Well, today was the day for an adventure. We decided to fill the car up with gas and write some (un-detailed) directions on a piece of paper (which the map is from Google Maps, and we are finding out that the road names don't always match...).
I took Angela to the village I went to with Tim (when we went to the waterfall, see below). I had eaten there and it seemed like a nice, small town. Well, we went there and the restaurants were closed (I guess because it was Sunday), so we told our stomachs to wait and drove on. The town was small, but almost too small. It's really compact and seems like you would have to be invited to live in it before you could move there (when we travel, we are looking for possible places to spend time living in for a week to a month to see if we could eventually start a business there). This town was neat, but didn't have that potential.
The "Welcome" Sign ------------- The Town's Events Signboard
Two "Bungalows" with Their Flag in the Back
After visiting this village, we moved on. We had picked out another area that basically was the middle of nowhere. We were hoping to see something, but had no idea what we would see. We planned to take "28" to "B62" which meant driving through the town. Well, we tried and tried, never finding "B62", so we took "B31" which seemed to go into the middle of nowhere. We found out later the map should say "B31"...
.
We drove into the trees and hills while it was raining really hard. We finally found civilization and found a restaurant to finally eat some lunch. When we walked up, we got the usual stares because we're white. A gentleman there decided to help "translate" for us (he figured we didn't speak their language) so when we said "mee goreng" he said "mee goreng." Anyway, that was that and we ate our food. We were about half way finished with out food (it was still raining) the gentlemen sat with us and we began talking. He was stuck because he was riding a motorcycle, so he had to wait out the storm. He said that he owned a restaurant in the city and vegetable were cheap in this area, so he'd come to get some. Then, he began telling us what was near - waterfalls, rest areas, a river, hot springs, and much more.
.
.
When the rain let up, we followed him down the road. We were interrupted by flooding on the road (watch the video to see the water and other parts of our trip!).
.
.
We drove further and he showed us one of the hot springs. This one was just by the road - it is flooded, but you can see where they have a cement "pool" made. The water was really hot (he said it was hot enough to boil and egg!). A bit further on the road was another hot spring that was nicer and more private. Below is the bridge that went across the river - we thought it was cool.
.
.
We bought a lot of vegetables (I think once he realized we were fine carrying them for him, he filled up our trunk!). We also stopped into a village with tribal people - he introduced us to their chief/spiritual leader. This is something we could NEVER do on our own, we would have to go with someone and be introduced. This was both Angela and my first experience meeting these people (they make up about 4-5% of the population).
.
Finally headed back over the hill and to the city. On the way down, since we could see, we had a GREAT view of the city. WHEN you come to visit us, we will be sure to take you up to this part of the city so you can too see this great view.
.
We took the vegetables to this guy's house and then he invited us to stay for dinner with his family. We talked and waited for about an hour and then met his family who was returning from a trip. We met his son, daughter, wife, cousin, other cousin, and their spouses/kids. There we were, two white people in a group of 10+ Malaysians. They were ALL really friendly and (a big plus for us right now) all spoke English well (one of his family members is a TV talk show host and another is a somewhat famous singer).
.
The BEST part of the day was our invitation. We had been sort of invited to hang out later with this guy, but nothing specific. Well, at dinner, both he and his wife invited us to their family reunion/get together in two weeks! He said there would be 100+ people! We hope this works out because it will be a great chance to network! So for those who think eating lunch is a simple, uneventful daily routine, not here... Something so simple can easily turn into a full (6 hour) event with future friendships! I got along with this guy really well and Angela got along with one of the cousin's daughters really well, so we're making friends!
.
