Ko Lanta / Thailand

...beach, breakfast, hammock, books, lunch, beach, sunset, dinner, hammock, books, sleep...

Kuala Lumpur & Taman Negara & Kota Bharu / Malezya

...arrived in KL on Chinese New Year (which also happened to be valentine's day but that of course didn't interest me). Considering the large Chinese population living in KL I was ready for a big celebration, but to my surprise the town was even quiter than usual as most stores were closed and people were at their homes celebrating with their families. Left KL a little dissappointed. My original plan was to head north along the western coast of Malaysia, making a couple of stops along the way and cross over to Thailand. But out of the blue I had the brilliant idea of cutting across the center, visiting a natural park, all the way to the east, where it was supposed to be less westernized and more Malay. So the city boy hit the jungle (and the jungle hit back)...
...I needed to cross the river to get to the waterfall. As I bent down to untie my shoes I noticed a wormlike creature crawling on my sock. Tried to pick it off but it was clinging pretty strongly, gave it a hard pull and got it off but this time it clung to my finger. After a few tries I was able to shake it off. Still not knowing what it was, went back to taking off my shoes and rolling up my panths. The scene I had to face as I rolled up my panths was something out of a horror movie. The stories my friend had told and warnings I had about these creatures suddenly flashed in my memory and instantly I knew I was having my very first encounter with the notorious leeches. There were ten of them clinging to my skin, sucking out my blood, my whole leg below the knee was covered in blood. The red stain covering my panths finally made sense as it was not from a tree trunk or plant I had rubbed against, which was what I had thought all along, but was my very own blood. Started to pull them off my leg while freaking out at the same time. Took off all my clothes, examined them and my body over and over again to make sure I had gotten them all and after half an hour or so I was calm and confident enough to put my clothes back on and move on. I inquired about them from a local guy I came across and he assured me that they were harmless, and were actually "good" for me as they were sucking out the "dirty blood". I decided I was happy with my dirty blood and hoped that they would stay off of me, but were relieved at the same time that I wasn't going to die :) ...
...if there's one thing in Kota Bharu to see it definitely is their market. Markets everywhere are refreshing, energizing and fun, but some of them have a vibe that sets them apart from the rest. And the one in Kota Bharu had that vibe. Situated in an octagonal building with three stories, it contained a great variety of things from squid to toys, from spices to silk dresses. But of course my favorite part was the food court. I think heaven must have a food court just like that one. Beef stews, chicken in different marinates, all sorts of veggies, and best of all the seafood. Crabs, squids, fish curries and prawns as big as a lobster, yummmmyyyy indeed...

Bali Island / Indonesia

...had to spend a couple of days in Kuta before meeting my friend with whom I had met in Malaysia while couchsurfing the same house and had agreed on meeting in Indonesia. The city was infested with surfers from all over the world (mainly Australia) and clubs. Every three meters (ten ft) you either got offered a massage, taxi ride or a woman. Needless to say it wasn't my favorite place to be in. For some odd reason I decided to pick up my friend from the airport with a scooter. It would have been fine except that the scooter had manual gears, which was something I wasn't used to, so it kept dying on me, my friend had a broken arm in a cast, and a huge backpack. It definitely wasn't the smartest idea but thanks to her positive attitude turned out to be a fine ride...
...she came up with the brilliant idea of renting a car and having a road trip, so we shopped around a little bit and settled on one of the finest vehicles ever produced, known to humanity by its well deserved name of "Super Jimmy". The body resembled a classic Jeep and that was all the resemblance there was. It looked old, in fact was old, and sure enough ran like an old car with all the roughness and grunginess...
...sate (satay), which basically is meat on skewers, was my favorite food in Bali. This simple street food is prepared by marinating meat, pork or fish in peanut sauce and cooking it over a grill. Green bean ice cream was another pleasantly different thing we tried. And we were also very fond of our whisky with iced green tea for the evenings...
...despite having a car we didn't do much driving around. Our longest stop was in Ubud, which seemed like a playground for rich hippies with all of its fancy shops and restaurants with a mystic touch (here mystic describes the false, deceiving atmosphere created and sought after by the modern day hippies that commercializes the ideas and serves them on a golden tray to their comfort and pleasure). Another stop was a coastal town called Amed. There I had my best snorkeling experience to date with an endless variety of fish in an infinite spectrum of colors. My friend kept mentioning how happy I looked every time I came out of the water, and she sure was right...

Jogjakarta / Java Island

Spared a week to Java, planned out where to go. Didn't consider one thing, when two Turks meet what may be happening. Started off as a day or two visit to a friend's house, we stayed up every night slept 'till the twilight; went to pool and cinema, got a massage and into the sauna; drank alcohol like it's mother's milk, got into a barfight for the heck of it; both the music and breakfasts had to be Turkish, backgammon was played with bliss; Indonesial girl beat me at strip poker, was hardly able to keep on my boxer. Departure date was postponed everyday, therefore had to cancel Java plans and head to Bali right away...