Friday, December 5
16:15
David calls Kim at the Ascott and asks her to meet him downstairs in the reception area as soon as possible. Without questioning this request, Kim grabs her purse, takes the lift downstairs and meets David and asks him where they're going to. David says, "Bill Clinton will have a lecture at the K.L. convention center, and they are giving away free tickets to a number of people." O.K. Sounds like fun. Lets go! "
16:36
David and Kim arrive at the registration desk in the convention center and ask if there are still tickets available. They do have tickets available but find out that business attire is required and that registration time closes at 5:00 p.m. Kim's wearing her comfy jeans, t-shirt and flip-flops after her sweaty day spent in China Town, and David's wearing his Friday work jeans. They speed walk/run back to the Ascott hotel in order to change outfits.
16:41
Back at the room, Kim changes quickly into her black dress, puts on her high-heels and some eyeliner and on their way back!
16:59
They made it! and look'n good!
18:20
After patiently waiting they finally announce the 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton! This is his first visit to Malaysia. Mr. President explains to us the reason for his tardiness was the bad traffic. The crowd chuckles, because they all know about the traffic jams in K.L! After an interesting lecture, David and Kim grab some dinner and head back home for an early night.
ps. Happy Sinterklaas! (google it!) Thanks ma, for the chocolade and speculaas.
Saturday, December 6th
8:00
David and Kim wake up nice and early with enough time to take a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast and pack their bags for their second weekend out of K.L.
11:00
At the bus terminal they are told to wait in a specific area for their bus to leave to Ipoh. It's 11 a.m, their departure time and there's no bus. David tells Kim, "I''ll be right back..this doesn't seem right" In just a few minutes he runs back towards Kim and says, "come this way! our bus is about to leave!" Kim runs behind David and they jump into the right bus and sit down, relieved. wow! "David, you're awesome!"
11:30-16:00
The bus ride is supposed to be only 2.5 hrs. Instead it's 4.5 due to holiday traffic. David and Kim's seats are right behind the bus driver who has a frequent issue with loud expulsions of bodily stomach contents, liquid and solid. There is a sign posted in the front of the bus which says, no smoking. This does not stop the bus driver from smoking a cigarette every 30 minutes. Between smoking and his loud bodily noises, he often yells at people in Malay and almost leaves an older Indian woman behind at the rest stop. This drives mostly Kim, and partly David insane. In David words, they both call this bus ride the worst ever!
16:30
David and Kim get picked up at the Gopeng bus terminal by Ian, who is the manager of Rumah Rehat Adeline. The drive takes about 20 minutes off road through the jungle. Ian rolls down the windows and asks, 'fresh air, lah?" "LAH!"
17:20 and on..
They arrive at their jungle resort. (www.rumahrehatadeline.com) The grounds consist of traditional Malay housing. Since David and Kim arrive late, they don't get to have first pick on huts. They both are not too happy with their hut. It's a little dirty and is built right in front of a man made pond and trash surrounds the grounds. They go for it anyways. They eat a delicious meal made by Adeline at 18:30 and then supper at 20:00. Yes, food is served here all the time! Great tea by the way! After a couple of rounds of ping-pong and a card game of "speed", David and Kim decide to go to their cozy hut where they practice saying 1 through 10 in Malay and then fall asleep.
Sunday, December 7
8:00
David and Kim are late for breakfast. They didn't get the note that breakfast is at 7:30. They still get a traditional Malay breakfast which includes coconut rice, egg, prawn and veggies. yum.yum. David asks the camp host for a better hut along the natural creek and gets it! David saves the day, again!
10:30
David and Kim get picked up by Nomad Adventures to go white water rafting and caving!! They join another group of 12 students from K.L. First of all, the group gets asked who can swim. About 5 of them can't. UH! OH! Good thing they all have life-jackets! David and Kim put on their life-jackets, helmets and grab their paddles and head down to the 3-4 class river. They are excited because with their luck most of the water is a class 4 because of the rain season! Exciting! Kim and David can't wait. Everybody is ready to go, and then they get told by the guides to jump and float down the river. The guides want to make sure how comfortable the group is in water and how well the group swims.. The guide asks who wants to go first. Silence.. 30 seconds later David steps up and says, "I'll go!" In no time, David floats down the river on his back around the corner, flips around to his stomach and swims to the other side of the river. Kim follows suit, along with the rest of the group..30 minutes later.. More than half of the group get stuck in an eddie and couldn't swim across the river.
11:30-13:30
The group enjoys two hours of adventurous white water river rafting. A total of four people fall off the rafts. One person gets punched in the nose with their own paddle and needs to leave to the hospital because of bleeding. Our guide leaves the boat and walks about in the jungle and comes back with a total of three leeches, yes leeches, on his leg and foot. He pulls them off his own body and just holds them in his hands as if it they are a pretty flower of some sorts. yuck.
We arrive at the end and enjoy a wonderful lunch in the jungle alongside the river. leechless.
14:00
David and Kim join the same group of students for caving in the 8th largest cave in Peninsular Malaysia. This cave was once occupied by the Chinese communists during world war I. They noted Chinese writings on the walls several times. This is by far Kim's favorite part of the day because of all the crawling and rock climbing. They end up going first and having to wait for the group the whole time, but it is fun exploring into the darkness with their own flashlight and headlamp. At the end of the trip the group gets a good surprise because they get to go down the fox-flight or all known as a zip-line. Nervously, Kim videotapes David going first and then goes down next. How fun! This reminds them of their trip to Costa Rica in 2007.
David and Kim hike down the trail back to the truck in which they patiently wait, along with hundreds of mosquitos, for the rest of the group to arrive.
18:30
Another delicious and well deserved dinner at camp. David and Kim take a shower in the creek and then resume to read a book, draw and then back to bed with the sound of the rain hitting the roof top of their hut.
Monday, December 8 (public holiday)
7:00-10:55
David and Kim wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast and get a ride to town to catch a bus ride home to K.L.
10:55
They arrive at the bus station, buy their tickets and ask when the bus leaves.. "right now!" They run to the bus location, hop on a bus. Yes, it was on a bus, but not the right bus, but they knew it was to K.L so they decided to stay.
11:00-13:30
Cramped on the bus for 2.5 hrs David and Kim read and take a short nap. No loud bus driver this time, just some pleasant Indian music playing in the background.
14:00
David and Kim arrive at Hawk Car Rental next door to the Ascott hotel. The reason they rented a vehicle is because they are finally moving into their new apartment tomorrow! Right now David's watching Jurassic park and Kim's getting her blog on. More updates to come! Soon there might be a MTV Cribs in the works.
journey' but David and I are extremely entertained! We dodge cars, large trucks, dogs and kids while I scream pretty much at every single turn. Note that David has a big grin on his face this entire time. Yes, very entertaining I must say. At the 20km marker we get out of car, stretch our legs and view the beautiful waterfall and visit a number of roadside shacks that sell produce and handy crafts.
