don't believe everything you read

we're in johor bahru, malaysia and staying at a guesthouse/hostel rated 76% by past guests on hostelworld.com

what does that mean? this is a summary rating that includes character, location, cleanliness, security, staff and fun. and we've learned 76% can be a little sketchy...particularly on the cleanliness scale.

while traveling we've tried to stay above 70%.

this place is not a 76%. it's incredible. you could eat off the floors/walls/bathroom sink/toilet/outdoor porch - basically the 10-second...five-second? rule does not apply here. chris w and kelly - you would be in heaven here.

there is 24 hr. electricity (ok maybe only exciting for us), air conditioning, free wifi and an ensuite bathroom. amazing! did i mention it's only $8/person?

Colin - this post is for you!

this is my reflection in the immaculate floors

ok, yes i am pretty excited about the hostel. BUT today we're moving to singapore (and as catherine said to "sing and pour") to meet my parents.

Dad - i don't know how fullerton bay hotel will compare. this might be some stiff competition.

self-admitted turtle lover

we released 3 day-old baby sea turtles into the ocean. they're so cute.

please remember to keep the oceans and beaches clean. only 1 in a 1000 makes it to maturity. these little guys are endangered.

Halfway to Singapore

We left the island and bused to Cherating on Saturday. We're making our way down to Singapore, and Cherating is about halfway there. This town was formerly a popular backpacker stopover point, and is still a popular surfing destination during the monsoon season (winter). Right now, it's nearly a ghost town. There are a few Western tourists, but most of the vacationers here are from Kuala Lumpur.

We've seen a lot of wild animals around town. Monkeys run across the phone lines like squirrels do in Boston. Last night, we walked by a wild monkey hugging a dog. Supposedly the monkey was friends with the dog's mother, and has known this dog since it was a pup. The dog's owner told me that the monkey was friendly, so I put my hand down and the monkey walked over and grabbed it. He then gently nibbled on my finger, but I could tell he was packing some serious teeth. I thought back to a story I heard a couple years ago in Thailand about a lady that paid to take a picture with a monkey, got bit in the face, and ended up in the hospital. Kind of scary.

The monkey is NOT humping the dog.

Along with the monkey and dog, the unlikely group of animal friends included a cat and what the dog-owner called a Malaysian fox. We couldn't find "Malaysian fox" on Google.. and it doesn't look like a fox. The first person to correctly identify what animal this actually is gets a prize (seriously).

"Malaysian fox"

While Janet was checking her email a few minutes ago, I walked down to the river that's 30 feet away from us and saw some walking/jumping fish. Or are they fish-shaped frogs? Those interested can see the Youtube video here.

Best of all were the sea turtles. We went to a nearby Sea Turtle Sanctuary and were able to participate in one of their programs by releasing baby turtles into the sea. Basically, they monitor the beaches every night and when a turtle lays eggs, they raid the nest and re-lay them somewhere secure. When they hatch, they keep them for three days to ensure that they're healthy, and then let visitors (us) release them into the sea. Pretty cool.

On the walk back (at 11PM and still several kilometers from where we're staying), a family with three young children stopped and offered us a ride. Within one minute of getting in the car, it started down-pouring. Thank you so much random tourist family from KL! Maybe it was karma? A few days ago we participated in a volunteer beach cleanup on Pulau Perhentian with only one other person, taking bags of trash off the beach, while dozens of other sunbathing tourists looked at us funny. It was probably just coincidence but the timing was unreal.

the wild-life

this is a joint post...

janet-

we swam with a sea turtle yesterday. she was INCREDIBLE.

i was stung by a jellyfish...they are angry animals.

totally random but as we were walking across the island this morning ari noticed we were in step with each other and said "we're in sync. like the band" harhar

ari-

There are big lizards all over the island. As Janet was writing this post, one walked by. This one is pretty small... I saw one three times bigger on a trail a few days ago. I walked right up on it before I noticed it. It was pretty scary.

comments

darcy:

i'm definitely going to youtube the finale now! i'm glad that lauren won. she was definitely second best to alex....who was MILES ahead of everyone else...sighhhhh. well hopefully he'll recover! thanks for letting me know! tell everyone i said hi! hopefully you survived any SCID/LIFE training. Tell everyone I'll be sending an email shortly. Good to hear from you!!!!!

maria:

you're right. the guided tour was AWESOME haha. it was nice to know where we were going and know that we weren't in any potential danger. we should be in singapore on Sept 1st so we'll let you know how it is....although we've heard that it's "just another big city". regardless, 24 hour electricity sounds incredible! haha

brittany:

i saw that photo on fb. is your classroom a beach??

oriana:

can't wait for you to come travel with us! (although we've definitely fallen into a very slow pace...something along the lines of doing an activity one day and then coming to this swanky hotel to steal internet and sit all day out of the sun hahaha) here's ari's face while holding the scorpion...priceless.

chris w:

yeah it's pretty scruffy and coming in red and blonde haha. but still a little sparse (apparently there are some bald spots on ari's face!). he does report that it's beyond the itchy phase but he's going to have to shave it before the wedding at the end of september. so at least he'll have another three weeks. i have an awesome photo to send you (not of ari's beard)! so look out for that!

michele s:

GREAT ADVICE! i think ari's legs are also much longer and laziness must run in the family. since we got here ari has been waking up early and jogging and swimming....while i continue to sleep. and sleep. hahaha if you get a chance we would love to see a video of X crawling! i'm glad he's finally worked out the mechanics!!! haha maybe it's time you guys invest some money in baby-proofing (instead of the elastic bands...) by the way, ari wants josh to know that since we got to the beach he's been working on the competition and josh has no chance hahaha.

martha:

haha would it be mamba or mambo(ston)? thanks for the email!!!! and following the blog! have you started looking at tickets yet? is the kitchen all done? keep us updated! tell jim we said hi!!

shayna:

"set" is definitely keeping us busy! we haven't challenged other random travelers yet but hopefully soon.

ari and i were saying maybe you would want to climb mt kinabalu (although the beach might be calling you)

ashley:

you were in my dream last night. haha actually the whole department was...and it had merged with galatea hahaha with an "open concept" layout...weirdness ensued...more details in an email haha

leart:

start looking at tickets, yo. Ari says: "keep on playin' playah". how's the motorcycle?!?!

Life's a beach

The Perhentian Islands consist of Kecil, the small island, and Besur, the big island. Most budget friendly accomodation is on Long Beach on Kecil. Unfortunately for us, and everyone else here, these places aren't reviewed on sites such as HostelWorld.com, have worthless descriptions in the Lonely Planet, don't allow pre-booking (you just have to show up), and there is barely enough accomodation on Long Beach to fit all of the tourists.

After a 5 hour bus ride to Kuala Besut, and a 45 minute speedboat ride to the island, we arrived at Long Beach. We were dropped off right at the beach, and had to get out in the water. So with a big backpack on our backs, a small one on our fronts, shoes in hand, and pants rolled up to our knees (jeans in my case.. it was cold on the bus!), we made a sweaty march from chalet to chalet, looking for a place to stay. After some time our feet were painfully burnt from the hot sand, our clothes were entirely drenched with sweat, and we'd looked at nearly all available accomodation on the beach. The first two available places were out of our price range, so when we finally got to LemonGrass Chalets, which had a chalet available for 60 ringett, we decided immediately to take the chalet, drop our bags off, and jump in the water.

LemonGrass made us pay for two nights minimum. What a racket. We soon discovered how unpleasant our living situation was. Our chalet was in the back, touching the jungle (most of the island is undeveloped jungle) so we were swarmed with mosquitos by the time we got to our porch. There was some relief in sleep, though, because of the mosquito net over the bed. To make it worse it's pitch black in there, so you can't even swat the moquitos (everything on this island runs off of generators, so the budget places only give you power after 7:00PM). The room was pretty small and uncomfortable. Also, the shared [outdoor] bathroom was totally filthy. Janet is more bothered by the filth and the bugs than I am, but even I was desperate to switch chalets.

So on Saturday, after one night at LemonGrass, we walked all over the island asking about prices and trying to see as many places as possible. Sunday morning I woke up before 8:00 and went back to a few of the more promising chalets. Reception wasn't there was first. By 8:30, the reception arrived for Matahari Chalets and we were able to secure a chalet with attached bathroom right in the front (no mosquitos), twice the size of our other chalet, and with plently of natural light for 65 ringett. We're totally happy with this place and so comfortable here. An older Italian couple also secured a chalet at Matahari, which they are very happy with, after upgrading from Symphony Village. By 9:00, people were being dumped on the beach with their luggage, making the sweaty walk down the beach. One girl came up to the Matahari reception, but they were full. "Suckers," I thought. It's like initiation to Long Beach. We later saw her moving in to LemonGrass as we were moving out. I wonder if they forced her to pay for two nights.

In front of our new chalet

--

As you can see from Janet's previous post, the place is beautiful! And for anyone tempted by her post, the beach lovers should Google "Boraqay, Phillipines" or "Bali, Indonesia." The more adventurous of you can meet us in Laos or Cambodia. And there's always Thailand.

The outdoorsy folk should look into Mt. Kinabalu - anyone want to climb it with me in December (or Febuary?) while Janet's doing her grad school apps in Hong Kong? You need to plan very far in advance to get the required permits/etc so let me know! Forest I know you could probably jog up it but it's still the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia, and Febuary is a great time for a break from Alaska. Ramey - you were all about the mountain climbing thing for about a week last year. We could get a bunch of cousins and do it. Dan Corbera, Mark Roper - I know you'd be down. Anyone who didn't get a shout out by name is also welcome! =)

welcoming visitors

this is our new home.

My parents are meeting us in Singapore. Ari's parents are meeting us in Thailand in January. Leart coming in March? Oriana, Vietnam next summer?

When are you coming?

it-snot all sun and games

it does rain here but luckily our initial information was a gross overestimation. The weather is a little Jekyll and Hyde where the mornings are blue clear skies and sunny, mid-80s; the afternoon and evenings are generally cloudy littered with sporadic heavy rain and mid-50s. Compared to the intense sweating and dehydration (determined by lack of urination/urination colour and viscosity) we were experiencing in KL, I definitely feel like we've traded up!

Janine and Hector - this area is the Asian version of Boquette (Panama). but a lot more touristy and built up e.g. we are sitting in a starbucks right now. As we have to pay for internet per hour at our hostel, we are sipping a $2 USD coffee very slowly so we can optimize our "free" wi-fi time. By the way, I've been meaning to find out who won "So you think you can dance"...anyone?

As for the snot situation. it's great. My sinuses have reached an all time record high pressure point. This was particularly fun yesterday when Ari persuaded me to go on a "gentle" hike (no map, no destination). It started off gentle as you can see in the photo above but quickly turned into a 2.5 hour mountainous descent with wet, soggy and slippery slopes and disappearing 6 inch wide trails. We don't have any photos of this because as it got more treacherous the sporadic (aforementioned) rain began.

Today we broke down and went on a guided tour of the highlands which included going to Gunung Brinchang, the highest point in the Cameron Highlands - we think - at 6666 ft. (Ari initially wanted to hike this one too. Roughly 15 km/9miles from our town Tanah Rata) Also went through a "mossy forest", visited a tea plantation and a butterfly farm. The butterfly farm also had other random insects. Below is Ari holding a scorpion that the guide essentially promised was harmless.

At the tea plantation our guide told us the various steps of tea leaf preparation. He discussed the drying process that occurred on the second floor of the factory and that tourists were not permitted to visit because "the floors are very slippery and a few years ago a tourist slipped, fell out the window and died." (dead pan and pointing to the concrete drive we were standing on).

On that note. Here is a special photo for your enjoyment. Nasal strips. Key for breathing when you're full of snot. (Joshieee - definitely not getting in the way of eating...just tasting)

Note: finally finished the "about" section. Office space anyone? We'll be on the move tomorrow - heading to the beachhhhhh. the different map sections will likely have more activity from now on!

Made it to the highlands

We just got in last night, and it was pouring rain. Apparently it rains every day after 1:00 or 2:00 PM. We're staying in the largest town in the highlands, Tanah Rata. It's very touristy. We may have gotten too used to the cleanliness and amenities of our last hostel - free WiFi, free breakfast, thick walls, and bathrooms so clean that some people would go in barefoot! This place is quite different. Our room is next to the common area, and the walls are paper thin. The room and bathrooms look clean enough, but in comparison to Irsia Bed & Breakfast in KL, are very dirty. I'm currently using a very old computer in the common area at a charge of 3 ringgit ($1) per hour.

Janet is feeling slightly under the weather. She's come down with a mild head cold, so I don't think we'll be trekking to any peaks today. The bus ride down was miserable for her as she gets motion sickness. We had to have the bus stop so that she could vomit just five minutes before we arrived. We were so close!

On the bus ride over here I put together some video clips from KL:

you can't have night market food...

and get up on the sky bridge too. maybe next time.

we're moving and we're not sure what our internet situation is going to be but hopefully we'll find something soon!

Goodbye, humidity!

We're heading to the Cameron Highlands in the morning for some relief from the stifling heat and humidity.

Today we saw a guy cleaning his hands in a puddle on the street. We wondered what he could possibly be cleaning off that is dirtier than Kuala Lumpur puddle water..

Malaysia "going green":

Just licking my lips

the last two days have been about food. We were on a quest for Ramadhan break-fast night markets. (During Ramadhan, approximately the month of august, people fast all day. For people who are super hardcore i think this might include abstaining from drinking anything)

Though we avoided the kittens up for grabs (sorry craig, i definitely veto that poll) at the wet market, we've tried a lot of other local fare including Chinese, Malaysian-Chinese, Indian and Malaysian food. However, after four meals of unsuccessful attempts to find a spot not inundated with tourists we finally found what we were looking for!

A side note. Ari just woke himself up in a puddle of drool on his pillow. It's 8:45pm and he took a nap two hours ago. He said "no i'm not sleeping, just licking my lips" haha one of us is still jet lagged

After i woke ari up from his nap and my hanger (pronounced hang-GR) had fully set in, we went off in search of the night market (with no concrete directions - not good for hanger). Ari led the way while i increasingly displayed signs of learned helplessness (ashley, i know you're enjoying the psych reference) If ari hadn't been so convincingly confident in our search that "he KNEW there was food around the corner", you would probably have found me curled up in the fetal position on the side of the road...crying.

Luckily we found it! and here is the photographic evidence.

At 6:30pm this was the incredibly crowded market with food stalls lining the streets (and the Petronas Towers behind).

By 7pm vendors were closing up and the street was basically empty. We figured people go home and eat with their families and if you fast all day you're not going to wait around. So we made it, luckily, just in time!

Here's our food packaged in plastic bags. We gorged on Penang noodles, some other sort of noodle, fish grilled in banana leaves, an assortment of fish balls, "cheung fun" and vegetables in a spicy peanut sauce and grilled chicken. All for about $3 each. Oh the bag with the straw is fresh coconut juice! (I just read somewhere that all hawker stalls are monitored by the Malaysian health department - really hope that's true)

I know this is probably a lot of reading (my attention span is about three paragraphs and then i start skimming/looking at the photos) but for the purpose of documenting our trip we also went to China town yesterday and Little India. And found this clothing/shoe/random stuff market that seemed to go on for miles. I think Ari has a video of that somewhere...

Today we went to the Batu Caves where there is the largest standing statue of Lord Murugan. Maybe more exciting for some of you is that Anthony Bourdain was there when he did his No Reservations show on Malaysia haha We made it up and down the 272 steps (over 300 ft climb). Ari said, "Meh. This is exactly like Porter [Station] (Boston)". Me: skeptical. (Has anyone ever counted the number of steps in porter?? Just curious.)

Last thing! Look what i found on a snail tank in our restaurant from last night!!! shepard fairey obey stickers!

tomorrow early morning we're going to get in line for free tickets to go up to the walk-bridge of the petronas towers.

(we already have about a hundred photos, so this is a tiny selection but hopefully at some point when we figure out an online storage system you'll have access to those too!)

Would you plug this in?

I did. What you're looking at is my Flip video camera, plugged into the USB-to-outlet converter, plugged into a surge protector, plugged into an American-to-British outlet converter. There was a pop, a spark, and a small amount of smoke (like a small fire cracker). The surge protector looked a little burnt, but my Flip still works!

Please tell me these are the butcher's pets..

We explored Chinatown today.

be forewarned

this is kind of annoying but we just realized we know a few people with the same name. So if you think you have a generic name and you leave a comment, please either put a last initial or....nickname...or we could just sit here and guess...

this was on the bottom of our immigration arrival card to malaysia

We made it!

Fourty-three hours later and we're here. Brutal, yes, but that's the cost of cheap airfare! Let me recap: We left my parent's house in Boston at 9:30AM on Wednesday to catch the 10:30 Mega Bus to NYC, where we arrived at 3:00. We ate breakfast at 4PM (were too busy that morning), and dinner at 6:00. At 8:00 we took the subway and AirTrain to JFK International to catch our 11:55PM flight. Then came the fun part: a 7 hour flight to Alaska, two hour layover, 9 hour flight to Taipei (Taiwan), two hour layover, and a 5 hour flight to KL. A quick hour public transportation trip later and we made it!



We're at the Isria Bed & Breakfast in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Woohoo! A picture of our humble room is below. As you can see, the trip exhausted Janet.


On first impression, KL is a very eclectic city. The majority ethnicity is Chinese, followed by ethnic Malays and Indians. Scattered around are Caucasians and people of Middle Eastern and African descent. Malaysia is a Muslim country, and this is very apparent by the head scarves worn by slightly less than half of the women. Most people are dressed stylishly. Many of the hijab-wearing women are sporting heels and colorful, hip-hugging (not too tight) outfits.

It's 5PM now, about time to wake Janet from her slumber and go get some grub!

up, up and away

so after a few years of dreaming, six months of anticipation and preparation, 14 days of unemployment and 7 days of hard physical labor - we're on our way!

Our last couple days have been filled with cleaning, packing, moving and lots of caffeine. Surprisingly we managed to pack our backpacks in one day and each only weighs about 25 lbs. Most of the weight is our travel "pharmacy". We probably have enough pills between us to eradicate malaria from a small country. good job blue cross blue shield!

we made it to NYC and we're about to make our way to the airport. So instead of running through manhattan with our backpacks, we should head out. Ari said the blog is less important than making our flight.

see you on the flip side...(i'm sure someone awesome said that)

***

at the airport - we made it! with over an hour and a half to spare.

so i bought ari these shorts for his birthday last year. i thought they were great. they have all these pockets and ties that seem perfect for traveling and preventing pickpockets. apparently they are not security TSA friendly.

ari just got strip searched.

hello world!

apparently this is a computer programming reference and it takes the pressure off our FIRST post.