Malaysia, Truly Asia

Over the last term break, yes, it was yet another week of vacation, I know, boo hoo. Anywho, my friends and I went to Malaysia, which actually was our third choice. Once again, darn, we just had to go to Malaysia instead of the Philippines or Cambodia. So, here are the highlights from the last week of March.

1. Kuala Lumpur

The capital city of Malaysia. We were only there for less than 8 hours Friday night. All we did was fly in, take a bus to our hostel, sleep and then take an early bus headed for our destination far away from the city. We were very hungry when we arrived, so we did venture out quickly for sustenance a little after midnight when we finally made it to our hostel. We were near the China Town area of the city, and we had some good noodles with kind of strange sauce on them, but they did the job.

2. Cameron Highlands

This was our destination after KL. It was a short 4-hour bus ride that cost us each around $10. We stayed in a town called Tanah Rata. Kristina found us an amazing place to stay, and we couldn’t have asked for a more fantastic introduction to the area. The owner of the hostel, Jay, took us on a short driving tour of the main places to go, see, and where to eat before she dropped us off. There was even a book full of laminated maps of the surrounding trails in the area. These were logical, self-explanatory maps that really helped us to not have to hire guide.

On Saturday afternoon, we were ready for a nice, short hike. Jay recommended Trail 10, so we went off to find our way. After a detour of walking the wrong way, ending up at an entirely wrong trail, we finally figured out which way to go, and we made it to the trail we had intended to hike. We ended in the neighboring town where there was a strawberry farm as well as a night market, both of which we checked out. We were rewarded by absolutely delicious Indian food at the restaurant Jay had recommended. It was such good food that we ate there at least once each day that we were there.

Day 2 in the Cameron Highlands involved an intensely long hike (we literally hike all day). We hiked up to the top of Gunung Brincheng. On our way down the “other” side of the hill/mountain, we were following our map, headed to the Boh Tea Plantation visitors’ centre. This is when we were actually walking through the amazingly green, vast tea plantation. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn and ended up on a 1-hour detour through a farm. Once we got back on the right track, it started raining. Not light, singing in the rain, This was downpour, cats and dogs, tropical rain. We didn’t have much of anything to take shelter under, so we just walked in it.  We made it to the plantation, tried to dry a little while enjoying some tea (even though I am not much of a tea drinker). Our plan to take a taxi from the plantation did not work, due to the rain, so we ended up walking along the road, toward the town, hoping to catch a ride from someone. Eventually, we hopped in a big truck that dropped us off at the next town, which was not where we were staying. This lead us to hitchhike a second time (don’t freak out, Mom). Looks fun, doesn’t it? We also met a guy from the Netherlands on holiday, in our same situation, so he came along for the adventure.

Day 3: We took another hike this day, on a loop around the jungle. No guide required again; just a map and a little faith that we were going the right way, most of the time.

3. Penang

We took another 4-hour bus trip from the Cameron Highlands to Penang. Kristina told us the only two reasons for this stop were the food and hiking Penang Hill. We tackled the first on the afternoon we arrived. It was the most intense, obnoxiously steep hike ever! For the first half, we were following a trail in the woods, part of which followed stairs ending at a small gathering of men who regularly hike the hill. The few who passed us while hiking were nice enough to encourage us along the way. We made it up to the top after hiking for about 2 hours. The last half of the trail was just walking on the steep, blacktop road. When we finally made it to the top, I was so sweaty that I could wring out all of my clothes and produce a small waterfall. Luckily, that was not the only way to the top, so we hitched a ride on the ‘monorail’ train down the side of the hill (and, by the way, “hill” is a bit of a misnomer). To reward our hard work of the day, we went to “Glutton Street” filled with a bunch of local food stalls. We each bought a different type of food and brought it back to the table to share. It was all very delicious, although I don’t remember, at this point, exactly what I ate.

4. Langkawi

For the last leg of our journey, we took a short flight to the beach (we could’ve taken a 3-hour ferry ride, but we opted for more time at the beach, instead). We had a bit of a surprise with the hotel, considering it was not in the ‘happening’ area, and not even near the beach. We took care of that by leaving to find two rooms across the street from the beach. That night, we ate at a Mexican restaurant simply so we could drink a margarita. Then, we proceeded to walk along the beach, where we found a bunch of people hanging out around a bonfire. That soon turned into people jumping over the fire and the crowd cheering. I did not find it amusing. Interestingly enough, the LIMA air show (apparently it’s kind of a big deal) was happening at the airport. The day after we arrived, we heard and saw the planes flying over while we swam and lay on the beach. The second day at the beach, I stayed in the water too long, got sunburn and retreated to the shade for the rest of the day. Kristina and Nicole rented a jet ski. On the last day, Kristina, Danna and I rented kayaks and paddled around the shore for a couple of hours. It was relaxing and the first time I had ever been in a kayak. It was more tiring than I had realized it would be, but it was a good break from ‘sunning’ on the beach for too long. There is also a sky bridge that we visited one afternoon for sunset. Unfortunately, it was closed for maintenance (fine by me). But we still rode a cable car to the top of the hill. See below for what we didn't get the chance to walk on.