Tales of beige and beyond

Dear All,

Having arrived safe and sound in Kuala Lumpur. Albeit slightly frazzled as the previous entry may hint at. We spent a couple of days exploring its sights and sounds. As our first impressions had suggested it was a clean, modern and fairly quiet city when compared with Dehli. We merrily ventured around its street marvelling at the lack of people. the lack of hassle and the lack of filthiness. However, it soon became apparent that Kuala Lumpur lacked quite a lot and we began to worry that Malaysia was going to provide us with a sanitised travel experience. Dare I say it, after previous statements to the contrary, but we missed India. Come back street hawkers I'll buy your silly pipes, come back rickshaw dirvers I'll let you rip me off; just please take me back to India!! (A main point of interest regarding KL is getting around it. It took a while to grasp that its a very small city and that we were getting trains and taxis a very short and walkable distance. Thus we started to come round to the idea that maybe we should start walking. After all they were such short distances. Wrong!!. Walking in KL is not meant to occur and wishing to move from point A to point B can entail heading via point F, P and U whilst having to negotiate 6 lane highways, railway stations and rivers.)

The plot thinned as we decided to leave KL and head northward to the jungle. An organised bus tour would make life easier and indeed it did. However, we were forced to join the middle aged beige brigade complete with various zippy trousers that allowed them to transform a simple pair of beige trousers into various things: shorts, crap err sorry crop trousers, y-fronts, thongs, scrabble sets etc. Amazing things!

Beige brigade boat bonanza

Thus we bumbled along in complete comfort and with complete ease to catch our boat to the jungle of Taman Negara. Whilst awaiting our jungle transporter we sat on our rucksacks surrounded by various brands of spotless sandal and walking shoes, feeling as if we had mistakingly signed up for a ramble through the Yorkshire dales rather than a trip to the deadly jungle. Although we were both sitting on our sparkly new pairs of walking shoes. However, they were kept well hidden for fear of being tarred with the same beige brush. Although I'm sure we'll be there some day in the future clad in beige with a multitude of zips. It seems to be a natural progression. Although I pray to god that I wouldn't be there wearing matching sonic the hedgehog hats (have you still got those dad??).

Our boat arrived and with it a sense of interest in Malaysia. The 3 hour trip up the river to the heart of the jungle (geographically it may not have been the centre but for a sense of drama please assume that all jungle references refer to its centre, and maybe even complete darkness with a hint of fear) was really worthwhile and a very relaxing way to start our adventure....

Enjoying the River boat trip