Category: Malaysia

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I’m Walking Into Spiderwebs

It seems inevitable that the energy changes as I near the end of a holiday. There are more frequent thoughts of home, I typically get that urge to check my work email, and I find it more challenging to stay in the moment. This was even more the case when we pulled into the Cameron Highlands and had a negative first impression. The bus ride was longer than expected, the landscape filled with ugly greenhouses, and the main town seemed very touristy. Plus it’s much cooler here and dumped a torrential rainshower when we were walking around to scope out the sights.

But you should never judge a book by it’s cover. We woke up early with the plan to hike ‘Trail 10’. It is a steep jungle path that leads up to a beautiful viewpoint. I think we must have been channeling RobO because a street dog came with us for the entire 3.5 hour hike (we named him Freddy 2.0). On the way down we stopped at a strawberry farm for invigorating strawberry juice and fresh berries, then made our way back to town along ‘Trail 4’. The photos don’t really capture how beautiful it was.

The guidebooks said that the hike signage is difficult to follow. We had no problem with RockyB using a sweet maps.me app and, of course, Freddy 2.0 showing us the way.

In the afternoon we went to the Cameron Bharat Tea Plantation. In true British fashion we treated ourselves to tea and scones white looking over the magical viewpoint.

Final verdict of the Cameron Highlands is that I’m glad we came here, but the 1 day that we had was sufficient. I definitely prefer the heat!
This has been an A+ holiday. RockyB and I share the same travel values, which makes for easy companionship. We spent a lot of time walking, eating street food, avoiding tour groups/tourist traps, and playing a never ending stream of ‘would you rather…’ questions. I’m quite sure that Rock-Awn will ride again one day!
The next blog update will be in July when we venture on my surprise birthday trip. You can ask RobO where we’re going for that one, then feel free to pass the info over to me!
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I Heart Street Art

We have spent the last 4 days in George Town, the main city on the island of Penang. The Center of the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of beautiful old colonial buildings and mix of 3 different cultures.

First a shout out to our hotel. If you ever find yourself in Georgetown, do yourself a favour and stay at Ren i Tang. It’s an old Chinese medicine wholesaler building that has been converted into beautiful and inexpensive rooms. And it’s right in the heart of Little India. Yum.

It’s always a plus to know a local who can show off the city, and here was no exception. We’ve spent some time with Rocky’s yoga classmate Sarah, who showed us some Buddhist and Chinese temples, oriented us to the city, and took us to the beach. As an extra bonus we even got to go to one of her yoga classes.

One of the things that put George Town on my list is the amazing street art by a Lithouanian guy named Ernest Zacharevic. Feast your eyes…

Yes, you did just see Bruce Lee karate kicking a cat.

Other highlights have included a funicular up Penang Hill for city views and a visit to the grand Kek Lok Si Temple. We actually went there twice. The first was when we were heading to Penang Hill and accidentally got off of the bus too early because we were following the other whiteys on the bus, then the next day when we wanted more time to explore there.

Of course we’ve enjoyed some relax time, reflexology foot massages, and the famous street hawker food.
The final chapter of this Rock-Awn holiday will be spent in the tea plantations of the Cameron Highlands.

 

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Welcome to the Jungle

We’ve had 3 full on, hot and sweaty days in Malaysian Borneo. Our home base is a city called Kuching, which the guidebook says is a cosmopolitan Paris of Malaysia. I guess so, if you like Cats. Now I don’t mean the Andrew Lloyd Webber version, I mean cats, like the feline pets.

I guess the word ‘kucing’ means ‘cat’ in Malaysian, so they’ve taken this to a whole new level. Some of the main tourist attractions are these crazy weird, huge cat sculptures.

Kuching is also known for these elaborate (and delicious) layered cakes that can take up to 5 hours to make.

 

There’s interesting, interactive street art throughout the city, and a stunning waterfront with an S-shaped pedestrian bridge crossing the river to an elaborate state assembly building.

Yesterday we took a bus and boat along the South China Sea to Bako National Park.  Our jungle hike finished with views of probiscus monkeys.  We also saw some regular monkeys attacking tourists looting their backpacks. Monkeys are such jerks.

Today we were up early to catch the bus to Semenggoh Nature Reserve, which has an orangutan sanctuary. This was a bucket list checker for me. We were the first people there so had unobstructed views of a 10 year old orangutan feeding until Richie arrived (cue heavy base rap music).

Who’s Richie? He’s the alpha male who is basically the king of the place. When he eats, no one else can. Props to RockyB for some great shots of him.

This afternoon we used our guesthouse bikes to ride along the river. We caught a lot of attention of the locals (even though many of them ride bicycles). Maybe they were just amazed to see how sweaty a human can actually get. We came across an orchid garden on our way back.

 

We’ve been eating a variety of Malaysian, Thai, Indian, and Chinese food and every meal qualifies in the ‘plate licker’ category. Highlights have included a popular breakfast soup called ‘Laksa’ (coconut milk, lemon grass, tamarind, lime, rice noodles) and the unofficial national dish of ‘Nasi Lemak’ (coconut rice with peanuts, salted fish, sambal, hard boiled egg). 3 times in a row Rocky B has been finished her meal before mine even arrives. The pattern seems to point toward a strange type of whitey-treatment. We’re planning some experiments to test this theory, but regardless I’m willing to wait for this delicious food!

 

 

Tomorrow we’re flying to Penang, an island known for it’s street art and street food.
Rock-Awn!

 

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Killin’ KL

The votes have been tallied. It’s official. Our team name is Rock-Awn!

After more than 30 hours of travel Rocky B and I arrived in Kuala Lumpur. It was 6 am in Malaysia so we knew we had a long day ahead of us.

We headed to the Batu Caves, a complex of huge limestone caves that houses Hindu temples.

On a long walk to find the entrance of KL Forest Eco Park, a large park in the city, we stumbled upon our first taste of Malaysia: a super busy local lunch spot of different food stalls. Yum!

We explored the park’s canopy walkway, then made our way to our Air BnB accommodation to have a (much needed) soak in the rooftop infinity pool.

Yep, it’s as awesome as it sounds (and looks).

We managed to soldier through the first day until collapsing into bed just before 8pm.
We woke up feeling much fresher today and crushed the city sites on foot. We started in Little India, exploring fabrics and Chai, then headed to Chinatown. RobO had challenged me to taste durian, so I checked it off of the ‘food bucket list’.  (Un)fortunately it isn’t in season, so I found some (way too expensive) puréed durian, which I think made it much more palatable because there was less olfactory engagement.

We toured Masjid Jamek, a beautiful central mosque along the river. You’ll notice we’re wearing robes to cover our obviously sleazy attire.

We toured some street art and in a moment of exhaustion sat in a cool market area getting a fish pedicure. These fish were much more aggressive than those we had experienced before, which led to one of us nearly hyperventilating and the other flapping her hands rapidly like a child with autism. Any guesses on who’s who? My silky smooth feet are thanking me for calming down and persevering after the initial reaction.

After another soak in the infinity pool we fuelled up with Indian food and headed out for some shots of the Petronas towers at night. There are fountains outside similar to the Belaggio ones in Vegas. After all of today’s walking Rocky turned to me and said “my dawgs are barkin'”. Me too.

Tomorrow we’re flying again. Just a short hop over to the Eastern Island of Sarawak.