Malaysia Truly AAASSSIIIIAAA

A building in KL

The Menara Tower

The Petronas Towers

A typical building in KL, so gorgeous!



In case you have never seen my favourite commerical on CNN it is a photo montage of beautiful pictures of Malaysia with this catchy jingle at the end saying "Malaysia Truly Asia". And since we have been here I'm pretty sure I've been driving Meaghan nuts signing it. (But shes been humming Phantom of the Opera, so we've even).


I think the last time I wrote I was on the coast of Cambodia. Well, we didn't end up with one sunny day at all. It just poured rain the entire time, so we ended up heading out a day earlier than expected. There was just nothing to do, not even the tour groups were operating anything. We did find a cafe where all the proceeds go to helping local disabled people so we spent a day there eating delicious food and getting massages- an hour and a half thai massage for 8$, can't complain about that. I may also have picked up a few Xmas presents for people but I'm not telling!!


We headed back to Phnom Penh defeated about not getting one ray of sun while we were on the coast Actually, the morning we woke up to leave it looked like it might be sunny and we were cursing ourselves for having booked bus tickets. Thankfully for us, and not for the people on the beach, it started the normal torrential downpour while we were on our way to the bus station.


In Phnom Penh we said goodbye to my friend Laura who headed back to Sparkling Korea. We spent an entire day trying to book a flight out of there. There were some huge problems with the internet in Cambodia and none of the airlines websites were working, so even travel agents couldn't do anything. We ended up going to the airport and convincing the guy to sell us the only ticket available for the next day to Kuala Lampur Malaysia- there was supposed to be a 48 hour in advance booking only. This is when the signing started.


In KL (the lingo for the people that know it- I'm so cool) we spent a wonderful day at a free flying bird park where we chummed around with parrots, lorries, cockatoos, etc. I got to feed some and they landed on my shoulder. It almost makes up for the monkey not sitting on my shoulder in Ecuador, but not quite. The park was just massive and it was great cause most of the birds were free to move around as they wanted. We saw a bird show which involved most of them not wanting to do what they were told while the announcer kept saying "Oh Dan Dan, what wrong with you today? Ok, umm, let's try Benny!". But we did get to see a macaw ridding a bicycle on a tightrope, so it's all worth it. We walked around an orchid garden and tried desperately to get into the deer park but it was a no-go.


Our 2nd day we went to see the Pertonas Towers which are/were the tallest buildings in the world. We showed up too late though and couldn't get to the viewing deck, so we headed to the Menara Tower instead- where the viewing deck is actually higher than the Petronas towers- so there. This is the 4th highest communications tower in the world, behind the CN tower. WOO! The view wasn't wonderful because it was so smoggy but cool nonetheless. I was impressed that they kept some of the natural rainforest around the bottom of the of the towers and they even moved the location of the tower before it was built to save a rare 100 year old tree. Actually the whole city has done a very good job of preserving what it can of the forest. All of the boulevards are lined with thick jungle. It seems very well planned and the intent to save what they could while building a city was there. But man, oh man, it was sooo hot. Over 35 everyday.


We spent a lot of time at some markets around our hostel in Chinatown where we got haggeled to buy "designer" purses, watches, wallets and clothes. A gucci bag is probably the last thing I would ever buy, ever. They clearly didn't know their customers.


Our current location is the Cameron Highlands. We were in for a big shock when we showed up here and it was COLD! Like the hottest it gets during the day is 20ish. But the area is gorgeous. It's full of rolling hills and lush valleys. It is the big tea plantation area for all of South East Asia.


Yesterday was possibly the best day of my life. Meag and I went for a hike on one of the many trails around our town, and got a bit lost. A local "guide" had volunteered to take us around but he was sketchy and knew nothing. He kept picking up plants and saying "This is a....umm..." and I would tell him the name of it. So with some spare Thai Baht we had, we sent him packing. So yes, then we got a little lost. We weren't ever really lost, mom, don't worry. But we just didn't exactly know where we were going, so we decided to turn around. And thankfully. All of a sudden I saw a gigantic monkey in a tree, and then another and another. There was a huge troop of monkeys around us, swinging and jumping and going crazy. We were trying to pull out our cameras and take some videos while watching them. I got one monkey doing a suicide leap from one tree to another but missed the other 10. I will try and post it later on. But really, this was the coolest ever! A real, authentic, not-in-a-zoo-or-park-or-guided-tour monkey sighting! I was on cloud 9 for the rest of the day!


Today we did a big tour of the area. We went to see a temple, rose garden, strawberry field- most delicious strawberry lassie of all time, "butterfly" farm, tea factory and plantation and honey bee farm. The reason I said butterfly in quotations is because first they take you through a maze of creepy crawlers and then to the butterfly area for like 5 minutes. We saw the biggest beetle and grasshopper known to man, some praying mantises that looked like orchids-very cute, snakes, centipedes, millipedes, etc. The best ever was when our guide tried to give Meaghan a horned frog to hold. He could smell her fear from a mile away, but she did it. So when it came to the scorpions cage he singled her out and made her hold one. She began to scream and beg and plead not to do it, but he wasn't taking no for an answer. I took the best picture of her ever with the most petrified look on her face. Unfortunately its on her camera so I may have to sneak it off there somehow and post it.


Tomorrow we head out to Taman Negara, a huge national park here. We are hopefully going to do a big 3 day trek involving a canopy walk, night safari, river rafting etc. I couldn't be more excited!

Meag also has a blog, so if you want a different perspective, not necessarily more accurate though, Haha, then check hers out



http://www.meaghandodgson.blogspot.com/
She's currently giving me the stink eye.

I'll try and post more regularly, but it really depends on the speed of the internet. I can't be bothered if its too slow!




our jungle hike
Meag holding a leag/horn frog
us when the power went out in our rooms

at the tea plantation- did you know tea plants live up to 120 years. also this plantation is the 3rd largest, out of 4, and produces enough tea to make 800 200 cups of tea a day.