Sunday, June 22, 2008

Visa Run...Success!

Whew. After partying, puking all day, and sleeping on the most uncomfortable bed ever for 3 nights, I was ready for a shower and a comfy bed. Oh, by the way, we found out that our visas had expired a day sooner than we thought, so we needed to get the hell outta Dodge! We booked our flight to Malaysia a few weeks earlier and had neglected to realize that our 30 days was up on the 19th, not the 20th. Whoops. Nothing a little $20 can't fix. It turned out to be no problem at all. I did have my doubts though...

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia early on Friday morning. After a shower and a nap, we jumped on the Monorail for a great view of the city. KL boasts that they are home to some of Asias biggest things. The twin towers of KL were the biggest in the world at the time of completion in 1980 and they have the biggest mall I have ever seen. We spent all day on Saturday in the mall and didn't buy anything except food, Imax tickets and candy!) The thing has 10 floors, an indoor theme park complete with roller coaster, and the biggest movie theater in SE Asia. KL is a pretty upscale, really clean city that is competing with Singapore for the titles of biggest, strongest and best in Asia. There is a large Indian population there as well, which made for some interesting meals as well.

Though KL was a quick stop-over in order to renew our visas, I'm glad i got to check it out. It served as a good contrast to the experience that we are about to embark on...10 days in the jungle as far away from civilization as you can get in Indonesia.

Tomorrow we head out on the over-night boat to the Mentawai Islands, which are just off the coast of West Sumatra from Padang. We have organized a 10 day trek with Ed (from Bukittingi) who has been taking tourists there for years, and has a wife there as well. He claims that it is the most remote trek we will ever do, no matter where we travel in the world, and I believe him. I can't wait to see what the next 10 days brings. I've read reviews from other travelers, and I really think I am in for the time of my life. We are fully prepared, and should be just fine, although there is a threat of Malaria there. We have been taking malaria tablets for a few weeks now, so we shouldn't have a problem. The people of the Metawais are very primitive and are one of the few primitive peoples in Asia still living the way they did hundreds of years ago. I plan on writing a really in-depth essay including pictures about it for anyone who is interested.

So, with that, I will be out of contact for at least 2 weeks. I will certainly write when I have the chance. Please keep me in your thoughts and send some good positive energy to this side of the world for me. I can't wait to tell you all about it!

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