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Published: March 23rd 2008
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Well apparentely my blogs are like buses, you wait for one for ages, and then two come along at once.
On Thursday we left Thailand and crossed the border in a minibus. It was all fine and with no problems, we took precautions with our bags and wrapped them up in Cling Film to stop any unwanted sustances being smuggled into one of our pockets.
After about 8 hours we arrived in Georgetown, Penang, which is an island on the North West of Malaysia, our 5th State and the first Muslim country any of us had been too. We arrived not having a clue where we were, Nick was the one who did the planning normally so we didn't have any idea. So we checked into the first guesthouse we saw for about 1.66GBP a night. Bargin. It was basic but 3 beds and a shower, this was fine by us. After a bit of chilling out in the room and trying to work out if Malaysia was more expensive than Thailand, done by the universal yard stick of beer, we had a wonder around. It's a strange place because Malaysia is no where near as historic as China
or Thailand, which both had old temples and traditional buildings and alot of culture. Georgetown has alot of European influence in the buildings and everyone speaks really good English. It was less threatening than Thailand where everyone would try and take advantage of you and was over-friendly, here we noticed people seemed genuine and friendly. The majority of Georgetown is made up Indians and Chinese who have moved here. It had a really nice vibe to the city.
Eagerly I took my Camera to a mall in the centre of the town, to see if any repairs could be done, they said the best thing to do was get it to KL, but repairing it would take a month, now I have decided to buy a replacement in KL and send my old one home for a refund. Sorted. After this we decided to get some food and went to a hawker stall which is loads of plastic tables and chairs laid out on the side of the street, enclosed by loads of food stalls. It was quite beautiful as there was music playing and lights hung in the trees. The food turned out to me less beautiful, I
don't know what it was, but the soup has been making me feel pretty awful over the last few days. But life goes one, I getting better now anyway.
The next day was spent exploring the city, walking along the seafront and looking over the bay. After a visit to the tourist information we took a local bus with loads of local school kids on, up to a temple and Penang Hill, which was a great place for views of the city. The bus which so cool to ride and a great way of meeting people, we met a child who was telling us in Malaysia the school day starts at 7am and finishes at either 1.35 or 1.05pm. We also met a conducter who was very keen in telling us not to go the Bangladesh because the food gave him all sorts of nasty problems which he vividly portrayed in front of a full commuter bus. Well he didn't need to tell me. Muc and Rick fancied a curry from one of the insanely cheap curry-houses in Little India, near our guesthouse. I did not, so went on the internet, had a moan at Mum and Dad how
my camera was broken and I feeling a bit ill. Then I spoke to Sarah and told her to appreciate life and all the things she takes for granted, I don't know what was in that soup!!!
But in all seriousness, I haven't really written anything philosophical for a while, and I am doing it at Uni, so here it goes. After being in Asia for about 9 weeks now, I have seen some stuff to really make me appreciate what a have. It sounds so cliched, but it's true. In Thailand on the beach parties there were children I'd guess as young as 5 selling Hawaiian necklaces for less than 30p at 5am. This was no place for a child. In fact the mother or father gives them the necklaces and they must sell them all and return with the money or else they haven't a bed that night. It was the same i Bangkok, the worst place for a child to be allowed to roam the streets on their own. We have come across teenage girls forced to flee their homeland in order to come work in Hong Kong's red light district, they have no mother, no
father or any family or money. Everynight, they have to put up with sleazebags visiting these bars and lusting over them like a piece of meat. It makes you sick. In China the human rights record is infamous, yet it is still shocking to hear tales of children sold by their parents to women in the Cities like Beijing so they can beg with them to make passers by feel more inclined to give money. Don't take what you have for granted, a warm bed and a hot shower every morning, food whenever you what it and to live in such a country with free speech and no supression. Think about it in just one day, how much you have at your convience in your life that others do not have, or that they have to work increadibly hard just to sleep and eat. They are basic human rights for everyone on this planet, and I'm sure there are people on this Earth who have it far worse than the people I have seen.
It makes me realise how incredibly lucky I am to be doing this trip, and that not for one second should I take that for
granted.
After 2 nights in Georgetown we left for the Cameron Highlands. The ferry trip off the island was warmed by the sun peaking and finally rising over the distant hills. A fantastic sunrise. We caught a 10.30 long distance bus from Butterworth, just off the island and got dropped off in a small town 4 hours later to catch another local bus to the hills. This bus had seen better days, as the rain started lashing down, leaks began to appear in the sides and we got a bit wet. After a painfully slow ascend in first gear all the way up the last 7kms we arrived in a small town and found a lodge. The lodge is fantastic with warm water and dorm beds and a TV and everyone is very friendly. Last night we all slept pretty good. The Highlands are famous for tea plantations and strawberry fields. Muc and Rick decided to do the trek the next morning which took you all around the local scenary and hills, however I was still feeling a bit rough so gave it a miss and got a taxi up to the tea plantations today and had a wonder
round which nice to do because at least I had seen the famous Highland tea plantations. It is still very wet here and so far the trekkers are not back. Tomorrow we leave for the Taman Negara National Park, the oldest rainforst in the world, where I am most definately up for the trekking! I can't wait then onto KL on Thursday, where my next blog entry will probably come from.
Thanks for reading and keep in touch!
Jx
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judy
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Hi, As always good to read your latest blog. Glad you are feeling better, guess you won't be eating any soup for a while!! We've had a good weekend here in Wilmslow. Woke up to a reasonable covering of snow this am, but it was all gone by lunchtime. We went for a walk this am up by the Edge and drove past the golf course--people had been sledging earlier in the morning. Have you been able to see the football today, Man U won 3-0 and arsenal/chelsea playing as I'm writing. Take care James, love Judy xx