Malaysia Trip (Oct. 2 ~ 6)

I have gotten so far behind on my weekly blogs, that I decided to catch up by lumping all of October into a couple of posts.  So here goes . . .

I arrived back in China on October 1--just in time to head off to Tioman Island/Malaysia for a short vacation with Donn, Jenny and Lim.  We did some great snorkeling and then some terrible deep-sea fishing.

There were several types of travel to actually get to the island.  Our Suzhou driver, Mr. Chung, drove us to Shanghai.  From there, we hoped on an airplane and flew into Kuala Lumpur Airport in Malaysia.  We stayed the night at the Holiday Inn and then off to the airport for an early flight on Berjaya Air.   Once we landed on Tioman Island, we had to take a shuttle to get to the resort.  It was an awesome resort.

We had some amazing food there at a street vendor. 

The resort.  Saw lots of monkeys and lizards.  Not to mention beautiful sandy beaches and gorgeous sunsets.

We had monkeys right outside in our courtyard.  In fact, there was a warning on the door to make sure you closed your door and windows at night or you might have a monkey visit you.  They were a little scarey.  Especially the couple that tried to chase me when I ran out of food to feed them.

And now for the story about our deep-sea fishing trip . . .

Donn and Lim wanted to do a deep-sea fishing expedition in hopes that they could catch something spectacular.  I decided that I would tag along for the fun.  The boat was late and when it finally showed up it was a small little motorboat.  Totally different from the last time we went deep-sea fishing.  In fact, if we had caught anything bigger than a pound, we would have been pulled right off the boat.

Anyway, the guide took us out a ways and we started fishing.  We fished for about an half and hour and we didn't even get a bite.  So the guide took us further out into the ocean.  We traveled about an hour.  We fished a little more and the guide and Lim each caught a small fish.   The guide decided that would head back, but he said he was feeling a little sick, so needed to stop on another island.  He parked the boat and off he went into the woods.  We figured he'd be gone for just a few minutes.  Over an hour and half later he came back.  I think he had meant up with someone and they went off and did some drugs cuz he was really strange when he came back.  He kept singing to himself and waving his arms around like he was leading music.

He started the boat up and started adding gasoline through a hose and a gas can.  Big waves started washing over the back of the boat and knocked the gas can down and the gas spilled all over the boat.  The guide tried to start the boat, but water must have got in the engine because it wouldn't start.  He pulled everything apart and he finally got the engine going again.  So off we went towards the island.  He decided to stop again and try again.  After about an hour, we decided it was time to head home.  This time the guide couldn't get the boat started so here we are out in the middle of the ocean with a guide wasted on drugs and a boat that didn't work.  I was very scared.  Lim asked the guide if he had a cell phone.  He said no.  When we asked him how we were going to get rescued, he told us that eventually someone would come looking for us.  Fortunately for us, Lim had a cell phone and the guide called someone to come and rescue us.  It was a very long day, and I may never go deep-sea fishing again.  Even though this was a bad experience, it makes a great story.  Especially once we got back safely.

We also had a chance to visit a little bit of Kuala Lumpur.  Famous there are the Petronas Towers from the Mission Impossible movie.  We also shopped at a very high end mall.  I felt like I was on Rodeo Drive in California.

Petronas Towers and a picture of our hotel at the Ascott.

While shopping in one of the black markets, we found a great spa ~ they are fish that are breed in Japan and trained to eat the dead skin off of your feet.  It felt so weird at first, ticklish, but annoying at the same time.  At the end, it actually felt really good.  I am totally looking for a place like that in Suzhou.