Lives of Hungry Pirates

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Post Script to Lives of Hungry Pirates

We're writing this 8 months after we've returned to Australia, long after we've had our emotional reunions with family and friends and moved on with life. So it's fair to say we've been a little slack in finishing off this blog. But if your still interested, the story you've read over the past 18 months unfolded along the path below:

And here's a list of the locations that were the setting of our adventure...

seoul
chuncheon
suwon
incheon
yeosu
boseong
geumgangsan
osaka
kyoto
panmunjoem
jeju-si
seogwipo
gyeongju
daejeon
seokcho
busan
qingdao
shanghai
tongli
yangshuo
guilin
dali
lijiang
tiger leaping gorge
zhongdian
xiangcheng
litang
kanding
chengdu
beijing
urumqi
kashgar
karakul lake
moscow
sergiev posad
yaraslavl
st petersburg
bergamo
milan
bellagio
como
varena
lugano
cremona
modena
bologna
treviso
verona
venice
pula
rovinj
zadar
split
hvar
korcula
dubrovnik
mostar
sarajevo
belgrad
novisad
zagreb
ljubljana
bled
piran
trieste
london
romford
barcelona
bilbao
san sebastian
santiago de compostela
porto
duoro
lisbon
lagos
faro
seville
tarifa
tangier
chefchouen
fes
meknes
moulay idris
casablanca
madrid
salamanca
singapore
melaka
kuala lumpur
kota bharu
perhentian besar
perhentian kecil
langkawi
georgetown
tanah rata
taman negara
sydney

So here we are, back on the same lounge we started from. Feel free to compare our photo to the one before we left, and tell us how much wiser yet youthful we look after a cross-globe adventure!

http://hungrypirates.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html

Thanks for reading our story

end - 끝 - 端 - 末端 - конец - estremità - kraj - završetak - svršetak - extremo - extremidade -اِنْتَهَى عن - mengakhiri

...

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The end of a long road

So back to KL, our final stop before heading home and in reality TV speak, 'the end of an incredible journey'. It had now been over six consecutive months on the road, and while we'd been to some amazing places, fatigue was starting to set in and, yes, we were definitely missing home.

This final few days was about chillin' out downtown, basking in an exotic environment one last time and enjoying the fact that there were no onward travel arrangements to make, a luxury we'd not had since the start of the year. In the back (but increasingly the front) of our minds was the very exciting prospect of seeing family and friends again, and the familiar surroundings of home.

We opted for a spacious room at a nice high-rise hotel; the motivation for scouting around for a cheap hostel room had long since evaporated. It all seemed so relaxing compared to the beginning of our trip, arriving at Qingdao port with no cash, no map and only a vague idea of where to head - life seemed easy now!

A casual stroll around KL took us to the colonial area, and the park where Malaysia's independance was declared in 1957

With budget projecting no longer required, we cut loose with a bit of shopping at KL's modern complexes - this one in the shadow of the ever visible Petronas towers

Flower wallahs in Little India

Barfi Pista, an Indian sweet lined with edible silver foil

Mel's favourite part of our last accommodation was the bed - a comfortable one at last!

Young Malaysians of all ethnic origins seem to love a good fountain

When we found a karaoke room, we felt it was an appropriate way to spend our final night. And they had K-pop with subtitles!

So we packed up our gear for one last time, excited but also reflective. It was wonderful to be heading home, but it was also the end of an amazing adventure...

Wild nightlife

The final unchartered territory for our trip involved a visit to Taman Negara, touted as the world's oldest rainforest. This was another very different side of Malaysia, and while it seemed a pretty quiet place during the day nightfall produced a fascinating and eery array of wildlife sounds eminating from the jungle depths.

Mel surveys the river and jungle beyond - after sunset the valley came alive with sound

Some type of fungal thing on a tree root

The jungle was THICK! To get anywhere in a hurry, the river was the only way to go

'Back of house' in one of the floating restaurants - not very ergonomic...

We went on a jungle caving expedition and after being led into a chamber in the dark, our guide 'surprised' us by turning on his torch to reveal a wall full of sleeping bats, about 2 feet from where we'd entered. One would occasionally do a wild lap of the cave, buzzing right past our faces, just to really freak us.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Heading for the hills

Having been in Malaysia for about three weeks, it was time to get off the coast and head for the hills. The beaches had been great but we were keen to see what else the country had going on, and so we took a long and winding bus trip up into the Cameron Highlands. The climate took a noticeable change and at night we found ourselves digging the long sleeves out of our packs for the first time for a month and a half.

Trying my hand at some blow-darting (remembering not to inhale!)

A jungle trek took us to the world's largest species of flower. It takes some finding and you have to get the timing right - they're only open for a few days each year

The hilly tea plantations gave us a pleasant break from the coastal humidity

'Steamboat' is a fondue type arrangement with loads of seafood

Saturday, March 29, 2008

One last island...

From Malaysia's far North West, we took at ferry down the coast to the island of Penang, for a few days in the city of Georgetown. The trip got off to a bad start when ended up floundering at sea after our ferry's propeller got caught in a fishing net (one day after a tourist ferry sunk doing a similar trip); getting pounded side on by a few largish waves got the adrenaline flowing.

But the fright was worth it as Penang proved to be a great destination, with a well preserved colonial heritage and a melting pot of religions. Plus, some extraordinary eats - king of which was the Nonya cuisine that is supposedly at its best on this island, and which for us were definitely amongst the tastiest dishes in Malaysia.

The view down our street, with colonial terraces in the foreground

No offence to the fine people at Nescafe, but coffee in Malaysia can be a bit so-so. No such problem in Georgetown as we found a couple of great cafes, with the requisite aircon cranked up high

No matter how sunny the morning, you could almost guarantee copping a mid afternoon downpour. It's important to plan to be somewhere interesting when you get stuck for an hour or so!

The brightly coloured houses of Penang's rich merchants of the past

We took another scooter excursion and found a great Buddhist temple in the centre of the island...

...and also this intricate multi-tiered Hindu creation

Baba-Nonya cuisine is a Malaysian adaptation of Chinese cuisine, with plenty of it's own unique taste combinations. We found a great restaurant run by three generations of Peranakan women - the food that night rated as some of our most memorable on the entire trip.

A little village on the main road around Penang sold the unique local version of laksa, without coconut milk but with crushed pineapple and mint. A sensational creation!

Don't worry, this guy wasn't on the menu...

A butterfly park at the far end of the island was a pretty diversion

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Switching coasts

From the east coast, we took a long minibus journey across the north of the Malaysian peninsula and on to a ferry to get to the island of Langkawi. Many times larger than Perhentian, it has a lot more tourists but compensates with a much more varied dining scene and the added bonus of being a duty free zone...so cheap drinks every night!

Our first stop - Indian. Deb and Maddi hooking into some naan

Langkawi is resort-world, which was fine by us - we had a great pool, directly beyond which was the beach...

...with some magic views at sunset

Langkawi was a perfect size for exploring by scooter

After about 3 minutes of riding the scenery becomes very rural. You don't see that in KL!

We also stopped by at one of the more exclusive resorts. Just down the beach they were trying to film a movie, and we could understand why - the whole area is stunning. As visitors we were allowed to have a coffee at this place but the signs told us swimming in the pool was definitely off limits. A shame because no one else was in there!

Maddi and I pretending we belong with Malaysia's rich

A bit more moto-ing took us further in to the islands interior, and up into the mountains. This is Bruce tempting fate on the slippery rocks under a waterfall.

The slippery rocks are also a tourist attraction...Jordy tries out the natural waterslide

We took a boat ride off the island, and when we reached a bay our driver through bits of raw chicken into the water. Moments later, we were surrounded by scores of sea eagles dive-bombing spectacularly to grab the meat.

Plenty of these guys everywhere!

You really need to watch your step at times

Our last stop on Langkawi was a place we'd been trying to track down since we got a teasing glimpse of it in China. Remember the Seinfeld eposide where Kramer becomes addicted to a certain brand of roast chicken? Well, we can confirm that brand is not fictional! Kenny Rogers Roasters lives...

The verdict? Not bad at all!

Monday, February 25, 2008

Going primitive

After almost 6 months of traveling, and the traffic, crowds and general sweatiness of KL our most recent memory, the prospect of kicking back for a week on tropical Perhentian Island was sounding just about right to us.

Deb had warned us that facilities were on the basic side, and they were! But it was exactly what we had been craving. We had been in the African desert just a fortnight ago...it seemed like another lifetime!

While we spent most of the time lazing about on the beach, we also got in some good snorkelling trips which we shared with some amazing giant sea turtles and a couple of sharks (well, shark-ettes...they were smaller than Maddi!)

Sam fights for legroom on the Air Asia flight to Kota Bharu (the port from which we caught a small motorboat to Perhentian Island)

That's what I'm talking about! Perhentian Island was very easy to take.

What we did when we weren't swimming....waiting to eat

There are no cars any where near this place, so the kids learn nautical skills early!

Maddi and Jordy on the 'school boat' - we'd just dropped some local kids off to school

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Some familiar faces in KL

We had been looking forward to arriving in Malaysia's capital for a couple of reasons. The reputation of the city's diverse and top notch street food had our mouths' watering on the bus from Malacca, but also we were meeting up with Trent's sister Deb and her family. It had been a while since we'd caught up with some familiar faces, so we were excited to have some company!

The view from our window - we hadn't caught up with Deb and the family yet but it turned out their hotel was directly across from ours (left of frame)