Nick Is Off Traveling

Malaysia is the most Patriotic country I have ever seen there are flags every which way you turn.

Malaysia is an experience. Now what kind of experience any one individual will have depends on expectations, how they handle authority, and your personal comparative analysis of other places visited. Let me just start this blog entry by saying if you are going to go to the Perhentian Islands of Malaysia on the north east side in Pulau DO NOT go to A B C Chalet / Guest House. I hope I can save travelers the pain, anxiety, and bull shit that I had to put up with from these fools at the ABC Chalet located between Cocohut Chalet and Tuna Bay Resort on Perhentian Island Besar. You will always be the creator of your own vacation I just hope you can avoid the mistakes I have made and avoid the unrealistic folks I have come across. I have no room in my life for people of this nature. Please follow my story to see why this is.

The People of Malaysia have one very amazing thing and that is the food. I feel that the scenary is beautiful but there is better to be had in the Philippines since they actually have an idea of how valuable marine life is to this world and tourism. Malaysians may not care about their ocean but they do care about transportation. They have an incredible amount of buses which and typically get you from point to point cheaply and easily.

Here was our first view of the perhentian islands in Pulau. Beautiful white sand beaches, wonderfully clear water, and super fast boats to get you their. This is a tourist destination or trap depending on your point of view.

After a long mini van ride, boat ride, and unshowered. I know my hair looks good you don't have to tell me. Yes, It was about another week before I came across a razor.

Here is a map of the Perhentian Islands Kecil and Besar off the coast of Malaysia. The first night we stayed on Kecil at D'Lagoon. For the second night we thought that we would transfer over to Besar which is known as the big island.

Here is one of those really fast boats that takes you out to the islands I was talking about. Twin 200 horsepower outboard mercury engines. Oh Yeah its as fast as you think it is. There must be a really happy Mercury boat motor dealer around the Perhentian islands because everyone has one of their motors. Perhaps I saw one other brand. I know these are the things that I look at even on vacation. I am convienced only men do this sort of thing.

Here we are arriving at D'Lagoon. The Staff over at D'lagoon was amazing. They are there to help you with what ever you need. This is a very remote part of the island but if remote is what you are after they have lots of it. They also have pet monkeys and sea turtles for you to play with at your own convenience.

Here is the sunset at turtle beach across from D'Lagoon. In the rocks we went snorkeling with black tip reef sharks. This was really cool since there were a few about 2 meters long. But the reef here will be non-existent in I would give it about another year. Through out my travels and constant scuba diving I would have to say this is the most degraded and least cared for coral reef I have ever seen. Sad, but a reality which I can only imagine will eventually bit back.

Now this cute little guy crawled into pat's room through the window. He was so scared with the camera flashes and all the commotion that he left a couple tootsie rolls which were quickly found by Shannon's (ma'am sir) nose.

I have never seen a baby sea turtle before so this was an exciting moment for me. They had about 20 baby turtles in a little pond that they could not get out of. They are not the nicest to these turtles since children play with them and tend to torture them. Then Patrick recalled how nice he was to the local wild life when he was growing up and I suddenly had the same realization that he had. We are both glad that there are sea turtles left.

Yeah they taste good too.

No one had showered for a while and Patrick was lucky enough to be groomed by one of the semi wild pet monkeys. Just moments after this I wanted to take a picture of the little monkey on my arm but he wanted my camera. I would not give him my camera so then he proceeded to bit my hand. That little piece of s#$% monkey. We are now not on speaking terms. I am still waiting for an apology.

The Monkey getting away after I through him off of me.

The boat ride over to the island of Besar. This was right before things started to turn a bit sour. If the enjoyment of my trip was graphed out this would be the start of the down turn of the line.

The Malaysia Trip Graph

We got to the island of Besar and decided to look around for a place to stay. We went and looked at a few places and every where is expensive so we then started looking through the Lonely Plant travel book to get some good ideas. It said that the ABC Guest house had good prices and decent rooms so we decided to go there. We did not realize the mistake that this was.

Do Not Stay at the ABC Guest House

We were feeling a bit beat down do to the fact that we had been constantly traveling and the Perhentian islands are a little light on amenities. We went ahead and check in to the ABC Guest house. We literally set our bags in the room and walked out because we were all hungry and found a place which served Roti Canai. We went and had like 3 pieces of Roti each which was so good because we had not had it for about a day now. Over lunch we started chatting about the islands and how we were just not having a good time. There was nothing wrong with the Perhentians but it was just time to get off the island and get back to the mainland. About 15 minutes had passed and we went back to the ABC guest house grabbed our things out of the room and went back to the gentleman who had checked us in and we told him that we would be leaving.

10 year old with his baby bottle at the Roti restaurant.

ABC Guest House guy then says well you need to pay for the rooms. Now this is a really slow time of year we know there are lots of open rooms and no one had come to check in, and we did not use the rooms so they were not loosing out on any thing here. We all then said this is some what unrealistic to think that we are going to pay full price for a room that we did not use. ABC guest house guy went on to say how we need to pay. I said I am more than willing to pay some sort of cancelation charge but I am not willing to pay full price. Then the ABC guy turns around and walks away and would no longer talk to us. We then set our keys on the counter and walked away, I mean really what else were we suppose to do?

ABC Guest House on Besar in Pulau in Malaysia (Don't Stay Here)

We then went next door to the Cocohut Resort and they were nice enough to call the boat for us to get back to the main land. We hung out there for a while and played cards and had a couple of drinks. pictured above was my winning hand which made Patrick drink. We don't want to talk about how many times he had won.

We then had a hellacious bumpy boat ride back. A rough sea and sitting in the front of a boat moving about 50 mph is not a good combo. My ass hurt for the next couple of days. All of the people on the boat were clapping when we succesfully made it back to the dock.

This is when we knew we were set up. We got back to the dock and there were some dudes there waiting for us. Patrick and I blend in rather well with a crowd so they picked Shannon out of it. We were really not that hard to spot since there are only a few American looking people on the boat and there is only one boat which comes in at that particular time. So Mr. ABC guest house dude called his friends and told them to make us pay up because we left with out paying. This was such B.S. I was rather pissed off about this but what do you do when some one will no longer talk to you? After about ten minutes of confrontation we paid up. I know you would do the same thing. I mean we are in a foreign country with laws that I have no idea about. These people are to shady for me. This is why I am discouraging people from going to the ABC guest Chalet. Any one trying to take advantage of and hustling Americans / Foreigners should not be doing business.

It was about time to try to get to Penang on the west coast of Malaysia. It had started to down pour and we had five hours to kill. We decided to hang out in a KFC for that time and get some nasty food and play cards

The KFC cheesy Mayo Potatoes.

Patrick in his Mayo cheese heavenly bliss.

Perhaps someone could clue me in on how all of this works. 1) Squat 2)Spray it clean 3) dry??? This was the only restroom in Malaysia with toilet paper. So how do you go about drying your bottom off? Do you just drip dry? I know you are suppose to get into the culture and do as the locals do but I could not help carrying around a roll of good ol' TP.

We then went into an Antique store for a bit. They had some cool items but all over priced.

Random Antique junk in Malaysia.

We then went to the Largest Buddhist statue in all of Malaysia. But to get there you have to walk through the gauntlet of needless crap vendors.

This was just the start of the Kilometer long walk way you had to go through.

As far as the eye can see nothing but vendors.

The temple had thousands of turtles. For only 2 ringgit you could feed the little guys. They are not really all that interesting to watch eat.

A view of the city from the Temple on the hill.

To much incense, can not breath. cough cough. The biggest incense sticks I have ever seen.

The Buddha is getting a cover put over her so we could not get to close.

I guess they have breakage problems. I would you really tell them if you broke it?

The rain would not stop. Usually it goes for about 2 or 3 hours but this rain would not let up. I can not even begin to think how many centimeters of rain fell.

We found refuge at the Penang college dinning hall and yes they made Roti.

Round one was two regular Rotis with curry dahl.

Round two was Roti Jagung which has corn, sweet condensed milk, and egg.

All the different Roti Canai. I will take two of each please.

Kickapoo Joy Juice tastes like really good Mountain Dew. I highly recommend you give it a whirl..

This is a crispy dessert Roti covered in sweetened condensed milk.

Yup it was raining that much.

The Universiti Sains Malaysia has the best dining hall known to man.

Due to all the rain the streets were flooded but the bus driver did not care.

Notice anything strange about that floor?

For only a few ringgit this kind gentleman gave us a ride to slippery senoritas. We felt bad since he had to peddle us up a hill so we gave him a big tip.