Leeches, and leeches and leeches, oh my!

Well, they do say that in nature its 'survival of the fitest', and now Carla and I know that that's the truth first hand:

After a lovely few days spent in the paradise that is Palau Keci in the Perentian Islands off the east coast of Malaysia, Carla and I got a bit off track of our nice relaxing travel/holiday. In the Perentians, we lounged on the perfect beach, with perfect white sand, and perfect clear tuquiose water which was just the right depth, and Carla got another perfect sunburn. We also took a day snorkelling tour of the islands. Amazing! We swam with giant sea turtles, one of which had a baby shark under its belly. I was about a foot away swimming under water with one. We saw gorgeous coral and technicolour fish. I learnt to dive down to take pictures and touched the sticky coral trying to catch the clown fish that live in it. The highlight though by far was Shark Bay.

I, as most of you by now know am not so hot on fish, and sharks, well that's a whole other nightmare for me. Well, at the sound of Shark Bay, I was like "I'll just stay in the boat", but then realising everyone, including the guide was jumping in the water and if Jaws came along and bit that boat in half I'd be alone, well, I pulled on my flippers and jumped in. I swam right beside our guide, never leaving his side, and when we saw a black-tipped reef shark, the size of me (gulp) and his slightly smaller friend, I found myself swimming fast towards them camera in hand.

As soon as I realised that these sharks were swimming away from us, and not circling around (I spent a lot of time looking over my shoulder) loking for an easy meal, I became so comfortable. We saw about five sharks in the bay. It was very cool. We saw another in the coral gardens, and I'm now ready to buy my own fins and take up snorkeling as a competitive sport!

So after our time on Keci, we took two days trying to negotiate the public transport system to get us into Taman Negara. It is a national Park and Rainforest. 130 million years old. It was gorgeous. We took a three hour boat ride in and then found our overpriced dorm room in the local village.

Being the adventurous types that we are (ha!), Carla and I decided it was time to get athletic and do a trek. We also found that if we did it ourselves, without a guide, we could spend two days, one night in the jungle and pay an 8th of what the tour companies charged. So as we were stalking up on suplies, and a bit nervous to sleep alone in the jungle hide, a building with 12 wooden bunks 3 storeys up and 11kms into the jungle which overlooks a natural salt lick. ie good animal spotting, we met a Spaniard looking for some travel advice. We were hoping to find a boy to come along and kill the spiders, and well, David became that boy. Although it did turn out that he was more afraid of the spiders than we were, he was still great to have along.

The trek was suposed to take us 5 to 6 hours, we took "the easy way" and left plenty of sunlight at the end of the day to get settled. They had also told us that there were some leeches on the ground (no big deal), so we bought some "leech spary" and off we went.

The day turned into a horror movie. It felt like we were being stalked on an endless chain of muddy paths by super-human leeches. They can apparently feel the vibrations in the ground of you coming 2kms away! So they prepare themselves, climbing shrubs and hiding beneath leaves on the path to stand on their hind legs and jump onto your feet as you pass. hey can crawl right through your socks, and the shoelace holes in your runners. It was insane! I saw them leap for Carla and she faught her way thru the endless spider webs that covered the paths. There were fallen trees and giant milipedes, and razor sharp vines and palm trees covered in spikes. We couldn't even stop for lunch, because as soon as you stop you are covered in leeches. We ate a box of cookies as we walked as fast as we could for 5 hours. When we finally met a couple coming from the same hide who said they had been walking for 3 hours!! We thought we were so close. It gutted us...no more optimism at this point, we were exhausted.

But we trecked on, only thinking we were lost only once and without a compass, or cell phone, or emergency anti leech blanket (i wish)! We finally got to the hide before dark, 8 hours after we left and joined another couple for some wildlife observation. And I never realised it was possible for girls to smell so bad! It was like hockey season and we were wearing our warm up gear for the eith practice in a row kinda smell....horrible. The air was so humid and damp...yuck! We sat for hours the 5 of us in front of a tiny window, and it felt like we were watching a really boring movie. We did see a Tapir though: a rhinocerous looking animal, half black, half white, with soft fur and an anteater nose...really strange. And as the sun went down the forest animals came out in an amazing chorus.

They had informed us to keep our food tied to the ceiling to avoid the rats. Well when I found a tiny feild mouse munching on our biscuts I didn't mid, he was cute...that was until he told his giant rat friends! We had atleast three domestic cat sized rats in the hut. It was bad enough when they were eating all our breakfast on the ceiling beams, so very loudly. It was another when they started running across the floor, and my bed!!! in the middle of the night looking for more food...greedy bastards! I ''slept" with a blanket over my head, zipped into my sleeping bag, sweating my ass off, flashlight in hand all night. They stole and candle and played the drums on out tin roof all night! that is until the rains came. Then there were bats flying above my head....great.

We headed out in the morning for our treck back to the boat that was to pick us up 45 mins out through the muddy hills and leech infested forest once again, with nothing but a chocolate bar to share for breakfast.

Things did get better as we burned the final leeches off our skin and cleaned out our shoes to do a 500 meter canopy walk 40 meters above ground. So scary! And so cool!

We made it back to the park on our wooden longboat through the river rapids with just enough time to eat and have the best cold shower of my life at the campsite before catching the boat out of the park and back into civilization again. So here we are, slightly wounded, and slightly traumatized, but proud of ourselves, and left with a great story in the end.

We leave on the midnight train to Kuala Lumpur to start another adventure tomorrow. Wish us luck...

R

Happy Father's Day

As we haven't yet figured out the phones in Malaysia, and my dad has yet to figure out this whole "computer thing" will someone please tell my father I said Happy Father's day and that I love him and miss him and I promise to send him a treat!
We just spent an amazing three days on the Perenthian Islands and we're now off to Taman Negara for a few nights to trek into the jungle, we likely won't have internet access so if you don't hear from us for a few days don't worry (mom's, that means you). We'll be sure to update as soon as we get to Kuala Lumpur. Until then......
Miss you all,
Carla

Random photos from the last couple months. enjoy!

Sawadee ka from McDonalds in Bangkok
Elephant riding in Pai, northern Thailand.
Bowling with Andrew and Paul in the capitol of Laos, Vientiene.
Chiang Mai, Thailand...Carla, always breaking the rules.
Grgeous freash water pools in Luang Prabang, Laos. We swam and jumped off the waterfall all day.

Leaving Thailand

So Carla and I are still in Krabi. We managed against all good intentions to stay out last night intil 5am and were promtly woken up by drilling in our hotel at 9:30 this am. I was steaming as the lady at the desk promised the paint fumes would not waft up the stairs until 11am. She didn't say anything about drilling!! So we're working hard getting pics up for you all today and have discovered "paradise island" in Malaysia and will go on a two day mission to get down there, leaving tomorrow am. We have resolved to put our pics up on ofoto, as our site isn't fast enough to upload them, so we will be sending you all invites to view them. If by chance you don't get one, let us know thru email or comments and we'll pass them along. It's possible we don't have everyones email adresses. So I hope everyone checks them out, as I am torturing Carla right now making her write captions and actually sit at a computer for more than 20 minutes.

So wish us luck on our way to Malaysia and we will send you an update upon arrival...

-R

Rebutle

hey know it all's and moms,

Just like to clear something up on the 'fever' front: Carla and I did have some Ibprofen that she was taking adamantly for three days to lower her fever (which worked by the way). I did know 110 was too high (cuz she felt warm and looked like she had a sunburn), we just didn't know if it was high enough to start killing brain cells or something (not like we'd notice). And I tried to coax Carla into the shower but the girl was freezing, and seeing as she wasn't lucid there was no arguing with her....

So, we may not have read every med textbook in the world....even though Carla did work at a clinic for a year and I took the babysitting course when I was 12....but whatever, we forget things!!!! so there! You're not perfect either! ha.

The bad sober moments between good drunken times: Ko Phi Phi

Sorry in advance for being a stranger, but we have a plethora of excuses for you from expense, distraction, illness, and most importatntly drunkenness.....

So let's see. Where did we leave off...right Bangkok. Well Mr James went home and Carla and I decided to go get drunk. We took an overnight bus with Erna our new Dutch companion to the Island of PhiPhi. You all know it from "The Beach". It was gorgeous, and there you pay for beauty. Upon arrival we decided that two more days in Thailand just wasn't gonna cut it, and we headed out the next morning on a day long visa-run to Malaysia to stamp in and out and in and out, we went with 4 Vancouver boys and it was hassle free to say the least.

What we've seen of Malaysia so far we like. Good sturdy squatters and everyone says "Canadian: Celine Dion!". I thought if they said "Canadian: Poutine!!!" we'd all get along better, but maybe someday. So we ended up with the four plus four Canadian boys on the mainland overnight and headed to a local packed Thai club. We met up with a couple English boys and drank some buckets and were wishing we knew the words so we could sing along to the live band. Then, they wouldn't sell us a bottle of Vodka so Whiskey it was and I felt like I was doing shots out of my Dad's liquor cabinet (haha..kidding dad...). That was that.

Paul, one of our London friends got out of the club and tossed his shoes..he said they weren't comfy, I said "what are you a nubee? trying to get in touch with nature in Thailand?" he proceeded to buy that bottle of vodka at the store and the party went back to the hotel. Needless to say we missed our boat in the morning, but luckily just made the afternoon boat, and met Paul and Hue hung over at the pier. We got on the island and decided to prove our youth and stamina and drink our faces off yet again. Which was hard not to do with these two as they were on a short week long vaca, with the mission to party. And so we did. We all stumbled home after dancing up a storm at the Half Moon Party on the beach til who knows what time in the morning.

So we were determined to do something with ourselves the next day, and hired a boat and driver to take us snorkeling to "The Beach", ie Maya Bay. Gorgeous. Limestone cliffs jetting out of the water like nothing I've seen. We tried to snorkel it, but I was so hung over and sea sick that it didn't go well. I tried, and there were some gorgeous fish, but I am still a bit afraid and so that didn't help. I ended up spending most of the time floating on my back and trying not to puke cuz I saw in the movie "Open Water" that it attracts the sharks. Well it didn't work. The bay was too choppy and I threw up a little and swam like hell and was surrounded by thousands of fish. Then swam towards the boat cuz I figured if I could just puke over the side they couldn't get me. I didn't make it and puked a lot more! There were millions of fish...big fish! I was so upset. Funny though at the same time cuz just then Paul and Hue came over and were like "why are there all these fish here!!! get down there!!! take a picture!!!" and were loving it, as the fish followed me back to the boat nibbling on me. I didn't have the heart to tell them they were swimming in my puke. They were so excited. Sorry guys...didn't want you to find out this way, hope the pictures turned out.

It may take me a while to get back in there. I'm sure you all understand. I started to feel better tho and we went to a private shallow bay and I taught them some cheer stunts. It was fun, and then back to the mainland and off drinking we were again. Went to a Lady-Boy cabaret show at Apache and drank as many 50Bhat shots at Tiger Bar as we could...zambuka baby! Then we were so hot from dancing I had the bright idea to go swimming. But we weren't sure what pool we could sneak into, so we decided to go skinny dipping in the ocean, but the tide was out and ended up 5 miles out in knee deep water surrounded by jagged rocks, being nibbled on by tiny fish. Lovely.

So back to the club we went. Carla was a bit sandy and a bit grumpy, but Hue and I managed to stay out till 5am chatting, and sat under a store awning thru an amazing storm. The thunder lasted ten straight minutes without a break. Awesome.

Anyhow, that was that and we were outta there. The boys flew home and Carla and I took the ferry in the morning for some R&R on Tonsai Beach , but only got as far as Railay, and couldn't get a boat to take us over to this quiet beach, and the tide was high so we couldn't walk. Carla ended up getting a crazy 110 fever that night and we thought she had malaria, and of course its 2 in the morning and were on an island with no doctors, and no phones, and no boats. I had a regulat thermmeter for the weather and we had that stuck under her arm, except neither of us knew when high was too high. I just knew I'd never felt such a warm forehead. And I managed to sprain my finger falling in the dark in our room at the same time and was outta commission for a few days. So we got a nice bungalow, and I sat poolside and read and worked on my tan, and Carla slept. Of course we didn't take a boat to the Hospital the next morning..that would have been too "responsible".

We were in a real jungle kingdom in the middle of this tiny island surrounded by giant limestone cliffs. Suposedly amazing for rock climbing, but that idea went out with the finger. We were woken up every morning at 7:30 am on the dot by a blue-grey monkey with white circles around his eyes and lips...so creepy. It sounded like thunder and scared the crap out of me the first morning as he fought with his reflection in our mirrored picture window. The seccond morning he sat and posed for some poics for me though. There were other monkeys too, including a family of three who were not shy to jump from tree to tree around the pool and scare the unaware sunbathing girls.

So now we are on Ko Lanta at the recomendation of Jeff A for one (thanx man!), and a crappy travel agent for two, whom we blame the most. It being the low season, it just looks like a hurricane blew through and the beach is fierce, although still tons of sun. But there is literally no one here. And I don't mean no one at the bar...I mean no one at all.

So tomorrow we are heading back to the mainland and shuffling between fitting in another Full Moon Party on the 11th in Ko Pangan, or heading to Malaysia...promise to let you all know!

Oh ya, and I am writting with a backdrop of gunfire outside....It's the Kings birthday and its party time. yikes!!

-R