5 days in Malaysia

Right now, we are on a bus that's leaving Singapore, heading North on a 13 hour road trip to the N. East coast of Malaysia. Our destination is a city called Kuala Terengganu. From here, a quick powerboat ride can take us to over a dozen secluded tropical islands, including Palau Tioman and the Perhentians. These islands are known for being the breeding grounds of endangered sea turtles, and it's suspected to be the resting grounds of stashed gold and stolen jewelry that was abandoned here by pirates centuries ago... Both Simone and I are PADI scuba certified, so we plan on renting our own diving equipment and jumping off a boat to explore the underwater world in search of marine life and buried treasure.

Scuba Simi- Always ready for action

... And I like to go with the flow

 *Update: While crossing the border at the Malaysia/Singapore Immigration checkpoint, I was almost abandoned at the crossing- on the Malaysian side. If it weren't for Simones persistence and powerful speech to the driver about respect and common courtesy, I would have been left there for certain... with all my belongings on the bus.

... but we made it, and the adventure continues...

 Coastal Malaysia is a very tranquil and tropical location. Full of beautiful beaches and landscapes with exotic animals and rare wildlife that can be seen in their natural habitat. 

Rarely a single person on the beach here, it's a great place to go if you like privacy

As visually appealing as it may be, Malaysia is not the place to visit if you are interested in healthy eating while on vacation. MSG is in everything- I wouldn't be surprised if there was MSG in household products like hand lotion or even laundry detergent. Its been on every menu and food ingredient label that I've seen since arriving here. The other major issue is that the service here is not flexible. Substitutions or modifications to an order will be ignored or become miscommunicated, so don't bother asking for a custom dinner- because if its not exactly as described on the menu, you cant have it. Just point to a picture on the menu to make your order. You'll get exactly what you see in the photo- flies and ants included. 
Dinner on the island can be quite good, you just have to select the right location. Almost every establishment along stretches of a beach will offer a coconut wood grill which they fire-up nightly at 7pm. Seafood is displayed either on tables or in canoes (seriously) and its quite a sight to see- very similar to a marketplace layout. You can have an entire 3lb Red Snapper with a salad, white rice (brown rice is not an option) and fresh fruit, all for less than 5$ U.S.

 Tip: Search for the restaurant that displays their seafood on a bed of ice. Since arriving in Asia, I have come to peace with the fact that natural eggs do not need to be refrigerated. That was a tough one for me. However, I am at a loss for words when I pass displays that are simply layed out on a wooden table in 80+ degree heat for hours, featuring chicken, beef, shellfish and fresh caught fish.  One evening, after passing a 3rd seafood restaurant that displayed its 'catch of the day' as if it were a used book sale, we arrived at our favorite safe-spot at the end of the beach.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any crazier than what I just witnessed, our waitress took our order and proceeded to blow my mind.

Waitress: (To Simone)  "How would you like your chicken cooked? Medium, Rare, or Well-Done?"

Simone: "Um, cooked like a REGULAR chicken... You can have a chicken cooked rare?"

Waitress: "Oh yes! Or medium if you prefer"

Simone: "I'd like mine cooked like a normal, safe to eat chicken. Not rare at all- fully cooked please"

That really happened. If i wasn't there, I would not believe it myself

so....

Breakfast for me everyday here is 1tbs of Maunka honey, about a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, a bowl of watermelon, and a coffee (or 3) ... Malaysian coffee, prepared correctly, is world class.

Lunch is vegetables and a Malaysian version of Thailands famous Tom Yum soup, and dinner is grilled fish, salad and rice. (kingfish, red snapper or dorado has been the best choice this trip)

I have not eaten meat, except fish, for a good portion of this Asian adventure (sorry Sanjay;)... And now its decidedly my diet of choice. I've seen too many locals and tourists with parasites and food poisoning from cross-contamination and improper food storage- my body doesn't have any vacancies for an Amoeba to call home. Plus, I had a special moment of clarity while driving the streets of Bali, behind a motorbike transporting baby pigs to their certain death. I feel it's best to keep my diet as un-denatured and light as possible, and always (where possible) organic. Maybe in a couple years I'll have balanced all the time I spent over-consuming animal products and protein supplements in attempt to become un-proportionately muscular. I have no idea of my body weight these days- I haven't stepped on a scale since leaving Los Angeles. I'm guessing that I'm under 165... which is 50lbs less than I weighed during the peak of my lifting days. When I return to Bali, I'll try to find a pic from my earlier years and compare it to now, over 4 years later. These days, my not-so-little younger brother has taken over the title of biggest and strongest Catudal. Well, he's probably always been the strongest;)

Arriving on the jetty at Palau Perhentian, the 'small' island

    



It's now day 4 in Malaysia, this island we are staying on is about 15 miles off the coast, less than an hour from the Thailand border, and about 2hrs from Vietnam and Cambodia. Last night there was a tropical storm that sounded like a war was going on... Lightning and thunder mixed with a heavy rain that felt as if we were standing under a waterfall. Apart from that, the weather has been sun and blue sky all day, every day.


We went scuba diving today...
Simone and I went diving  2 weeks ago in Bali. It was stunning and peaceful- and uneventful. I guess I got spoiled with that being my first deep-dive experience in open water. The conditions were perfect, and we were guided by 2 'Divemasters'- one of whom has been running his own school for over a decade.
 In Malaysia, I learned that there are less strict safety standards for scuba diving. Our boat driver seemed intoxicated, and our guides were both very nice girls, but looked about 16 years old. On the ride out to the dive site, the boat driver knocked over his fuel tank and filled the rear of our boat with gasoline... While he was turning around in circles looking for a solution, our guide declares that we have reached the site and instructs us to gear up. Good, just get me out of this floating time-bomb...  Entering the water using the James Bond-style backwards entry, Simone was the first off the boat. As soon as she hit the water, I noticed that she was rapidly floating away from where we were anchored. Keep in mind that we had taken a 30 minute ride away from the island into the ocean... We were FAR offshore. So now we have Simone in the water getting sucked away by strong current and a boat filled with gasoline. Simone manages to fight the current and swim back to the boat, where the guides call an impromptu group meeting to discuss the logistics of the dive.  Now all of us are in the ocean, and we're clinging to the side of the boat to avoid getting swept away by the current. The plan was to make it to the anchor line and pull ourselves down the rope with our hands, to the ocean floor. Getting underwater was a relief, because this was a surface current and it became only a mild pull at 30ft deep.

Looking upwards while diving is my favorite part. It'sa feeling that you can only truly understand if you've been down past 60'

The rope climb downwards was creepy... every foot deeper became darker and colder and quieter.  

About to reach our depth, one of the girls loses her flipper. We are now at 60' depth, where the current picks up again... She manages to tether her vest to her 'buddy' and they continue the dive with us. Meanwhile, Simone is struggling to maintain a consistent depth, and continues to float towards the surface at a dangerously fast pace. (Going upwards too quickly is the #1 no-no in scuba diving)
Simone has to fight and power-swim just to stay at a safe depth... It turns out that fighting the surface current had used a large supply of her air, making her oxygen tank light, and she was not wearing an appropriately weighted belt for this dive- possibly my fault.
The guide aborts the dive (using panicked hand-signals) and instructs us to follow her to a rock ledge that would become our shelter.
So Simone had to hold onto an underwater coral ledge at 25' while her guide kept her from floating upwards. I did my best to anchor Simone at that depth by using a free hand to grip the rock wall, and Simone gripped my forearm while I deflated my BCD vest to create the heaviest possible weight underwater. After a mandatory 5 minute decompression rest at the 20' depth, we were ready to safely swim to the surface.

Our dive that was scheduled for a 50 minute bottom time ended up lasting only 20 minutes from start to finish- we were all about to run out of air. On board, the driver had managed to bail out most of the gasoline, but the floor still had a layer of slippery petrol residue. After we were all in the relative safety of being out of the ocean, one of the guides exclaimed that she needed a cigarette... Did nobody else realize how dangerous it is to have a fuel leak on a boat??

 The girls looked worried that Simone had a scare underwater, and asked her how she was feeling. Simone replied; "I'm just upset that I couldn't take good pictures of the fish," and scheduled a dive for the next day. It's really hard to scare this girl.... If the boat had caught on fire, she might have been a little worried- maybe.


These picture were taken 3 weeks ago in Bali... there was not much opportunity to snap underwater shots this time... Diving in Malaysia really tested our nerves and our scuba skills.

Getting a close-up on a white-eyed Moray Eel

Exiting the wreck- It was a US cargo ship sunken by a Japanese submarine in WWll

Simone loved being in the middle of things

      
So now we are in a new hotel that has wifi. Our power goes out every 1/2 hour or so, but the Internet connection is solid. Malaysia is beautiful, but the service standards are extremely low. While living in Bali, we came to discover that it was not by any means a clean or sanitary place- but we loved and accepted it because it's peaceful, magical, and very friendly. It's very clear that the Hindu people are content with tourist activity and they are accepting, outgoing and respectful. So far, Malaysia has left us feeling slightly uncomfortable and unwelcomed. Questions and requests go unanswered, polite suggestions and comments are ignored or interpreted as slander, which leads to even more unfriendly interactions. Maybe this sounds worse than it actually is, but the truth is that there is a massive discrepancy in friendliness between local and tourist here in S.E. Asia, when it comes to the Hindu or Muslim dominant regions.

On a lighter note, we have a great adventure coming up. In Bali, we became friends with some very interesting people who have been traveling the world for many years. Sandesh, who has been living mostly in India and Asia for the past 30 years, once traveled on a ship through the Indian ocean all the way down and around to the south Asia seas, living on islands off the Indonesian coasts. The captain whom he lived on board with is now returning to Bali and will be taking Simone and I on his boat, the 'Wanderer V'. This is a classic wooden ship that was built  in New Zealand for the famous world sailor and Author, Eric Hiscock. 
Eric died (on the boat) in 1986. Years later, Ignazio Mannu, who is our captain, purchased the boat for his own adventures and sails as a private chartered captain around the world. We are privileged to have this opportunity, and we will be at sea for 2 weeks as we travel from Bali through the Komodo islands, towards Australia on the Flores Sea.

Simone is concerned about pirates. Being a caring boyfriend, I asked Sandesh if there is any worry of pirates in the seas that we will be sailing. He replied; 'Well, yes, there could always be pirates... But be assured that the man you are sailing with is more of a threat to the pirates than they are to him... The man is crazy-  the ocean has been his home from the time he was 12 years old, you'll be safe with Iggy... He wouldn't let anything happen to the Wanderer V."

We anticipate quite an adventure coming up... This has been a dream for both of us for a long time. I'll keep you posted!

Love and Light to all