Boom Boom & Leeches

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  Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia
Saturday, November 22, 2008

After literally spending the entire day at Pudong International Airport, we finally landed in Kuala Lumpur at 11:00PM. We got our bags and headed for the train into the city. My card got caught in the machine, so they just told me to walk through. I had purchased a round trip ticket for the train on one card. I told the guy I needed it back and he said no. Crazy Denise almost came out. Some guy came over and after what felt like 10 minutes, finally gave me another card. We made our way to central station and took a taxi from there to the Inn - we are slowly stepping it up. Again, I knew when we were getting close when we hit a sketchy area. And I was right. At 1AM, the area looked shady. I saw 2 rats before checking into the hotel. The actual hotel is nice - and it's a real hotel, no more hostels from here on out. It was a maze to our room and of course the elevators were out. Par for the course. Again, 3 beds! Mind you, they have all been twin beds but they are glorious because we don't have to share. We had to check Nathan's email to confirm that our tour booking went through for the next day, well, technically, that morning. We found an internet cafe across the street. If the tour didn't go through, we would have got the 500 dollar flight for nothing. We took that long 5 hour flight in order to make it in time for the tour. Thankfully, we got the confirmation so we were all set to be picked up at 7:30AM.

I was looking forward to this day since we started the trip: White Water Rafting and Hiking through a Rain Forest! At 7:30AM, we were greeted in our lobby by someone from the travel company and Mr. Chow, our driver. We made the hour and a half journey in his car, listening to the same CD on repeat. He stopped at Dunkin Donuts. This started my day off right. We finally made it to our destination, a resort deep in the rain forest at 9:30AM. We had to wait for the other tour group to arrive to start the white water rafting. The rapids are Class 1, 2 & 3. I was thrilled. The tour group finally arrived about an hour later and we geared up. We had a few instructions before heading out: how to hold the paddle, what to do if you fall out and most importantly, "boom boom", which means to get in the boat and hold on. We were paired with Norman, our guide and a father with his 2 sons, David & Stephan. They are originally from Texas and moved to Malaysia 2 years ago. They did the rafting on this river last month, so they were really looking forward to it again. Nathan and I were in the front, Dad & Frank behind us and the boys were in the back. We went down the first rapid. Nothing special. We stopped and waited for the other rafts, 8 in total. They wanted up to body raft down the rapids. This is to teach you what to do in case you fall out. It was so much fun! We floated down the rapids, on our back with our feet doing a bicycle motion. Then, we were off again. It was so amazing to be floating down a river in a rain forest. The rapids were loads of fun and the scenery was just as awesome. The rafting ended about 1.5 hours into it and we stopped for lunch. It was a traditional Malaysian meal. Most likely the best meal I have had on this trip. It was so flavorful and delicious!

Then, they loaded us up on the back of a truck, like cattle, and headed back to the resort where we would do the hiking portion. There were about 20 people in the back of this truck, all standing. We were dipping and diving and ducking branches along the way. One almost took out Frank. We finally got there and changed into our hiking clothes. Doom was one of our guides and "Bob" was the other. I never caught his name. As we were getting ready, Bob was talking to Frank. I could have sworn he said leeches. Frank said no and Nathan said "now you're just hearing things and making shit up." I know he said leeches. The 5 of us made our way up a hill to start the hike. It was hot. 96 degrees and what felt like 100% humidity. Not ideal conditions for a hike. This was a real hike too. I thought it would a nice trail through the woods, but nope. We had to make our own trail. We were climbing over branches, ducking under limbs, through plants and scrubs - all while getting bitten by mosquitos. They said before the hike that there is not malaria here. I sure hope they are right. It was a brutal hike. All up-hill and all while making your trail. As we were heading up at one point, I looked down at Nathan's ankle. There was this worm like thing on it. I didn't think too much but when I looked down again, some time later, it was still there. I picked it off. Had I known then what it was, I would not have been so nice. As we climbed, we passed a wild boar's nest. We asked if it was in there and they didn't know. They walked over and poked sticks. Much to my happiness, the boar was out for the day. We continued to climb up, with sweat in places I didn't know could sweat. My once light gray shirt had took on a new color. We finally got to the top. Frank looked like death. He hated every minute of it. Nathan and I, while we were hot, didn't mind it so much. It felt like something was biting my feet, so I took my sneaker off. I had little blood spots on my sock. I took off my sock and found 3 leeches that set up shop on my foot. Doom kindly removed them and the other 2 that also found their way to my shoe. I took off the other shoe, same thing. 4 leeches on my feet. These little suckers hurt! And they don't look like the leeches I remember from the movie, The Great Outdoors. These were small little worms who pack a punch. Nathan also had a few leeches, as did Frank. This is when I stopped liking the brazen trail thing. We took a path back down, but since it is rainy season here, it was slick. I must have fell 7 or 8 times. It didn't hurt though. After one fall, Bob asked if I was ok and I said yes. He said that I was bleeding. Sure enough, I look down and blood is dripping down my legs in a nice little stream. I didn't even fall on that knee so I was confused. He said it was a leech. Yep, after he ripped a leaf off a "blood stopping" plant, I saw the bite mark. I was mostly mad because I got blood on my shorts and I have to wear them again when we ride elephants. We made our way to the bottom and refreshed in the river. We made our way back to the resort, on a gravel road thankfully. Mr. Chow was there waiting for us and he took us back to KL, again with the same CD on repeat.

Once back, we showered and headed out for dinner. Much to our surprise, our little area was booming! Right outside our hotel is a street market, of course, which cheap shit galore. Everything from purses to wallets to t-shirts, key chains, pencils, shoes, perfume - our little paradise. Things are much cheaper here too. There are street vendors, people eating at little tables outside the vendors. It was very lively. After dinner, we headed to the market, obviously. Frank can't say no, so he got a purse, scarf and key chains. I walked away with perfume - not sure why it's so cheap. Looks real to me :) It had been a long day with a lot of physical activity and we didn't have the energy to haggle anymore, so we called it a night. We would just have to hit it up tomorrow when we were energized.

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