Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Our next stop on the Malaysia list is none other than Kuala Lumpur (or KL, as those 'in the know' like to call it). The Perhentians were amazing, but we were nonetheless looking forward to a change of pace in this giant of a city (7.2 million people). We headed out of the Perhentians early in the morning by boat, caught a plane from Kota Bharu, and landed safely in the KL airport later that afternoon. We reached the outskirts of the city by bus, and then our final destination, Chinatown, for 1 Ringit (32 cents) via a high-tech and extremely accessible train/monorail system. Thank god for mass transit. Chinatown is the epicenter of the KL backpacker world, and the center of the center is Petaling Street, an all-day, all-night monster of a street market. Thinking that this would be a great place to base ourselves, we found a nice little hotel aptly named the "Petaling Street Hotel" and made ourselves at home.

 The view from our hotel's cafe balcony.

 Waiting for the train.

 The train in always convenient, but sometimes overcrowded.

Our first full day in KL we went to some of the tourist hot-spots, including Masijd Negara (the National Mosque, one of the largest in SE Asia), the Old Railway Station, the National History Museum, and Lake Gardens. After getting sufficently lost trying to find Lake Gardens, we wound up instead at the National Mosque, so we figured it would be our first stop of the day. We knew we had to dress modestly in order to enter the mosque (and we thought we did), but at the entrance they handed us lavender floor-length robes-- apparently our calves were a bit to risque for this particular mosque.  So donned in incredibly non-breathing polyester robes, we walked inside. This mosque was interesting for a few reasons; the first of which is that it is beautiful, with a green glass 18-pointed star roof (representing the 13 states of Malaysia and the 5 pillars of Islam), and secondly because we had an interesting conversation about Islam with an very nice old man who worked in the mosque. He basically described to us (very factually) about what the Islam religion is based on and what they believe. The most interesting part of this conversation was our realization that Christianity and Islam are nearly one and the same (we amazingly didn't know this before); the only difference is that muslims believe Jesus was not the literal son of god, but instead one of thousands of prophets since the time of Adam and Eve.

 The 18-pointed star roof.

Jessica modeling our new garb.

The courtyard outside the mosque.

We left the mosque feeling a bit better informed, and headed to the elusive Lake Gardens (read: we got lost again. ha.) On our way, however, we passed the Old Railway Station which is an early 20th century example of the blending of Eastern and Western architecture.

The Old Railway Station

Still trying to find Lake Gardens (which, by the way is a gigantic park, and as such should be easy to find), we came upon the National History Museum. This museum was great for two reasons: Air conditioning, and a look at the history of Malaysia from prehistoric times until the present. But mostly the Air-con. It's 100 degrees outside, can you blame us?

Malaysian flags flying outside the National Museum.

We FINALLY found Lake Gardens after the museum, and although we had spent all morning looking for it, it turns out that the main attraction, a giant open air bird park, was way over-priced, and thus out of our budget. What a bust. Oh well.

Our next day found us at the modern architectural symbol fo Malaysia, the Petronas Towers, which were formerly the tallest buildings in the world. This is another beautiful architectural example of East meets West.
After our visit to the Petronas towers we wandered our way through the city to Merdeka square, the place upon which Malaysia announced their independece from Britain in 1957.  This is another area of the city that boasts beautiful architecture. After that, we wandered around the city and came across the "shopping district", which made us feel like we were in New York; lots of lights, traffic, and giant malls.

Jessica and the Petronas Towers.

The beautiful Sultan Abdul Samad Building.

Random street in KL.

 The shopping district at night. The malls here were MASSIVE and very high-end. Among some of the stores were Gucci, Miu Miu, Chanel, and Salvatore Ferragamo.

On our last day in KL we decided to test out the "Space Needle of Malaysia", the KL Tower. Unlike the Space Needle, this building actually functions as a TeleCom building, but it is just as touristy (and expensive) as the Needle. Still, the views were beautiful from 905 ft in the air.

The KL Tower from a distance.

View from the observation deck of the tower.

Petronas Towers from above.

Kuala Lumpur was great, but we're both excited for the next leg of our adventure: Malaysian Borneo!

Kota Bharu & Perhentian Kecil, Malaysia

We said goodbye to Koh Phi Phi and hopped on board the 8 AM ferry back to mainland Krabi. From there, we caught a 10 hour minibus to the Thai-Malaysian border. We crossed the boarder as it was closing at about 9:30 PM (literally jogged across the no-man's-land bridge that separates the countries), and then caught another taxi for the final hour long ride into Kota Bharu. By the time we found a guest house at 11 PM, it had been a very long day of traveling.
  

We chose Kota Bharu as our destination because it is the gateway to several travel routes in Malaysia. From Kota Bharu, you can 1) take a boat out to the Perhentian Islands, 2) a bus down the east coast of the country, or 3) take a train through the jungle-filled interior of the country. Because we entered the Malaysia without a comprehensive plan of how to navigate the country, we figured we could stop in Kota Bharu for a day or two, get our bearings, and make a plan from there. After researching, however, we chose option 4), a flight out of Peninsular Malaysia, across the South China Sea, and into Malaysian Borneo, the island part of the country. Our reasoning was as follows: each route that we researched--for example the Perhentian islands--were described as 'incredible, second only to islands off of Malaysian Borneo'. The Taman Negara (the jungle through central Malaysia) was described as second only to the jungles of Malaysian Borneo as well. We figured, why choose between a list of 'second-best' options, when we could just fly to Malaysian Borneo and experience the best! So as of now, the remainder of our trip will take us through Kuala Lumpur, across to Malaysian Borneo, and finally to Bali, from which we will return home.

However, the one 'roadblock' to our decision was that in order to find cheap airfare to Kuala Lumpur, we couldn't buy last-minute tickets. We had to wait a few days in order for the cheap fares to become available. So, we purchased tickets four days in advance, and figured if we had some time to kill anyways we might as well do it in the Perhentian islands, after all, it was only a 30-minute boat ride away!

The Central Market in Kota Bharu. Looks pretty... Smells horrible.

Clash of cultures. We were really surprised just how many people were at the good ol' Mc-y D's here.

At one point we stumbled upon a cultural center, where Jessica got some hands-on music lessons.

Once we were confident with our plans and the tickets were booked, we headed over to the beautiful Perhentian Islands. We arrived early in the morning on Coral Bay, a small beach on the west side of the island, and checked in to a bungalow on the beach. From there, we began exploring the activities of the island.

Our first thought: diving. Now that we are 'Advanced Divers' (not to brag or anything), we figured we might as well flex our diving muscles and see what the Perhentians had to offer. It turns out, the islands are famous for their dive spots, including multiple shipwrecks and a gigantic pinnacle called 'The Temple of the Sea.' The site, a volcanic rock barely piercing the ocean, isn't all that impressive from the boat, but follow that same rock 75' to the ocean floor, seeing just about every type of marine life that SE Asia has to offer, and you'll know why we loved it so much. Some highlights included hundreds of "nemo" fish, some aggressive Trigger Fish (our dive master had a little tussle with one), lionfish, tons of schools, a black-tip reef shark, giant puffer fish, scorpion fish, boxfish, and just about every anemone and coral in the book. Add to that 60-70 ft visibility and you have an amazing dive.

Because we had a few days on the island, we decided that we would dive three times, once per day. This made for an incredible schedule of diving in the morning, working up a voracious appetite for lunch, then spending the afternoon either hiking or just hanging out on the beach. On our favorite hike we found a smaller beach with almost no other tourists on it, which made a great setting for some frisbee, reading, and playing in the surf.

The dive company we went with, they were great.

The "town" on Coral Bay. There are no roads, and therefore no vehicles except small boats. There are only about 5 restaurants on the whole beach, and every night they all have a barbecue special with lots of fresh seafood!

Sunset on Coral Bay.

Mira Bay, a small beach we came across on our hike. 

The highlights of the island, besides the diving, included the fruit shakes (especially coconut) and the gorgeous sunsets. On our third day on the island, by the time we had finally gotten the lay of the land, we moved to a westward facing bungalow that we found on a hike. It overlooked Coral Bay and had a private balcony made for sunset watching. That evening, the sun performed spectacularly, giving off brilliant colors as it sank into the South China Sea.

By far the best sunset we've seen thus far. 

Daytime view from our porch.

Another look at the view. (Our bungalow is on the left.)

On our final day, an afternoon hike led us to yet another uninhabited beach, which we decided would be a great place to lay around reading and swimming in the late afternoon. As it turned out, the beach was not as uninhabited as we anticipated. Though we didn't run into any other humans, two enormous monitor lizards (link to wikipedia), at least six feet long and probably around 100 pounds, came out of the forest and basically told us "Get the hell out of here." We grabbed our belongings and carefully walked backwards over the rocks as the lizards followed us for about 100 yards until finally they turned and retreated into the forest (we managed to get some pics, though!). Although we are told that they are not very aggressive towards humans, we did not want to stick around and find out why those beasts were approaching us. Overall, the afternoon excitement ended up being one of the coolest parts of the trip!

Just above where Pres is reading is where the lizards passed by...

Scary...

The female monitor taking a dip.

Though a stiff pina colada might have helped to ease the nerves after the lizard experience, alcohol is extremely hard to find and/or extremely expensive in the Muslim country of Malaysia, so we settled for a coconut-shake, cheers'd to a successful and fun few days, and went to bed early. The next morning we were catching the early boat back to the mainland to continue on the adventure...

Koh Phi Phi, Thailand

Although Koh Tao begged us to stay just a few more nights, our visas were running out quickly. We decided to book it to Koh Phi Phi (pronounced "Ko Pee Pee"), an island just off the west coast of Thailand famous for it's appearance in the movie "The Beach" starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Although it's technically the low season for Phi Phi (i.e. monsoon/tsunami season), we had beautiful weather--and the tourist crowds to go along with it. (We would have appreciated a few less drunk Brits running around with their shirts off, but the world cup had just started so we couldn't really blame them. And besides, these are the Thai Islands, what did we expect?)

We ended up staying in an inexpensive little bungalow 30 seconds from the beach on Loh Dalum Bay, and as a result spent most of our time on Phi Phi reading, swimming, and playing Frisbee on the beach. On our second day, we decided to head up the tsunami evacuation route to a beautiful lookout, and from there ended up continuing our hike (guided by sparsely placed signage) up and over the island to a secluded little stretch of beach called Toh Ko Bay. Immediately we wondered why we didn't go there in the first place, as the beach was deserted save for the very talkative and happy mini-resort owner, had great snorkeling, and plenty of (free!) hammocks to go around. Ahhhh, paradise.

Preston on Loh Dalum beach, where we stayed.

More Loh Dalum. (Note: We took this pic early in the morning, before the crowds roll in.)

Sunset on Loh Dalum.

Hiking to the lookout.

A view well worth the hike.

Preston on Toh Ko beach, ready to snorkel.

Jessica lounging in a hammock.

The boat that took us back to town.

After a few hours on Toh Ko Bay, we headed back to the "bustling" center of Phi Phi to meet up for a day trip to the surrounding islands. Our first stop was "monkey beach" where we (carefully) played with wild monkeys for a bit, and also did some amazing snorkeling. We were on this tour with a group of Irish guys who barely knew how to swim and had never snorkeled before, which besides allowing them to make fun of each other constantly, resulted in some pretty nasty Sea Urchin wounds... Ouch. At least it wasn't a Trigger Fish attack. Ha.

After the monkeys we headed out to Phi Phi Leh, the island where The Beach was filmed. On our way to Maya Bay (the bay where most of the filming took place) we motored by the Viking Cave, from which there is a thriving "bird's nest soup" industry. Neither of us have tried this Chinese delicacy, but apparently one kilo of these saliva-based nests can cost up to $10,000 USD, and have been used in Chinese cooking for over 400 years. Holy cow. We didn't actually get to go inside the cave, but from the outside it looked much like one featured in the Planet Earth "Caves" episode. If your curiosity on this subject is spiked, get your hands on Planet Earth. We swear people actually eat this stuff.

The Viking Cave where they harvest the bird's nests. 

(All that bamboo is used to make ladders to get to the nests.)

Beautiful colored water.

Koh Phi Phi Leh from a distance.

More Phi Phi Leh.

Next stop was Maya Bay. Since it has been declared a protected area, we couldn't actually drive our long tail boat into the bay, but instead anchored on the other side of the island, forcing us to risk our lives walking barefoot over sharp corals and rocks while getting smashed by waves in order to get there. But we did it! The bay truly is breathtaking. We couldn't take any pictures of our own because we have officially lost our SECOND waterproof camera to the seas of Asia (Jessica doesn't want to talk about it), but here is an internet substitute. It really does look like this.

Maya Bay.

Our third stop of the night found us in a little cove off Phi Phi Leh, where we waited until dark so we could swim in the phosphorescent ocean. Both of us have seen phosphorescence before, but this truly was the best we've ever seen it. As cheesy as it sounds, it looks a bit like swimming through fairy dust. So beautiful!

Sunset on the ocean.

The cove where we swam in the phosphorus.

We headed back to shore around 8pm exhausted. Looks like a day full of hiking, beaching, sun, and snorkeling really can make you tired!

Side note: Phi Phi was completely devastated by the 2004 tsunami. You would never know it though, looking at the island today. The community has done an incredible job of getting themselves back on their feet in such a short amount of time. For a comparison between then and now, we included a couple pictures below.

Before

After

Next stop, Malaysia!