Formula 1 and an almost royal visit

Thursday 27th March

We had a 4 hour bus ride ahead of us, from Cameron Highlands to Kuala Lumpur, it costed us 35 ringit each. After arriving in KL, we found our guesthouse. We booked this in advance long time ago, cause we wanted to make sure that we had a place to stay during the Formula 1. We didn't know if the city would be packed or not. Fortunately it wasn't as packed as assummed. We were curious to see what we got for our money at the guesthouse, so we checked a few other places out around in Chinatown, and compared to those places, we were pretty lucky with our room and the price.
We had an extra ticket for the Grand Prix, and in the last minute Erik got his race partner Carsten convinced to come and watch it with us. It was a very spontanious trip. You gotta love car racing to travel that far for only 3 nights!!! We were very happy about his arrival though, so unexpected and that's probably what made it so cool and exciting. Erik had someone to be a nerd with now, and I could have a break.
Erik went to the airport to pick him up, and they were both in such a good mood when they got into the guesthouse, already with beers in their hands. We went out to see the KL tower, that raises 421meter over the city, we got up to the highest platform at 335m. Wauw what an amazing view. Petronas towers were small from this height. Erik and specially Carsten were in party mood, so they went for some drinks at night. I had a painfull headache, and I think that fitted the guys perfect, cause then they had some alone time without me asking stupid questions about the race.
Erik woke me up in the middle of the night when they got back, he looked dazed and had his soaked wet t-shirt in his hand. He had tried to clean the blood of it, after some Indians had tackled first him and then Carsten, on their way home. They hit Erik in the face so he fell down and hurt his chin, he got up again and got all the small guys out of the way, but still theres was one big guy, crazy like he was on all of the worlds worst drugs, so he continued fighting Carsten, so he got hit aswell, shortly after, some bartenders had run out on the street to help, and that made the Indians run away. A bad ending of a good night out for the guys,
eventhough none of them got bad hurt.

Chinatown 

KL Tower

Petronas towers

Nerd 1 & 2

Petronas towers, from street level

Friday 28th March

The guys got home quite late last night, but we had arranged to go and see the Batu caves, just 13km out of KL, and then the guys would go to Sepang to watch the traning rounds afterwards. Carsten didn't get up, but Erik was feeling good considering the circumstances, so we took the train to the caves. It turned out that we took the wrong train, so instead of spending 40 min to get there, we spend almost 2 hours.
When we finally arrived at the caves we only had 50 min there, before Erik and Carsten arranged to meet up and take a taxi to Sepang. Apparently there had been a little misunderstanding about the meeting time, so Carsten never showed up, and he didn't have our Malay number, and we didn't have any money left on our phone, so it was impossible to get in contact with each other.
We saw one of the caves quickly and then we realized that we should probably head back to the guesthouse and hopefully we would find Carsten there. But then it would be too late to go to Sepang, It turned out that Carsten had waited at the caves, but at the wrong time, an hour before planned, so this was basically a day where we used a lot of time on nothing. The caves wasn't worth the effort, and the guys didn't watch the training. Just wanted to delete this day/afternoon! Carsten was still knackered when we met him back "home", and we were all keen for a nap and some resting.
At night we met up with Tom & V and had a fabulous dinner at Nando's (an english food chain, that serves spicy chicken). I can't remeber when we last ate so much food. They didn't sell any alcohol there, but they were kind to let us go buy some at a nearby store, and bring it to the restaurant. Went for beer towers in Chinatown afterwards, and enjoyed overselves.

Batu caves

She should wish for a bra

By mistake we entered this train, and after 40 min with women looking at us, we realized that Erik wasn't allowed in there!

So here are the rules in the "normal" train.

Cheers

Saturday 29th March

Me (Erik) and Carsten left early to be able to see more than only the last free practice session, and the qualification session in the afternoon, we also wanted to see the other racing classes at this event (yes it’s not only F1 at a F1 race, there’s a lot of other races in between). Well as always with Carsten around we were behind our schedule, so when we arrived at the track, it was big and good surprise, when we realized that the weekend program had been changed quite a lot, so that everything started later than we thought. I actually think, that this was the first time EVER with Carsten around, that I’ve tried to be ahead of schedule, he he…
We enjoyed the 32 degrees, walking around the main entrance area with cold beers in our hands, so nice to be in the racing environment again! As the day passed by, we got to see some Asian cup racers and Porsche 911’s, when the 3rd free practice session was about to start Lisbeth turned up, she had been taking the bus together with V and Tom, who also had tickets for the race. Sadly we couldn’t talk with them, because they were in another section of the track, and all sections were closed by big fences… Very sad, also for the whole racing experience, on similar racetracks in Europe, you can walk all around the track, without feeling like being in the zoo!
After the last practice session Carsten challenged us to a gocart race, so off we went for the gocart track, before the F1 qualification was up later in the afternoon. We only just managed to find the gocart track, when the asian weather showed us it’s bad site, almost from a clear blue sky a torrential rainstorm came over us, luckily Carsten was quick enough to rip his money back, out of the hands on the helpless man at the gocart counter, for with this amount of water we wouldn’t be able to enjoy gocart racing.
We walked back to the track, and of course we’re so use to these kinds of weather changes after more than 6 mounts in Southeast Asia, so we already brought the necessary equipment, like raincoats and unfortunately a almost useless umbrella (or maybe Carsten broke it?). The qualification session was delayed about an hour or so, because of the heavy amount of water – we just used the time putting up the giant Danish flag that Carsten brought along, and drinking danish beers (Carlsberg, which was the only beers sold at the track, and for the heavy price of 30 RM each!) The qualifying went okay, seen with Danish sunglasses on, but could have been better as well – 8th starting position on the grid for the race, for Kevin Magnussen. This evening was a quiet one, we had a late dinner at McD. when we got bact to KL around 9.30 pm, and then all of us went straight to bed.

Happy happy

Memory wall for the victim on MH 370

Sunday 30th March

With close to 12 hours sleep for both Lisbeth and Carsten we were now all 100% ready for a big day of racing… Together we took a taxi to the track, Carsten equipped with his luggage as he would go straight to the airport after the race, Lisbeth equipped with Danish liverpaste and the remainings of the nice Danish darkbread that Carsten brought from Denmark and me with 3 big cold beers, our Danish flag and our camera. Lisbeth made us some food while on the backseat of the taxi, while Carsten and me enjoyed telling a lot of the insane, stupid and very funny stories from the last 3-4 years with the two racing teams, of course with a beer in our hands.
We had brought a lot of earplugs, that my mom’s husband Jan brought us when they visited us in Thailand, (we asked for a couple of pairs, but got a bag with maybe 100-150 pairs). I got the idea that Lisbeth should try to sell them at the track, the sale went much better and quicker than we would have thought, we ended up selling every single pair within 18 minutes, providing us around 130 RM. WELL DONE!!! So naturally we celebrated that with a beer, and then it was race time… It wasn’t the best F1 race I’ve seen, but just being there with Carsten and Lisbeth made the weekend perfect anyway. After the race there was a big afterparty with Calvin Harris as the big name of the concert – this was also included in our tickets, so we went there to have some more beers and listen to some European music, before Carsten was off to the nearby airport. But we were in for a big disappointment. The party was alcohol free.. Say what.. Yeah alcohol free – so we went back to the track right away, here it was still possible to buy beers. We had a couple of beers there while taking care of the world history. Carsten left around 9pm and we went back to KL with the bus, had dinner again at McD. And then off to bed. Finish with the unhealthy life for now.

One more thing to write on my CV

It couldn't be big enough for the guys

The track

Best travel buddies

Enjoying danish beers

F1 Malaysia Video

Monday 31st March

For the first time in a while we slept in. During the day we walked to the area called Bukit Bintang, and finally we found a red filter for our GoPro camera, that means we can make better and more colourful videos from our dives (we've been looking for that in more than 3 months and 3 countries). Rain was pouring down just after we got back to the guesthouse, so the day went by with blog and researching.

A hard day at work for most Asians

Just a reminder on the ladies bathroom of how you should NOT be peeing.  

Tuesday 1st April

Payed the hotel bill and left to Melaka, first with train and then with an one hour delayed bus. 2 hours to Melaka and 22 RM less in our wallet. Melaka made a really good first impression with it's small streets, colourful buildings and a river running through the town with cafe's on both sides.
At the bridge crossing into the town, from the busstop, we met a guy that offered us at room at Raymonds guesthouse, which was central located, and only 40 RM for a night was a fair price for us. We went out to see the dutch square and the marine museum. Most of the afternoon we spend in a mall, looking for prober shoes to Erik. He needed some for the mountain that we're gonna climb on Borneo (he have only had flip flops and his Fivefingers since he lost one of his running shoes on a motorbike trip in Laos back in late november last year). I was pretty lazy when we got in and had a rest, while Erik went for a jog.
We knew that Tom & Verity were in this town aswell today, so we enjoyed the last night with them, and then our ways split, they were heading south and we were going to Borneo. It ended out in almost two weeks exploring and travelling together with them. It's been great fun, thanks to Tom for his crazy humor about Mr. Bean bear, Slovenia, the German shepard bagpack, the raindeer-goat-dog etc. And thanks to V for putting up with him, and being such a nice person.

Trying to sell a suitcase that Carsten left behind. It took a few hours and we earned 50RM. That CV is gonna get good!

Malay laksa

Melaka's chinatown

Fantastic colourful little town

Marine Museum

Some of all the romantic tricycles in Melaka

Beer christmas tree

 

Wednesday 2nd April

I went jogging in the morning and then we left Melaka, going back to Kuala Lumpur, where Erik had a surprise for me. Today was our 4 years anniversary day, so I was hoping for a decent place to stay and some luxury. We took the train to Putra station in KL and at this time I was getting really excited for my surprise, and at the same time I promised myself not to expect to much, for the fact that I then could get disappointed was a reality.
Erik didn't seem too sure of where we were going, but I think he was playing a trick on me. I followed him and we didn't speak much on the way there, but at some point Erik walked into a very nice looking 5 star hotel. It was even better than I had hoped for, it had a swimmingpool and gym on 11th floor with view over KL and the Petronas Towers. The room we got was huge, clean and comfortable. Definitely not the quality we're use to, so we were enjoying every second of our luxury day. Oh how I love surprises, and Erik is sure good at arranging them.
We ate some delicious Indian food on a restaurant on the street nearby, and had a wonderful night. Putting up with each others weirdness and stupidity for 4 years needed some celebration.

Our 5 star room

The excellent view over Kuala Lumpur

Thursday 3rd April

Took advantage over the gym in the morning. Then we had the biggest and best breakfast ever, the buffet was enormous, and had both western and asian dishes. Ate till we started feeling sick, and to get the full value of the hotel we didn't check out before a minute to 12.
It was very easy to get use to the air-con cooled hotel and the feeling of a civilized world, and we didn't feel like going back to the smoking hot weather outside again.... Well back on the streets it didn't take more than a few minutes before our clothes was sticky and sweaty, so here we was again. We left towards the airport and had a flight to Borneo in the afternoon with Malaysia Airlines... With fingers crossed that we wouldn't get lost somewhere in the big ocean, we entered the flight and luckily we got safely to Kota Kinabalu on Borneo. And actually Malaysian Airlines is a really nice company to travel with, meals and free drinks on all flights more than an hour long, and all flights include 20 kg. of luggage aswell, so in most cases (if you have luggage to check in) this company is cheaper and MUCH better to travel with, compared to the, in most cases, terrible AirAsia!!!

  

Another terrific view from several km height

Malaysia - Island hopping & Trekking in Cameron Highlands

Tuesday 18th March

We reseached about hiking up the highest mountain on Langkawi. All we got from the tourist agencys was: Don't go there it's too dangerous, many snakes and scorpions, steep stairs, easy to get lost etc.
The places where we checked on the internet was something like the same, like it's easy to get lost, make sure you have signal on your cell phone all the time and so on. We found only a few places where people wrote about the hike, but they still made it sound like it was a difficult one, and the start of stairs wasn't easy to find. We wanted to give it a shot anyway, but waited until next day, so we would have enough time to find it and climb it.
This day went by with swimming and relaxing on beautiful Cenang beach.

Cenang Beach, seen from land

Cenang beach, seen from the waterfront

It's hot enough 

Wednesday 19th March

We rented a motorbike in the morning and drove to Gunung (mountain) Raya in the middle of the island. The stairs was a bit hard to find, yeah, but after asking a few people we found them, in the back of a public park. We were actually really concerned and scared after hearing and reading all these dangerous thing about the trek, but the decision was made, we wanted to do it. We could always turn around if it got too dangerous.
The first part of the stairs didn't seem to cause us any problems, it was concrete stairs with handlebars. We slowly realized that this trek wasn't as dangerous as everyone said, I mean we were affraid of coincidentally stepping on snakes, since it's dry season and the stairs were filled with leaves, they could hide under, but other than that the trek was great. We met some craftsmen working on the handlebars, so they were actually maintaining the stairs eventhough no one (except for us) go there. All 4287 steps up was made out of concrete, and most parts had handlebars aswell. So no need to worry.
The view from the 881 meter was amazing, we could see the islands around Langkawi, a really great view. It felt good to have accomplished this hike and I think we enjoyed the view much more than the people who drove up there. Our first plan was to hitchhike down the mountain, but after a while of resting on the top, we decided to walk down the stairs instead. We didn't meet any terrifying animals neighter on the way up or down. Erik saw a giant monitor lizard crossing the stairs, and we heard the loud and weird noises of hornbills flying, but that's pretty much all wildlife we experienced.
We were very satisfied with ourselves and our adventure. We later found out that the reason why all natives think it's a dangerous trek is that it has been closed a few times, cause trees were falling down and had to be removed before the stairs were accessible again. So they heard it was closed, and assumed it was for the fact of toxic animals, or maybe they once heard about a snake was discovered up there and that's why it got closed. They never heard that it was re-opened and approachable.
We felt like we had to tell everyone about our discovery, and did tell a few locals in town about our it. The rest of the day we relaxed and worked on the blog. 

Cows passing by our guesthouse

Mt. Raya informations 

Handlebars are just thrown down the mountain, so you gotta watch out.

Almost there

The spectacular view from the top

The mountain reached 881 meter over sea level

Thursday 20th March

Erik wanted to do the travels to Penang the cheapest and definitely also the most complicated way. So instead of taking a boat straight from Langkawi to Penang (120 ringit - 3 hours), we took a boat to Kuala Perlis, from there a taxi to the busstation, then a bus to Butterworth and then a ferry to Georgetown (73 ringit - 6½ hours).
In Georgetown we quickly found a nice room at 75 Travellers Lodge, although a bit over our budget. We didn't bother walking around to find the perfect place, we both had painfull calfs from the trek the day before. After checking in I went out to look for a cheaper accommodation opportunity for the next day, and quickly found a good deal. I discovered there was ladies night every night at Reggae bar, so I went back and picked up Erik, so we could have some drinks.
We met Tom & Verity again, so we took advantage over the drinks with them. Had en excellent Indian dinner with them, and finished back at Reggae bar. We arranged to meet up the next morning and go for some sightseeing.

Corn in cup.. Yummi

What you shouldn't bring on the ferry to Penang

Street cafe in Georgetown

Charming little taxi

Random chinese building in Georgetown

Friday 21st March

We changed hostel to Stardust on the mainstreet of the city center. Then we met up with Tom & Verity and took the public bus to Kek Lok Si temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia.
It was a little painful to walk, since our muscles still was sore from the trekking. We visitied the botanical gardens, where we saw a lot of different animals we didn't expect to see. We watched giant black squirrels eating fruits from the trees, and saw spectacled leaf monkeys playing and fighting. They look so adorable with their big white eyes, and is much more shy than the kings of the park, the macaques. They're running around freely, and is not scared of humans. Everyone knows that they can get nasty and greedy, when you feed them, but despite that some Indians fed them anyway, and the macaques got nasty and made the family really affraid, by surrounding them and trying to steel their food bags.
In the late afternoon we got back to town, and it was time for some free drinks for the ladies. Met a lot of other travellers and shared stories and experiences during the night.

Tom, Verity & Erik are impressed over the many turtles in front of the temple

Kek Lok Si Temple in full colour

Kek Lok Si Temple

The botanical garden

Clean clothes for only 24 RM

Tom & Erik are having a beer tower at Reggae Bar, while the girls enjoy the free drinks

Penang Wildlife video

 Saturday 22nd March

Again today we went on a tour with Tom & Verity. We visited the national park and went for a walk in the rainforest. For me it was just painful and horrible to walk up and down all the time.
I really didn't enjoy it, and I was starting to feel sick aswell. After 1½ hour we reached the turtle beach where we had a rest for some hours. Fortunately there were a tourists agency who arranged boattrips back to the entrance of the park. I wasn't able to walk back, felt too sick and tired, so we arrranged a boat back.
We arrived in Georgetown around dinner time. Erik, Tom and Verity went out for some delicious Indian chicken tikka masala, and I went straight to bed. I think it was a tropical cocktail of too much alcohol the night before, muscle pain, dehydration and too much sun.

Smelly tropical fruit

Nothing is impossible

Turtle beach

Sunday 23rd March 

We booked a bus to Cameron Highlands and left early in the morning, together with Tom & V.
We enjoyed having some travel partners, and got along very good. We were tired of sticky clothes and humid weather, so we were all looking forward to the highlands, since it would be a lot colder there (around 25 C.). Trekking and visiting local agriculture was on our to-do-list while visiting.
Got to Tanah Rata in the early afternoon. Tom & V. already booked a place at Kangs Travellers Lodge, we asked for availability and considered if we should stay there, or have a look around. I was still feeling a bit sick, so after only checking a few places out, we went back and booked a room at Kangs. Got an even cheaper room than expected, only 35RM (malaysian ringget) with 3 beds, hot water and shared bathroom. Due to the Malaysian holiday, there was a lot of malaysian tourists in this nice and cold area, but where we stayed, only western backpackers. Kangs had a big common area, so most people were hanging out there, and the atmosphere were great.
In the night Erik saved us some money with inviting a 19 year old german girl into our room, she was looking for a place to stay, and there was no rooms left, so instead of letting her walk around the town in the dark, we offered her our spare bed. Went for dinner with her, Tom & V. It got quite cold during the night, and we really enjoyed the normal heat. It felt so good to wear long pants, long-sleeved shirts and prober shoes. Oh yes, you CAN get enough of hot weather and sweaty clothes. Felt great to go to bed and slip down under both a blanket and a sheet. Usually we only sleep with a sheets next to us, but we rarely use it. Cameron Highlands was a perfect escape away from the tropics .

The most comfortable busride ever.. Look at the seat sizes

Monday 24th March

The weather the next 3 days wasn't really good - mostly rain, so since this was the only day with good weather we went trekking. There's lots of numbered trails in the hills surrounding Tanah Rata, so it easy to do the treks without a guide.
We were just the four of us, trekking on trail no. 9 this day. It was a beautiful trail, yet some steep and narrow paths, but it was an excellent adventure. We saw a lot of agriculture plantages and enjoyed the nature. It took us around 2 hours, before we hit the normal road again. Tom & V have travellled in India before we met, so they know all the good Indian specialities, and have introduced us to some of it, this night we were having chicken tikka masala (again), and we simply loved it. Spend some time around the open fire at jungle bar, playing cards and eating roasted marsmellows. A lot of people from the hostel were hanging out around the open fire, and half of all the people, I think we were around 14, were germans. Impressing, and yet a bit scary that the germans are everywhere (don't mention the war!)

Without saying it her body expression says: give me your money you rich european

The worlds happiest girl about the worlds smallest banana

Dirty river that we passed on our trekking

Beautiful surroundings met us at the end of the trail

Mountain agriculture

Indian chicken tikka 

Tuesday 25th March

Consider the weather conditions it was most clever to do some trekking again today. The weather forecast changed, so today was another great day.
We went on trail no. 1, which should be the most challenging and beautiful trail to do. It was raising 475 meters, so when we reached the top we were a bit over 2000m. The trail was pretty awesome, very fertile and beautiful with all its roots and moss. And the view from the top was stunning. The way down was breathtaking aswell, every hill was covered with tea plantations, and the view was really amazing. We hitchhiked and got a ride home from a malaysian guy. Luckily all four of us fitted in the back of his pick-up truck. Just another great adventure day had passed. We were all knackered when we arrived at the lodge again.
The night went by with relaxation in the common area and a bit of blog writing/working.

Mossy forest trail

Just loved walking in this nature

Just can't get enough of this view

Inappropiate.. Naaah..!!

Neat tea plantations

More tea

Happy people getting a ride

Trekking in Cameron Highlands video

 Wednesday 26th March

It was time to rest, and the day went by with chilling at the hostel. We tried the special and famous strawberry scone, and had chinese hot pot at night. All together with our british friends. We arranged a bus to Kuala Lumpur the following morning.

Cake time

Chinese hotpot