Buses and Fireflighs

One of the "day" trips advertised out of KL is to the Firefly Park in Kuala Selangor. There, after dark, you can take a boat on the river to see thousands of what we used to call "lightening bugs" when I was a kid as their lights come into unison in the bushes and trees on the bank. 

But Selangor seemed to be on the way north, and my internet search indicated that we could catch a bus from there north to Penang Island--our next destination. The guide book said to take the 141 bus, and so far every bus we've been in, local and long hall, has been pretty nice--comfy and air-conditioned. Maybe we should have wondered when no one seemed to know where to find the 141. 

It was clear from the other buses we saw while we waited that this would be a different class of travel. It did come. It was a very old, dirty and cramped city bus, the likes of which we had never seen in Malaysia.  The ticket taker did help us stow our luggage (behind the last row of seats), and we did get to sit (not everyone did). No live or dead animals. It was less than one-tenth the price of a taxi to the same town. The guide book said it was a 2 hour journey, but it took 3. And it was clear when we arrived that there'd be no buses to Penang from this town. 

We found our hotel--basic but clean--and the desk clerk found us a driver to the park. He also told us that due to the public holiday tomorrow, getting back to KL for the Penang bus would be very difficult. At dusk our driver arrived. He sped through town and into rice paddy country, delivering us to the park where we were issued life vests, loaded on a boat, and floated across the river powered by a quiet electric motor.

Sorry, no photos. Cynthia laughed

remembering the tourists trying to take pictures of those tiny fireflies (much smaller than the ones I saw as a child). No way.  It was cool, though. As we inched along the bank we did see the lights go from random and chaotic to fully synchronized.  That was neat.  Was it worth all the travel? Not sure, but on the way back to the hotel our driver said he could take us back to KL in the morning for 150 ringgits, and when he learned that where we really wanted to go was Penang, he said he could take us to Klang for only 70, and we could bus to the Island from there.

After the 15 minutes of firefly sighting, our big excitement for the rest of the evening was the discovery of a new 24 hour laundromat next to our hotel. Because if the grand opening, we got in on free laundry! 

 At 8 am the next morning , our driver arrived with his wife and toddler son in the car, and they drove us to Klang, where we had an hour wait for our bus, which was a comfy, air conditioned ride.