Tea and theives

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Saya suka pedas lagi !! Yes your eyes do not decieve you, Steve has taken it upon himself to learn "I like it hot and spicy" in varying languages so that we are never served non-spicy food again....much to Sarah's and her stomach's dismay. Well, Kuala Lumpur did not disappoint us in this vein and between Malay dishes (who wants the spicy fish head special?) and the delicious indian currys we were on the road for a hot few days.

We started off in Kuala Lumpur and spent 2 days wandering around the city - visiting little India and Chinatown, shopping, and viewing the city from the KL tower. Unfortunately as most of the city is closed on Mondays we didn't make it up the Petronas towers (but the KL is higher anyway :-)) After indulging ourselves in high tea colonial-style at the Carcosa Seri Negara (where they Queen stays when she's in town), we decided to head north to the Cameron Highlands and see some tea plantations in real life.

After the longest 5 hour bus ride we've ever been on (where the family seated behind us threw up, put their feet on us and kneed us in the back), we arrived in Tanah Rata - a quaint jungle town surrounded by tea plantations and forests. We spent the next day visiting the plantations, hiking and eating a LOT of delcious scones (and drinking tea of course), before heading back to KL for the night.

The 28th of June was the opening night in KL for the new Transformers movie and a must-do on the Emmert vacation "to-do" list. Pure boy-movie nirvana. It was only afterwards that we noticed my brand new Sony digital camera (purchased in Singapore only 2 weeks prior) was pickpocketed in the KLCC shopping center (a top-end mall with Louis Vuitton and Tiffany's). We chalk it up to stupidity and bad luck and think that it happened on the crowded escallator as the movie let out. In any event, besides the camera we only lost a few days worth of photos as we had backed up all the past photos onto CD and online (thankfully!). We did have a great cultural experience at the Tourist Police Office in KL, where we were escorted by a machine gun toting female officer in a headscarf - if only we could have gotten photos of that! So although we don't have any photos to share with you all this posting, we've peeled one off the internet to give you a sense of the beauty of the Cameron Highlands (almost as green as the Pacific Northwest!).

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Photos

The classic KL shot - Petronas Towers
Forever known as "the place where Sarah was pick pocketed"

Comments

[Mum(Linda)]

So sad that you had your camera pickpocketed
Unbelievable in such a classy place!!!! Good thing you only lost a few days photos. What an awesome place to be though. Great to hear from you. Love Mum

[Andrew]

Great Trip
Have really enoyed keeping up with your travels on your blog. What a great trip. Be sure to let me know if your plans include a pass through Taiwan.

[Mom E]

photo thief
So sorry to hear about the camera, but good to know your other treasured memories are safe. We sure miss you two, but can't help but love you two are having a fabulous time. Kisses. PS Home from Italy.

[Juliet]

Bummer about the camera but it could have been much worse. It sounds like your travels are full of great memories and lots of adventures. It's not a real trip unless you've had a horrible bus ride! I am looking so forward to hearing about more of your adventures in person.