Langkawi- motorbikes and beaches

Before going to Taman Negara, I spent just over a week on the island of Langkawi, in Northern Malaysia. I've been to Langkawi about a year and a half ago but because of time constraints and exhaustion, didn't make it much further than the beach down the road from the guesthouse I stayed at. This time around, I had much more time and wasn't exhausted from a busy school term and even busier vacation. This time around, I explored other beaches, a few of the island temples, caught up on my life from the back of a motorbike, explored a few waterfalls, and in general wandered much further down the big beach. It is crazy how much Langkawi has developed in the past year and a half. When we were there in March of 2013, Cenang Beach was little more than a few ramshackle hotels and hostels with a resort or two at the very end and restaurants with terrible food. The days of full moon parties at the Reggae Hostel and Bar are long gone and the beach is now packed with resorts and large hotels. The backpacker lane is still there but it's probably only a matter of time until the resorts and hotel chains chase that away as well.

Kristina's cousin, Danielle, met us here for a couple of days as she was making her way back to the States. Her first full day in Langkawi, we hopped on some motorbikes and went around the island to visit temples, mountain tops, and waterfalls. As we were driving around, we kept passing groups of people stopping and directing traffic as there was some sort of mountain bike marathon race going on. The trails did criss cross the roads and all traffic would be stopped to allow the bikers to continue with their race without the risk of getting injured.

View from the top of the mountain. 

After spending time at a temple and the local craft complex, we ended up at the top of a mountain for a view of the island. There is an option to climb up some 4,000 stairs to the top of said mountain, but we didn't actually see it until we stopped at the lookout point that also doubled as the endpoint of the stairs. I'm always game for a good hike but 4,000 stairs sounds like a fairly daunting number and not at all enjoyable!

Kristina taking Danielle to the airport in a coming rainstorm!

My chauffeur 

We did find our way to a couple of waterfalls in Langkawi and my favorite was the Seven Wells one. At the very top are seven small pools, hence the name, seven wells. You can swim in these pools and even go down a natural waterslide from one pool to another. These seven wells lead to one giant waterfall midway down the mountain.

I will say that I enjoyed my time in Langkawi but have realized what a beach snob I have become. The beaches were nice but not the white sand, clear blue waters I've become accustomed too and spoiled by!

Taman Negara, where leeches tried to eat us

Less than a week ago, I came off of a 3 day, 2 night trek in one of Malaysia's many National Parks. Kristina, Lynsey, and I made our way to Taman Negara in search of either a 3 or 4 day trek within the jungle. We settled on an option from our guesthouse and started quite the trend. When we first signed up we were the only three slated to go, but by 8:00 that evening, 13 were signed up for either 2 or 3 days.

Canopy Walkway

View from a platform.

To start our trek off, we had to ferry across the river to the park office and declare our clothing, plastics, batteries, and other items we had stuffed into our backpacks. I thought this was a great idea but then was a bit disappointed upon returning when the rangers made no effort to check that we had all our declared items. After our declaration, we took a short boat ride to the canopy platform jetty, climbed 5 minutes up a series of stairs, paid 5 ringgit, and found ourselves on a platform leading to the canopy walkway. The canopy walkway is the longest in the world at just over 500 meters. There are guides stationed at the different platforms to make sure that everyone follows the 5 meters apart, and only 5 on a bridge at a time rules. While I loved the canopy walkway, I found it really messed with my equilibrium and just continues to prove how much I am like my mother. This is not a bad thing but it wasn't fun to feel slightly dizzy while on the bridges. Upon reaching the platforms, I was fine and oohed and aahed over the views of the jungle and river just like everyone else. The bridge that messed with my head the most was the ladder that took us up to the highest point of the walkway. It was swung a ton and was weird to be taking short mincing steps up rather than walking flat or outright climbing it like a ladder. As I said, I enjoyed the canopy walkway but was extraordinarily happy to reach the ground.

Hammed

From here, we took a bit of a longer boat ride up the river to an old ranger's station for a quick lunch, consisting of chicken and rice and jungle mangoes for dessert, before beginning our trek. Our one guide, Hammed, had lived at the ranger's station as a child as his father worked for the National Park. However, Hammed also enjoyed telling stories, so I'm not entirely sure how much of what he said was true and how much was BS. Despite the stories, Hammed was fairly knowledgeable about jungle plants and birds.

The actual walking for this particular trek was not very difficult. Nothing was very steep and the trail was clearly defined and well maintained unlike our adventure in Laos. But, I kid you not, 40 minutes into our 4 hour hike on the first day, we ran into a huge thunderstorm and rain that just would not stop. The thunder and lightening was a bit frightening because it seemed so close and we were in the middle of a jungle with nothing for shelter. Finally, in about hour 3, the rain did start to slow but of course didn't fully stop until after we had reached the cave we were staying in for the night.

The aftermath of the leeches.

With the rain, came the leeches. I was fairly lucky and only had about 12 on me that first day, 50% of which actually latched on. Kristina and Lynsey had at least 12 on their feet because of their more open shoes. By the time they either fell off or were burned off at the cave, it looked like they had participated in some sort of slasher film. The cave for the evening was quite comfortable and didn't have any bats. It was a huge cave and our other guide, Amy Buda, said it was some 500 million years old as it had once been under the sea. Again, I don't know how accurate his information is but considering the jungle itself is over 130 million years old, I'm inclined to believe him.

Swinging like Jane.

Day 2, we got lucky because it never rained and we got a chance to swing over a small stream like Tarzan and Jane. Again, the trekking itself wasn't difficult and the hardest part came when trying to climb over giant trees that had fallen and obstructed the path. The vine swinging was definitely the highlight of the day for me. At first, I was going to do it (I was being a chicken) but then thought that I'll probably never have the opportunity to go on a jungle vine swing again and ended up going 3 times, even though the third time was a bit unintentional! Our lunch was a simple noodle soup affair in the middle of a river sandbar.

Blow Dart

That evening, the six of us staying on for the third day, spent the night in an Orang Asli traditional village. This particular tribe used to be nomadic and relied on the jungle for all their needs. However, with tourism, they have started to shift away from their traditional practices and are now relying on tourism dollars to supplement their income. As part of the 'tourism' show we got to see the traditional ways of starting a fire and how they use a blow dart to hunt monkeys and other small animals. I will say watching the man shoot the blow dart was pretty awesome.

Working by headlamp to chop beef and veggies.

Our accommodation for the evening was a bamboo and grass hut on the sand. I was surprised by how much I missed the cave for it's comfort and lack of cockroaches. I don't know what happened, but after the sun went down, the cockroaches came out in full force and were everywhere! Thankfully, they were the baby and adolescent ones rather than the full grown adults, so they didn't freak me out. We had a very late dinner because Hammed had to return with the other group to get us more food as our supplies brought by the boat driver consisted of cookies, one loaf of bread, and three cans of curry chicken for seven people and two meals. He came back with a bunch of veggies, rice, and beef. He made a delicious beef curry, veggie omelet, fried veggies, and enough rice to feed 20 people. Dinner was delicious and welcomed after 4 hours of hiking and a light lunch.

Day 3 was the easiest hike of all and we only walked for about 90 minutes. The first hour was on a trail leading back to the canopy walkway and the last 30 minutes was on the boardwalk from the canopy walkway back to the park office. Aside from the leeches, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Taman Negara. If anyone is up for an adventure with leeches and a fairly easy hike, I'd highly recommend a short trek through an awesome 130 million year old jungle!

Penang Hill

The last time I was in Penang, in 2013, I was unable to climb Penang Hill due to a sore and swollen knee obtained in the Cameron Highlands. Instead, I took the monorail up to the top and waited for Kristina, Lynsey, and Danna to arrive. As I waited back in 2013, I started to wonder what had happened to them as they were taking much longer than any of us had anticipated. When I did finally spot them, dripping with sweat, it became quite clear that the word 'hill' was a bit of a misnomer.

Despite knowing all this, I still wanted to be able to say that I had climbed to the top of Penang Hill, and Kristina and Lynsey agreed to climb it a second time. In order to do this, we hopped on one of the many city buses and got dropped off at the Botanical Gardens where there is a staircase that leads to a trail up to the top of the hill. There was some second guessing and backtracking as Kristina and Lynsey tried to remember exactly where the stairs started but eventually, we did find it and thus our journey to the top began.

We climbed stairs for about 45 minutes until the path evened out a bit and we started on a trail right near the road. It was along the stairs, that I saw two of the most exotic creatures I've ever encountered while hiking or trekking. The first was a snake and the second was some sort of bright red centipede or possibly millipede. We didn't take the time to count it's legs.

Eventually, we came to the part that I had been warned about. The first trail we were on ended and met up with the road. Back in 2013, they walked up the road because it had been getting late and no one knew how much longer it would take to get to the top. The grade of the road is 35% and did not look overly inviting. Instead, we found the original path from the days of Cornwallis in the 1800s. Choosing this path was a no brainer for me and onward and upward our journey continued.

Of course, any activity I do in SE Asia would not be complete without getting caught in a downpour and that is exactly what happened about 20 minutes into the second half of the journey. The rain jacket didn't even make it out of the bag because it was raining so hard. Plus, the water felt refreshing after an hour of hot, sweaty hiking. This part, at times, became a mad scramble up the mud and avoiding puddles. It made me happy I was climbing up rather than down.

This time, our path intersected with the monorail maintenance path. We walked on that and a combination of stairs passing private residences on our way to the top. The closer we got to the top of Penang Hill, the lighter the rain became until it came to a stop minutes after we found shelter underneath an overhang. The three of us hung out here until we were certain the rain had stopped for good and the sun started to come out. We had a lot of drying out to do.

The view of the city was not particularly great because of the clouds left in the sky and the general haze of humidity. However, being at the top was relaxing as the rain had scared many people away.

The game plan for getting back down was to try to hitch a ride all the way to the bottom. Unfortunately for us, only three cars passed while we were on the road and none of them had room for us. We ended up walking all the way down. Once we got off the road and onto a hash (running club) trail, the walk turned much more pleasant. In the end, I didn't find the hike up to Penang Hill as difficult as what I had been anticipating. Much of this, was due to taking that second path rather than the road the final 2 kilometers up to the top.

Penang Street Art

Penang is the land of amazing street food and even better street art! Kristina, Lynsey, and I spent about a week here, wandering aimlessly through Georgetown, eating delicious noodles, and riding the bus to different outdoor destinations.  The street art consists of incredibly lifelike murals and sculptures that explain how the streets got their names. I loved wandering down the streets and looking at everything.

Boy and girl on swing. 

Skippy he cat.

Boy and girl on a bike.

Lane where the boy and girl on the swing is located.

One of the many minions.

A Visit to an Orphanage

As part of my travels in Siem Reap, I was going to spend about 6 days volunteering at an orphanage. I had made arrangements with the owner and we emailed back and forth numerous times in the weeks leading up to my arrival date. I was excited about this and looking forward to being in one spot for an extended period of time, hanging out with some kids, and giving back during my travels. In the days leading up to it, I blatantly ignored Kristina's worries and musings that it might not be as legitimate as it appeared and that we weren't going to like what we found.

As it turns out, I should have listened to Kristina and Becs in their infinate wisdom. We arrived at the orphanage to discover that the owner was on 'vacation' in Ämerica and had been gone for a number of weeks and is not expected to be back until the 31st of October. Never did she mention this to any of us during our emails. Once we found this out, we asked the sole volunteer there who was in charge and her answer was fairly horrifying and a firm, 'No one really'.

As the other volunteer gave us a tour of the complex, we were warned about using the water in the shower. It hadn't been changed in a number of days (we would have taken bucket showers) and as a result, it now had worms in it. Taking a bucket shower is no big deal to me. I've done it before and chances are I'll do it again in my travels here in SE Asia. However, what I find disgusting is that no one could be bothered to change such water and expected the children to bathe with it.

As the day progressed, I was more and more horrified and disgusted by what I saw. One girl was violently ill after eating lunch and had been doing this for two days. After searching the 'office' for anything resembling an emergency plan or emergency contact list for doctor info and finding nothing, the four of us, through a teenage interpreter, convinced the cook to take the girl to the doctor.

The teenage interpreter mentioned above was also the one left in charge along with the cook who speaks no English and really had no control over the kids from what we could see. As a 14 year old teenage boy, he was expected to assume responsibility for approximately 24 other children and acting as interpreter for the volunteers.

Because there was no adult truly in charge, setting a schedule or routine, the kids were dirty as were their clothes because the washing machine is only used for 'going out' clothes. All of them had lice and their bedding was infected. Speaking of bedding, the only rooms that had mattresses were the volunteer rooms. The kids slept of thin bamboo mats over a slotted wooden bed frame. There were no toys anywhere for the kids to play with. While lessons were going on for one group, the others just lazing around would leave the complex without telling anyone. No security measures were in place to prevent children leaving or random adults entering. Sometimes, children would leave the orphanage to go back home but not inform anyone.

I find it disturbing that the owner would take a vacation to America and leave the children in these sorts of conditions with no one in charge. In response to our questions about why the children were living so, the owner would only say that living conditions in Cambodia are different than what they are in the America. A poor, poor excuse for someone who  can afford the round trip plane ticket to America and owns property in California.