Towers in the Clouds and Deserted Islands: Kuala Lumpur and Pulau Tioman, Malaysia

After a 4 hour coach journey on the nicest bus we had been on yet (we were so happy about the huge leather seats we weren’t even put off by the Eddie Murphy movie playing the whole way) we arrived in Kuala Lumpur. We caught a taxi with the slowest driver I have ever met (he called it being safe) and settled into our first hostel. The room barely fit a bed and had no windows and it was the first time on the trip we had to share bathrooms but we decided to stick it out anyway. As we came down the stairs to find lunch we heard other guests rehashing a story of how they were mugged right outside our hostel the night before. Great.

The next morning we were tired and grumpy from lack of sleep in our room/box oven and decided ‘sticking it out’ was overrated. We had a small altercation with the manager (twat) and checked into  a hotel a few doors down complete with our own bathroom and most importantly, an air conditioner.

We set out for a bit of sightseeing and once we left the seedy part of town our hotel was in, we were pleasantly surprised with the city.  We walked through Chinatown and haggled for a souvenir t-shirt. It was a typical Chinatown, packed full of market stalls, traders yelling for your attention, smells from the food stalls and lots and lots of fake designer gear.

Chinatown Market

We continued onto the more modern part of town stopping for lunch at a Western restaurant in a gigantic shopping mall. We felt a little like Pretty Woman walking past Gucci and Chanel in our backpacker gear but it was nice to see some familiar stores. The upcoming Chinese New Year was eagerly anticipated throughout the entire city and the whole shopping mall was decorated with rabbits and red.

Mark really wanted to see the Petronas Towers (3rd tallest buildings in the world) so we headed to snap some pictures. While I’m not as big a fan of modern architecture as Mark I have to admit the towers were pretty impressive and looked menacing against the black and white backdrop of a dramatic stormy sky.

That night we met up with Kristofer, who had extended his stay in KL, for dinner and drinks in Chinatown. We randomly ate at a Reggae bar (in Chinatown?) and he showed us around until we settled on restaurant/bar run by locals. Plastic chairs and tables spilled into the busy street and we sat outside watching the hustle and bustle of the market. Per usual, one beer with Kristofer turned into many and we sat for a while drinking the local Tiger beer and watched as the city prepared to sleep for the night.

On our last day in KL, we wandered around the more modern part of town that was lined with trendy restaurants and boutique stores. We found a Nando’s (!) and later found a Forever 21 (much better for our backpacker budget) where I replenished some essentials and later wasted time watching street performers before our flight to the Pulau Tioman Islands.

A short flight later and we arrived in the nearly deserted Tioman Island. The airport was smaller than most of my apartments in college and we had to wait for our luggage on the runway next to the propeller plane that we flew in. Thick jungle surrounded the runway and the sun was shining. We were in good spirits for our stay.

The huge Tioman Airport

We arranged for a boat taxi to take us the the ABC beach where we would stay for the next five days. We hadn’t booked a place to stay as it was still monsoon season and there was little threat of overcrowded hostels so we set off down the singular walkway that stretched the length of the beach to find a room. Most of the hostels were still closed and the only people we saw were a group of local men repairing the walkway. We stopped at the first open accommodation and booked a very basic room. A bed, a fan and a cold water shower would have to do for the night as we were tired of walking in the tropical heat with 35 kilos of baggage and the owner was incredibly friendly and welcoming.

Water taxi to ABC beach

Food was the first order of business so we went in search of an open restaurant and found one of the two serving food. It was run by a grumpy couple who didn’t seem to be happy in their choice of occupation but we were hungry and not sure where the other food source was so we settled. The food was good and we met another American/Korean couple who had just arrived on the island as well. They asked us where we were staying and I told them only to be scolded in Malaysian by the owner who, turns out, also offered rooms to rent and thought I was taking away his business. We left as I vowed never to eat there again even if it meant foraging for fruit in the jungle to survive.

We took a walk down the beach and had our first encounter with the local wildlife. A 6ft monitor lizard was having a leisurely walk down the beach. It was less then impressed with our paparrazi like photography and ran into the jungle leaving us as excited as Steve Irwin (RIP) with a 15ft crocodile. The sun and the sand was calling our name so we grabbed our suits and relaxed on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen.

The next day we rented some snorkelling gear and walked right off of the beach into the protected conservation marine park. Since there was no reef there wasn’t much to see but we did get a glimpse of a parrotfish or two and it was nice enough to be out in the crystal clear waters. We walked the length of the beach to find lunch where they served fresh seafood and local food. There were only about 15 tourists spread out over the entire island, so most of the time we had the beach or the restaurant or wherever we were, to ourselves.

We changed hotels because, it turns out,  I can’t live without hot water. That afternoon the first clouds starting rolling in and the wind starting picking up so we retreated to our room for a nap. Later, we went on a search for the only other restaurant and was pleasantly surprised that it served freshly caught seafood barbequed on the grill. Mark had barracuda and I had squid and they were both delicious. Walking back to our room we got our first glimpse of the huge bats. It’s easy to see why they are called flying foxes because they are literally the size of a small fox. The massive bats flew all over the darkening sky casting an eerie feel and at some points, narrowly missing our heads. We passed more monitor lizards raiding the local trash dump and scared a porcupine before we finally arrived back in our room.

Jungle walk to our room

Tioman Sunset

The next day we embarked on our dive trip, despite the start of the never ending rains, we had a couple pretty good dives and got to see a couple sharks and turtles. The weather was taking a turn for the worse as the boat came back in, the high waves made things a bit difficult but we made it back safely and more than a little tired. Julia, our friend from Koh Tao, had arrived the night before but on the other side of the island (only accessible via a 3 hour hike through the jungle or an expensive boat taxi). She was volunteering and the islands Turtle Watch project but managed to find a ride over to our side of the island. We went for  dinner and found a tiki bar, literally just a tiki bar in the middle of the beach with a few chairs to sit in, and had some drinks. The rain carried on and Julia crashed in the spare bed in our room before returning to her volunteering duties, taking care of the blind turtle named Joe, among other things.

The next few days brought some pretty bad weather so our plans of hikes around the island and soaking up the tropical sun were washed away but it was nice relaxing to the sound of the rain. We were a bit disappointed to leave the beautiful island but we were pretty excited about moving on to Singapore, the last stop on our tour of Asia.

-H