June 13, 2001 - Wednesday - KL to Pangkor, Malaysia
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| Dock along a heavily populated shore of Pangkor |
I boarded the bus this morning after parted company with Peter and Jonathan, and continued to head north again. I arrived at Lumut late afternoon at around 5:30 and hopped on the ferry by 6. One thing refreshing about the Malaysians is that even though they do try to sell you things, once you expressed that you're not interested, they won't press anymore.
I got on the ferry and headed to Pangkor Island for RM$3. After landing, I took a taxi (RM$10) to get to the west side of the island where the budget places are. Teluk Nepah is a sheltered bay with a few small islands within swimming distance. I walked around looking for accommodation. One wanted to charge RM$20 for a tiny dirty looking A-Frame place. Another one wanted RM$25 for a dingy room.
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| Playful kitty at my bungalow |
One guy - Uden offered me a very nice room for RM$45, but it was out of my budget. He told me to go to his uncle's place just a few houses down and I took a room there for RM$20. It was better than the other places I looked at except Uden's hotel. There were several kittens running around the grounds so that was another reason why I took it. After checking in, I went for a swim, shower, and had a fried noodle dinner before heading to bed.
June 14, 2001 - Thursday - Pangkor, Malaysia
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| Sunset on the island of Pangkor |
I got up late today, went to walk around for lunch and desert before going back to the room for a rest. This afternoon, I got my gear together and swam out to one of the small islands called Coral Island. It took me a while through the semi-murky water but I made it there nevertheless. My snorkel vest kept me afloat.
After sitting on the beach for a bit, I swam around the island before resting again. The reef here is mostly covered by algae and not worth writing about. There were some fish to be seen like the Moorish Idol and such but I probably won't go out again. It was a nice relaxing day.
June 15, 2001 - Friday - Pangkor to Taiping, Malaysia
The day started off fairly nice - I slept for a long time after my snorkeling and didn't wake up until after 11:30. When evening came, I took the taxi and caught my ferry over to Lumut. After arriving, I found out that the bus was full so there weren't any seats available for me, to my great disappointment.
I was determined to get out of there and not stay in Lumut and finally found one bus going to Taiping. That's when things went down hill. I rushed to get on the bus and lost my ticket somehow. I had to pay for it again, against my will and the bus driver was being a prick about the whole thing too. He wouldn't start the bus without me showing him a ticket. It was only RM$6.
After arriving at Taiping, I found out that I just missed the last bus to Kota Bharu by 20 minutes. That sucked. I ate a little bit of food across from the station and then asked around for accommodations. Taxi drivers generally try to rip you off at night. They also want to take me to this more expensive hotel at RM$28. Granted the whole thing would've cost me about US$10 but I stubbornly found a quiet corner at another building and slept there. It was the first time I've ever slept at a bus station.
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