Category: Travel diaries

Toni started racing everyone with his Honda! Asking me about my religion and making jokes that Christians will kill me! Asked if I would like to have a girl tonight since e knows his ways! We passed by a very small restaurant where Toni ordered for me and taught me how to avoid pork in Cambodian! Hyegenic standards are even lower here than in Malaysia! We had a quick lunch and we headed to the famous temple Angkor Wat for sunset!

It is huge, I spent there a couple of hours and a few hours in the next morning. This is where the events of Tomb Raider take place. Many temples that actually look the same m, style-wise but different in the organization with some characteristics for each!

Angkor Wat:

I finished my tour and NOT taking a lot of pictures then went back to Toni to take my to the hostel. There, I unpacked my stuff and met Pei from Malaysia and Amanda from England. Pei has been traveling around the region for 7 months! After quitting her job. Amanda was a police officer in Manchester and she also quit to go live one year in Australia. I haven’t met anyone who is only traveling for 3 weeks like me! Still good enough for me :)!

We had a BBQ in the hostel and talking about our travels. The number of the stories you hear from travelers provides you with even more experiences than the ones you live yourself! Pei told me about a solo-traveler she met in Thailand. He is from Pakistan, traveling alone. However, he is blind!! Even a blind man is traveling alone in a country not expected to be prepared for handicapped.

I went to bed to resume my activity early in the morning tomorrow!

****

Next morning, Saturday! I am ready earlier than expected I walk the streets looking for breakfast and I see Locals eating noodles, beef, pork etc..  Too early for me! I found a food stall that sells fried bread!

Afterwards I went for coffee and sat in a place where the TV was showing "Cambodia’s got Talent"! What I saw on the TV striked me in tw face! The other side of the country! Faces people see on TV and realize they won’t ever be there! Or even closer! The permanent disappointment in your life! The ceilings to your ambitions since you are born! Again, I remember Egypt a lot!

At 9:30, Chen arrived, another rider that Toni sent instead of him! Younger, 32 years old, slower bike, married with one son! His dream is to go to spain to pratice his Spanish and come back to work as a tourist guide and earn more money for his family!

With his motorbike, Chen took me around the temples, a few hours I spent in different temples and sling photos! Google "Angkor wat, Angkor Thom and Ta prohm".

Around noon, we went for lunch and then decided that I am not going to the floating village! Instead, I asked Chen to take me to one of the poorest neighborhoods of Siem Reap, and he did!

The whole Cambodia trip was inspired by my friend Daniel who showed me some photos that touched me! I wanted to see this poverty with my own eyes! I believe it is a good practice to see other people’s difficulties and appreciate what I have. However, the scenes were more touching than expected!

Chen took me back to the hostel, I was supposed to rest a little then go for dinner and then take the bus to Phnom Penh! This would have happened if I didn’t have "Happy Pizza" for dinner!

TBC!

So it goes! Woke up early and checked out! Mansour picked me up with his mini-bus and drove me to te airport. Explained to me that this whole region was floode in tsunami in 2004! And that the government funded the rebuild by half. If you want to build a house, they pay half. Then he told me about the behavior of some arabic tourists, specially the Saudis. Well, more specifically from Riyadh and Dammam! That they were arrogant and not friendly!

I flew first to Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian airlines! I don’t believe in superstitions 😉 the view of Langkawi from the sky is amazing! 

Luckily we flew over the beach where o was swimming yesterday! Managed to take a photo:

From Kuala Lumpur, I flew to Siem Reap with AirAsia, a low cost airline. Things started to look like The Middle East in the flight already. Three forms to fill! One for the immigration office, one for the customs, and one practically for Ebola!

When we landed in the basic airport of Siem Reap, and we walked to the terminal, a fourth form for the application for the visa was waiting for me! I withdrew 200 USD to pay the 30 dollars fees. Filled the form and handed it in. When they saw my form and password, it was sent to a different officer who asked me to follow him out of the queue! Started asking me all the usual questions. Where do you stay, how long? Why? Do you have enough money? I said i have 200 USD and credit cards. He wanted to see the cards, my stay permit in Germany. How much money is the limit in each card. Then to insure I have money, he asked me to withdraw another $250! So I did. Went back to him after he made another phone call. Then asked me to withdraw another $250. WTF, man? It is Cambodia for 4 days! He wanted to ensure that I have money to cover my stay. In a country where you can find a hostel for 2 USD.

They finally gave me the visa! I proceeded to the immigration office and the officer asked me, who is coming with you? I said I am coming alone! She first looked at me In surprise. I read in her face: "People from your country don’t come here alone for backpacking" she actually repeated the question two more times in different occasions. And finally shouted at someone in Cambodian in surprise. I only picked the word "Egypt". Wasn’t a rocket science to know she was talking about me!

Phewww. Visa is a big word in the life of anyone with a "lovely" passport. We know how it can change our lives and it actually does!

I changed 50 USD to get Riels. 1 USD is around 4000 Riel! You can do everything in Cambodia with dollars though! Outside the airport, I rented a motorbike for 2USD with the rider "Toni" to take me to the downtown, where I can find a hostel!

I checked-in in "Downtown Siem Reap" hostel. 6 beds per room and 6 USD per bed! Cheap! Run by an English man with Malaysian workers. Toni was outside waiting for me, no wasting time! He will take me with him to the Angkor Wat temple. The landmark of Cambodia.  If I buy the ticket for tomorrow, the sunset tonight is included! This is a new nice trick. Let’s goooo Toni! With his Honda, we were faster than tuk-tuk, bikes and even cars! 💨

A night earlier, I discussed with Denim the possibility of renting a scooter. Pretty cheap 30RM per du which is less than 8 euros. I have no experience in riding scooters but that sounded like a great price to get some hands-on experience. I don’t have a license which is a problem for the renting agencies and the local police. Denim lended me his scooter to try it in front of the guesthouse before I risk my life! I rode it back and forth a couple of times to get some confidence and estimate my success rate.

In the morning, I went down to pick up the scooter to hear from Denim that the agency didn’t want to rent the scooter because I don’t have a license. I was disappointed. I can only now rent a bike! 

I started biking towards Cenang beach, around 10 km far. Stopped in the middle for some Malaysian pancakes "Roti Canai" which I really liked and some tea with milk which I loved!

It is impressive that Malaysians can eat meat and chicken and rice for breakfast!

I resumed biking till the beach. It was partly cloudy but still sunny enough to burn me by the end of the day!

I spent the day on the beach. With my polish couchsurfing friend Linka that arrived today from Penang where we met two days earlier. We spent around 10 hours!! swimming, talking, exchanging couchsurfing experiences and talking about travels. Lunch and dinner took their place and time with Laksa, te fish broth, for lunch and beef and rice for dinner.

It was a relaxing day muh needed after the intense week before. I considered a couple of water sports but thought it would be much nicer in a sunny day! Talking to Linka was also interesting and the time passed unnoticed!

At night I biked back to my guesthouse. One hour of biking in the darkness that seemed too stupid of a decision. I have to admit I like these kind of tricky situations that challenge my comfort!

Tomorrow I fly out of Malaysia to Cambodia! Another country.. My knowledge about it before this trip was ZERO!

I could hear the rain out of the window from my top bunk bed in the hostel. Checking the time and listening to the rain and going bad to sleep. I repeated this several times to wake up eventually around noon.

Went to the streets under the light rain to discover the street art in the day light! I first stopped for some Nasi Kandar and fresh juice.  With a map of the major art pieces in my hand, I went around discovering and taking photos: 

Weather is not encouraging, no beach today and no camping! I went back to the hostel and worked a bit on the website and chatted here and there with travelers and guys working in the hostel.

7:30 was another evening of couchsurfing. Stephan and Shelby from Australia. Linka from Poland, Evelina from Lithuania, Abhishek from India and Kla from Penang! We were joined later by Shakira also from the town!

We ate! We ate a lot. Between 7:30 and 11:30, I had "wan tan mee" noodles with shrimps, fried oysters with eggs, and Nasi Kandar (yes! Again) with lamb meat! Drank coconut water from a fresh coconut fruit and had some ice cream with mango and shaves ice! Portions are relative small, which tempts you to eat more and enjoy more! Food was not too spicy in general in Malaysia!

This was my last night in Penang! The group dissolved close to the meeting point and we exchanged contacts. Who knows when will we meet again! I have learnt that couchsurfing is such a small world.

Back in the hostel, I spent sometime booking flights an organizing the Cambodia trip, suffering from the extra money I sacrificed for the sake of not planning my trip in advance!

I went to bed around 4:00am! Tomorrow (Wednesday) I am going o Langkawi!

Somewhere in Langkawi island, in the evening, drinking tea with milk and overhearing (or spying) on a conversation between two English gentlemen talking about the universe. How it started, parallel universes, time and that "definitely" there is life somewhere else. One asks the other: "i wonder if they have music there! How would it sound like?"

A little bit earlier, I had dinner alone! Laksa is the name of the dish. Like many of its Asian peers, it does not look sexy but it tastes fantastic. A mixture of prawns, chicken, egg I think, noodles, in fish broth.

A little bit earlier I went for a short walk on the beach at the sunset time. No one was there since my guesthouse is not so close to where most of the tourists mingle! It was fishermen’s beach. But peaceful. Close by was a beatiful mosque where an imam with nice melodic voice over the speakers added some taste to the beautiful moments.

Writing is the solo-traveler’s companion. If you have seen the movie "into the wild" (which you should see if you haven’t), one of the most important conclusions is:

Before social networks, one had to write a letter or wait to go home and share with family and friends. Now i can share my experiences and feelings and get ready for new ones. However, I still think that experiencing things with a travel partner enriches both parties since two different minds will receive the same input and process it in a different way. I find it always interesting how someone else sees the same thing! It is, however, not an easy matter for two travelers to have similar plans, interests, level of risk taking and spontaneity!

A little bit earlier, I arrived to the guest house where I met denim, Joseph and Johan! They seem to be smart educated people. They are super-friendly and willing to help. It is the emotional-intelligence that is reaches you from these guys. It was interesting that the second question was usually "are you Christian?" After "where are you from?".   The person whom I booked the room from passed away 5 days ago! These guys are running the place now! It is a very cozy place although zero-fancy and spider nets seem to be part of the decoration and does not bother anyone here! The room is very basic.

A little bit earlier I took the "super fast ferry" as they call it. This sounded a bit exaggerating. I don’t know how fast is fast and how fast is super fast. Anyways, for some reason, they played the movie Titanic on board during the trip. I don’t know what is the probability that such a movie was chosen by accident. When we were ashore, they played some music from the 70s an whn we started moving, the word "Titanic" filled the screen to trigger the "are you fucking kidding me?". 

It was cloudy with a bit of rain since the morning, which started by me having another "Nasi Kandar", forgive me for eating the same dish 5 times in three days!

A little bit earlier I checked out from the great hostel couzi-couji. Said bye to "Devin", she seems to be an interesting person but unfortunately we didn’t have time to share. She has a nice sparkle in her eyes that intrigues you to have this person in your life. We will meet around somewhere!

Tomorrow (Thursday 18.12) is my last planned day in Malaysia! In the beautiful island of Langkawi. I am planning a program that includes the beach if the sun stops playing hide and seek!

Sleeping in hostels is not the best. In a room with 10 beds on a highway. I had a free coffe then discussed with Alex how I can help them with the website. Then I took off to the street with a "food map". It has the dishes one should try and the best restaurants that serve them on a map 

I started the day with Nasi kandar, a loal dish of rice, sauces and a choice of chicken, lamb, sea food..etc. it is not a new concept but rather a delicious dish.

 I took it from a food stall beside a big mosque. The number of places to eat gives you the feeling that nobody cooks at home. After the meal I visited the nice mosque:

I resumed walking, without a particular aim. Eventually I wanted to see the Kek Lok Si temple. The biggest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. But thought getting lost in the streets leads you to unexpected events! And it did!

While I was walking, a man shouted from across the street: "Where are you from?" It was obvious to me that he was Egyptian! I was wondering if he managed to know I am Egyptian as well despite all the disguise I had like the hat and the shorts. He didn’t look to be doing well in life. I shouted back at him "where are YOU from?" He said "Egypt" and we started introducing ourselves. He is Nasser, I guess in his early forties. Studies religious studies in Azhar University, a big Islamic university in cairo that attracts students from around the world for Islamic studies. I spent a few hours talking to Nasser and having coffee in one of the narrow streets of Penang where he smoke 3 cigarettes without a pause! Nasser has only his backpack which doesn’t look full! Has been traveling around Malaysia looking for a job as a teacher in any Islamic school. He managed to work twice for one month each. Which pays him enough to live for a few months. He had the face of an unemployed man. A sad disappointed face. Plus a face of a man who left home to look for work and food. Somehow depresses. He sleeps in the mosques during the mornings, the streets, whatever he can get.

Nasser told me a lot about Malaysia and Indonesia since he lived there for a month as well. He told me about how Arab communities are doing here. It was an enriching conversation, however, not really charged with positivity. I saw another kind of traveler today which I don’t see often. A traveler who is trying to live and on his way, he discovers the world. Nasser holds some believes that I dont share with him. I asked to take a photo with him and he refused politely. I asked him if he thinks that taking photos is a sin and he said "yes". I greeted him to leave telling him that I am heading o he temple. He said "why don’t you visit the mosque instead?" He said that visiting temples is not allowed and that te prophet Abraham destroyed the idols. I expressed my disagreement in both topics and greeted him and wished him best of luck. Then I went to the temple!

7:30 was the meeting time with a small group of couchsurfers to have dinner and take a walk afterwards. Kla, a local member took us to one of his favorite restaurants and we had a great meal with nice conversations. Beside both of us, there was an Australian couple, a polish girl, a polish guy and a local Malaysian girl who studied medicine in Russia! After the dinner, Kla took us for a walk around the secret spots of the city. Penang is famous of its street art mainly done by a Lithuanian artist two years ago. I was impressed by how one person can boost the tourism and economy of one city alone!

Went back to the hostel around 11:30 where I spent around two hours with Alex working on the website. It was a long day. Meeting Nasser left me with both a bit of sadness and appreciation of what I have. I will always remember his words that unemployment kills you slowly. After sometime, you can’t work anymore. If I ever end up unemployed, I should volunteer at least for the sake of work. To maintain my ability to live!

I thanked God and went to bed.

I believe there is a 10 percent success rate in anything you do in mass number. You send 10 couchsurfing requests, usually one accepts! The percentage goes higher if you are a blond hot girl. Goes down if you are an Arab guy!

Alex accepted to host me in Georgetown, a city in Penang island. But since he is running a hostel there, he offered to host me in exchange for some help in their hostel website! He read on my profile that this is something I can help with. I accepted. And will go there tonight!

I woke up relatively late today (Sunday)! Around 10:30. My body recovered all the sleep it missed in the passed few days. I packed my stuff and left the room towards the station. On the way, I stopped for a quick traditional "Roti" which I ordered twice since it was delicious and cheap. Along with pineapple juice. Plus coffee as well. This whole meal costed 6RM. Around a euro and a half. But it was a very non-touristic place under the bridge!

Immediately beside the shop, I found a traditional shoe "clinic" as he calls himself! Since my left shoe was hungry (sole was starting to separate at the front of the shoe, he fixed it for me for 3RM.

I headed to the station and booked the train to Georgetown. Then went for some lunch. They serve you these interesting drinks with jelly pieces inside! So you get the drink with a spoon to pick them up. Some pieces of fruits as well.

The rest of the day was on the train. Between sleeping, reading and eating.

In Georgetown, I went directly to the hostel "cousi-couji" a cozy place where I met a few travelers. One of them was "Aladdin" from Algeria! Which was funny enough after visiting Putrajaya. I chatted a lot with Aladdin. He told me about his experience in the island. He camped here for 3 nights and shared with me all the details on how to do this. Monkey beach, turtles beach, the Forrest, and other adventures. I already started thinking about trying out! Maybe I stay here for longer than the intended two days!

He disappointed me by the fact that I can’t swim in this island because of the jellyfish! Same is in Langkawi my next destination! Now I am really thinking about going to Cambodia for a couple of days. Let’s see.

Aladdin leaves the next day. I have absorbed everything he said about the camping. He left me a bag of noodles that are easy to prepare for camping! Now I have one item for the task!

The hostel where I am staying is a party hostel. They say "sleeping is a bit above average!" But we are a party place! It is number 13 in world’s party hostels! LOL. I also received a message from some local couchsurfer that welcomed me and invited me to join a couchsurfers dinner tomorrow!

Penang is paradise of food! And this is why I came here! To eat, eat and eat! I will be probably posting more photos of food in the next couple of days!

Bon apetit!

The train from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya is fast. 20 minutes only and you are there, the newly built city to be the government’s new home! Nobody seemed excited to go there with me. Because it is not old, not traditional maybe not dirty.

I arrived at the train station. As usually happens, I see some kiosk selling some new sort of food that is very cheap so I stop and eat. I thank God I walk a lot, otherwise I would come back rolling like a ball.

It started raining. I felt stuck in the station and thought I should wait for the rain to clear. Meanwhile, I checked the map and the tourist guide. I got them from the tourist information office a day before when I asked them about remarkable mosques architecture which I am interested in. They said: "for architecture, go to Putrajaya".

I grew impatient waiting for the rain. Although it looked heavy, I decided to take a taxi to my first destination, Putra mosque. As soon as the taxi left the station, there was no rain and it was sunny. I looked behind and it was cloudy and raining! It seems that they have here the interesting phenomenon of a very localized rain. It was only raining on the train station! 😀

I heared myself say "WOW" in the taxi. This city is BEAUTIFUL. They just decided to build a beautiful city. With the curvy colored domes, with the designed bridges, every corner in this city is designed. Every corner is beautiful! I went directly to the Putra mosque, it was so beautiful that I decided to go inside and pray!

Some things look better in photos than in reality. Not this mosque and not my photos. I attach this googled photo without shame nor copyrights respect

Since I had shorts, I asked the guy on the gate to give me something to wrap myself in like a tortilla, hehe. He did!

I prayed. It was actually the time of the "Asr" prayer in the mosque, so I joined them. After the prayer I went around the mosque touring it and enjoying its huge space with huge doors and the feeling that this is a well-taken-care-of place.

I stumbled upon a sign that there is a free WIFI in the mosque. I didnt find a reasonable necessity for this!

I left the mosque and close by I could see the new office of the prime minister:

I walked away around the city, singing its name and looking at each corner for patterns of design, motifs and ideas! I found the city to be relatively empty. I was walking alone most of the time!

I walked for hours there. At least 3 hours of walking. Two more interesting buildings I saw, the palace of justice and another mosque in front of it.

The palace:

The mosque was again impressive. Surrounded by water from three sides and with modern design inside. Another Google image showing the mosque and some bridges!

I left the mosque to go back to Kuala Lumpur. Didn’t find a taxi nor a bus because there is a food festival in town. Tempting but I promised Jirka to dine with him!

In Kuala Lumpur I met Jirka and his Malaysian friend Alice. We went to have dinner in the street with chatting and joking. Jirka complains of his extra weight while we try to convince him that he is ok! After dinner we went for fruits and finally I ate mango! So good but not as good as Egyptian mangos!

Alice drove me home where I collapsed sleeping after the long fairytale Putrajaya!

7:00 am I was awake! Even less sleep than yesterday. Found a very early text from another couchsurfer suggesting to visit Batu Cave or waterfalls. I found that I am very close to the caves. Would take me a short 10 minutes taxi ride instead of one hour from the main station. 8:30 I was in the street to grab some breakfast. Pamela, the Ecuadorean couchsurfer, decided she will tour the city. I took a taxi to the cave!

It is a cluster of three limestone caves. Inside the cave there is a temple and is reached by long stairs of 270 steps. At the foot of the stairs, a huge golden statue of "Lord Muruga" stands with a very shiny and kitschy yellow color. 

It is a Hindu temple with many people inside praying and getting some kind of blessings. On the stairs up, you find monkeys jumping all over the place.

Even inside the temple that is located in the heart of the cave. The last cave is with an open ceiling and looks gorgeous.

In this last cave, monkeys were jumping all around the place. I don’t remember when was the last time I saw so many monkeys. Observing them strikes you with how good they use their hands. While I was lost in my thoughts about evolution, origin of humans and religions, two disrespectful horny monkeys started banging each other in the temple! I smiled widely with the dispersion of all my thoughts! It was interesting to watch all the Hindu rituals performed there!

It was a fast visit, by around 12:30 I was done and back to the city! Stopped in one of the too-many shopping malls to cool down and escape the heat. There I had a lovely peace of lamb meet for lunch, bought a swimming short to risk my life again in different islands/beaches in the next few days!

Now off to Putrajaya!

It is confusing that Malaysians drive on the other side of the road! In cars also. And since I have not been to the UK yet, my brain couldn’t map this new bit of information easily. While crossing the street, I keep looking at the wrong side and was almost hit a few times. Felt a bit like an idiot!

I proceeded with checking the central market. A bazar that has a lot of crafts and interesting items. I resisted buying a lot of cheap interesting stuff like wood work and pieces of art and decorations. 

I appreciate crafts… I feel that the time required plus the attention given by the craftsman give the object its soul. After walking, I needed to refreshen a bit. I ordered "white coffee" Which is surprisingly coffee with milk! 😀 plus a sweet that looked delicious in the menu called "Gendol" or something like this. When it arrived, it looked very disgusting! 

It has these green noodles that move like worms everytime you put the spoon. It also has beans. First time for me to have beans in sweet. When the ice coffe underneath melted, these green worms looked like swimming in brown diarrhea. Despite all these horrible thoughts, the taste was actually good enogh to overcome the visual signal! I ate the sweet to the last bit!

I left the central market to check the national mosque. A big construction that is nice but not impressive. However, cleanliness and care are obvious in many places you see on Malaysia.

I contacted Jirka again and agreed to meet in the KL tower.

I arrived there sweating from every inch in my body. But the view up there was worth it. My phone was out of battery so  i didn’t take photos. But Jirka who was there already did and will send me later! We started discussing. Our impressions about the city. Too big for him. He says the optimum size for a city is 100,000 inhabitants. I asked him, per what area!? He said "the reasonable.. The reasonable European standards". I cracked making jokes about his "European standards".. We had an interesting conversation about Russia and the current situation regarding Crimea! He had to leave.. I stayed a bit more watching the city from the top and relaxing a bit! Then started the way back home. The mission is to take an urgent shower to recover my self-respect. I got lost in the metro since I was misguided by some super-intelligent worker.

At home, I rested a bit. Was supposed to join around 30 couchsurfers for dinner but was too tired to go there on time. Decided to rest more, then eat something in the neighborhood which is very typical anyway! I Found a restaurant with a lot of chairs and tables. All the restaurants in the neighborhood are only outside. No seats inside! I asked them "till when are you open?" They said "we never close"! The restaurant works 24/7. Impressive. I ordered mango juice. He said "big?" I thought "who knows when will be the next time I drink a fresh mango juice!"and agreed. He brought me later one liter of mango in a huge glass that looked like German bear glasses! My kidney spoke to me!

Had my dinner and juice and went home in peace. Need to grab some sleep before tomorrow. I spontaneously decided to go to "Putrajaya". Let’s see 😉