'One must not allow the clock or calendar to blind him to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle ...and a mystery.'
(The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari)
Four weeks ago today I left Bali. I left behind the dear friends who are lucky enough to call 'The Island of the Gods' their home. It was a sad day.
Today (23rd February) having travelled on for four weeks I found myself at Kuala Lumpur airport, a familiar place and also the perfect 'Sliding Doors' location. I've made a new friend here, just visited him recently, I've bumped into friends from Sipadan and I've come withing metres of an old flame who was flying west, separated simply by a departure gate. How did I feel today? Elated. I was escaping the city fumes of KL and heading to an island on the border of Thailand. I felt even better once airborne & flying north over the west coast of Malaysia. I knew this route well, I was heading north towards Thailand.
It felt so good to be heading to areas I loved, Malaysia is nice but it 's possibly the country that has least grabbed me, its just too developed. 
Today I find that traveling towards Thailand, fills me with the raw energy of my early trip. I always regretted not keeping a diary of the first three months. The virgin surprise,thoughts and excitement of a backpacking RTW trip are now lost for ever. Should I do this sort of trip again, it will never be so wildly exciting as it was the first time.Though I will keep a diary of my last days which I am beginning to realise are just as potent. Travelers I've met have actually written 'contracts' to themselves. They document what they want in
their life, what they must change and what they can't accept on their return to the rat race 'we' call life in the west. Its all too easy to forget the thoughts & realizations that come to you slowly when you are relaxing in the tropics. It sounds a little 'new age' perhaps but when you're on this kind of trip you feel energized, so powerful, so refreshed and clear minded. Its simple, you get the time to think, to rest and observe yourself in a new environment. Do you get the opportunity to change the course of your destiny? Well some people do. Let me backtrack. I had been in Bali since July - give or take two and a half months when I travelled to Sulawesi, The Spice Islands, Sydney, NZ & Fiji - and I had enjoyed every single second of my time in Bali.
I flew back from Malta just after Christmas & geared up along the way for New Year's Eve in Bali. Christian, Emile, Moray & Nathalie had all flown back to Europe for the holidays. Carrie had friends over from New York, Nina, Yip, Umbra & Marianne were here & I had a friend over, Edwin. It was an exciting time with all the usual NYE pressures for everyone. Ed and I had chatted about this trip since October and emails full of promise and excitement were exchanged. It was rainy season in Bali, would we be rained off on the night? In the end we were rained on a little that evening but it didn't matter, it's 27C after dark in Bali. According to the original plan we managed a midnight swim to see the New Year in. It was fun but after the rain the air felt ohhhh so cold on our wet bodies! We had to escape back to the warmth of the house.
January was the month which Ed & I got to travel together. We re-visited some of our favourite areas in Indonesia. He dived Komodo for the first time and we were lucky with the weather considering it was rainy season, it turned out to be perfect, blue skies and calm waters. Ed & I made good travel buddies and it certainly was a great dive trip.
I took the decision to travel on and basically extend my trip, the decision was taken on the 25th January, the eve of my return flight to London. I was scheduled to return to London: Bali-Singapore-London. Instead I flew to Singapore and check into a hotel.
You see, I actually have the opportunity to travel on till May '08. Strangely enough, it wasn't the easiest of decisions to take. A lot goes through your mind when you've travelled for one year and you're supposed to now give it all up and return to what life was before the curtain on Paradise was lifted. On one hand I was ready to come home
and on the other hand I knew the opportunity to travel on was too good to miss. When would that opportunity come around again? The only thing weighing on my mind was my car. I need to take my car off my Uncles hands as he's had the damn thing since May last year. I feel responsible for that.I left Bali as planned, knowing I would return. I needed to clear my head and get back on the open road. Lets face it I hadn't backpacked since July. I left my beautiful surfboard in Christian's safe hands and flew to Singapore. It was there that I met Christine a Scottish girl and my 'continuation ghost'. She had just flown in from Heathrow on the start of her 1yr RTW trip arriving at the same time I would've landed in London at the end of my RTw trip! Sliding Doors again... ?
We had a few laughs and eventually she asked me to join her on a trip that she had sorted out and was leaving for the next day. She was heading north out of Singapore and up the east coast of Malaysia to meet a friend of a friend in Redang,
an island just south of The Perhentians. He was a dive instructor who was organising a dive training sessions for 47 members of the Malay Civil Defense Team!! The island which was still shut down for the monsoon season was going to be opened up just for us... it didn't take me long to accept her invitation with open arms and a smile from ear to ear!!
It was so random and so perfect for the moment. We traveled north to Kuala Tennenganu where we were met and taken very good care of. It turned out that apart from us,
there was just one other woman in the group. which meant that by now Christine was really happy she'd asked me to join. The island was perfect, beautiful turquoise water and fine white sand, the weather bliss, their diving course a shambles but who cares!! We got to dive 3 times a day in around the same areas they did. (as far away from them as possible) We learnt how to eat Malay food with our hands which pleased our hosts, we got up (once) at 6am!! for the physical work out when luckily I took over camera duties... comes in useful at times... 
We left Redang wondering what next? What can bet this? The original plan was to then head to Taman Negara and The Cameron Highlands and it was at that point I suggested... I have a friend who'd I'd love to see, I think he's based in Kuantan (6hrs south by bus) checked his card and yes it was Kuantan - also a great start base if heading to Taman Negara and The Cameron Highlands which we were... So it was decided we'd go there for a night. We booked ourselves tickets on the bus and a room at a little guest house in town and we emailed Henk to check if he was around for a catch up drink. I met Henk (Hendrik) a Dutch guy on my first flight from Kuala Lumpur to Bali back in May. We sat next to each other, clicked immediately & chatted until we walked out of arrivals at Denpasar. He also
lent me $10 as I wasn't aware that Balinese immigration only accept US dollars for visas on arrival. So here we were, I was excited to see my friend and I also still owed him the $10. Our bus had just left the terminal to start out on our journey and Henk called !! Not only was he in town and available to catch up but he asked us to stay with him. Henk is the General Manager of the Hyatt Regency in Kuantan and a gentleman who kept his promise. Exciting! This week was just getting better!We were met and whisked up to our luxiourous abode for the night and we were
soon persuaded to stay longer than the initial 1 night only. Henk was great fun, it was really good to see him. We ended up staying four nights. He spoilt us rotten with a constant flow of good wine and fantastic food. He threw an impromptu dinner party on Saturday night and we met some of his friends who were also great company. I even surfed at the beach there, life was just perfect! 
We became great friends of Henk's washing machine. I think we both ran the whole contents of our backpacks through it. Boy we smelt good for a week after that. It was hard to leave but Henk sent us off with a goodie bag for survival purposes. It contained a box of Delicious chocolates from the Hotel's Deli corner (....umm they didnt last 12hrs!) & biscuits. They were all so good. BTW I almost forgot to mention his secretary organised the whole of our next sector: Taman Negara and The Cameron Highlands. Henk & I gleefully wondered how Christine felt at the end of her first week of 'backpacking' heehehe. Sadly it's not usually like this.... ummm 
We got to Taman Negara in the early evening of Tuesday 5th Feb. We were stumbling around, with backpacks on, looking for our place. My Dad happened to call me at this point asking where I was, I was following Christine mindlessly trying to navigate the path and keep a decent conversation up when I first saw one. It was huge, had lots of pink flesh, as pink as a cooked salmon and it was dead. The wings were enormous and I thought to myself what kind of monsters live here. It was a 10cm long Cicada. They are enormous in this part of Malaysia.
The next day we woke up and avoiding our German tourist buddies we'd picked up along the way the day before & we headed out to the canopy walk. Taman Negara is an area of primary forest. The canopy walk is just that, you walk along a rope bridge up in the canopy of the forest.
It is really beautiful and in the most peaceful area however it
doesn't take long to complete. Christine and I fancied a proper hike so we headed off on a 12.5k hike to Kuala T...... the other side. It was quite a trek and leeches were everywhere. I think I counted 7 that managed to climb up onto my lower legs but luckily they never got through my hiking boats or socks to my skin. A lighter comes in handy when you hike. Leeches hate being burnt off and should you be bitten by a snake they say the heat from a flame will kill the poison from a snake bite, it basically means you have to burn yourself though!
Taman Negara is based around a river. On one side you have the Mutiara Hotel which is a lovely place to stay and on the other you have lots of backpacker's guest houses and river restaurants that serve great Chinese and Malay food. The one important thing to remember though is to always put off the lights outside as well as inside unless you'd like a hundred or so overgrown monster cicadas committing suicide by continuous head butt on your door. They are so cheeky they even crawled under doors to reach the lights... wish I took a pic of them...
We left Tamen Negara after three nights and headed to The Cameron Highlands. After the simplicity of Tamen Negara, we were a little disappointed by The Cameron Highlands. It was of course quite a developed area of shops, hotels, green houses. you could tell every thing was farmed intensely and to top it off there were loads of Chinese on holiday celebrating the year of the Rat.... By staying on at Henks we missed the opportunity of seeing in the Chinese New Year in China Town in Singapore. All the guest houses here were full and rates were inflated to 300%. We were lucky to find an average room at a ridiculous price and took it.
The next day we were fortunate enough to have been squeezed in on a walking tour with none other than resident Biologist: Sharil Kamarulzaman ((+60) 19 315 6124 Call him its seriously worth it if you're in the area.)
I have always wanted to have a guide like Sharil on the treks Ive done but usually you get a guide who's command of the English language isn't great so they can't actually give you an explanation to the medicinal plants they see or they speak great English but know absolutely nada about plants and vegetation. ...... We were in the Cameron Highlands for the Chinese New Year, the year of the Rat. You could only tell it was that time of year by the amount of Chinese in town,
they were everywhere! On our last morning in town we took a tour of the Tea Estates in the area. This is what I imagined the Highlands to be. Acres and acres of Tea plantations. A sea of greenery. Young tea leaves are a vibrant green, these are the leaves that are harvested, the older leaves are left on the bush (tree) and are darker in colour. The different greens create a beautiful pattern and it is quite easy to see which plants the harvesters will go to next. Tea in this region is harvested every two weeks. The plants look like bushes but are actually Tea Trees. Should they be left to grow wild they'd grow into tall trees again.
After our hike, the visit to the tea plantations, the rose gardens, the strawberry farm and the 'honey bee' farm, we were very happy to leave the highlands and head to Kuala Lumpur. We were going to catch up with Henk there and my friend Nathalie was also arriving on the 11th! We called Henk to update him on our whereabouts, he had already arrived in the city and organized our night out. It was a Sunday but every night in KL is apparently a party night. We met at Sky Bar on the top floor of the Traders Hotel. A bar we thoroughly recommend should you be in town... It has the most spectacular view of the Petrolis Towers. The music is great. After Sky Bar we went to Rum Jungle a club. We had another great night although I don't quite know how Henk managed Monday, we left the club at 4am...
Christine and I had to say our goodbyes, it had
been a great two weeks with many good memories. Nathalie had arrived and I caught up with her at breakfast at her hotel. She was in town for work and she kindly offered for me to stay with her at her 5* Hotel, yet another 5* in the space of two weeks, my backpacker's status was at serious review! It was great we met her friends and went wake boarding after breakfast. It was such fun.
At night we had dinner in China Town and followed up by another visit to Rum Jungle
and The Beach. Unfortunately Nathalie was feeling the jetlag and she left us after dinner. We got back to the hotel at 4am again!
The next day, Nat and I ventured out and did what we're best at.... yes, ouch shopping!
We shopped till the shops closed and then had a drink at Q'ba. A salsa bar at the Marriot which offers free drinks to Ladies on a Wednesday night (we found out!) We only had two drinks and it was off for a massage, we were tired and had no real passion to party that night. Nathalie and I had bought, wait for it... 13 pairs of shoes between us!! All of them beautiful.... well if Im going to head back to civilization soon I needed a wardrobe... ummm hahahaha I am so NOT going to ever listen to anyone who tries to tell me that a backpack should not include heels hahahaahaha never again! I'd only done so 3 weeks before and shipped all of them back home from Bali.
Nat and I had a great time catching up, eating delicious food - she really knew KL well and took me to all her favorite restaurants. It was very sad to say goodbye but we will meet again in Amsterdam this May so its not goodbye for long.
I stayed in the city when she left, I was waiting for my HSBC cards to arrive. 10 days after her departure they had still not appeared and I was feeling very restless. I had met some great people in KL during that week, all Dutch of course, there must be more Dutch in Asia then in Holland trust me they're everywhere.... but I needed to get out of the city. I met my contacts at the local HSBC branch and made arrangements that would allow for me to leave the city whilst still keep up to date with my cards whereabouts. I left for Langkowi on Saturday 23rd Feb. I then took a ferry to Ko Lipe last Monday! Im now in Thailand! Finally!!! :))))
A Pink Leaf Fish
A Green turtle
A Mandarin Fish
Me
Me again
Calamari
