Tea Trek

We're enjoying the fresh air and greeness of the Cameron Highlands! We got in yesterday and made our way to the lodge we're staying at, it's away from town, surrounded by beautiful gardens and quite misty. They leave all the windows and doors open so we can enjoy the refreshing air. This of course means that Rose is on bug watch, but it hasn't been too bad. When we first sat down for lunch, Kev left to get something from the room and a small rooster walked out from behind a chair. He has been our meal companion ever since, clucking softly while we eat, sometimes falling asleep if we're not entertaining enough. I don't know how he manages to show up everytime we eat, but he does.

This morning we went on a tour of a nearby tea plantation and their tea shop. We then went on a very short walk through the "mossy forest" and were shown a number of medicinal plants, etc. It was pretty cool. We then hiked to the top of the highest point for a view (that sounds hardcore but we'd driven most of the way up so we walked all of 7 minutes). The view was pretty incredible. Finally we visited an aboriginal resettlement village. We felt a little strange, treating the people like fish in an aquarium, and they looked at us about the same way. After lunch, Kev and I went for a non-guided walk along one of the paths, which was also good.

Now we're just killing time before dinner. Boy we sound lazy.

Off for now, until next time.

Rose

What It's Like

It's raining, which doesn't make for a good time to wander around China town being chased by shop and stall workers. So I thought I'd write a bit of a "What It's Like" post. Currently, eminem is playing in the internet cafe, like I said it's raining, but we haven't really seen that much rain since we've been here. We've stayed every place for two nights so haven't gotten too comfy anywhere or too bored either.

The east coast, which we only saw one small area of, was somewhat dirtier and less developed. I had expected the less developed part, but not the dirtier part, with more run down buildings. Mersing looked like a war zone to us, in some places. The highways in the East had much narrower roads and more wildlife as well as tiny run down cafes on the side of the road and more garbage too. So far, what we've seen of the west has been generally cleaner, and more well kept but also much busier streets, filled with people and traffic. The people have generally been very kind, and respond to a smile. We have been very lazy in our language learning as generally in every shop or place at least one person speaks some English. We haven't gotten much past thank you in Malay. I love the food, and keep trying to avoid the western places, which is hard sometimes when at the mall we were surrounded by KFC, Starbucks, oh and "Kenny Roger's Roaster" - I'm not sure what he's doing here?! Kev quite likes the food too, though I think he's also managed to have fries everyday. Hmmm.

People often advise us not to bother booking things, and then when we don't follow their advice, we learn that we should be glad we didn't. We would have missed a bus, or not had accommodation. We've also clued in that cold showers are quite nice things when it's 30 degrees day and night all the time. They're refreshing. In cities like KL, jaywalking is sometimes a necessity to getting through traffic, and sometimes you stand in the middle of the road between cars. Safely, I promise. Driving in general is crazy here, as I've decided most places outside of North America must be. There seem to be laws, most of the time, but it's not always clear. Scooters weave through traffic with two children loaded on, everyone tailgaits like it's going out of style and bus drivers run scooters off the road AND take it upon themselves to control the lizard population.

Wherever we go people are trying to sell us stuff, which for people like Kev and I feels quite strange. People passing us fliers, yelling out that I need a handbag, offering us "special rates" on the bus, in hotels, for taxis makes the beach seem pretty appealing sometimes. At the same time, we have our fun with it too.

I suppose that's plenty for now. Until next time.

City Surroundings

Well, Melaka was pretty wonderful. It was a very well-kept city with a fair bit to see. The oldest in Malaysia, it's got history from a number of periods of colonization (Portuguese, Dutch, British, and a brief stint with the Japanese). We spent our first evening in Chinatown walking through a night market and checking out what people had on offer. I'm in love with fabrics and Kev's in love with sweet treats. We ran into a talent contest (with some pretty offkey Neil Diamond type tunes), a line dancing class that would give Nashville a run for its money, a man yelling out "Sugar Cane Juice" and a number of other entertaining things. Trust me, the Sugar Cane Juice was funny if you could hear his voice as well as amazing to see someone doing something in such a rhythmic way.

The next day we checked out a museum of Melaka history, the only remaining piece of a Portuguese fort, "Porta de Santiago", and a church on a hill that was once Portugese and then Dutch. After that, I need an air conditioning break so we hit a mall for lunch. Later in the afternoon we checked out a Chinese cemetary which seemed to have more mosquitoes than areas of interest but it was a nice, cool walk all the same. We then thought that we'd head to the Portuguese square to check out the action. Too bad we didn't find any. The cabby dropped us off and we looked around in wonder for a while. I know there are very few Portuguese descendants left around but we couldn't find a tourist or any sort of wanderer to save our life. One restaurant was open and one shop, neither of which had more than one person around. We walked to the beach, that's supposed to have a beautiful view of the sunset and saw easily the worst beach that either of us have seen in our lives. It was terrible and dirty and gross. Beside this beach was an incredible, new hotel, again without a soul around. It was almost eerie this strange place we found ourselves in. So we decided to back away slowly and find a cab (we had to walk 15 minutes to a road with people first). After that disappointment, we headed back to Chinatown which we loved!

Then yesterday, we made our way to Kuala Lumpur, the capital, where we are now. We spent most of the day shopping in the mall, trying to find gifts AND......WE GOT A NEW CAMERA! I was discouraged at first because cameras seem to be te same price as at home and then I started asking for the "cheapest digital SLR" and all of a sudden lower offers were coming out of the woodwork. Every store we went into offered us a lower price and in one place when Kev said, "Is that your lowest price?" it went down again. The whole thing was pretty strange and whirlwindy considering it was only a camera purchase. We capped the night off with a movie 1408, which was a mistake when staying in a hotel and walking home in a strange city at night, but it worked out okay.

Today we're visiting the Aquarium in KL and a few other things and then we're going to the Cameron Highlands tomorrow to relax in the cool air and get some hiking in. I'm about done for with cities, I think, with the exception of a few bus transfers.

Well I'm sure that's more than enough for now. Be in touch soon.

Oh, we're early risers in Asia, we have yet to get up past 7:00am! Fancy that!

Crispy Update

Well, I shouldn't have tooted our horns about not getting burnt last time because we definitely made up for it yesterday with some good snorkel burn. We're not in too bad of shape though.

We had a beautiful couple of days on Pulau Besar with great weather, beautiful white sands and green blue waters. Our hut was nice and we pretty much had the resort to ourselves. The restaurant/bar was open air with a pool table so we had a great time playing while waiting for our meals, with only a few cats to rival for our attention. The sunset last night was incredible too. In all easily our best day yet. We came back in this morning and are about to board a bus to our next locale.

Oh - I didn't know coconuts were green and yellow in the trees, go figure. I also didn't know how to snorkel and got laughed at a good number of times. Kev is so supportive.

Until next time...

Back from Pulau Tioman

After two days in transit between planes, buses, trains, a boat, some walking and some swearing, Kev and I made it to Tioman Island, a large tourist island with beaches and what not. The place we had booked to stay at had a few too many resident critters so we moved to a different place that was quite beautiful. We woke in the morning to monkeys playing on our deck. Monkeys are a first for me, so they still entertain me - rumour has it they start to get annoying when they try to take your food. In the meantime though, we've had many more problems with cats trying to steal our meals than with any monkeys. The cats try the cute approach, as well as the abrasive meowing thing to see if we'll feed them. They all look like they're about 2 months old.

Anyways, we had tons of fun on the beach, apparently I don't know how to stand, or handle waves in general. You can imagine the show with me rolling around and drowning in waves while people sip drinks from the shore. We managed - magically - not to get burnt and have not been too eaten by mosquitoes. Oh and the place we ate was right on the ocean, great for looking out at the sunset and relaxing while eating - though we may have interrupted a family watching a soap opera or something. There were a couple lizards walking around like they owned the place (about 4ft with tail) and some geckos for entertainment. Oh and two random goats with rope attached to their neck but not tied to anything...maybe it's a psychological way of keeping them near the home. We came back to the mainland today and are taking a boat to another island, Pulau Besar, in a couple of hours. There were no working phones on Tioman and there won't be where we're going again. The internet was readily available though.

We've changed our plans a number of times because of weather and in the interest of missing monsoons on the east cost. Next up: Melakka, a big historical centre with Old Portuguese, Dutch and Chinese areas. Should be a change of pace.

The people are kind. Besides the excessively aggressive salesman in the streets working on commission that follow you around shouting names of places you may be going everyone is very helpful and understanding.

Well I'm boring myself so I should probably stop. I hope that everyone's well.

Kev has no comment at this time.

Waiting in Van

We're still in Vancouver waiting not-so-patiently for our trip. Had a fun night at Curtis and Lisa's, with Shawna too. The Greyhound bus ride, it turns out, is much more entertaining when you get to sit together and have someone to roll your eyes with. Our 23 year old bus driver had road rage to no end (we hit traffic coming into Van) and two ladies were backing him the whole way. Kev and I learned from a woman sitting behind us that once you move to Kamloops, you never leave - boy did we screw that one up! The ride was beautiful with fall leaves, blue skies and snow here and there. A great way to leave.

Kev says: Nothing, we haven't even left yet.

On our way

Kev and I leave Kamloops Friday and fly out of Vancouver Monday afternoon. We're getting incredibly impatient for our trip - maybe that's mostly me. We'll land in Singapore at 11:30pm a day later and since I'm too lazy to find a place to stay I've (finally) convinced Kev that we can stay in the airport lounge overnight and take a bus directly to our next destination in the morning. Cut out the middle man I say. We'll be heading from the airport to our first destination, Tioman Island. Wish us luck and we'll be in touch soon!

Rose.