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Published: December 14th 2006
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Cameron Highlands was so fantastic! There was always a cool breeze and some shade to sit under...and always another traveller around to chat with. We made a lot of new friends at Father's Guest House. Lionel and Gary (Ginger and Chops) are these two british guys (though, Gary prefers to be called English and Lionel REFUSES to be called English. Did you know that England is not a country but a province of great Britian? Well, according to Lionel anyway) we met while staying in the dorm. It felt like we were at summer camp. There's about 20 beds in this one room that used to be used by the british army when they were defending Malaysia against communist Vietnam. Along with Lionel and Gary who met while working in the nicker and bra factory back home, there was Simon from Liverpool. He is a riot. Dallas and I could hardly understand what he was saying to us half the time because his accent is so fantastic. Ben is an aussie doing his third world trip. Ben is nuts. He says the most ridiculous things. Cracks us up. Stacy is from Pensylvania and she has done her share of traveling as
The whole team
This is a great pic because it took so long to get our act together to take it. It's perfectly crooked and low quality. well. She's the loud one. Then there's Hans from Germany. He is so German. It's unbelievable. No expression in anything he says, but the occasional sly smile when you say something stupid. A conversation between Gary and Hans: "Hey Hans, Do you like literature?" "No." "Do you like music?" "No." "Do you like films?" "No. I like sport." Man of few words.
The first day Gary, Lionel, Simon, Stacy, Dallas and I set out for a jungle treck. Lionel wanted to get lost in the forest and I suppose Dallas wanted to get us lost because that's what he did. Some blame it on me, but I blame it on Dallas. I found the "trail" but Dallas led the way through it. We hiked pretty much all day and were lost for just a couple hours. The thing about being lost in the forest is that everywhere you look, it just looks like jungle. Thick vines, bushes and lots of mud. I was very smart and decided to wear shorts and when we finally went back to the town of Tanah Rata people were staring at me because I literally had mud and blood all over my legs. There's
these vines called "wait a minute" vines that are covered in spines that dig into your flesh. When you get one on you you're supposed to "wait a minute" and take it out before you walk on. Well, I didn't have a minute to spare and they literally ripped through my legs until I was bleeding all over. When we finally got out of the jungle we ended up about 10 miles out of town on some Chinese man's farm. We started to walk back to a bus, but praise God that little chinese man gave us ride because we were miles from anywhere.
The next day Dallas and I went with a guide and five other girls on a trip to the mossy forest, the Boh tea plantation and the Orang Asli. It was so fun. Our guide taught us all about how to survive in the jungle and I thought that would have been great information to know the day before when we were lost in the jungle. Then we went to the giant Boh tea plantation where we drank tea and ate scones with the British friends who met us there. From there we drove to
the lower rain forest where we visited the Orang Asli tribe. What an experience! First we drove 18km down a muddy road and then we had to cross a bamboo bridge to get to their village. We brought the kids cookies and right when we gave it to them they ran off to their houses. Later we were walking through the village and you could see little hands and faces poking out the windows. They all came out eventually and we played jump rope, hopscotch and all sorts of things with them. What an incredible group of kids! We spent some time with the chief learning about the village and our guide told us that they are Christians. Missionaries came in years ago and they all converted, but many of them still integrate animism into their beliefs.
Yesterday the whole gang took a bus to Penang (sans Hans who took the 8am VIP bus to Penang and we met him there). Penang is a small island in the north west of Malaysia that was once occupied by the British so it's very colonial looking. This is the first city that Dallas has really appreciated, but I think it's not
so much the city as him realizing that there's more to life than jungles and tigers. We basically took it easy in Penang. Sunday rolled around and we visited Georgetown Baptist Church. Again, it was so great to be in church. The service was much like a service we would have at home and the man who preached the sermon is a pastor from Hawaii who works with YWAM. It was great to talk to him after the service. The night before we went I was talking with Hans about church and we got to talk about evolution and creation and all that stuff. Hans was really interested in it and he is much more open minded than I would have guessed. The next morning he was lingering around the lobby as we got ready to walk to church and we invited him to come with us. He was really excited to go! It's amazing how open the people we have met have been. I have been able to share the Gospel with about 4 or 5 people already and everyone of them has been so eager to listen to the message. Anyway, Hans accompanied us to church on Sunday
and he said that he didn't like the part where the pastor made a joke at the beginning ("It took too long" he said) but he really enjoyed the message about the prodigal son. What a blessing to have him there! The funny thing is that he is the guy that all of us have been sort of poking fun at because he really is such a character, but he is also the guy that the Lord brought to church with us and that was eager to ask questions about church. Shame on me for thinking of him as joke.
After Penang we are headed off to Thailand...the Land of Smiles!...and we will be visiting the
Ko Tarutao National Marine Park and taking it easy on the beach for a few days.
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