My journey began Thursday 13th July 2017 from Melbourne.
Sitting in the car heading towards Melbourne Airport being escorted by my mother, it hadn't quite sunk in that I was finally about to embark on my adventure.Getting lost in the world.
I had been dreaming of this moment ever since I was 17 years old replaying what it would be like in my head, what I would get up to, where I would go first and who would I meet along the way.
Over the years I made multiple lists of all the equipment I may need from clothing to camping food as I wanted to be self sufficient throughout my travels and of course save a bit of coin. I had researched and drew up multiple maps and itineraries of where I would go and how I would get to each place with the hope of trying to get around any way possible, the only exception, a plane, being inspired by the documentary "By Any Means Possible".I planned to hitchhike from my house up the coast of Australia, catch a lift on a boat from Darwin to Indonesia then explore every nook and cranny of the world.But so far thats not how it panned out.
I didnt go buy camping equipment.I didnt go buy a whole heap of travel clothing and accessories.I didnt even research the country I was going too.
And those pre planned iterneries......well I dont even know where they went.So I ended up booking a one way flight to Penang with no other plans except seeing my mate Chris who is living in Langkawi on a boat that he is minding for someone he met in a bar whilst in Penang.
I didnt tell Chris that I had booked my flight at that point as I was going to surprise him. Fortunately he called me the next day and told me if I am going to come down I should do it very soon as his other friend Charlie whom he also met at a bar in Langkawi, invited Chris to go sailing and wanted to go asap
So as I was sitting in the car headed towards the Airport I realised that i didn’t quite feel that excitement, the enthusiasm that was buzzing through me all these years. I felt depressed, nervous and worried instead.Having these negative emotions made me feel even more depressed and confused because this is what I had been dreaming about all these years, and now the opportunity was finally on my door step I felt a sense of being overwhelmed.
Well, overwhelmed or not I had no choice as I was headed towards Penang, Malaysia.
I arrived in Penang, going by Chris's directions I was supposed to meet him at the Jetty in Georgetown and wait by the bus terminal. I took the bus from the airport to Georgetown Jetty and asked the female bus driver if this is the right bus."Yes" Great! Im on my way.
Carrying 16kilos distributed between my front bag which has all my camera gear and Laptop, on my back a large Blue Northface duffle bag backpack with all my clothes, realizing just after an hour of being in the country im feeling the heat and that I definitely brought too many things.I had about 4 hours to kill so I walked around Little India looking for a bite to eat and a beer before Chris arrived from Langkawi.
My first meal in Malaysia - Fish PhoMy first drink in Malaysia - Tiger Beer
After four hours of wandering and eating I went to go meet Chris at what I thought was meant to be the meeting point - Pangkalan Raja Tun Uda Ferry Terminal jetty. So I waited at what was to be the wrong Jetty for about 30 min, thought to myself I better ask and double check if this is the right terminal as my phone wasnt working and Chris's phone was out of battery so we couldn't contact each other. I was told to walk a km and look for The big Clock Tower. So I marched on with the sun beaming on my mellon, 16 kg's strapped to my body and eventually found the right terminal, It was nice to see a familiar face again.
So we went and had a beer. We booked a couple of tickets via chris's mobile once we tried all four different back up battery charger units that I brought with me. We had to get the bus to Terengganu where we were to meet with Chris’s friend Charlie who had invited both of us to go sailing through the Malaysian islands and on to Thailand aboard his catamaran.
Meeting up with Charlie took a little longer than expected.We got on the bus that we booked online, leaving from Penang bus terminal.Six hours later after being woken up we were told that we had arrived and to get off at that particular stop. It was night, we had just woken up and we were sitting at this terminal trying to make sense of where exactly we were. We were definitely not in Terengganu, actually we were in Kota Bharu which was three hours away.
We couldn’t understand why the bus driver had told us to get off at this point.We were told that we had to get a taxi to Kelantan to then get another bus to Terengganu, so we got on the bus that we were instructed to get on.
“Great were on our way” so I thought.
Feeling exhausted after the ten hour overnight flight and a one hour stop over at kualar Lumpur, I fell asleep again and when I woke up I noticed that the scenery outside was exactly the same as when we left. We had gone to the Thai border and back again…… Chris had realised when we got to the border but didn’t think it was necessary to wake me, probably a good idea.
We were both a bit over it by this stage and went and got some breakfast before we hopped on another bus.
We reluctantly got on another bus that we were told was taking us to Terengganu, but NOT to our surprise, there are two bus terminals in Terengganu, the one we got off was in Kuala Besut OOMMGG.
We asked around again for the bus that we need to get to our destination, no one could give us a straight answer except that a local bus will come in 3 hours so we gambled waiting for this mystery bus. What’s an extra 3 hours after all the mishaps that have happen so far.
The bus arrived and had a sign on it saying Kuala Terengganu so we jumped on not having much expectation of where we will end up this time but a 2 hour bus trip later we finally arrived to our destination. Tired and frustrated, although relieved we went and had some comfort food (KFC) and met up with Charlie and went for a well deserved drink and booked into a hotel.
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