Backlogged!: Malaysia

Sorry it has been so long since we’ve made an entry here. I’m not even sure if anyone is reading this anymore or not. I’ve been having some photo storage issues that have been taking up most of the free time that would be spent on the blog, but I’m starting to get them taken care of. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to blow through Malaysia now…

Our first stop in Malaysia was Georgetown on the island of Penang. There’s not much to this place unless you like to eat. Since we do, we were plenty entertained, but outside of grubbing, it wasn’t very exciting. To our gastronomic delight, we found Kapitan Restaurant, a wonderful and cheap Indian joint down the street from our hotel at which we ate 3 times in 3 days. We also tried the Chinese and Muslim food, which was good, but the Indian was superior. Yum! Our hotel room was frustratingly close to the loudest mosque in town, which we discovered at the 5 am call to prayer our first morning. After a while, though, I personally began to find the songs pretty, almost haunting. Jacob just thought they were annoying. Malaysia is a Muslim country, but freedom of religion is the law so you can see temples and churches of all sorts in most places, despite the dominant and numerous mosques.

One of the few days we were in Penang, we went to Penang Hill, which took almost 5 hours to get to even though it was just in the middle of the island. The funicular car ride up to the top was crowded but pleasant and we could feel the temperature falling as we ascended. Up top wasn’t much to brag about, with another mosque, a Hindu temple, a food court, a wooden elevated walkway that was closed, and numerous hiking trails that we had no energy to go on. We found a nice colonial restaurant where we had afternoon tea and watched the sunset change the colors of the city. My scones were crumbly, buttery, and delicious. I got some good shots of the city from above after nightfall, and we headed back down.

Our only other excursion was our own self-guided walking tour around Georgetown on the Heritage Trail, which is basically the path that takes you past mosques, churches, and Buddhist, Taoist and Hindu temples all crammed together in one large neighborhood. It was very colorful and interesting to see the different cultures interacting. We were even invited into a Hindu temple to eat with the people there, but we politely declined. Our little tour finally ended with Fort Cornwallis, the fort built by (guess who!) the English during their colonial rule. We only made it for the last 15 minutes of opening time so we had to hurry, but it was nice and well kept and we got some funny pictures.

From Penang we booked an open ticket to Taman Negara National Park through the Cameron Highlands. Our first leg took us up to the cool, misty mountains of Cameron where we stayed in a place called Father’s Guesthouse. This spot was a much-needed and relaxing surprise. The Highlands are cool, peaceful, and smell amazing. We were surrounded by gardens, strawberry and vegetable farms, tea plantations, bee farms, butterfly gardens, and many beautiful walking trails. We spent the next few days relaxing and taking in the great views.

A couple of days we went for some short hikes around the hills. Once we got a bit lost, but it was ok. The other time we got a bit rained on, but that was ok too. Mostly it was great to get away from the noise and smog of the city.

Another day we took a guided tour to the countryside sights around us. We sampled jam at the strawberry farm, tea at the Boh Tea plantation, and honey water at the bee farm, all of which were delicious. We visited the neatest plant nursery I’ve ever seen (it’s terraced up a hill) and got some great shots from the top of the viewpoint. We also got to hold some freaky insects at the butterfly farm and bought a “Cameron Apple” at a fruit stand (it was like a cross between a honeydew and a pear, but kinda bland).

The Cameron Highlands turned out to be my favorite place in Malaysia, probably because just when I needed a break, I found a great one there. We were sad to leave the friendly people at Father’s Guesthouse, but were ready to tackle Taman Negara.

It was quite a drive to get there, but there were some very friendly people on our bus and we made some new friends; a young French guy named Charlie and an older couple from England. We all ended up staying in the same place and Jacob, Charlie, and I planned to hike together the next day.

It was quite warm in Taman Negara. In the morning we ate breakfast at a floating restaurant and hopped straight onto a small boat that took us across the river to the park. After paying a small entrance fee we set out. We headed straight for the Canopy Walkway, which is a series of slack wooden suspension bridges built up to 40 m (~120ft) off the ground between trees. The first few steps were harrowing, but the rest were thrilling, albeit a bit shaky. There are some gorgeous flowers and huge trees in the park, but we didn’t run into any cool wildlife until well into our hike. We saw a HUGE “highway of termites”, a large lizard that was probably a monitor lizard, gigantic ants, what we think was a Bird of Paradise, and a Mouse Deer. At one point, as we were walking quietly, something large came barreling toward us down the mountain, but once it knew we were there it got quiet and went away. We’re pretty sure it was a large pig. The hike was sweaty and awesome and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

We decided to leave the next day and head back to civilization in Kuala Lumpur. The trip took longer than it should have but we were pleasantly surprised to find the very comfy Reggae Guesthouse waiting for us. It is small but cozy and was in a great location.

Our first point of business was to see the Petronas Towers. We had been told that we had to get there early because they only give so many tickets away per day (although people were still picking up tickets after noon), so we go there by 9. To kill some time before our allotted tour time we ambled around a gorgeous nearby park and had an early lunch at Chili’s (exactly like home. Yum). On our free tower tour watched a really lame 3D video, went up a very fast elevator, and spent some time on the Skybridge that connects the two towers. The views were magnificent, but the Skybridge is not even close to the highest part of the buildings, which were the tallest buildings in the world less than 6 years ago. Oh well, it was neat, and free.

Since we had several days to kill before the cheapest flight to Bali, the next few were spent mostly wandering around different parts of town and doing some light shopping, typical things to do in a big city. There are shopping malls everywhere in KL and most of them are quite upscale. We considered buying a small camera to replace my flooded one, but decided against it because we need the money more (although I really miss having a point and shoot). One day when I wasn’t feeling well, Jacob and Charlie went to some place that had amusement rides, but they said it was pretty lame. We even visited the KL Ikea to kill some time and eat some meatballs.

Eventually the day came to head to the airport and cross the equator into Bali. Malaysia was beautiful but our next destination had us quite excited.

On a side note, I have learned that at least one person was upset over our story about drinking too much in Thailand. Well, you’ll all be glad to know that, due to our departure from our party-hardy friends and the price of alcohol in Malaysia, we had barely 4 beers between the two of us the whole 3 weeks we were in Malaysia. So there.

Click HERE for Photos of Malaysia

Becca