17th-26th August
This part feels like a milestone in my trip, I guess I am around a quarter of the way through it so it fits in quite nicely. I arrived back from Taman Negara and spent one last night in the same hostel in the uninspiring Jerantut (very friendly desk guy but the high pitched drama queen in him overpowered any kind of charm) before catching a bus back to KL. It’s a shame about Jerantut; location must have offered the potential of being more than a stopover town but the rundown buildings, tired shops, bad hostels and suspicious staff on appalling wages (£3 a day) drain the place of any kind of vibe. When I said I would stopover for a night en route to KL, an agent in Taman Negara said ‘why? It is a nothing town’ – sadly, they seemed to have been right. But on a more positive note, it can be nice to have some down time in a place that offers nothing more, after all, there is no guilt associated with lying around when that’s the town’s best attraction and I got time to reorganise my bag, refresh my body and congratulate myself on returning soundly from the jungle.
Back in KL and I’m only 2 weeks from the next leg of my round the world ticket so I make some slow decisions and wait patiently for 5pm so I can phone Trailfinders in London to reorganise my flights – only to find out that I need to phone the KL branch of Qantas instead and it’s now closed. The next day, £100 later and I’m all set for arriving into Sydney, flying out of Brisbane, spending Christmas in Auckland and partying January away in LA before flying back to Heathrow in May. Everything in between will be decided...um, in between I guess!
Gladly, I get around to finally visiting the sky tower and also having a long overdue sushi dinner with a uni friend, Rozanna, which leads to a lovely invite for Kelvin and I to meet her family and break-fast with them on the first day of Ramadan. The rest of the week is sweetly normal, at least in a ladies-who-lunch sense. I do my laundry, enjoy the view, tidy up a little, wander around the city, shop, drink far too much on a Friday, and catch up on emails and all of that. Basically, I recharge but sadly, this is my last time here and the last night comes round all too quickly. Sue arrives back from a couple of weeks at home and after I’ve packed and won an online bid on a pair of 4 inch stilettos (priorities people!), we have a rain free BBQ on the balcony and watch one of the best sunsets I’ve seen so far. I wave goodbye to Sue and Kelvin at 7am the next morning and head out of beautiful KL’s maze (no airport confusion on the way out!) for my flight to Chiang Mai.
Job done.Ps I think this would be a good time to say a massive heartfelt thank you to
Sue and Kelvin whose beautiful apartment and amazing hospitality has been a godsend on my backpacking trip round the world. It’s been a lot of fun and definitely one of the best secrets I’ve ever had to keep! ;)
