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July 27th 2017

Published: July 30th 2017

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Two Heads One Dream

Hi from Malaysia!

Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur

After our few days of Western familiarities it was time to get back on the road. Another bus, another border and we had crossed into Malaysia! Our first stop? The town of Melaka in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula. This is an UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008 with many museums, historical buildings and structures. We spent a couple of relaxing (and hot!) days exploring and soaking up the atmosphere on Jonker's Walk, a street famous for its markets and cafes. Mau managed to somehow get Donal into a cartoon themed trickshaw for a tour around the town! After a couple of days in Melaka, we were back on the road again - this time to Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Similar to Singapore, KL provided access to some home comforts and with its many skyscrapers, gave the allure of a very modern and futuristic city. The religious faith of the people is evident through the many mosques, churches and temples visible throughout the city and indeed country. We visited the Hindu Batu Caves and climbed the 272 steps to the top. We noticed about half way up that the majority of people climbing the steps were carrying a

Cameron Highlands tea plantation

single brick. We had to laugh when we got to the top and saw that they are doing some construction work up there and that the bricks are used for this. "Many hands make light work". No visit to KL would be complete without a visit to the Petronas Twin Towers and like so many other tourists we (Donal) spent time getting the right angle to get a picture of its full height! Our visit to KL was completed by a visit to Healy Mac's Irish pub where we were treated like royalty!

The higher altitude and lower temperatures of the Cameron Highlands provided a welcome break from the scorching heat and humidity. Agriculture is the main employer in this area of Malaysia and we had a great time visiting the strawberry and honey bee farms but the highlight had to be the Boa tea plantation. Seeing the plantation and learning about the process of tea production - such as harvesting, grinding and drying - it is surprising that it can be produced and sold so cheaply, especially considering that here most of the fertilising and harvesting is done by hand! We were in our element gorging on home

Donal dragged me on it!

Colourfully decorated trickshaw in Melaka

made scones (not Newmarket or Clarecastle Cafe standard but beggars can't be chosers) and strawberry jam, washed down by the local tea.

The Highlands are also famous for 14 jungle treks. We combined four of the treks (paths 7, 3, 6 and 4) to help us work off some of the scones. Despite the lower temperatures, the steep inclines proved challenging and we were definitely put to the test!

George Town on the island of Penang was definitely the gem of Malaysia. Another UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008, this is a town with attitude as many of its streets are lined with incredible street art and skilled 3D cartoon steel forgings. A real tourist town with everyone on a treasure hunt to locate the more famous paintings! As is the norm, wherever there is an opportunity to hike we take it! Penang Hill put up another strong challenge. After a very sweaty 5km ascent, we were very thankful of the funicular rail down to the base!

Our final stop on our Malaysian adventure took us to the tranquil island of Langkawi. Set close to the Thailand border this gave us our first taste of what to

Spot the tourists, Melaka

expect on the South Thailand islands. The warm, clear and blue ocean waters on Pantai Cenang Beach provided the perfect recovery from those hikes in the Cameron Highlands and Penang! Grabbing a scooter we set off to explore the rest of this small island on our last day. Thankfully Donal's driving was on form despite him not having driven a vehicle in over 3 months!

Having initially planned to spend a week in Malaysia, we ended up staying for 16 days. A sure sign we loved the place! We have hit ou first big mile stone - we are a quarter of the way through our trip. It's going so fast we might just have to extend (only joking Annie and Marie).

Nextstop? Thailand!

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