Part Two: In The Jungle, the Malaysian Jungle, CJ Sleeps Tonight...

Hey all,

So when I last left you, Jonathon and I had just stuffed ourselves at the night market. Well, since the next day was our anniversary, we headed back to our hotel to get a good night's sleep and make some plans for the morrow.

After "celebrating" our anniversary, *VBG*, we slept like babies just to wake up and "celebrate" again. It was so nice just being lazy. Since we'd gotten to Singapore we were always out and about not wanting to miss anything. Sleeping in and enjoying each other was a gift in itself.

We finally went down to breakfast and for those of you who don't know, over here, most of the hotels include breakfast in your room rate. Most of them are buffets and you just help yourself. We'd had good and we'd had not so good, but it's always an adventure to lift the lid of the pan and see what they call breakfast in these parts. LOL You haven't lived until you lift the top off and see little tentacles floating in a soup. I swear they wave at you.

Afterwards, we wandered around town a bit more, then we headed out to the place we'd decided to spend our anniversary night as well as where I was going to be doing my writing retreat. Another cab driver, a great guy named Omar, told us all about the rubber tree farms, the date oil plantations and the pineapple fields that still dot the area. He spoke English pretty well, and we understood most of what he was telling us, so it was like having a living travel log in the front seat.

We arrived at the Tanjung Piai Resort near the park of the same name in the early afternoon. This place is amazing. I can't even begin to describe it to you. It's not a five start resort. In fact, some people might be put off by how primitive it was, but for me, it was a little slice of heaven. As long as I had a place to shower, a clean bed to lay my head, food to eat and a place to plug in my laptop, I was a happy camper.

Tanjung Piai is a resort set entirely on stilts over the water and when we were there it was nice and quiet. It got busy on the weekend, but for the most part, I had the resort all to myself. Just a few other guests came and went.

We got this GREAT room. Out overlooking the water on two sides. I loved it. I had the best sunrises. (yes...I was shocked the sun did actually rise. I'd never seen it before. *snicker*) And unless I had a rude neighbor, (and I must say, there are a LOT of rude people over here in regards to being quiet in rooms), I was able to sleep quite well. But instead of describing it all, let me show you the resort. It is my new favorite place on earth!!!

This is our "enthusiastic cabbie/guide" and Jonathon walking across the bridge to the resort. As you can see it's a long walk. And on any given day you can run into a few monkeys sitting on the railings giving you the eye. LOL

Here is the view of part of the resort from the bridge. Each day the tide ebbs and flows and mud flats can be seen. The monkeys live in the trees and often climb out to eat the fresh crab and other leavings from the restaurant.

One of the corridors that lead out to the rooms. The first few buildings you see on the right are laundry facilities, storage and such. Everything to the left and past that are rooms. They have a private bungalow out on the far end as well as quite a few dormitory type set ups. On the weekend, they had a conference come in and filled them all up!!!

This was my building. My room was the far left hand one on the top. Two sides overlooked the water and I could get the sea breezes each time I opened up the windows. As you can see, the windows covered the entire wall. It was GREAT!!!

This picture looks down from the corridor outside my room over the patio and big restaurant area. The resort did big business every day at lunch and dinner. People came from miles around to eat there and I'll tell you the food was fantastic. The best seafood I've eaten anywhere on the planet. That's right...I said the planet. More on that later...

This area is part of reception. Big and open if you look past where Jonathon is peeking out, you can see the bridge to the mainland. It was a comfortable place to relax when I came back from one of my rambles. And the staff were always there to see what I wanted to drink to cool off. Watermelon juice was my favorite! Freshly made every time. To die for!!!
The view from my window out over the fishing pavilions. The land you can faintly see in the distance is Singapore. But between the resort and the far off land are literally hundreds of ships. Remember, Singapore is one of the top three busiest ports in the world.

Once Jonathon and I settled in, we took a long walk. We were stared at by all the locals. I guess taking afternoon walks just isn't done. Half a dozen people asked us if we needed help, which was cool. One even offered to give us a ride on his scooter. Both of us! LOL But we just wandered.

It was so interesting seeing all the countryside. We even surprised a big (and I mean bloody huge) snake. All I saw was the woosh of its body as it slid into a ditch. When I described it to my cab driver friend, Omar, he about drove off the road. He made me take him to where we'd seen it and I listened as he stopped a local and told him what I'd seen. Cue shock and horror when I heard we'd stumbled onto a cobra!!!! It was so dangerous, they planned to send out a hunting party to find it. (CJ faints dead away in the cab) At least the rest of the walk wasn't so scary. LOL Check out the pics below to see the countryside.

This is the main road from the resort. As you can see, the jungle surrounds it on both sides. You can't see through the trees in most places.

This was the little river outside the resort. People fished and swam in it. Not me. I'd seen water monitors and snakes swimming by when I was sitting outside writing. I'll wait and use the pool back in Singapore. LOL

These men were gathering and shucking coconuts. One man would shuck and then toss the husks to the others who would burn them. With the amount of coconuts I saw, their jobs are secure for a very long time!!!

Everywhere we looked we'd see these kind of cows. They were usually tied in place and the grazing seemed adequate. But they looked so skinny. It wasn't until later we found out that is part of the breed's characteristics.

These boats were quite common as well. Most were in the streams, but quite a few were beached and sitting out in the jungle. Not sure why...

And finally, this beautiful field scene. The locals clear everything under the big palms and then have their cattle graze there. It is quite a beautiful pastoral scene, just not one I'm used to.

Well, there you have it. Part Two of my writing trip. But when am I doing the writing? Check back on Monday and find out!!!!

Hugs to all,
CJ England

Follow Your Dreams

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