Right, last time you heard from me I was in Kuala Lumpur, trying to cut down on baggage, and promising to keep updating the blog. Since then I’ve been hitching my way up north, and started several uninspiring posts which I never finished.
Made it from KL up to Kuala Kangsar and Taiping in one afternoon, a distance of approx 290k. I was very lucky with my lifts, after getting a city bus out of the busy centre to a place where I could set out on a relatively calm road. My second lift of the day was from this really friendly Indian guy, who was just on his way home from the airport, and going all the way to Ipoh, which is most of the way to Kuala Kangsar where I was to meet my next CS host. A self employed truck driver by trade, he was full of interesting stories from the road. At one stage he gestured towards a highway police car, and explained that all the truck drivers are fearful of them, as they like pull them over to inspect licenses and what they’re carrying and dole out fines. Then he pointed out an old grey hatchback with four aerials stuck on the back, telling me that every month these guys collect a little bit of money from the truckers, and in return they follow the cops around, broadcasting their position to give the guys a heads up if they are in the area.
Not only did he drive me all the way to Ipoh, but as his father needed to get from Ipoh back to his home in Kuala Kangsar, he kindly offered to bring me all the way to my destination while dropping of his dad. But only after he’d bought a gift for his nephew, which turned out to be a MASSIVE remote controlled artic truck, which barely fitted across the back seat, and which I found myself wedged under once his father got into the car.
As well as being incredibly helpful, he was very concerned for my safety, admitting that the reason that he picked me up in the first place was that he was afraid I’d be robbed or cheated or otherwise mistreated, although I assured him that I’ve had no trouble yet. What’s more, he wanted to meet my CS host to make sure that he could be trusted before he left me with him, as I’d briefly explained that we’d met over the internet without going into the intricacies of CouchSurfing with him.
He needn’t have worried, my host was a complete legend, who went to great lengths to show me the sites of Kuala Kangsar, where he has a café, and Taiping, where he lives (and has another café). I was treated like a Sultan for the two days I spent there, and enjoyed my time hanging out with him immensely.
When the time came to leave Taiping, he dropped me off at the toll gate for the motorway, a position that I hadn’t yet tried in Malaysia, thinking that too many cars would be going through too fast to have the time to stop for me, and I was afraid of causing a crash. But he’d recently hosted a French hitch-hiker who’d claimed that the gates were the best place to start from. Nevertheless, after dropping me off he waited down the road in case I did run into any trouble. And as it turned out it was super easy, in the three minutes that it took me to catch a ride, I had to turn down several southbound cars before finally getting in with truck driver heading to Penang (my next stop).
He dropped me off at the ferry to the island, as he was staying on the mainland and over I went, looking for a place to pitch my new tent for the first time. In my travels I came across an old abandoned building on the shore, which I was eyeing up as a possible place to stay for the night, as a storm was coming in from the sea, but just after I’d satisfied myself that this place didn’t have any regular human visitors that may disturb me in the night, I squelched into something nasty and quite fresh which suggested otherwise. Thankfully I’d worn my shoes. I decided to get out of there.
Penang was alright, eventually found my way to a place to camp (after a free ride from a friendly taxi driver who was going my way anyway), not in the national park camping grounds, as planned, because I was too late to get in, but on a little bit of sand by a jetty, near the gates to the park. Not the best night’s sleep I ever had, especially as there were fishermen coming and going all night, but you get what you pay for I suppose.
I’ve since moved even further north again, getting a lift with a CSer who was going my way yesterday and staying with him and his friends for the night in Kedah. I even went to watch a football game with him! Only realised after I got there that the local team's colours are green and yellow (as it's the colour of the many rice fields in the area) so I could have worn my Kerry jersey. Sickened.
Just got dropped off at the ferry to Langkawi Island (famous for its beaches and clear water, as well as being a duty free island, so despite being a tourist party spot it’s hopefully cheap like a budgie) by my new friend this morning. I’ve heard that it’s possible to hitch rides on sailing boats from here…although that remains to be seen. Planning on camping on the beach for a few days and trying my luck with it, and if I don’t get anywhere, I’m going to move off to the east coast and bum around on the beaches there until my time in Malaysia is up on the 6th of May.
Watch this space!
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