Rawa, Taman Negara and Perhentian Islands

We went with Jon's friend (who we stayed with in KL) to an island that her family owns and we had 4 very nice, free days on an amazing island!  We had a really cool beach hut all to ourselves!  On the first night we had a bit of a party cos it was one of the guy's birthdays who worked there - lots of very strong cocktails and tunes and all for free - brilliant!  The rest of our time there we didn't do a great deal - we went snorkelling and saw stingrays, nemos and loads of other pretty fish, sunbathed and just generally chilled!  It was wicked - I think it was my favourite place in Malaysia!  Only complaing was on the bus there and back, it's supposed to take 6 hours, but it ended up taking about 7 and a half cos the bus driver stops at every single persons house to drop them off - bloody liberty!  We returned to KL for a day and not a lot happened, except some monk came up to us asking us for money and gave us both bracelets and some badge thing, we gave him 3 ringgitt each (about 50p) and he wanted us to give him 50 ringgitt from us - whatever monk!  So, he quickly snatched back Jon's bracelet (which he's still going on about) and probably put some kind of curse on us!  We left KL to go to Taman Negara!  It's of the 7 natural wonders of the world cos it's the oldest jungle in the world - over130 million years old!  To go there you first have to go to Jerantut, which is horrid! To make it worse, Jon fell into a 3ft drain between the road and the pavement - he got mad and shouted and threw stuff!  It wasn't funny at the time, but is was afterwards because people kept coming up to us saying "Excuse me, no offence, but are you the guy that fell in the drain"?  It was so funny, everyone knew, and people even asked him 2 days later when we returned from the park!  So, we caught the local bus to Kuala Tahan, which is the village in front of the National Park.  We had dinner on a floating restaurant, which was gross, but fun to be in a floating restaurant.  And the next day we went into Taman Negara and did the Canopy Walk above the jungle! It's 50 metres above the ground and is just a series of walkways made from ladders and suspended from the trees with rope!  It was brilliant and we saw monkeys, tree shrews, wild boar and a monitor lizard!  It was such a cool way to see the jungle and avoid the snakes!

Chillin at Perhentian

Our next port of call was the Perhentian Islands!  We decided to take the "Jungle Train" to Kota Bharu.  This is supposed to be some amazing journey with all sorts of crazy stuff going on.  In fact, it turned out to be the most average train journey ever!  So, not a great deal to report from the Perhentian Islands, the main reason being it rained for most of the time we were there, so we just ended up watching loads of films and football and I even read 3 books, one of them was huge!  But the 2 days it didn't rain, it was so pretty and we just lounged around on the beach topping up the old tan!

Crazy clear water at Perhentian

So, we enjoyed Malaysia and it was cool for Jon to see all the stuff from his childhood!  One huge issue I have with Malaysia, and probably the rest of Asia..........SPITTING!  I mean, I know it's a different culture and bla bla bla, but spitting is not part of a culture, it's just disgusting!  We're all humans and therefore all made in the same way, therefore, Asian people have no more reason to spit than we do - it's just gross and not necessary!  The worst time was in our hostel in KL, I was happily showering away and the man in the shower next to me was making the most disgusting sounds pre-spitting, it actually made me heave and when Jon went in the shower after me, he was still going and Jon was equally as disturbed!  We thought he might of been ill or something, but when he came out of the shower, he started having a perfectly normal conversation with us - bizarre!

Floating Restaurants at Taman Negara

Now we're in Thailand, but haven't really done anything yet, so we'll save those tales for another day!

Maxing and relaxing at Rawa

On the canopy walkway

Our cool, free, hut at Rawa!

Sunset at Rawa