You do not want to be hit by a flying durian.

Or, unwittingly receive a durian with your open palms the first time you see it, not realizing that it is covered with thorns. Poor poor Val.

Continuing with his series of unfortunate and painful events, Val got stung by an anemone on his lower back and got horribly sunburnt on his whole back. For my part, I got sunburnt on my shoulders as well (right where the straps of the backpack rests, thank you Perhentian sun) and cut myself on some barnacles while trying to get into the sea via a rocky route. Real smart. I'll spare you the gory details, but basically there are bits of me floating in the South China Sea right now.

A lot of sweat and blood (mostly mine) and dead epidermis (mostly Val's) were involved, but did we enjoy ourselves?

Hell YEAH!!! =D

OK. Long post ahead, to make up for lost time. Since the last post, we've been to Malacca, Putrajaya, Semenyih, Taman Negara, the Perhentian Islands and Kota Bharu. That's a lot of ground to cover, and a lot of stinky laundry at the end of the week. Can you believe how hot Malaysia actually is?? I mean I've always suspected, us being tropical and all, but now I know. I am so brown right now, which is kinda cool, if my shoulders aren't burning so badly. My tan lines are ridiculously obvious. Pain.

So. Places and stories.

Malacca (5/7 - 6/7)
We went to D'Paradise Tropical Fruits World, near Alor Gajah. It's not very well-maintained but we got to drive the electricity-powered buggy which was good fun.

In Malacca, we stayed at Mr. Yee's place for a night. True blue Malaysian Hospitality - they cooked dinner for us, really good food with prawns and shellfish and all, and Mr. Yee even fried some extra tofu and veges just for Val. Then after dinner, he took us for a walk down Jonker Street, where Val was "caught" by the local Medicine Man who made him hold a coconut for about half an hour, while he busied himself with selling his medicine, busker style. He is able to poke a hole in a coconut, with his bare finger. That is to demonstrate the special healing powers of his medicine. Val got a bottle of the magic potion for his efforts. Good stuff.

Then later we sat by the riverside and got entertained with live music by a few Malay blokes, who were apparently doing it for free and because they enjoyed it. There was this single Indian uncle who was dancing to the music, quirkily good at it and totally absorbed. He danced and danced, and when he had to leave he continued dancing further and further away, till a point when he walked off normally. It was mesmerizing, and he was adorable =D

And we saw him the second day when we had breakfast at the Restoran Amituofo, where food is provided for free, or you put a sum of money as you see fit into the donation box. Val and I both donated some.

Then we left Malacca.

Putrajaya (6/7)
Putrajaya was empty. As usual. We decided to walk into the gorgeous red mosque but it was coincidentally closed. Too bad.

Semenyih (6/7)
Then we went to Semenyih to meet Asa. Took Val to see the Nirvana Chinese graveyard, where he was understandably impressed by the huge dragon they have, to put people's ashes in. Do you know - and I've never known - that Nirvana even has a pet graveyard?? The gravestones are cute animal statues. Very interesting. On to less morbid attractions, we went to the Semenyih Dam for its beautiful scenery, and stopped by the roadside for Val to feed the monkeys with coconut biscuits.

I've never seen someone so happy to see monkeys. Val says that the monkeys are definitely the highlight of his trip. Not even the Medicine Man could beat that.

Then we went to the waterfalls of Sungai Tekala, where we enjoyed a good bath and encountered two different groups of moronic boys who kept taunting Val with gibberish he couldn't understand. Unfortunately I could (first time in Mandarin, second time in Hokkien). Imbeciles.

12:30am already. Lazy to go on, maybe later. Although we had lots of fun, I am glad to be back. A little more than a week till Singapore engulfs me. Before I become emo again I shall close this post.