The Adventures of Jeremy and Bridget: Tioman to Kuala Lumpur

6/21

Bridget and I got up early this morning to leave Tioman and head to Kuala Lumpur, the capitol of Malaysia. We wanted to get the early ferry from Tioman to Mersing (the port city on mainland Malaysia), which was at 7:30am. We had to be to the jetty 30 minutes early, so we had to get up at 6:15am. Quite a bit earlier than any other day here on Tioman. Anyway, we made it to the jetty in time and got our boarding passes. We were up before breakfast was served at the Swiss Cottage, so we had to eat down by the jetty. But we had some good crepe/omelete kind of things. And instant coffee. :)

Sunrise greeting us as we walked to the jetty

Breakfast!

Anyway, we boarded the ferry at 7:30am, pretty much on time. And then the boat guys dilly dallied until about 8am to actually leave the port. Then we stopped at 3 other cities before heading to Mersing. At the last city, the waves were getting pretty big and when the boat pulled out and turned to heat away from the shore, two big waves hit it broadside. The boat dipped down to the right before rising and tipping to the left. The second time was even more pronounced and half of the boat gasped, thinking we were going to capsize. Anyway, soon we were pounding our way through the waves to Mersing, where Bridget and I were hoping to catch the 10am bus to Kuala Lumpur (affectionately called "KL" by the locals). Unfortunately, we didn't make it to Mersing until 10:30am, so we had to get tickets for the 12:30pm bus and wait around for 2 hours. We got some lunch and played war for awhile (you know, the card game).

The bus showed up around 12:45pm and we all got aboard. The trip was supposed to take between 5 and 6 hours from Mersing to KL. We had plans to meet a friend at 7:30pm at our hostel, so we were hoping it would be closer to 5 hours so we would have time to check in and everything. Well, we were wrong. Our bus rolled into the station at 6:45pm (our driver took a 45 minute stop halfway and another 15 minute stop an hour out). Oh well. Luckily, our hostel was a 15 minute walk from the bus stop, so we made it there a little after 7pm. After waiting to check in, we finally got our room and dropped off our stuff.

As I mentioned above, we had plans to meet a friend at 7:30pm. My adviser at U of M put me in touch with a former student from Malaysia named Andrew, so we had planned to meet up while Bridget and I were in Malaysia. So, he picked us up from our hostel and took us to dinner at a hawker center. A hawker center is kind of like a food court; there a bunch of different stalls with different types of food (also, some of the stalls are open as late as 3am). You order your food and give them your table number and they bring it out to you when it's cooked. So the three of us ordered quite the array of food. Andrew introduced us to some Malaysian food: Satay (meat skewers), Ota Ota (fish meat wrapped and cooked in a leaf), Dim Sum (a variety of meats wrapped in other stuff), and this sugar water with jello bits in it. Anyway, it was quite tasty.

The damage :)

Hawker Center picture 1


Hawker center picture 2

After dinner, Andrew drove us to the city where he works, Putrajaya. He told us that the government essentially built a bunch of buildings in the city to help consolidate alot of the government offices. Andrew works at the Ministry of Science. Anyway, the buildings are really cool. One of the bridges had lights that changed every 15 seconds or so. Pretty neat. Here are some pictures from Putrajaya.