My First Ever Non-Solo Backpacking Trip (Malaysia!)

At around 7am Thursday morning, Jeremiah and I landed in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Exchanging our Chinese yuan for Malaysian ringgit, we took the airport shuttle to the city centre, and began to take in the exciting country of Malaysia!

It took several hours of wandering around KL downtown before we found our hostel. However, it's in the middle of Little India, so it wasn't a bad wander by any means. We passed by so many Indian restaurants and food stalls, it was damn near impossible to keep going in order to find our hostel. So much cheap Indian food!

Walking down the streets of Little India

We eventually did find our hostel, checked in, and stepped into our adorably tiny room. Like, REALLY tiny room. The two side-by-side single beds took up 90% of the floor space, with a tiny dresser and a square of floorspace about the size of a doormat giving room for the door to open. Chuckling, we balanced our bags on top of the tiny dresser, wedged into the tiny floor space, and on our beds, then took a brief nap to catch our breath before heading out again.

Then we finally went to one of the Indian food stalls and ate some unbelievably delicious food for under $2! We could hear the call to prayer go off in the city. It's been so long since I heard that slow, reverent "allaaaahu akbaar" echo in a deep cadence carried over a large distance. It's beautiful sound, although I could see it becoming annoying after long enough.

Then we found our way to the National Mosque of Malaysia (Masjid Negara Kuala Lumpur). We almost got ran over by a car on the way but it's aaalllll good. We had to wander around a while outside the mosque because we arrived around 20 minutes before non-Muslim visiting hours, but that was okay because the outdoor gardens and fountains were so lovely.

When we were allowed, we each put on one of the purple robes given to tourists and entered the mosque.

Purple robes were handed to us before enterring the mosque.

Islamic architecture is so. Friggin. Beautiful. While Western churches seem to strive for beauty and impressiveness on the outside, Islamic architecture always seems almost the opposite - slightly plain on the outside but the most intricate, beautiful designs on the inside. That said, this mosque seemed slightly different in that a large part of the interior was not intricately patterned, but rather hundreds of slender, white pillars rising into the ceiling. The central prayer room, however, which we were allowed to observe but not enter, still had the intricate, colourful designs. The entire building had minimal, if any furniture. It had a simple, well-structured, peaceful elegance that felt so welcoming and reverent.

White pillars rising into the ceiling of the mosque

Is it sacrilegious to dance in a mosque? I hope not - it was just so beautiful and I couldn't help myself.

Looking into the central prayer room of the mosque. Look at those stunning windows!

Intricate stone carvings in the walls.

A solemn burial area in the shape of a star where some people were praying.

Some lovely gardens outside the mosque

Leaving the mosque, we wandered toward the central part of the old city, Merdeka Square. We could see a mix of clearly Western-influenced architecture as well as something distinctly different. Southeast Asian? Not quite. Islamic? Yes, but also something more. Indian? Possibly influenced, but also not. It's hard to place. There was definitely a different sort of feel.

I loved the vibrant green of this water fountain.

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building

Gardens outside the sultan building

Star-shaped pools

Some new friends

Wandering further, we finally found the street market we were looking for and bought our dinner. The street was lined with food stalls owned by mostly Malaysian, Indian, Thai, and Chinese vendors. Thousands of dishes and fruits were loudly bartered in all directions, creating a lively environment filled with hundreds of different smells.

We then found our way to the non-food market and wandered here as well. By the end of the night, we'd gorged on loads of food including samosas, jallebies, roti, mango sticky rice, papaya salad, fresh orange juice, and found ourselves carrying beautifully-sewn scarves, new sandals, and walking on fully-refreshed feet after getting foot massages.

One moment worth sharing: while sitting down to eat the papaya salad, I watched Jeremiah pick through the various salad ingredients to find a miniature lime. Apparently unfamiliar with limes so small, he said "guess I'll try this" before popping it into his mouth. I initially thought he'd been joking, but then saw his face contort and spit it out in disgust as he realized that he's just eaten an entire lime rind.

Making our way down.

A packed market street.

The next day, we took Kuala Lumpur's monorail to Petaliling, from which we walked to the Titiwanga Bus Terminal. At the bus station, we learned that most of the bus companies were not operating due to Eid, the final day of the Muslim celebration of Ramadan. Our final destination being Jerantut, we decided to take a bus to Temerloh, then we may need a taxi to get from Temerloh to Jerantut.

Arriving in Temerloh, we learned that the ATMs would not accept either of our credit cards. Looking in dismay at our dwindling funds, we just bit our lips and just kept on going, hoping we'd stumble upon an ATM that would take at least one of our cards.

Catching a taxi that only-slightly overcharged us, we made our way to Temerloh. However, the hostel we booked our room at was gated up and looked very, very closed. Luckily, there was a phone number taped to the door so our taxi driver volunteered to call for us. Apparently, our hostel owner forgot he had guests coming and closed up shop for the Eid celebrations. He'd left the door and gate unlocked though, so we just slid open the gate, walked upstairs, and waited for him to send his employee over to check us into our room.

After checking in, we wandered Jerantut in search of the bus station, dinner, and any ATM we could find. Unfortunately, the location Google Maps said was the bus station, turned out to be a giant slab of pavement with a sign and some benches. Sighing, we decided to continue searching for an ATM and leave the bus station problem for later.

On the way, however, we realized a small silver car had been quietly edging along behind us. When we found an ATM and finished (unsuccessfully) trying to withdraw money, we saw the man in the car park and begin gesturing toward us. While Jeremiah initially held back, I figured he likely knew the area better than us and made my way toward him. Turns out he was just a sweet old man asking if we needed help. He kindly pointed us toward the real bus station and we continued on our way.



We decided travelling in Malaysia during Eid was both a blessing and a curse. A curse in that most businesses are closed the streets are almost empty, but a curse in that it's the most important holiday for a country we were blessed to be in. We walked to Jerantut's official mosque where it seemed half the town had gathered and listened to the call to prayer outisde, watching people enterring and leaving.

On our way back to our hostel, a little bike gang tracked us down to show off their English and super-cool Western hand gestures. They were more than ecstatic to take a photo with us.

Back at our hostel, we tried to ask our hostel operator about the bus times Sunday morning. He responded by walking into our room, plopping himself down on a bed, and saying "okay. I tell you my story." Several hours later, we were finally able to have our room to ourselves and get to sleep.

On our way to the rainforest!!!

The next morning, we woke up early to make our way to the tour office where we'd booked a trip for Taman Negara, Malaysian National Rainforest park. Upon arriving at the office, however, they had no recollection of our booking (a recurring pattern on this trip). Luckily, we had only booked the tour without paying yet, so were able to rebook the same trip last-minute for the same price. However, we could only pay in cash (BUT we had found one ATM that took one of Jeremiah's cards though, so that worked out).

On a little boat making our way into the rainforest!

Zam, our tour guide, sitting at the head of the boat.

Hundreds of vines wrapped around the huge, endless trees.

The rainforest was INCREDIBLE. I've never been to a rainforest before, so it was fascinating to see the thick vines wrapping around and swinging across from the massive, towering trees. Thick with undergrowth, it was impossible to see the tops of the trees. The further into the forest we went, the louder we could hear squeaks, calls, and buzzing of millions of different forms of life.

We took a rope ladder strong from various trees up in the canopy, walking high above the forest floor.

Jeremiah walking along the rope ladder.

Looking up at one of the platforms for the rope ladder. The treetops poking out of the top of the forest are visible.

Walking back down to the forest floor after coming off the rope ladder. The canopy slowly turns into the understory, and then onto the forest floor.

After coming down off the canopy walk, we continued trekking upward until we reached one of the many peaks of Taman Negara. From here, there was a lookout point where we could see several of the other peaks in the rainforest.

Looking out over the forest

Difficult to see, but there's an ant the size of my pinky finger!

After coming back to the small rainforest town for lunch, we headed out onto the river again. This time, the boat operators deliberately steered our two boats close to each other so we could stick our hands into the water and blast the other boat with a stream of water. When we stopped, our guide explained that we were entering a small village of the Orang Asli tribe. Something about this hit me sketchy - I wasn't aware that this was on the trip itinerary (my fault - I didn't look closely enough). While it is fascinating, there's definitely something uncomfortable about going into areas like this. I immediately got a feeling similar to when visiting the Karen tribe in northern Thailand. Humans are not zoo animals but it feels like we forget that when putting native tribes on display.

Walking through, however, it didn't look like Orang Asli themselves were really being exploited - it was more like tourists were being slightly lied to (much preferable to exploiting people). With the VAST majority of people in the village being tourists wandering around and watching various demonstrations by tour guides, the entire population of this village was maybe 10-15 people, well-hidden and not forced to interact in any way with the tourists. While the Orang Asli are a nomadic people, this wood with which this village was constructed looked like it'd been around several years and had become far more of a tourist attraction than an actual functioning village. While definitely still sketchy and not 100% ethical, it was nice to know it wasn't total exploitation (unlike that Karen village in Thailand...).

After doing some more research on the Orang Asli, I learned that this particular village is, unsurprisingly, extremely government-maintained and well-funded for the purpose of tourism. The poverty rate of most Orang Asli is around 77%, although this is judged on a different standard than many of the Orang Asli themselves would judge. Many villages now have running water, electricity, and schools and the government provides several programs that work to alleviate the high poverty levels, high infant mortality rates, low life expectancy, and 43% illiteracy rate. However, that government is still kinda making them into a tourist attraction, so I don't know how much faith I'd put into it.

Anyways - here's photos from the government-constructed Orang Asli village.

Moi next to a house in the village

Walking past some lovely laundry strung up

Two parts of this village and our tour guide's talk were particularly fascinating. First, one of the Orang Asli men volunteered to show us how they'd traditionally make fire using bamboo. We watched as he held a piece of wood with a hole in it between his feet, then rubbed a more flexible piece of bamboo back and forth on either side of it. As smoke began to appear, he brought it close to a pile of extremely dry twigs and began to blow. Soon enough, there was a small fire. It was incredible!!

Holding the wood between his feet and rubbing the bamboo back and forth

The fire catches on the dry twigs.

The other fascinating part were the blow darts! A very long, narrow piece of bamboo was hollowed out and black ball made of rubber-like material placed on the end (they told us how they made the rubber-like ball but I can't remember). Then a small clump of some sort of grass is placed inside, followed by a dart - typically, the dart would be poisoned, but they didn't trust us with the poisoned ones lol. Holding the bamboo level, you take aim, then blow as hard as you can. The same man who showed us how to make the fire demonstrated how to use the blow dart, hitting his target right on the mark. We were not quite as successful.

Showing me how to hold the shaft.

Taking aim... I may or may not have even made it far enough to even reach the target.

After leaving the Orang Asli village, we took our boat back to the village outside the rainforest and took a small bus back to Jerantut. Unfortunately, all the buses had finished for the day, so we booked another night with our lovely hostel-proprietor of the night before. After wandering Jerantut one last time and planning out the next day, we settled in and prepared to sleep...

Then our hostel-operator enterred our room again, sat on one of the beds, and welcomed himself into our conversation. He was a pretty interesting character though, so it didn't bother us too much. That said, we found ourselves trying to convince him that Africans aren't cannibals who can hear over 1km away because he'd seen it in a horror movie called Cannibal Holocaust, which was in fact set in the Brazilian Amazon. He was quite adamant that it was true, but we eventually convinced him that South America and Africa are in fact different continents, although we could not convince him that it could be not any more true of Amazonians than it could be of Africans. He was very kind to share with us some of his festive Eid cookies though, so that was pleasant.



The next morning, we walked to the bus station and found that the next bus leaving to Kuala Lumpur was after 11am. Seeing as our flight was leaving Kuala Lumpur at 7 and it would take several hours to get to Kuala Lumpur, then another few to get to the airport, we tried to come up with another plan. We found a bus leaving for Temerloh at that exact moment, so we quickly bought tickets and raced onto the bus.

Arriving in Temerloh at 9:30am, they told us that all tickets to Kuala Lumpur were sold out! Begging the ticket lady if there was any possible way to get to Kuala Lumpur, she called to a nearby bus driver and asked him something. He hesitated for a moment then responded. She then sold us two unsold 9:00am tickets to Kuala Lumpur, then pointed us to the 9:30 bus that was about to leave. Apparently, there were two no-shows for the 9:30 bus and we were able to squeeze on just before it left.

We ended up arriving in Kuala Lumpur just as the Jerantut-KL bus would have been leaving Jerantut.

A pretty walkway beside the bus station in Kuala Lumpur.

Taking the monorail back to downtown KL, we wandered through Little India. So many smells and colours greeted our eyes and noses. Why hadn't we walked down here earlier?!?! I was tempted to buy a sari because they are SO DAMN BEAUTIFUL, but luckily I had no money so I didn't. We bought lunch for two for under $4 (again) and decided to eat it while sitting in the middle of a roundabout in a major intersection of Little India. It was pretty thrilling to be in the centre of so much commotion and activity for a little bit.

Munching on some lunch in downtown Little India (also called Brickfields or some other not-exciting word)

Main street of Little India

Shops along the main street of Little India

This fountain was advertised as "the only three-tiered elephant-lotus-swan fountain in the world", so that was exciting

One pillar of the doorway into Little India, symbolizing partnership and goodwill between India and Malaysia.

Making our way back to the bus station, we found the airport shuttle and made it back to the airport well in time to catch our flight back to Shanghai. 

With a surprise holiday on Monday, we were more than ready to get back through the classroom Tuesday morning.