There isn’t that much to do in Taman Negara, which we have come to realize. Completing most of the activities here at the national park, the last adventure was to visit the Orang Asli Village which was on my list to do back in Cameron Highlands, so finally the opportunity was present. Visiting the village didn’t start until 3 pm, so we packed our things and made our way down to Mama Chop for breakfast where we left our bags at the travel agency located there.
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Four hours later Liz and I were on our way via long boat to an Orang Asli Village. There was already a long boat there when we arrived, so the tour was packed. We climbed up the sand into the small village – well what appeared to be small but apparently up to 40 people live in the huts. We walked around a bit, while the villagers gathered together in a small hut to stare at us. It was a different experience, as we came to see tribesman and their way of life, while they watched as foreigners came into their homes. The Orang Asli are traditionally nomadic and believe there are spirits in objects. Nowadays, they use some of the money from the tours to support their families and ensure everyone in the community is taken care of. 

Our tour guide showed us all of the different natural materials they use to make fires and build intricate blow darts. The Orang Asli villagers showed us how they make a fire and how to use the blow dart to hunt. The tour guide asked if anyone wanted to volunteer to stand infront while the villager tried to hit the target. I volunteered right away! But he ended up just joking about that, as they aren't always as accurate as you would want it to be. Giving all of us a try at the blow dart - some of us a second try - we had a great time trying to shoot the teddy bear. After the tour and demonstration was over we walked on down to our long boat, where our young passenger was scooping out the water from the long boat.

The Orang Asli Village and Rapid Shooting package isn’t worth it, as they arrived shortly after we got back from the village ourselves. Your best off just purchasing the Orang Asli Village ticket. Also, while the tour guide was talking a couple kept on talking throughout which was kind of annoying, so hopefully you don't have that!

Once we were back from our tour, we caught up with Tonia who was feeling a bit better and waited some more. We got into our bus/van to Jerantut where we would be catching the sleeper train at 1 am to Singapore. We had a lot of time to kill before the train so we made our way to a Pizza Hut to have dinner and kill time. The joys of a Pizza Hut! At some point we decided to head to the train station as we didn't have anything else to do. We met a German couple at the station, so we chatted with them a bit about their travels. When the sleeper train arrived we ended up going to the wrong beds and almost got in with other people! But quickly realizing our mistake, we walked up into the next cabin and found our beds. I quite liked the sleeper train and would recommend it to those on a budget.

Of course starting our day at Mama Chop for breakfast having seen the delicious food from the night before. I recommend getting the mixed fruit pancakes with chocolate. Walking down the path a bit to the floating taxi stop, we climbed into our taxi boat for 1 RM each person to get to the other side. Since we did part of the trail the night before we knew which direction to head. The climb at the beginning is relatively easy considering there are pathways with stairs built. There is an incline, and you will start to sweat as the heat of the day kicks in. We finally make it to the top of the stairs (after some of Liz’s interesting climbing tactics). We were unaware of having to pay 5 RM for the canopy walk, we were also unaware that 300 metres of it were under maintenance.

Handing over our 5 RM each, we climbed more stairs to the where the canopy started. Each person must wait until the person infront is past the 10 metre mark. Don’t worry someone is there to tell you when to go and there are signs that say 10 metres. The walk gets progressively higher at each stop point. On the way down, there is an abrupt decline with a ladder in the canopy to start your descent.
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After the canopy walk we headed downwards for Tonia to have a swim. Although, it wasn’t very well thought out on our part because in order to do the rest of the trail we had to climb back up the stairs again towards the canopy. So back up more stairs…
The trail overall wasn’t difficult, after the first view point we reached, the trail no longer has the man-made stairs, but rather a pathway. This is where the “real” trekking started. Winding in and out of the trees, stumbling over rocks and roots we made our way around the trail and explored the jungle. Occasionally, we came across some stairs that were definitely not maintained, so be weary when stepping on them.
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Drenched in sweat and at the end of our trek we dragged our feet over to the mini-mart for some refreshments before getting the taxi boat back to the other side. The rest of our day was spent in our hot dorm room, with both fans unsuccessfully blowing and us sweating even more.

Note: a tour guide isn’t needed for this trek, you can do this on your own.

Raring to go, we were all ready to see the sights after breakfast. First stop was to see the Petronas Twin Towers and to go up them for free. However, during our breakfast/lunch we discovered that they are closed on Mondays! Yes, of all days to be closed this was the day! So we were going to have another glorious day of sightseeing...

Of course we started our day at Nandos, except this time I opted to grab KFC instead to save a few dollars as Nandos tends to add up after adding fries, etc... After devouring our food, the girls (Liz, Tonia and I) went back to our terrible hostel - Backpackers Travellers Inn - to purchase bus tickets to Taman Negara from their travel agency. Bus & boat tickets came to 79.50 RM each person.

With a pep in our step or a pep in Pringle's step, we were off to Petronas Twin Towers for some outside pictures, as well as the aquarium. Being from Toronto, I previously visited the Ripley's Aquarium and decided that I would rather walk around the mall, so the Brits headed in. Before marching out today we looked at the Top 10 Things to Do in Kuala Lumpur and to be honest there aren't that many great things to chose from. The city is modern and clean, but as a tourist it lacks that something special.

Reviews - even terrible ones can be deceiving! Having stayed in a lot of hostels, I am typically good at reading between the lines when it comes to reviews but this one I didn't see coming. Picking this hostel mainly because Tonia said she was going to stay there, and also because we were too lazy to look for another one. Welcome to the filthy hostel...

Location
The hostel is located on the 2nd floor squished between shops in Chinatown. The road to the hostel was packed with people, so we were dropped off further up the road. We arrived at night, and honestly the location didn't really matter to us at that point since we left the next day.

Facilities
Walking up the stairs, we caught a wave of the stinky aroma for the first time. Pringle, Jake and Callum took the 3 bedroom private room, which was a heat box with a fan that just blew hot air at them. Liz and I, said we would take the 2 beds in the 8 bed dorm. Now arriving at night, the light was off and the stench of the room was unbearable. Literally had to hold our breath to walk through the 20 bed dorm room to get to our 8 bed dorm. The room was smelly, the beds looked dirty and only one blue light worked at night. We left our valuables with the boys since there were no lockers in our rooms.

Atmosphere
I've never seen so many old men in a dorm room. I am all for people traveling and experiencing a hostel, but some of these men looked like they could be my grandfather. There wasn't really any place to hang out, and I don't think many people could take the smell for long. Also, during the night Liz heard a guy in the next room yell at another guy for jacking off in the dorm room.

Final Rating - 1 Star
Both Liz and I discovered bites on our legs during the next few days, so we are pretty sure that we had bed bugs. The reception was rude, and unhelpful. The place smelled and was extremely dirty - how this has a 3 star rating on trip advisor is beyond me! I've stayed in some crappy places before and this one has made the list.

Trying to prove that he is better at admin, Callum came across BB Inn Hotel on booking.com with a room for 5 people which was ideal. Only staying in hostels throughout my Southeast Asia journey, it was nice to finally stay in a room with people I actually knew.

Location
The hotel was located just off the main street in Tanah Rata, which worked our perfectly when walking to restaurants or to catch a taxi. It was great for the fact that we didn't have to pay much to get to the main area, and was convenient for getting on the bus to & from Cameron Highlands. 

Facilities
Our room consisted of a queen bed, double bed, and a single bed. Liz and I were in the queen bed, Callum and Jake in the double, and Pringle in the single bed above the boys. We had our own bathroom and shower which was definitely a luxury, but the overall room wasn't anything extraordinary. There wasn't any wifi in our room, rather we had to sit down next to reception in order to get internet, which was a bit annoying but it did stop us from being on our phones the whole time. 

Atmosphere
Since we were staying technically in a hotel, there wasn't the hostel atmosphere. Basically, we played the card game "Shit Head" in the room together (Funny enough, I actually won most of the games having only learned the British rules). The reception was extremely nice and answered all of our questions, as well they let us store our bags behind reception.
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Final Rating - 3 Stars
The facilities were basic, and not having wifi in the room definitely wasn't ideal. The atmosphere wasn't really existent but at the same time the room was decent and we had fun in the room altogether. The reception was extremely nice and helpful with answering our questions and letting us store our bags with them.

Dropping our stuff at the bus stop while the others waited there, Pringle and I made our way to the store. Purchasing crackers with a the brand name of Julie - it was destiny!

Our bus was to leave from the main road were we disembarked previously. At around 4:30 pm we collected our things and threw them onto the bus. There wasn't anything significant about our bus journey, more or less the same as the one we took to arrive in Cameron Highlands. I believe we may have stopped once for a quick break. We were met by the twinkling of the city lights as we came into Kuala Lumpur. The trip was roughly 3 hours.

When we arrived at the bus station, we weren't actually sure of what station it was - it might have been KL Sentral. Walking around a bit, we approached some taxis to take us to our disgusting hostel (we find this out later). 

Time was running out, our bus was in a few hours, what to do? Either walk up the trail and try to hitch hike down, or take a taxi up as far as possible and hike down... decisions, decisions...

As per usual, the day started out slowly as we made our way to get an "early" breakfast. Finding the only open restaurant that serves an English breakfast to satisfy Liz, Callum, Pringle and Jake, we devoured an unsatisfactory meal.

Decisions, decisions... do we hike up the 2 hour trail and make our way down via the road OR take a taxi up the winding roads as far as possible, then hike down. We chose the later.

Waving down a taxi, we came to a deal each paying 8 RM to take us to the strawberry farm which is closest to the top. Pringle was adamant that we must visit a strawberry farm as all he wanted to do was pick strawberries. Well it turned out that when you have to pay a few RM to pick them, it no longer becomes a priority. So skipping the strawberry farm and passing some goats, we made our way along the road to the top. Roughly taking 30 minutes with the boys pressing ahead and Liz and I taking walking selfies further behind. The boys are always in some sort of rush!

I don't drink tea, but Brits sure do love it! Our journey to and from the tea plantation was interesting...

Now I thought the view of the Bharat Tea Plantation was breathtaking, Pringle on the other hand was disappointed. We decided to make our way down into the tea leaves for a nice game of hide and seek. Liz unfortunately wasn't quick enough to say "not it" so she became the seeker. Off the rest of us sprinted to find a hiding spot. Crouching down within the leaves, I was the closest to Liz but Jake was ultimately found. 

Typically, we don't purchase bus tickets from our hostel as they tend to be over-priced. But this time it turned out to be the same as the travel agency selling the bus tickets. We were told that the ticket was 40 RM and an additional 3 RM for a bus to get to the bus station since it was far away. I've learned that Malaysian's have a warped sense of distance.

We were to be picked up at 8 am from Mansion hostel, as that was were the British gang were staying. I was staying at Kimberley House and was told by the house-keeper that the reception would be showing up soon in order for me to get my key deposit back of 20 RM. 

Receiving a message from Callum that the shuttle bus was already there and I needed to hurry, I decided to leave and forgo getting back the deposit. With bags in hand I made my way to Mansion hostel to the already cramped mini bus. Honestly, I could have just waited for the reception since we had to wait for others at each hostel to get their deposit back as well. Actually, we didn't even need the mini bus ride as it literally dropped us around the corner where the big bus was parked! Basically a waste of 3 RM.

Once on the big bus which had a very 70's-esque interior we waited until around 8:45-9 am for the bus to depart. There were assigned seats - I think - but we sat where we wanted. The bus made two stops, one at a gas station where we purchased snacks and another time at another bus depot. The trip took around 4-5 hours give or take, and the scenery leading up to Cameron Highlands wasn't anything special until you reached the hilltops of Cameron Highlands. The vast array of tea plantations, strawberry farms and other agriculture were spread within the valleys of the hills. It definitely was a sight to behold, well for me anyways, for Pringle it was nap/movie time. We finally arrived at Tanah Rata were we disembarked to find our hostel. 

Arriving the night before to Penang, I quickly came to realize that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Sorry Lonely Planet but your description and highlights of the city were a complete let down. The colonial portion of George Town mainly looked like a run down ghetto that was definitely in need of some maintenance. Instead of exploring the city for the whole day, we decided to follow Callum's lead and head to the national park.

The first little bit of the trail we spotted a giant lizard, which made Jake's day, and if it had bitten him would have made the rest of our day! (Just kidding... maybe) Of course, like always the boys seem to lead the way and were on a weird mission to quickly get through the park talking and without stopping the whole way. I walked a bit slower to capture some pictures seeing as Liz & I were the only ones taking any. The first beach we came across was anti-climatic, with us trekking on through. As we proceeded further, sweat started accumulating and dripping off of us. (Yes, Jake girls do sweat). When we arrived at Monkey beach, the boys decided to dip their feet in the water and Liz and I decided to grab ourselves a drink. Monkey Beach is a bit deceiving as there aren't that many, and they are mostly owned by the people who work there.

After Monkey Beach, I decided it was my time to lead and frankly I wanted to just make it to this damn lighthouse already. Absolutely soaked in sweat our uphill ascent began with the trail becoming a bit more rugged and less maintained. Before I was telling Liz to just think of the end point and don't stop. At around 3:30 (after the lighthouse closed) we arrived, luckily the gate was still open so we went in. Probably the worst lighthouse I've seen, with absolutely no character. As well, it was a heat box the moment we got in to climb it. So glad people rated it so high on Tripadvisor! NOT. These people must be drunk or delirious to say this was the best hike with beaches with similar beauty in comparison to Thailand. Thailand is way better, I'm sorry but that's the truth.

After guzzling down the rest of my water, all of us soaked in sweat and tired of the heat we made our descent. Back at Monkey Beach we made the collective decision to hire a boat back to the park entrance for 40 RM for the group of us. The boat driver had a pet monkey, which Jake loved, but I refused to touch since lets be real it was probably taken away from it's mother to be his pet. Wild animals aren't supposed to be pets. After getting to the docks, and Jake trying to steal the monkey we made our way to the bus stop. We caught the first bus, which drove like 2 minutes and then dropped us off. There was a lot of people waiting at that bus stop so we decided to wait for the next one in order to have seats since the bus ride was around an hour long. I couldn't be more happy to take a shower after the long day of trekking in the heat.