Kuala Selangor

Wow...the bed in this hotel is the best bed we have had in a while.  I kept waking up in the night and checking the time hoping that it was still early and I had lots of time to keep sleeping.

We met Susan and Peter in the lobby at 8:30 AM so we can find breakfast before our boating excursion at 10:30 AM.  After breakfast (me: Fishball noodle soup & prawn dumplings; Tim: toast w/jam and kaya, prawn dumplings, & fried port dumplings) we still had time before the excursion, so we walked around the wet market.  There was fresh produce, seafood, dried fish, and chicken.  It was actually one of the nicer wet markets we have been to.  It didn't smell bad and the ice and water was well managed to not make the floor too wet.

Oh...remember that weird looking shrimp-like thing we ate a couple of days ago for dinner?  I think this is it.  Mantis Prawns...quite weird looking.

After the wet market we headed to the jetty.  We walked through the fisherman's village we walked though some last night.

We made it to the jetty and the boat took off at 10:30 AM...right on time.

Where are we going?   Here...to a sandbar that forms about 1.5 miles off the coast.

​Why are we here?  For this crazy photo shoot:

That had to be one of the corniest, but fun excursions we have ever done.  We were actually pretty lucky that they were running today,  Due to the tide schedule, they can only go out 21 of 31 days a month, and sometimes it is as early as 6:30 AM.

We returned to the jetty around 1:00 PM and walked the 1 mile back to the hotel.  On the way we saw a jackfruit tree.  We still haven't found a vender selling any, but we will.

We then stopped for lunch.  Susan ordered something that looked amazing, so I ordered the same with fishball and mushrooms.  It is called Pan Mee (Flat Noodle Soup) and it is my new favorite soup.  The noodles are made fresh when you order it.  This guy just placed this flour ball into a pasta roller and made this giant noodle.  He than breaks it by hand right into the pot of boiling soup broth. 

This was the final product and it was awesome!

After lunch Peter and Susan decided to head back to the market to buy some produce.  Tim and I headed back to the hotel to grab the keys to the van and go to Malawati Hill, a reccomendatkon by our hotel desk clerk.

It was only 1.5 miles away, so we got there pretty fast.  There wasn't very many people there, probably because it was so hot...like over 90° F.  We could have gotten a ride to the top of the hill for a small fee, but the woman said it was only 10 minutes, so we opted to walk. Along the way we were asked by gentlemen if we wanted to buy monkey food....Nope!

After 10 minutes we made it to the top where there was Altingsburg Lighthouse, built by the Dutch inn 1794.

Cannons up here are from a fort built by local villagers in the 1800's.

The biggest draw up here is feeding monkeys.  Tim and I were not going to go anywhere near these things, but we were lucky to have someone show up to feed them.

He was crazy letting the monkeys climb all over him. He even sat down and had one on his lap that he was petting.  There was l local man (the one selling the food) overlooking the whole thing.  He said that these langur monkeys are friendly, but he had a rubber band in hand in case a mean macaques wanders over.

I was able to get some pretty good photos of langur monkeys with babies.  The gentleman said that the babies are orange until they reach about 3 months old.

When the monkeys finally cleared the way, we walked back down the other side of the hill.  With one last shot of the lighthouse.

Driving into town I noticed a back street with murals, so we walked there and we rewarded with some pretty nice art.  Some were interactive that made it fun.

OK...time to get out of this heat.  He walked back to the car and drove back to the hotel.  We hung out there for a few hours enjoying the TV, comfy bed, and air conditioning until it was time to leave for our next excursion, a boat ride to see fireflies.  

It is said that the Kuala Selangor firefly colony is one of the biggest in the world!  These fireflies  live in a particular mangrove tree species called berembang that grow along the banks of Selangor River.  What makes these fireflies cool is that they light up together, synchronized.

Very cool, but you can't get a photo of it, so I put a photo of the mural we saw today to illustrate it:

After the fireflies, we drove back to the hotel then Tim and I walked to dinner.  We ordered Clams with Garlic Ginger Sauce and Soy Sauce Fried Red Snapper.  It was delicious.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel for one more night in this amazing bed.  Tomorrow is our last day driving around Malaysia.  Time to drop off the car and take public transportation for a while.  Until then...