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On Tuesday we set out on a 9-hour journey through the beautiful
Malaysian mountains en route to Kuala Terengganu on the eastern coast of
western Malaysia. The coach (bus) was comfortable though the
air conditioner was set too high (a recurring theme throughout Malaysia)
and the bus driver had a CD with Celine Dion set on
“repeat.” The women were dropped off
at the Hotel Grand Continental, while the men checked-in at the Hotel Seri
Hoover. The men, after viewing the
horrendously decrepit state of their hotel quickly ran out to seek beer. Everyone had something uniquely problematic
with their room from broken showers to construction in an adjacent room. For mine, the toilet was broken but I was
able to fix the plumbing myself, the bathroom was completely covered in water,
and I could see 5 layers of paint on the bathtub as it deteriorated paint
chips into the drain before my very eyes.
The next night, 3 of us managed to book the last room at the Hotel
Grand Continental, which was quite grand.
The taxi driver who transferred us to the hotel nearly kidnapped us,
however, taking us on an un-metered, lengthy, roundabout rip-off route to
“avoid the traffic”—at 10:30pm. When
he dropped us off we refused to pay what he demanded and instead gave him
what we felt was fair, which was generous at that.
Up until KT we
had not been terribly pleased with the Malaysian food. Half of the UK contingent suffered food
poisoning and upset stomachs. But the
food turned around after KT. After
touring the Setiu wetland, where we inspected the
water-entrenched mangrove trees and walked among the coconut-riddled grounds
of a lost village, we stopped for a delicious snack of fresh battered
calamari and squid, sweet bananas fried with sugar,
and iced lemon tea. Earlier the locals
chopped the tops off of some coconuts and we drank the cool milk from
within. The dinner that night was a
grand feast (at the Hotel Grand Continental) where the vice-chancellor of
KUSTEM (College
University of Science
& Technology Malaysia) officially welcomed us with gifts and photos were
taken. The local media continued to
follow us around Malaysia
and report on our activities.
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Sleepy
passengers.
The
lovely Hotel Seri Hoover.
No
durian allowed!
We
were seeing ghosts that night.
Malaysian
lunch!
More
food.
Freshly
chopped coconuts.
Exotic
fruit.
On
the way out to the Setiu wetland.
Happy
sailors.
Walking
along the fish farms.
Two
of the workshop coordinators: Azhar and Neil.
On dryland in the wetland.
Setiu
vegetation.
The
spot of a lost village.
View
from Setiu.
Say
Setiu!
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