Penang

On 1st of May we voluntarily woke up at 6 am to get out from the hostel. The bus journey was said to take about 5 hours. We stopped a lot and there were a lot of traffic due to the holidays! We hadnt even looked at any hostel so we were just hoping to find one..

Eventually the bus journey took at least 6 hours. We ended up at this bus station from which we had to take a local bus to Georgetown. On the guide book that we had we spotted three hostels right next to each other so we headed that way. First one was full but the next one had one double room left for 45 ringgits. We were told that everywhere was full, so we took it. It wasnt really much better from the previous one but had to do.

Georgetown was said to have lots of food stall and we looked for hours and barely found any. Afterwards we figured they must have been closed.. On the first night we just wandered around to see the street art and some sights bu the water. We didnt really like the place at all even tho all the reviews said it would be so nice. It was full of Asian tourists and nothing special to see or do.

On 2nd we decided to take a bus 204 from Komchar to Penang Hill. What a nightmare. First we didnt fit into the bus and ended up waiting the next one for 30 minutes. And then due to the traffic it took at least 90 minutes!! With our patience!!! When we eventually got of it started raining. A lot. Of course at the Bukit Bendera we saw this massive lines to the hill.. No way were we gonna wait.

We started walking back along the bus route and finally came to this temple sight Kek Lok Si which we had seen further away. It is the largest Buddhist temple complex in Malaysia.

Lots of Asian tourists and only a few of our looking :D Up to this main statue Kuan Yin we took return lift tickets for 6 ringgits each.. Really interesting place. The walk up to the temple was through this narrow narrow and low alley with shops in each side.

After seeing the temple we went to this local food market were people looked at us like we were a bit lost! Not that touristic place was that.. Eventually we took a bus back but before we went to this yard where we saw this old lady selling some local sweet things and Steve of course wanted to buy some. This old woman didnt speak a word in english and we paid him and tried to let her keep the rest of the money but she firmly refused and only let us pay what the locals pay also!

In general there you didnt really need to count how much money you got back. They were really honest!

The bus back took also ages. After showers we headed back to eat and wander around and eat again. While wandering around the streets we spotted lots of massssive rats running around! I also so one in our hostel when opening our room door to the hallway when going to the toilet. I freaaaked out!

That guy had a looot of dishes to do..

The kind of places were we mostly ate at.

Cameron Highlands

On 30th of April it was time to head to Cameron Highlands! We took the purple line around 8.30 and headed to Chinatown where the bus station was supposed to be. Well. It turned out to be much more difficult task to find than we had thought. After walking to wrong direction for ages and arguing about asking someone we eventually found it. We even made it to the 9.30 am bus that we had planned to. The tickets were 35 ringgit each. We both looked like we came straight from the shower, it was ridiculous.

The bus ride took around 4-4,5 hours. The last two hours were these small mountain roads. The center of Tanah Rata was small with plenty of hotels and hostels. We ended up to his hostel called Twin Pines. A. Shit. Hole.

The cheapest room that we wanted was in an attic, a mattress on the floor. That was still okey, nothing wrong in that except that it was super hot and we found bugs from the "bed". We left for the "center" (around 50 meter walk) to catch something to eat and find a tourist info.

We found out that there was only one bus daily to Penang because of the holidays (1st of May) so we bought tickets to 8 am bus (32 ringgit each). It was raining cats and dogs and the place was tiny so we didnt wanna get stuck in there. The woman at the info told us that we could take a taxi for an hour to drive is to places near by which we wanted to see.

Since it had just stopped raining we went to this tour. First he took us to this tea plantation which was awesome!

Then we went to this big chinese temple.

After an hour and ten minutes we paid him 35 ringgit (which is around 7,8 €...). Back at the hostel we asked to change the room and got a little better one and paid him 20 ringgit more for it. It was still a terrible and untidy. At night it was FULL of them flying ant things or some bugs!!

At night we sat outside on this little seating area and tried to plan our trip. We decided to leave out the whole Malesian Borneo and also Brunei cause there eventually wouldt have been that much sight that we wanted to see. It also would have required us to fly a lot more since the roads there are terrible. Now we could stay longer in places and be back in KL for our flight to Medan, Indonesia on 26th of May!

We also talked with this one man traveling around the world having his business somewhere and people to work for him. Through skype and emails etc. he runs his business while traveling around! He had been in Cameron Highlands for over 6 months?!??!

Our night was terrible! We dressed up so there wouldt be any room for the bugs to crawl! Barely slept at all. Horrible.

Notices:
- left side traffic
- Thank you = terima kasih
- Everyone is wearing a helmet when driving motorbikes. 

Batu Caves

On 29th we woke up around 9.30 am and went down for breakfast (toast and tea). First stop of the day was the Batu Caves. We took the KL commuter train there for 30 minutes and it was extremely slow! At the sight there werent much people at all and monkeys everywhere.

272 -steps up to the cave. Up at the caves it was a slight disappointment cause there werent really much to see at all. Basically only the golden man statue down in front of the steps.

The best bit really was when Steve got shit by a pigeon. :D

After the Batu Caves we went to this famous muslim mosque where Steve got to wear a dress..

Coming back we got to see and feel a proper monsoon rain! It only lasted maybe 30 minutes tho. After it stopped we went back to Jalan Alor (Khao San road) to eat and it cost us 6,20 € for both of us.

Then we hopped to the GoKL city bus (a bus line with four FREE routes!!). First we got off at Chinatown which was really lively with food stalls and different market stuff. Then it was time to see the Petronas Twin Towers (which by the way were lit up, just like the previous day..)

Quite impressive those were! First time on the trip I felt like a was on a holiday ! A free traveller exploring the world! Love that!!!! 

First visit to Kuala Lumpur

Finally at KL our backpacks game quite fast and we took the fast express to KL sentral and then monorail to Bukit Bintang. It was pissing down and thundering when we got of the monorail. Great start to our holiday! Perfect.

We found our hostel Sunshine Bedz really easily and swapped our room to double room for two nights at a cost of 178 malesian ringgits (MYR). Then it was time for my highlight of the day.. A shower!! After showers we decided not to go straight to bed but to go get something to eat. We wound this lovely street full of all sorts of food and shops etc. The street reminded us of the Khao San road in Bangkok! We ate nice chinese foor for 100 MYR (which we later found out that it was a
lot!!!)

On our way back Steve spotted THE twin towers! I was convinced that they were really close by (it did look like it...). We decided to walk there to catch a climpse. Failed. They werent even lit up properly.

On the way back we saw quite a lot of places and shopping centers like Pavillion.

We both slept over 9 hours in our double bed with aircon.