East Coast Malaysia

Exploring Palau Penang further we climbed Penang Hill, the tallest peak on the island at 820 meters. We sweatily climbed up and shared coffee with energetic old Chinese men at the rest stops along the way. It was a nice climb and offered beautiful views of the cities below. We continued on to the Northwest Coast of the island and a national park and spent two days hiking around to different beaches, a metronomic lake (both sea and fresh water), and through the lush jungle.

Continuing on we took a long bus that wound through the jungle interior of the country to the east side of Malaysia to Kota Baru. There we prepared our trip to the Perhentian Islands, two islands that run off generators and only have running electricity at night. We spent four days there enjoying the beach and lazing about. Island life, as usual. We hiked around the southern tip of the island one day and rented a kayak another. Amanda finished her purse made out of batik fabric purchased in Thailand. In line with Amanda's philosophy on the bigger the better for accessories, it may be the largest bag ever constructed. From the islands we continued back to mainland Malaysia along with it's normal prices and culture (not just whities everywhere you look) and stopped in Kaula Terrenganu and Marang.

Kaula Terrenganu, apparently a cultural hot spot was a bit commercialized with it's oil money. We took a ferry over the river to a town that was supposed to be famous for traditional boat making. Instead we found fish sausage hot out of the boiling vat. Colin ate most of two, while Amanda puked in a bag.

Marang, the jumping off point for an island we weren't interested in, found us wandering the streets looking for affordable housing in the heat of the day. A town with nothing to do, we finally found a spot on top of a hill. It was the first squat toilet we had in a place, and the most we ever paid for a room as well. Sometimes you never know what you're going to get. We were about to set out for the Sunday market but fell asleep instead, a long awaited nap after all that searching. We started setting out as a storm came upon the town, we were soon in a thick cloud but we grabbed our raincoats (turns out Colin's doesn't work) and decided to set off. We were soon soaked and the storm went right over our heads. We walked the stalls, collected a bunch of different food and ate well. Upon returning to our bungalow it was dark and the light switches didn't work, further inspection found that the fan was blown from the wall and a fuze had blown out of the box. Our iPod charger was burnt up and as we turned to find out what was going on, the owner was quickly coming up to us with apologies. Lightning had struck our bungalow! The pavement in front of our steps was shattered and had blown the electricity in half of the huts. We moved to another, thankful that we weren't there, sitting on our porch when it happened. Talk about excitement!

We are now in Cherating, a very small village with a river running through it and a beach that reminds us of the Northwest (although it does have palm trees and is hot as balls). Things are quiet here and we have a nice place to stay and fresh laundry. Next we will head into Taman Negara, the largest national park in Malaysia with a jungle 130 million years old. Until then. . .