Malaysia 3.0

Malaysia!!

Sweet.
Kind of.

The first day was kind of not so awesome. Like usual, any sleep on the plane would have been optimistic. Maybe 45-50minutes tops. Which I guess is still more than nothing...right?
After my awesome time on Singapore Airlines (and I'm not even being sarastic here...I REALLY liked it. Good food, and Asian flight attendants with beehive hairdos), I chose instead to sleep for 2 hours in the Singapore Airport, draped over those super-awkward airport chairs. After waking up and trying to bend my neck into a normal position again, I ventured out...into the pleasantville that is Singapore. Clean. Organized. Polite. Basically everything Egypt is not.

I headed out to meet Jess's boyfriend Adam (Jess is one of Erika's pals in Cairo, who was kind enough to let me stop off at her boy's place to grab a book on Malaysia and some much needed travel advice), and afterwards went to Little India.
It was good. It was hot.

Then I went back to the airport to catch my flight to Kuala Lumpur.

I have decided not to like KL.
This is based on 3 major facts:
#1: I ate some street meat. And not just some funny smelling hot dog. Not even anything that kind of resembled a hot dog. There was a vendor outside the train station who was selling meat skewers. And I was hungry. It smelled good...so I bought 2 sticks. One of fish, and one of chicken. I'm pretty sure it wasn't chicken though, and my stomache wasn't sure what to think...other than to never try anything like that again. Ever. Egyptian Tummy was enough. I don't want Malay Gut as well.
#2: I saw an old lady get her purse snatched. At nite. By two guys on a motorbike. It made me sad.
#3: I became frantic while trying to catch my bus to the Cameron Highlands. It was a crowded depot, with all these slime balls trying to 'shimmy-shimmy' me into buying one of their tours, and I was pissed off at them. I had no idea where I was going, or if I should even trust that this bus was taking me where I wanted to go. I was sweating more than I think I ever have in my life (the humidity takes a bit getting used to) Oh. And I was late.



BUT!! This is where my complaining ENDS, and I start telling you about how amazing it is here in the Highlands.
Seriously.
The air is fresh, it's cool, and it's so relaxed.
I'm staying at a hostel called 'Father's Guest House', in the town of Tanah Rata. It's located on a hill, so we can look down at part of the town, and have great views of the hills. The clouds literally surround the hills...just as if they're blissfully resting ontop.

For my first day here I went on a full day trek to see the Rafflesia flower -the world's largest blooming plant. They can grow to be a metre in diametre, but the one we saw was probably about 2 feet across. Crazy...it kind of creeped me out. Probably because someone had told me it ate meat.

I was on the trek with a couple in their 50's - Victoria and Jeff. It was great...we walked for about 3.5 hours in the jungle - not too thick, but definitely muddy. We saw a small waterfall, and got to blow darts with the Chief of a small aborginal village. We also went to a tea plantation, as it's a pretty major export here. There were acres and ACRES of tea trees...the plantation we were at covered over 1000 acres - a luscious green carpet of tea.


I've met some really great people here at the hostel. There are some people from England who are traveling Asia (Tom, Jenny, and James), and they've been super easy to get along with. They've brought their guitar, so I've spent the last 2 nights hanging out with them; playing songs and singing along. I actually went into town and bought my own traveling instrument: a classical guitar. It cost me 98 Ringgits, or approx. 34 Canadian Dollars. Can't really think of a better thing to have with me on a tropical penisula. (Well, I guess I CAN think of another thing...or person...ahem.)

I also met a group of girls from Toronto - one of whom literally lives within blocks of Mike. We went to the town market last nite, where we bought as much food as we could carry! There was fried chicken (and it was REAL chicken this time!!), fish (just dead. just layin' there), soup in a bag, fresh tomatoes, fresh corn (with HEAPS of butter and salt), deep fried bananas, and my personal favorite: Amun Balik. It's basically pancake batter, cooked in a round pan, with sugar, nuts, and creamed corn added. When the one side is cooked, the cake is folded in half ontop of itself, and cut into quarters. Then I pay my measly 1.50RM (like, 0.50CDN) and devour my new found treat. oh. so good.



I'm heading out to the Perhentian Islands tomorrow, on the east coast of the peninsula. It's supposed to be a beach paradise - blue water, huts, sand (all requisits for beaches right?). They use generators for electricity, and only for a certain number of hours per day. Snorkelling is on my list, and I can't wait to do it again after Dahaub in Egypt.

Anywhoo...I gotta get some tabs for my new gee-tar...I need some practice!!

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