before), but Blake got lobster and i got chicken with peanut suace and we split the meat. Delicious!! Now Blake is reading and I am typing up this blog that took me WAY to long to do! O yea!! CONGRATULATIONS to Ryan for graduating!! Take lots of pictures for me! Im sorry Im not there :( We love you!!

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Hola Amigos

We have been in the middle of pretty much nowhere for the past couple of days, explaining the fact of no new blog posts! Two days ago we left the Cameron Highlands to go to Ipoh, where we had heard we could go whitewater rafting. Once we got there, however, we came to find out that not only could you not whitewater raft near Ipoh, even those who knew the most English didn't seem to know what whitewater rafting WAS. We eventually found a picture of people white water rafting and over about an hour and a half of discussing it with these guys at the bus station, we figured out we needed to go to Gopeng, about 20 miles south of Ipoh. When we got to the bus stop in Gopeng, we had been told that the police station was right next to it and they would be able to help us find a place to stay, place to raft, etc. Jen met this one girl on the bus who walked us to the station and helped translate some of the stuff the people didnt quite understand. We eventually ended up having a man from a chalet come and pick us up and take us to one of the 2 places to stay in the area. His place was 4km away from the main city, in the middle of the jungle right on a river. Turns out it was the bottom of the same river we would be rafting down the next day. When we set all of our stuff down, he offered us dinner, but we just said we would prefer to go into town and eat somewhere. He said he would take us at 7:30 (it was currently around 6), so we sat in the river and watched the sunset. Around 7, he came and said he could take us to diner so we went into town to some Thai-Malay restaurant. We ordered some food that we didnt know what it was and it turned out being alright. Nothing to write home about, but it was good. When we went home, we read for a little while and then went to bed at the whopping late hour of 10pm. But we ended up waking up at 8am to eat breakfast and go whitewater rafting. The company came and picked us up and took us to the place up the river. We waited a little while for another group to join us, and when they finally got there it was a group of 8 older british people from Birmingham, UK. They were pretty cool though, apparently they travel together and do fun things all the time. The river was great! It was a Class II and III, and we were hoping for III and IV, but it was still a great ride! We did forget to get the pictures though :(. Afterwards, I was feeling super sick so we napped for a little in our room until the owner knocked on our door to remind us of the lunch he had prepared that we didnt ask for. The food fro breakfast and for lunch was definitely authentic Malay food. Breakfast consisted of noodles, some fish dish wrapped in a banana leaf, and fried eggs with Milo (chocolate milk) to drink. Lunch was fried chicken and some kinda fish, sardines maybe. As I was already feeling sick, this did nothing to help it. After we picked at the stuff we liked, we went back to lay down again and asked the guy to wake us up at 330 to take us to see some castle he had talked about. We ended up waking up around 5. I guess he forgot about us. Anyways, we asked his son and he told the owner we still wanted to go so he drove us to Kellies Castle. It was pretty cool a real piece of history as part of it was destroyed durring WWII. We toured it a little and then headed back to KFC for dinner (figured we needed some western food for once). We got it to go and ate it in the room because i was feeling bad again. About 15 minutes after we got back, the owners son came in and gave me a reflexology massage that was supposed to help my stomach. To be honest, I dont believe in the crap at all, but I dont know if it was the placebo affect, me laying down and resting, or it actually worked, because I felt better and was able to eat a little bit of food. We then layed around and read all night (not much to do nightlife-wise in the middle of the jungle) until we went to sleep. This morning we woke up, had a much more stomachable breakfast of toast and jam and some heart shaped muffin! We finished packing, got a ride into town and caught a bus to Ipoh. Once there it took us a while to find a bus station that would take us to the perhentian islands, but we finally did and booked a ticket for 10pm tonight since they only offer morning and night busses. We then started loking for an internet cafe so we could alleviate the worries we were sure our parents had from not hearing from us in the past 2 days and after a few bus rides, FINALLY we found and are are sitting here listening to pubescent boys screaming their hearts out as they play warcraft, starcraft or whatever the hell it is they waste their time with (in case you cant tell, its making us a little annoyed). So now we have to entertain ourselves for the next 8 hours, and we are currently starving so we will update when we can! Hopefully off of an island!

BTW, as soon as we get back to KL we will get fish head curry for jen to eat since the poll said yes! (Ill try it too since she never will if I don't!)

Cameron Highlands Day 3

Had yet another wonderful day in the Cameron Highlands! We woke up pretty late for the first time since weve been here (but today was supposed to be a chill day so it was good to sleep in). Blake immediately went downstairs to read the book hes obsessed with, while I got dressed and then went downstairs with him for breakfast. We shared a bowl of fruit at the hostel to start off with then, later in the morning, ventured into town for a muffin and tea. After breakfast, we did trail #4. It was an easy trail that was supposed to lead to a "waterfall" but it was more of a water drop being that it was no more than 15 ft. It also led to a strawberry farm which we walked around for a bit then headed to another (more extreme) trail. On the way to trail #8, we stopped at the little park we love to swing and take pictures of flowers (Blake is slightly obsessed with doing that- Im gonna make him a collage when we get back home). One of the swings was broken though so Blake spent some time and won the "good samaritian" award fixing it haha By the time we got to the trail, I was already physically tired (from hiking the day before and walking to the trail this morning). Most of the trails we have come across have a predominant trail to follow but this particular trail is a lot more intense. We quickly got back to the place we stopped at yesterday, and then climbed over the fallen trees to continue on. After what seemed like forever to me, being starving and atheletically of out of shape, we made it to the top! Proud moment :) We took a few pictures, carved our names into the popular spot to do so, and then headed back down. Down was much less tiring than up. By the time we got back to the bottom, we were soo hungry and walked straight to town to get some Indian food. Blake got a Malaysian cuisine consisting of noodles, tofu, and a special sauce, and I got indian noodles and chicken. Since we have become accustomed to sharing, neither one of us could finish our meals. After our late lunch, we went back to the room to get our kindles and then laid outside on the grass and read for awhile. It was so nice to just relax. Continuing with our relaxtion, we walked into town and got a 60 minute full body massage. Heaven. Id be poor if massages were that cheap in America! We then went back up to the hostel to meet up with Maddy and then went out to dinner with Maddy and some other girls we made friends with. It is amazing how many different places people come from. It was soo cool sharing stories, similarities, and differences over dinner and getting to get and give advice about travelling experiences. After dinner, we were FINALLY able to call home. It was SOOO great getting to hear our families voices and talk to them on the phone. Happy Mothers day once again! We hope you both had an amazing day!

Cameron Highlands Day 2

This morning started of early...too early! Some of the others staying in the dorm beds werent as considerate as we typically are in the noise they make while getting ready. I also dont understand what there is to DO here at 6 in the morning, but thats beside the point! We eventually got up and went outside to get a bite. We split 2 scones with whipped cream and homemade strawberry jam, and two fried eggs. This seem to taste better when your this high up! We then decided to void showering since our day plans consisted of hiking and a tour. We put our stuff up in a room for tonight (its $4 more) instead of the dorm beds, and headed out for a trail that led to a waterfall. We came upon this little park for the general population to use but it was so much nicer than our parks back home. It was small and didnt really have as cool of jungle-gym type ammenities like we are use to, but there was so much greenery and flowers it was just beautiful! We played around a little here then continued on toward the waterfall. We finally reached the edge of the road that lead into the woods and went right in. Instead of continuing down the path to the waterfall, however, we decided to go on this one we happened to see first. It was STEEP, climbing over roots and trees going towards the top of this mountain/hill but boy was it a good feeling getting to the top. Right where the path continued down, a tree and a bunch of foliage had fallen to block the path, so we just went down the same way we came up. Once down, we kept going down the original path to the waterfall. When we came upon it, after about 5 minutes of trying to figure out how to set up the camera to take our picture, Geron just happened to come down the same path so he took the picture for us. The waterfall was really cool but the water is quite a disgusting color, looking like a lighter-orange color but very similar to the chocolate river in Willy Wonka. We continued on the path and after a little, the path went left but there was a fence with a gate that would open that went off down to the right. As Robert Frost would have suggested, we took the less travelled path behind the fence. It was a fun climb down and back up, but by the time we made it back to the main road, we were absolutely famished. We trudged back to the main street and had a simple indian lunch of cheese naan and chicken fried rice (kind of chinese also). Afterwards we met up with Maddy back at the guesthouse and signed up for a countryside tour for the afternoon. It was a RM25 well spent. The driver was very friendly and first took us to a rose farm/garden. He said he would be back at the bus in half an hour so we had that much time. We didnt think we would need NEAR that much but the expansiveness of this place was so much more than we anticipated. Everything in this city works with the natural landscape, as opposed to how we cut out the shape WE need the mountain to be back home. The rose garden had multiple levels that wrapped around different sides of the mountain and TONs and tons of roses and other flora. Thirty minutes almost wasnt enough time. From there he drove us up to a Tea Farm/plantation. These places are absolutely massive with just multiple rolling hills completely dedicated to tea trees. Dr. Rob would be so jealous we toured the farm, the manufacturing facility, saw where the workers live, and got to try some fresh tea. I thought it was rather funny that there was a soccer pitch where the workers stayed and they played other people who worked at the vegetable farms and strawberry farms etc. The driver said "the tea team is pretty good but the cabbage team, not so much". Got a real kick out of that. We then proceeded to the butterfly gardens and bee gardens, which were cool but really paled in comparison to the first two stops. Our final two stops were the stawberry farm and a buddhist temple. The strawberry farm we had been looking forward to all day for the fresh strawberries, but apparently there had been so many tourists doing the "pick-your-own" option we couldnt do that. We did get to have a cup of homemade strawberry icecream with sliced strawberries and cream on top, however. Winning. In the temple we saw "Malaysia's fourth largest buddha", which maddy pointed out and we agreed is quite a weird thing to claim. Don't you usually stop counting at around 3 when you have statements like that?? Anyways, the temple was alright but the tour in general was great fun. The driver dropped us off at a night market in the town over where we snacked and got some goodies for home before we found a food court to grab a bite at. We know were taking advantage of our foreign adventures when we find places to eat where there are NO westerners and no english menu options. Made for quite the enjoyable meal, but I still dont know what it is we ate. We copped a cab with maddy back to tanah rata and walked back to our guesthouse. We sat outside and talked with maddy a while about life in America, life in Australia, and how everyone should take opportunities to do stuff like this. There really is nothing else like it. After a good long talk with her, we went up to our room, took FREEZING showers, and are now updating you on our full day. Tomorrow well be here again, this is our favorite place so far so we really want to soak it in and do some more trails and enjoy this place. Well update you tomorrow with everything, the fun and the boring! Goodnight!

Cameron Highlands Day 1

Hey guys :) So today has been super chill and easy going! Its been nice not walking as much as we have been (at least 8 miles a day). Our feet needed a rest! We started off the day walking to the bus station to buy a bus ticket to the Cameron Highlands. We found out it left at 1:30pm which gave us just enough time to walk back to our hostel, bring our backpacks downstairs so someone else could check in but we didnt have to carry them around the city, walked to lunch (Hardrock Cafe- super American I know but Blake wanted to get a collectible pin from halfway around the world), walk back to the hostel to pick up our stuff, and then walk back to the bus station. Lots of walking in the morning, but followed by a nice long bus ride! The view on the way up was beautiful! I ate a little too much candy that I picked up at the market at the stop on the way up so I was feeling quite sick from all the curvy roads. Once we got to Tanah Rata (the city we are in), we literally had no idea where we going to stay. However, after standing there for no more than a few minutes collecting our thoughts, a man came up to us and asked us if we had a reservation to "Father's Guest house". Ofcourse we didnt, but his car wasnt full so he told us to hop in and if we didnt like the place he was taking us, he would take us to another hostel. We didnt see the harm in going so we hopped in with 2 other people that seemed to be our age. It turned out being the best decision weve made on this trip! The hotel ended up offering dorm beds for only 15 ringgits (aka $5 US dollars/person) and was on top of a hill with a beautiful sight and cheap food and tea and was only a 3 minute walk from the main part of town. The best part though was that the we ended up making friends with the other two other people riding with us, a second year college girl , Maddy, from Australia and a first year college boy, Geron, from London! They are both SOO cool! After settling into our beds and getting our stuff together, the four of us walked into the town together and had dinner at a delicious Indian resturant and stayed out talking (and looking for dessett) for at least an hour or two after. We plan on hanging out with them again tomorrow!! Its really nice having other people our age to hang out with, especially ones from other countries. It was really cool comparing how things are from each of our prospective countries and schools, etc. Anyways, somebody just turned off the light despite the fact that I am on the computer and Blake is reading so I guess that means its bedtime! Goodnight :) love you!!

Kuala Lumpur

Wow what a day today has been! We first headed out of our hostel to the 7/11 so Jen could get breakfast (shes not a fan of the same cereal and toast that ever hostel seems to have), and we split some type of pastry thing and an apple juice. We got on the monorail just a few blocks away which took us to the central station of Kuala Lumpur. Right around the corner you could get train tickets for areas in and right around kl, so we hopped on a train to Batu Caves, around 8 miles north of kl. Once we got there, we went to take pictures in front of this green statue when some Indian woman walks up and tries to sell jen bracelets and anklets. She literally gets down on her knees, after repeatedly being told no thank you, and proceeds to put the anklet and bracelet on Jen anyways. Im dying laughing at Jen trying to figure out how to tell this woman no in some way other than the word NO that apparently hadnt worked. I finally went over to help her after I got my fair share of entertainment (sorry Jen lol) and just started taking the stuff off of her because its nearly impossible to do yourself! Anyways, after that we walked to the caves entrance and saw a bunch of monkeys, just chilling on the sidewalk. I figured if they are just chilling there, they muct not mind you getting close to them. Jen was smart enough to stay back at first. Once I got a step to close, the monkey barred its teeth and started coming at me! We later realized they don't mind being close to people...if THEY come close to you. But then we saw a mommy monkey and her baby, and that could have occupied Jen for at least a good 3 hours (you know how she is with babies). After we took a fair share of pictures of her, we walked the 272 steps up to the main cave. This place was amazing! Its more of a GIANT tunnel that leads to an open area than it is a typical cave. The place is full of Hindu worshipping temples! We played around in the cave for a while, just kind of admiring them, when we started to walk back down the steps. About 10 steps down and off to the right was the option to do a dark cave tour which was another cave in the mountain that was more your typical idea of a cave. So we did that and within the first 50 yards into the cave there are tons of cockroaches and other beetle like insects crossing all around our feet. It took everything Jen had in her not to just run the other direction. We made it past that part and finally got into the dark part of the cave. Apparently there is also this one species of spider that, out of the whole world, only lives in this cave. And out of the whole cave, there are only 4 nests (idk if that means 1 spider per nest or what but I thought that was crazy). After the tour we went to the bottom and ate at this vegetarian indian food stand/restaurant. We got some kind of bread/tortilla thing that you sort of dip into sauces, along with some indian noodles and a coconut water. On the menu there was "coconut" and "cold coconut water". We thought the only difference is one was chilled. Apparently the normal one they just chop open and serve you so you can drink the milk and eat it. Thats what we wanted. The cold one we ordered was chopped open then filled with cold water. It was kinda like taking a cup of milk that still has a couple sips left in it, filling it up the rest of the way with water, then drinking it. Wasn't the greatest portion of our meal. We finished up, hopped on the train, and went back to the city. We want to head north tomorrow to the highlands, so we decided to see as much of kl today as we could. We started off walking, no clue where we were going, until we found something our little tourist book talked about. We eventually stumbled upon the lake gardens, which had we not been tired of walking in ~95 degree heat (were right on the equator), would probably have been fun to find, but we walked around the area for about an hour just tring to figure out where the "lake" was. We then saw a tower off in the distance, which happened to be the Kuala Lumpur tower (original), and thought it didnt look too far away. We set off and about an hour and a half later...we were somewhat close. We finally dragged our dehydrated selves (although we had bought and drank our weight in water) up to the tower only to find they charge some stupid tourist charge just to ride an elevator to the top. Eff that. Disappointed as we were, we still wanted to see Little India, as we had seen Chinatown the night before. We set off going farher north of it though (and farther from our hostel) to this place called Chow Kit. It was supposed to have a ton of hawker stands so we thought we could get dinner, but it must not have been late enough because it was still just a huge vegetable market like it is during the day. So we walked BACK south down to little india, resisting the temptation to go into Pizza Hut. Once we finally made it to Little India, we could have eaten a horse. We found this one woman without even a stand, just selling various items. We tried a couple things until we found this one bean-ball type thing that was absolutely amazing. We bought a few and kept walking. We never really found anywhere to eat and our feet were hurting so we started in the direction of the hostel. We stopped at one last cart and bought another fried creation with some delicious sauce, and figured well live until breakfast (Im still not hungry and thats saying something). We finally made it back to our hostel, upstairs and crashed into the room and turned the AC on full blast. Altogether today we walked anywhere from 10-12 miles in ~95 degree weather up and down hills, constantly wanting more and more water and not with much food in our bellies: we were spent. Despite the facts just stated, today was an amazing day. Exhausting at times, but we loved every minute of it. Time to try to upload a few pictures and go to bed though. Goodnight!

Malaysia Day 1

We woke up wayyy later than planned this morning but the timing ended up being perfect! We left the hostel around 11 and walked to the bus station where we took a bus to another bus station where we bought a ticket to kuala lumpar at 12:15 that left at 12:30! The bus was sooo comfortable! The seats reclined to where we could lay down! We started off looking at the scenery, but soon realized it was just literally millions of palm trees side by side as far back as we could see until we got closer to the city so we read which was really nice. The bus took multiple stops along the way. Once when crossing the border to fill out immigration papers and such and after that for bathroom breaks. The first time we stopped for a bathroom break, we were immediately surrounded by food! We were sooo jealous because we didnt have any Malaysian money to spend but figured out we could trade Singapore dollars for ringgits. We did and got our first taste of Malaysian food which was delecious (it was nothing compared to dinner though... dad would be so jealous). 6 hours later, we finally got to Kuala Lumpur. The bus dropped us off at a completely sketchy place but luckily we had a map and found our way to where we were staying. The city is SOOO amazing! Not nearly as clean as Singapore or as nice, but perfect for two college students on a budget. Our hostel is much nicer than the first one too. It is very close to a street full of food! Literally, full of food. The whole street is lined with stands all offering cheap, delicious meals. Blake and I shared spring rolls and chicken satays. It was AMAZING!! We then went and explored Chinatown, which I might add is like heaven for me. A whole entire street dedicated to shopping for name brand items (knock offs) for CHEAP! Blake got 2 Liverpool jerseys for the equivilent of $13 US dollars and I got a pair of rayban aviators for aroiund $7. I was on a shopping high and wanted to stay but we decided to head back and go back tomorrow. Overall, GREAT day :) I can already tell we are going to LOVE Malaysia! Game plan for tomorrow: Take a tram to the Batu Caves and then come back to the city, eat, and explore some more!

Singapore Day 1

Today was the longest day of walking EVER! Yet, also one of the most amazing. We woke up around 9am and almost none of the other hostel-ers were awake. They are all kinda douchey by the way, not exactly what I was expecting out of traverlers our age, but they keep to themselves so its not a big deal. Anywho, we had a little bit of cereal for breakfast and took off. Literally outside the door of our hostel there was a stand. Once we walked through it and got to the street, we saw all the way up and down there were stands just like it lining the road. We looked at all the little trinkets in chinatown for a while, remembering what we wanted to revisit, then headed off to the river to see the Merlion (mermaid-lion composite creature thats symbolic of singapore, it "welcomes visitors and protects the city" or something along those lines). Our necks were hurting by the time we got there from looking up the whole time. There are soooo many ginourmous buidlings...and theyre all banks! But we eventually saw this really cool looking building called the Fulerton Hotel, and figured we would just go in (by the way, we were wearing tank tops, and no one all day questioned us about staying at any of the 3 hotels we creeped through...thought that was pretty funny!). The place was AMAZING. I could sell my first born son and probably still not be able to get anything other than a standard room here. We went up to the top, took some pictures, and left. Outside, our day almost ended because I about passed out. Parked next to each other were, in this order, a Lamborghini, an Aston Martin, a Porsche (Cayenne 300GT not an old crappy one), and a Maserati. There were a bunch of measley BMW and Mercedes around also, but this sight amazed me. So we left there, went and saw the Merlion (little bit anti-climactic, not as big as we thought it would be). From there we crossed the river to head to little india. We saw this Asian Civilization museum and thought wed stop in and check it out, if not at least for the air conditioning. We ended up getting student priced tickets and a pretty cool little tour. From there we went to the first shopping center of the day. We don't know how to shop in America, these people are hardcore. This center was the smallest shopping center we saw all day and it was 4 stories tall, had at least 200 stores, and probably around 50 restaurants. We doodled around there for a while, got a bite to eat, and went to the Raffles hotel. Sir somebody Raffles was the Brit who founded/discovered Singapore and this hotel place was soo cool. They had tons of WAY upscale dining, beautiful courtyards, and a HUGE tea collection. Once again, we kept walking. We then went to another shopping center and then stumbled across the Burgis Junction. This is about 2 square blocks of shoulder to shoulder hawker stands and little shops. This place was the quintessential foreign market. After that, we FINALLY made it to Little India, which is VERY run down. Which made it quite fun. We looked at all the fancy indian clothing stuff they had for sale and decided we would head to the famous Orchard Road. This place is the best shopping of the world crammed onto one street no longer than a mile. We were way to tired to explore all of it today though, so we just went into one of the behemoths that they call shopping centers and headed back. On the way we came upon clarks quay and had a beer at burger king "whopper bar". This is the nicest burger king establishment I have ever seen, it was insane. And would you believe it a good old Bud Heavy was more expensive than a Fosters, Heiniken, Carlsberg, and Stella Atrois! Go America! We eventually made it back to chinatown were we found some food at some little restaurant, and are now about to pass out at the hostel! We plan on heading to Malaysia tomorrow so we will post when we get there!

Singapore!!

WE MADE IT!!! Finally! After 2 longgg days of travel we are finally here!! We woke up super early this morning (probably because we went to bed so early last night) and walked alround the Korean ghost town for about 2 hours. There wasnt much to see, but we climbed some of the cliff/rocks on the beach all morning and took pictures so it turned out being pretty fun! Then we went looking for lunch, but after asking and looking around, we soon realized the ONLY thing to eat was raw seafood.... my favorite!! Even blake didnt think it looked or sounded appealing. We settled on some interesting looking ice cream to split until we got to the airport (which is the nicest weve ever sen by the way) but when we got back to the hotel, we ended up eating at the resturant at our hotel that had Mongolian Beef. It was served very fancy with rice and seaweed served on the side cooked about 4 different ways. Around 3 oclock, we headed back to the aiport, checked in and entertained ourself with all the free activities they had for tourists. We made lucky rice cleaners called Bakiori and took pictures dressed in Korean attire. Very COOL!! The plane ride went by pretty fast but we didnt get into Singapore until after the MRT stopped running so we had to split a cab to chinatown. Our hostel is interesting. We are sharing a room with 6 other people (Blake has the top bunk, I have the bottom bunk). Were both super tired, Blake is already passed out in his bunk haha but VERY excited to go explore tommorrow! Love you all :) Goodnight!

Korea (the South one)

This is possibly the most surreal day weve ever experienced. We left the Tallahassee airport 25 hours ago and the sun still has not gone down. We flew straight from Atlanta to Korea on a 14 hour flight. The craziest part is we went waaaaay north, almost to the North Pole, and then came back down flying north-to-south into Korea. Guess thats the whole curvature of the earth effect or whatever. We had this one meal on the plane that was some sort of rice and steamed "stuff" that I thought was pretty good. Jen "wasn't hungry" aka couldnt stand it. But the ride wasn't to terrible. Jen had the window seat, I had the middle, and a ~85yr old Korean woman was in the aisle seat. Wish I could have seen us trying to communicate with her the whole flight: priceless. Anyways, she was hilarious. But when we touched down, we were SOOO excited! Its around 55 degrees here though so our plans of visiting the beach tomorrow probably wont happen. Were staying at a hotel near the airport which isnt actually IN seoul, but on an island near Seoul. Anyways, I dont know if this is all of Korea, or just here, or just this day, but it is dreary-er than those towns you see in eastern europe from WWII footage: there is NOTHING going on here. But after the travel, were grabbing some food and passing out. Well update when we get to Singapore!


P.S. Im updating this before we head out but this place isn't as depressing as it once seemed. Its nothing to oogle over, but we stumbled upon the beach which had a bunhc of really interesting restaurants. The only downside is it was purely seafood which jen does not like. It wasn't exactly appealing to me either, however, since NONE of it was cooked: not the clams, mussels, stingrays, conch, fish, crab, etc. We just had mongolian beef at the hotel, but it is safe to say we are looking forward to not having Korean food...Singapore, here we come!

28 Hours Until Liftoff!

We are getting so excited/anxious at this point! One more day in the states before we climb aboard our plane to Korea and then Singapore! We will be sure to post as soon as we settle down in the hostel the first night we get there!