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Published: February 6th 2011
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Selamat Petang! Good evening from Malaysia!
We have finally made it to the Cameron highlands in Malaysia! It was a bit rough getting here but we made it. We left Ko Lipe in Thailand on a ferry at 9am on the 4th of Feb. Our 1st ferry was 2&1/2 hours and took us to the island of Langkawi. Lucky for us this ferry had a/c and traveled direct. Thank Jeebus!
After a slap in the face of culture shock and a few confusing moments at the ferry port on Langkawi we boarded our 2nd ferry to the island of Penang. The travel agent in Ko Lipe told us this would be a 1/2 hour ferry but it was actually 3 hours! This meant that we would miss the last bus to the Cameron Highlands that day and not make our 1st night's reservations. Ugh!
So after 3 hours and 2 very bad b movies on the ferry we arrived in Georgetown. With the way our travels went we had no time for eating actual meals and had to rely on the few snacks that we had brought with us so needless to say we were very hungry and
tired by that point. I insisted that we get over to mainland Malaysia to the port city of Butterworth as another option to the bus was taking a taxi to the Cameron Highlands. After an excruciatingly hot and crowded 30 minute wait for the free ferry we made it over to Butterworth. Once there we discovered that the taxi ride would cost us 400 ringets ($135 Canadian) to get to the Highlands so we decided to stay there for the night and take the motor coach the next morning for only 70 ringets.
By this time it was dark and we had struck out at the 2 main hotels and were quickly running out of options. A lovely taxi driver took us to a some what dodgy hotel which luckily had a very small sparse room available for only 60 ringets ($20 Canadian). He made sure we got settled in and were comfortable. After dropping our bags in our room we headed out for a much needed meal. As the area we were in was quite seedy and it was dark I wasn't up for exploring so we went to the local KFC. That's right folks! I said Kentucky
Fried Chicken! I haven't eaten at a KFC in I don't know how many years and the first meal we ate in Malaysia was a Colonel's chicken sandwich! I was actually amazed at how packed it was with locals. We were the only foreigners in the joint. We were so hungry that we actually went back for seconds!
I was convinced that Malaysia was not my favorite place but once we got on our bus the next morning and headed out of Butterworth i started to change my mind. The landscape outside of the dirty cities is actually quite beautiful and less polluted. The road to the Cameron Highlands is a twisting climb into the mountains surrounded by old growth tropical forests and steep plunging embankments. I'm not entirely sure if our crazy, maniacally laughing bus driver was sober or not but he managed to get us here in one piece even if he took some of the steep switch back corners like he was driving a Honda Civic!
The bus ride here took 6&1/2 hours (almost 2 hours longer than it should have) due to the crazy holiday traffic. With Malaysia's large Chinese population, Chinese New Year
is one of the biggest holidays and apparently the Cameron Highlands are one of the more popular destinations. It took us almost an hour to travel 15km!
We are staying in a town called Tanah Rata which is surrounded by jungles and plantations of tea, strawberries and various other vegetables. When one usually thinks of plantations huge flat areas of land comes to mind. Only here the plantations are tiered shelves carved into the steep mountain sides. It is amazing to see. The land is so fertile and lush that it makes growing fruits and vegetables possible. There are also butterfly and bee farms all around. We are going on a tour in a couple of days to see the plantations and apparently at the butterfly farm they also have a variety of giant bugs and spiders which I will observe from afar.
We have rented a room in Father's Guesthouse which is a turn of the century plantation home. It is run by a lovely family and is surrounded by lush garden on a hill over looking the town.
Our room is nice corner suite with a soft bed and private water closet. Well, not so
much private water closet. I mean it is in our room and only we can use it but it isn't fully enclosed so when one of us needs to go number 2 you really don't have much privacy. So, we have implemented the use of poo phones. These would be Geoff's headphones which one puts on so they may listen to music on the laptop rather than listening to the various noises coming from the water closet, thus giving the poo-er some slight embarrassment free time on the toilet. Needless to say we both get the giggles whenever one of us calls out "poo phones" indicating our bowl emptying needs. Traveling really brings a couple together and breaks down those privacy barriers.
We took a hike today to the Robinson Waterfalls. Although impressive, I am sure the falls would be much more spectacular in the rainy season. But it was a good hike through the old growth jungle and we enjoyed getting out the hiking shoes that we have lugged through 2 flip flop wearing only countries thus far.
And although we are not proud to admit it we rewarded ourselves with a frappacino from Starbucks at the
end of our hike. Yep, Starbucks has even made it all the way out to Tanah Rata in the far reaches of the Cameron Highland of Malaysia. They don't have an underground sewer system and locals live in aluminum shanty huts but there is a Starbucks.
One of our favorite things about our travels so far are the calls to prayer that echo though the towns and cities numerous times of day and night. The haunting melodies have become a comforting sound that never fails to stop us for a moment each time we hear it. Even though we can't understand what is being said it is beautiful nonetheless.
Well that is about it for now. Tomorrow we are taking a tour into the jungle to see the elusive rafflesia flower which is the world's largest flower. It can bloom up to 1&1/2 meters but only lasts 4 or 5 days and sometimes they don't bloom for months. We are very lucky to be here at this time of year and should see some. I will post pictures and tales of our tour so you to can witness this crazy flower.
Oh ya, for those of you
who have been hounding us for pictures of my engagement ring here it is.....
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