Rain Rain Go Away

It has rained every day since my last blog. All be it not torrential downpours or all day but a little bit each day.  Thankfully the rain hasn’t deterred me from doing anything but it still is annoying to be caught in a rain shower every day. In the Cameron Highlands, I got absolutely soaked the first day I was there and the second day got caught in a rain shower as well when going a walk around the town. Thankfully found shelter and was not as soaked as the day before. The Cameron Highlands was really pretty and I loved having tea and scones everyday for an afternoon snack followed by delicious Indian food at night. Malaysia’ ethnicity is Chinese, Indian, Malay and Orang Asli (Indigenous people) so there is a variety of delicious food to have, but I particularly love the Indian food. 

Drinking Boh tea and eating scones

Looking over the tea plantation

From the Cameron Highlands, I caught a mini-van to Kuala Lumpur (KL), found a hostel in Chinatown and walked around Jalan Petaling, a famous shopping street, and the Central Market. It also poured while I was in the central market so had to wait the rain out before going back to the hostel to meet Sieske ad Sanne, as they came in from Melaka in the late afternoon. So nice to see them again!  We went for a walk from Chinatown to Little India for dinner and ended up at the Petronas Towers, which are the famous landmark of KL. They are so pretty all light up at night time. We went to the Sky Bar on the 37^th floor of the Traders Hotel for a drink and the great views of the twin towers.  The next day, I was in line for 1.5 hours to get a ticket to the Skybridge of the Petronas Towers. The Skybridge is on a connecting bridge on the 41^st floor of the towers.  You definitely have to line up early if you want a ticket as I got in line around 10am and less than 30 people were behind me before they cut the line off. I did some shopping in the KLCC, which s the shopping center at the base of the towers, before my 2pm viewing. It was a nice view of the city and I am glad I did it, but wasn’t the most amazing view I have ever seen. I prefer the view from SkyBar over Skybridge. The gals and I took the LRT up to the Chow Kit market area and had various items from street stalls for dinner before I had to catch my night train to Singapore.  It was sad to say a final farewell to Sieske and Sanne after having seem them every couple of weeks for the past 3 months but alas our plans really don’t meet up anymore for this trip.

Singapore is a very clean, modern city and very easy to get around.vAfter clearing customs, I walked to the MRT station and took it to my hostel in Little India. I spent the day wandering around the stores and malls of Orchard Road, also known as the Sacks Fifth Avenue of Singapore. I only bought one shirt that was on sale as couldn’t bring myself to pay real prices for real clothes. I have gotten into a backpacker, cheap spending mentality over here and with the Singapore dollar being very similar to the Canada, I got sticker shock. From Orchard Road, I went to Chinatown and wandered about the market streets where prices where to my liking. I ate in the food centers of malls, food streets or food makets as that is where the cheapest and tastiest food is in Singapore. My second day in Singapore, was a trip to the zoo. It is a really nice zoo with a rainforest setting and lots of cool animals. The highlight for me was that I feed manatees and saw beautiful free ranging organ-utans. I got dressed up, well as dressed up as I could get, and went with three American boys to the Marina Bay Sands Casino for the evening. I really wanted to go to a New Asia Bar on that 71^st floor of the Stamford Hotel for a cocktail and the sights of the city but we got there ten minutes after it was closed. I was able to go up to the 71^st floor the next day and see the daytime views of the city, which was really nice. Better than the views from Skybridge and SkyBar in KL.  I wandered around the last places I had not visited yet, like the Merlion and Clarke Quay, before getting the MRT to the airport.  



My flight to Bali was non eventful which is good and took a cab into Kuta Beach to find accommodation for the night. I probably should have booked in advance but after thirty minutes of walking around I found a cheap enough place to stay. The next day at breakfast, Sarah from Sweden struck up a conversation and we decided to go to Ubud that afternoon. So now I am in Ubud and it is lovely. So peaceful and relaxing with lots of greenery, with rice fields hidden in between houses and shops. Sarah and I wandered lots around the town, went to a Legong traditional dance show and went to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary to see the three temples and Balinese Macaques.  We found the best little warung, Balinese for eatery, that has a pretty view of a rice field and the best peanut sauce I have tasted yet.  I plan to be in Ubud for another couple more days to just chill out but Sarah did leave today. Hopefully the rain lets up so that I can rent a bicycle or a scooter to see some of the area around Ubud, and not get soaked in the process. Till next time xoxox

Sarah and I at our favourite warung

Country Number 5

I am now in Malaysia and it is the fifth county I have visited on this trip. Three more to go (Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines) meaning eight countries in total in 4.5 months. Leaving Thailand was sad as I do like it there, especially the food (fruit shakes, banana chocolate pancakes, green curry), and as I had been in Thailand for 26 days and had grown accustomed to it. My last blogged mentioned that I was in Krabi, Thailand where I stayed for 2 nights. I did a day climbing tour to Railay and it was awesome!  With limestone cliffs jutting out of the ocean and the jungle and pretty beaches around, it’s no wonder it is a world class climbing destination. The climbing was really good, though I am not in climbing shape by any means and my muscles were super sore the next day. In the hostel in Krabi, I met a Canadian girl named Laura and her Germany friend Alex and joined with them in travelling to Koh Phi Phi. We had a really hard  time finding reasonably priced accommodation on Phi Phi but did get a sweet deal on a snorkel boat tour around Phi Phi Don (the main island where everyone stays) and Phi Phi Ley (the marine park island with Maya Bay the beach from the movie “The Beach”). The snorkel tour was wicked in that we saw some nice islands, pretty beaches, and cool marine life. We even had the adventure of towing the second boat we were with as its engine broke, which resulted in our boat being low on fuel for the trip home later but we made it. Maya Bay is a really beautiful beach and definitely looks like it did in the movie. We looked all around for Leo DiCaprio but the only place we saw him was his superimposed large head on a small body for a boat tour add. The gals and I had a good time shopping and hanging on at the main beach on Phi Phi Don. We also went out one night to see the infamous fires shows put on at the bars on the beach. The lame thing was that Phi Phi closes at 1:20am on a Friday night. All the bars and clubs shut down and we all thought it was a party island. Guess we were wrong.  Oh well, it was a good thing as we had to get up early to get ferry to the mainland, followed by a scary and crazy mini-bus to Hat Yai, and then another mini-bus to Georgetown on the island of Penang, Malaysia. The border crossing was no issue and the Malaysia boarder lady was super friendly, as are all the rest of the Malaysians I have met thus far. The gals and I wandered around historical Georgetown in the heat and ended up at the A/C mall as it was too hot to be out and the history of the place wasn’t that interesting to us. Georgetown is supposed to be food stall heaven but they all seemed to have the same food, well at least the food stalls we found. Maybe I will find more diversity in Kuala Lumpar. The gals had a tighter time line than I did so headed to the Cameron Highlands, while I went to the Perhentian Islands on the east coast. Little Perhentian Island also known as Kechil Island is beautiful with Long Beach being white sand with turquoise water.  My bungalow had a decent view of the sea and I could hear the waves crashing on the beach as I went to sleep every night. I mostly just hung out at the beach and did my cycle of swimming, sun tanning and reading but I also did two dives one day.  The first dive was to site a called Sugar Wreck and it was really cool to swim around a 90m overturned boat that had so much sea life around it. The second dive was to a coral reef and we saw 3 stingrays plus tons of fish and coral. They were both really fun and have made me really look forward to diving in Indonesia as it is supposed to be amazing there. 



Climbing in Railay

Laura, Alex and I snorkeling at "The Beach"

Long Beach, Perhentian Islands

From the Perhentians, I took a bus to the Cameron Highlands which is famous for tea plantations and vegetable and fruit farms. I took a local bus to the turn off for the Boh Tea Plantation and walked the 3.5 km to the tea house but of course it started to rain about fifteen minutes into my walk so got soaked. Two others were caught in the rain with me and our just reward was pretty views of the tea fields as we sipped delicious tea and ate scones. So yummy!  I will spend another day in the Cameron Highlands and then head to Kuala Lumpur to explore the city.  Hope all is well with everyone. Much love from Malaysia xoxox

P.S.- I wrote most of this blog as I was sitting on the deck of my bungalow on the Perhentian Island, listening to the waves crash on the shore. It is a great place to type away on your computer and very relaxing.