Malaysia- Back to the Future

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Malaysia- Back to the Future, by Kate

Something we hadn´t bargained for during our trip was time travel, but this was certainly what we experienced landing in Kuala Lumpur.

We had spent two months without global brands and suddenly here we were again in the 21st Century, with an efficient infrastructure, English speaking locals and shopping malls with over efficient air-con. At first we were rather overexcited by civilisation and it was great to experience this mega city and the amazing Petronas towers before moving to the more gentile town of Malacca, a few hours South of KL.

The town was an important port and ruled by the Dutch as well as the British. We soaked up the sights and smells of Chinatown and Little India whilst revelling in the fact that for once we weren´t the tourists the touts were interested in. Being so close to Singapore the place is heaving with coach parties and wealthy Singaporeans only too happy to part with their cash. Having sweated half our bodies away and been consumed by hungry mosquitos we were desperate for some home comforts and a good nights sleep. The Cameron Highlands proved to be our salvation.

A little bit of England nestled in the hills of central peninsula Malaysia. The temperature plummeted to a pleasant 15°C and we were very excited by the local fondness for cream teas. Obviously there were other less fattening attractions in the area and we spent a fantastic day trekking through the jungle and then the Boh tea plantation, another oportunity to sample a cream tea! The most exciting part of our trip to the Cameron Highlands was seeing a friendly face, that of Lucy Payne, with whom of course we sampled some more cream teas! A little fatter we all returned to KL.

Here we did a little retail and rollercoaster therapy, thank you Lucy for dealing with the aftermath, it wasn´t pretty but I blame the Larium! Having bid a fond farewell to one friend we met up with two more, namely Chris and Janet Tomlinson who very kindly treated us to a delicious Malay meal and some tales of the old Malaysia.

So we began a quest for Paradise. The Perhentian Islands off the East Coast were as close as we could find and a location for some beautiful sinsets and a chance for George to complete his PADI open water qualification. After far too much laziness from me we decied to change the pace and headed to the jungle of Taman Negara national park, the oldest Rainforest in the world!

We did some trekking in the jungle but were not very successful on the animal spotting front, a night safari was a little more fruitful but after a few days we had seen enough and so headed south towards Singapore for some clean living!

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Photos

The Towers
The Petronas Towers by night

Malacca
A fine example of the Dutch architecture in Malacca

Cream Tea
Kate enjoying one of many cream teas in the highlands...

George of the Jungle
Swinging on a vine in the jungle, fortunately it didn´t break!

Boh
Us at the top of the Boh Tea Plantation

Tea Lady
Harvesting the tips

Learning to Dive
George with Sarah off for his first dive

Taman Negara
George in a tree in the Taman Negara

Night Safari
George taking the night safari seriously - he still didn´t see many animals

Satay Time
Satay being prepared on the streets of Kuala Lumpur