Actually I wasn't sad at all to be rid of it. It was quite a lot of fun while it lasted, and gave us some great memories (like the time we drove off the side of the bridge into a raging torrent and had to get pulled out by a group of old people in a Land Rover), but ultimately we couldn't afford it any longer. After we sold it Ayu and I both breathed a sigh of relief. The day we sold it was April 1st (April fools day), and the new owners were a pretty nice couple who were very easy going and the guy called me up after the sale and told me the van caught fire! I was horrified and told Ayu; only then did he say "April Fools!" And of course I laughed. Here's a picture of a huge spider that was crawling on my shirt when we were emptying the van out the day before selling it (this was one thing about the Beast that drove me nuts - no matter how many I killed they just kept popping up and spinning webs everywhere).
Anyways, following all of this we still had quite an ordeal ahead of us at the airport. First was all our luggage. If you remember correctly, when we came to NZ we were grossly overweight (because we didn't know what the plan was yet and wanted to be prepared). Upon leaving we wanted to be sure to be at or under the limit of 20kg per person (45 lbs each). This meant we had to throw away/give away a lot of stuff. A lot of clothes ended up going to the Salvation Army and a couple pairs of shoes were left in the hotel room. My carry on weighed at least 45lbs (but was compact enough not to attract too much attention - and made it through). Luckly, when we got to the airport we found our luggage to be just under the limit. Whew! The second issue though, was that when we booked our tickets, the travel agent warned me that because I was purchasing a one-way ticket into Malaysia, they might not let me on the plane out of Auckland. Well I thought this was ridiculous (because I've flown one way into Malaysia before - from the UAE), so I went ahead anyways with the booking. Well this created all sorts of problems at the ticket counter. Eventually, we were so frustrated from having to talk to all sorts of different people (most of whom were very incompetent; one woman told me I was a liar for saying that I had flown one way into Malaysia before). Finally I whipped out my computer, went online and bought a bus ticket into Singapore for 80 RM (25 USD) and they let me on (who knows I might still use this ticket when coming back state-side).We had more problems on the way (the meals on the first flight were supposed to be halal, but they didn't have any so we got vegetarian instead and on the second leg we had to get our seats changed at the airport because we weren't sitting next to each other). However, we got through these with very little trouble - much of this due to very nice people we ran into along the way at the airport. We flew from Auckland to Sydney to Kuala Lumpur to Penang. While in Sydney airport we got to take a long look at an Airbus A380!
Needless to say - its enormous. I'd say its shorter than a 747, but so much bigger in every other way - here's a picture of the two planes next to each other so you can get some idea of scale.
We also saw it takeoff - and let me tell you it was quite a let-down. First of all it needed a REALLY long time to get to the end of its special runway (at least 15 minutes) which made us think that it had taken off somewhere else because we couldn't see it. Finally it came lumbering down the runway and took off slower than I think any airplane I've ever seen takeoff. It looked like some kind of cartoon. Really it just hung in the air. I didn't take pictures because it was really not that cool. Oh well, at least the wings look interesting.The next pictures are from Malaysia. When we arrived in Penang at 11:30 PM we were both dead tired. Ayu's mom was nice enough to pick us up and we came back and crashed out. The following day we had some delicious banana leaf curry (rice and vegetables) which was the only meal I ate the entire day - it was that filling. Then slept another 12 hours probably. Today we went hiking to Monkey Beach, met some of Ayu's friends, had another giant meal (this time I had breakfast, but Korean BBQ was also extremely filling so my meals today has increased to two), and ultimately had a great time. Now I'm close to going to sleep, but just wanted to share some pictures of Monkey Beach. Really, the wildlife and scenery in Malaysia is one not to miss.
I took this picture. The monkeys were literally 3 feet away from me. I was just sitting there and they came right up to me and sat quietly for about 5 minutes. Then the one in front starting making small hooting noises, and out of nowhere rushed at me and started screeching. Well I jumped back, and yelled out. Luckly, it was a small monkey and I think the worst it could do would be biting my finger or something, but we left after that. I guess a lot of people feed them which makes them very aggressive. It's too bad really because they are quite cute.
I don't know if you can see it or not (you may have to click on the image and make it bigger), but there is a lizard/iguana type creature in this picture that is about the length of my leg. The thing was huge! It walked on the beach for a while and then lazily went into the water where it swam to a rock to sun itself. We also had a close encounter with a garden snake, but I didn't get a picture of it - sorry.
This last picture is Ayu and I driving back from Monkey Beach. We'll keep you all updated to our latest adventures - so stay tuned!
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