They’re finally up! Italy photos. I also have uploaded a zip file of all my photos; send me an email if you’re interested in the file.

Here are some photos from my trip.

I had to say goodbye to the Perhentian Islands today… hopefully I’ll be back though. They’re just so gorgeous and relaxing! I took the ferry and a taxi back here to Kota Bharu where I spent the afternoon. I wandered through some of the markets in town, but I didn’t buy anything. It was mostly silk and fabric type stuff, or produce. I ended up at the night market for dinner– some tasty local food. I had a omlette-like thing, with chicken curry in the middle, and a local specialty: blue rice! The lady threw a bunch of stuff in it– some veggies, some deep fried chicken, half of a hard boiled egg, and some chilli sauce. It was super good, and it was only 2 ringgit (like 50-60 cents)! It’s nice to have a cheap meal after the Perhentians… and reasonably priced water, too. I did treat myself to curly fries and a root beer float at A&W when I got into town. I think it was deserved, after barely surviving the taxi ride into town. And I have an all-night but back to Kuala Lumpur soon– hopefully that driver won’t be as crazy as the ones I’ve had so far. Tomorrow I think I’ll head to Melaka for the day, and then spend Saturday in KL before flying out that evening. My trip has gone by so fast– I feel like I’m just starting to get into the groove of things over here.

Right, so I am currently using the most expensive internet on the planet, so I have to type fast and ommit precious details. After leaving Teman Negara, I headed up to the north east coast via the jungle train– an all day local train through the jungle and countyry side. It was really pretty– trees, hills, and gigantic limestone outcropings dotting the landscape. My destination? The Perhentian Islands. A slight change of itinerary, but everyone was saying how beautiful this place is, and they were right. I’m on a tiny little island in the middle of gorgeous clear blue waters. It really is amazing. I took the ferry over yesterday and spen the early afternoon lounging on the beach and playing in the waves. Then I rented a kayak and cruised halfway around the island. Battling fierce seas (not really, but it was rough in places), I found a beautiful beach with no one on it but ME! I paddled through shallow coral reefs to get there, and there were fish swimming all around me. I cooled off on the porch of my tiny beach chalet before heading out to dinner– fresh barbequed baracuda in a tasty white coconut sauce. So good!

Today I went on an all day snorkeling trip to nearby reefs. It was incredible– it was like I was swimming in an aquarium! There were so many fish… all different colors, darting around. And huge corals… ones that looked like trees, giant shelves, big ballons… like I said, incredible! And the things I saw– sea turtles, sharks (SHARKS!), baracuda, clown fish, squid, angel fish, a hammer-headed parrot fish (it was huge!)… it was a blast. I think I’m going to rent snorkeling gear tomorrow too and explore the reefs around the beach. Probably won’t be nearly as exciting as today, but just swimming around out there is so much fun! I think I’ll spend another day or two here before heading back to KL and my flight home… although I might make a day trip to Melaka before I go. Anyhoo, it’s off to dinner now… I can’t decide between shark, king fish, or sting ray!

Well, I survived the jungle. Barely though I left early Wednesday morning from Jerantut (where I am now) for the park via boat. It was one of those shallow, narrow long boats. The ride took about 2.5 hours– gorgeous jungle scenery the whole way up. When I got there I asked about a trek, but apparently no one had expressed interest yet; check back later they said. So I strolled out to the jungle on my own. There are a couple of trails around the main resort area that are ok to do without a guide: the trails are well worn and don’t stray too far into the rain forest. So first I hiked to the canopy walkway. It’s a series of rope suspension bridges from tree to tree, way up in the canopy of the forest. It was really cool, although the walkway was quite rickity. After that I climbed to a nearby hill, with amazing views out over the park from the top. It was quite a climb though– much tougher than I expected. And it’s so hot! Within minutes of setting out I was completely drenched– for example, the paper that I had in my shorts pocket turned to mush soon into my hike. But it so cool to hike through crazy jungle, listening to the sounds and seeing all the different kind of plants. At the top of the hill I ran into two girls who were on my boat that morning. They said they were heading to a spot on the river where you could swim– just take a right at the fork on the way down. I was planning on just returning they way I had come, but a dip in the river sounded so nice. So I headed out before them, and took the fork like they said. I kept on walking and walking, up and down, left and right. I had to keep an eye on the time, since I didn’t know when it got dark. But I had plenty of time, as long as I was where I thought I was. As I was walking down a root-covered hill, I felt a sharp pain on my elbow. I swatted at it, then heard a big buzz and two more stings on my right ear. A wasp! A JUNGLE WASP!! I, very gracefully, attacked my ear vigorously enough to knock off my glasses. I picked them up and then practically flew down that hill. I was taking several roots at a time, leaping wildly down the slope. I have no idea how I didn’t break my leg– that stuff is hard to hike slowly. But I made it ok, and outran the wasp. But that settled it in my mind– there would be no tunring back. This path would lead me back to the resort. So I marched on, even sweatier (if that is possible) and shaking from the adreneline. I soon came to another fork in the path. Hmmm… left or right? I thought I remembered the path leading to the left on the map the girls had shown me, so I went that way. Any way but past that wasp again. So it was getting later, the path was meandering all over the place, and I had no idea where I wazs. And my ear hurt. But I pushed on until finally, through the noise of the bugs and the thunder (oh yeah, I had been hearing thunder– LOUD thunder– for about a half hour now), I heard the river. Sounds don’t travel too far in the jungle, so I knew I was close. And sure enough, after going up one last hill, I saw the path down to the river. Sweet salvation! I was so happy– I was right where had intended to go. So I sat in the river, rinsed off, and washed my shirt. It was still quite sunny out, but I noticed a thundercloud off in the distance, so I headed back to the resort. Sure enough, I had been sitting down at one of the floating restaraunts for about 10 minutes when it started pouring down rain. Huge winds, thunder, lightning, the whole deal. And I mean torrential rain. I guess that’s why they call it a rainforest, no? Once the rain died down I went back to my hostel and cleaned up. Dinner was at one of the floating restaraunts– the one that arranged treks. They said to wait for a bit, until they heard back from some of the other guides. I ended up sitting there until about 10 before they told me that there would be no trek. I was pretty bummed– that was the one thing I had really wanted to do.

The next day I did another hike by myself– this one to a cave about 2 hours into the jungle. It was not a bad hike– no getting lost, no wasps. But at one point I did hear a crazy sound and some rustling close to the trail– I pretty much just froze and waited until it was quiet again. I got to the cave and climbed in a bit. It was a tiny opening with giant boulders all over. I followed the rope in a bit, until I saw the next part– a three-foot high crawl space with water on the bottom and bats on the ceiling. Ummm… alone + bats + confined space = no thank you. So I stood there at the entrance or a while as bats flew in and out. Pretty cool. I headed back the way I had come– no detours today. I got back to the main resort with enough time to head to the swimming area, so I treked up there to cool off. I sat down, zipped off the legs of my pants… and saw a HUGE LEECH!!! Kind of shocked me at first, but other than looking disgusting they aren’t that bad. I took a picture before I burned him off with a lighter. There was blood on my sock from where a leech had been earlier. On to the next leg… only one leech. Burned him off too. The thing with leeches though is that they have an anti-coagulant in their saliva so they ca suck unhindered. So after they leave, you have this tiny little wound that won’t stop bleeding. Kind of annoying– got my socks all bloody. But it looks much worse than it feels. That night, I was sitting at the restaraunt debating what to do since there was no trek, when a group of about five people came in asking about a 3 day trek! Perfect! We sat around talking about it all evening– they were trying hard to bargain for a cheaper price. I was fine with the original price– I just wanted to go! In the end, the guides wouldn’t budge, but everyone ended up signing up with them anyway. So we were off! We left the next morning at 11, and stopped at the canopy walkway as most of the people hadn’t seen that yet. Then a 2 hour boat ride up the river. We had lunch before starting off on our trek. First challenge: a suspension bridge that a tree had fallen on top of. We had to walk across basically a two-by-four, fifteen feet above the jungle floor, while carrying our heavy packs. Quite a nerve-racking way to start the trek. But we all made it. We hiked for about 4 hours through the jungle before arriving at our home for the night: a gigantic cave. It was enormous– high ceilings, wide open floor… quite a hotel. Our guide Awang cooked us a great meal (that he had been carrying all day!). Ok, I’m running out of time. Yesterday was more hiking, but it ended up being a leech free day! We spent the night in a Orang Asli (indigenous people) village. We got to shoot blow darts! We had another great dinner, followed by a nice picnic desert on the river bank– complete with a guitar and singing. We stayed up late talking before going to bed in a raised bamboo hut. Today we floated down the river on inner-tubes, back to the main village. It was fun and relaxing, but I got sun burned on my legs– I even put on a ton of sun screen! This evening I took the bus back to Jerantut to do some laundry and clean up. Speaking of which, I need to pick my laundry up! I’ll write more soon…

Aw crap… I just had this huge long entry about what I’ve been up to, and somehow I managed to hit the “get rid of everything on the screen” button. So here’s the Reader’s Digest version.

Yesterday, strolled though the city. I hit up the Chinatown market again, for lunch, a watch, and some pants. Saw the city from the top of the KL tower, then walked over to stare up at the Petronas Towers. Spent the evening window shopping at Suria KLCC, a mega-mall at the base of the towers. Had dinner there– a tasty kebab. In the evening, I headed back to Chinatown… I think I’m addicted. This time I got the last my shopping done, I hope: two shirts. A trip to the drug store for soap and shampoo rounded out my day out and about. Hung out in the evening in the hostel lobby enjoying a beer and talking to some other people in there.

Today I checked out, got a hostel and but ticket for Jeruntut, near the national park Teman Negara. Spent the day exploring the Batu Caves on the outskirts of KL. Pretty darn impressive. And there were monkeys everywhere! I even saw hot monkey sex! Came back to the city, where it is super hot, so I’ve spent the afternoon wandering through the indoor Central Market. I had a great lunch of lamb curry there, and now I’m checking my email waiting to head out to catch my bus. I don’t know how long I’ll be in the park, and I don’t think I’ll have much email access either. So it might be a while before I update again. Ta!

Well, I made it safely to Malaysia! I had a nice flight– got to see the movie “Big Fish”. I had tried to reserve a place by email before I left, since I was arriving at 5:40pm. The bus ride into town took a little longer than I expected though, and by the time I showed up they only had a dorm room left. It’s not that bad tho– super cheap (like 3USD), cheap internet downstairs, great location, air conditioning, the works. I went up the street to Indian food for dinner, but I couldn’t really figure out the menu, so the guy suggested fried rice. Pretty standard, but it was good for my first night I guess. I wandered through the night market in Chinatown too– so much stuff to buy! I need a cheap watch with an alarm clock, so that I’m not always wearing my flashy silver one around, as well as some cheap pants and shirts for the rest of my trip. Maybe some sock, too. The thing is, I’m no good at shopping at markets. I can’t bargain well, and I can never figure out what I really want. Hopefully strolling it today will give me an idea of what to expect when I go back tomorrow night for some actual shopping. Other than that, the plan is to just kind of wander around the city and see some sights! Anyhoo, I’m super tired– I’ll try to post again soon!

Argh… Several days ago I wrote a whole bunch about what we were doing and where we had been, but the computer froze up on me. Anyway, right now we’re on a tiny island south of Bangkok called Ko Samet. We’ve came from Chaing Mai in the north, where we did a three day trek including bamboo rafting and elephant riding. Before that, we spent a day in Ayutthaya, after two days in Bangkok. Pretty fun times all around. It’s super hot thought, but being on the beach is the best place for that! Anyway, we’ll hang out here for a couple more days and then head back to Japan on Saturday night. Gotta run, internet is expensive here. And happy birthday, David!

So we’re heading off to Thailand on Saturday. Don’t worry mom, it’s a safe country We’re flying from Kansai International to Bangkok via Seoul. We don’t have much of an itinerary yet, but we hope to explore Bangkok, some towns in the north, and relax on some tropical beaches. I’m pretty excited, although I have no idea what to expect. We arrive back in Japan on April 6th. Should be a good time. I’m not too worried about the war; hopefully Thailand is far enough removed from the whole situation. I wouldn’t feel comfortable travelling to other parts of SE Asia right now (particularly Indonesia), but I think Thailand is probably about as safe as Japan. Of course, there’s that crazy pnuemonia-like disease going around. From what I’ve read, though, the only places that are getting a warning are Hanoi in Veitnam, China, and Singapore. We don’t have any plans to go to any of those places, so I’m not too worried. But just to be safe, on Tina’s recommendation I bought some surgical dust-mask type thingies in case there are any reports of the disease in Thailand. But I’m looking forward to the trip. I’m obsessively re-checking all the things I’ve packed, making sure I’m prepared as I can be. I’ve got toilet paper, duct tape, twine, a first aid kit, clothes, hand sanitizer, anti-diarrhea medicine, allergy medicine, advil, a pocket knife, zip-lock bags, plastic bags, bug repellant, passport, money, and my trusty Lonely Planet guide book. I hope I won’t need any more than that!