Powered by Tofu

Yesterday morning, we took a bus to the Cameron Highlands. I’ve never been on a bus that was driven like that. It seemed like we were going to fly off every corner! Not a comforting thought as you’re driving through the “highlands.” We arrived around 2pm, and walked through town to our guest house. It’s so different here than what I’ve seen so far in Malaysia. The biggest difference is the climate. It’s about ten degrees cooler, and not very humid. I love it! The guesthouse is also really nice and peaceful.

This morning, we went out to see the tea fields. The plantation was closed, but the workers were still cutting and gathering leaves. The fields are massive, and gorgeous and such a cool color and texture. OK, words are working, a picture is necessary. And here’s a video clip of our guide explaining about the tea…

This afternoon, several of us took a guided hike into the hills. When a little 65 year old Indian man showed up to guide us on our hike, I was a little nervous that we’d be hiking at a fairly slow pace, but I was pleasantly surprised. He wouldn’t accept payment at the beginning of the hike, he said, “If I’m worth it, you pay at end.” And what an amazing guide! I was so glad we decided to do the guided hike. Not only did we not have to worry about finding the trail, but I learned a lot about the area. He hikes almost every day and had already done a 4 hour hike that morning! We passed an area that he saw a king cobra in last week, so he told us about some of the more dangerous animals in the area. We asked what happens when you get bit by a king cobra snake and he said, “you have 10 minutes, then heaven, no time for hospital, straight to heaven you go.” Near the end of our hike, he went running into the trees and came out with slender chutes of rattan, that he started weaving into bracelets for each of us. He must have made hundreds of these in his lifetime! After an 8km hike, I was totally sold on hiking with a local guide. It’s more fun and it’s also nice to support local tourism.

Malaysia loves the letter “K.” It seems to be the most prominent letter in the Malay language. Taxi is teksi, ticket is tiket, cafe is kafe… Speaking of kafe, kafe doesn’t mean early and kopi (coffee) is an afternoon thing. After several hours of wandering, I realized that all the kafes open around 2pm. Welcome to Malaysia!

After finally finding some breakfast and coffee, we caught the bus to the botanical gardens. We walked around in the [oppressive] heat for several hours before taking a bus back to town and then another bus back up the hill (you have to love the hub and spoke theory of their bus system). At Penang Hill we rode the cable car to the top, toured the temple and mosque and looked down at the city.

For dinner we went to a local Indian market. So far the food in Malaysia has been predictably cheap and good.

More pictures from George Town:

Here’s a sign detailing all othe things you shouldn’t do in the Botanical Gardens.

The cannon on Penang Hill, with a woman in a burka at the lower left corner.

Travel day! What was supposed to be five hours in the van ended up being eight hours. Needless to say, I wasn’t a happy camper since I only had a few granola bars to snack on. The border crossing to Malaysia was pretty uneventful. We stood in line on the Thailand side, got our passports stamped before walking through, where we got in taxis to get to the Malaysia side, where they stamped our passports again, and then drove on through the baggage scan. They didn’t even stop our taxi to scan our bags! Then the taxi dropped us off down the road. It was kind of strange, just standing on the side of the road with our packs while we waited for our van. We were like “did we get out of the taxi too soon!” But the van was just across the street. We continued on to Penang island, George Town.

I’m fairly certain that we’re staying at the worst hotel in George Town. It totally gives me the creeps. It seems like a bad hotel from the movies, and we think there’s some kind of brothel in the back. After exchanging my Baht for Ringgits, we met for dinner at an Indian restaurant down the street. It was so good! I love Malaysia! We learned today that Malaysia is a really diverse mix of cultures. While they’re a Muslim majority country, the three main cultures are Malaysian, Chinese, and Indian. This translates to an amazing mix of food choices!

It’s so nice being out of Bangkok and out on the beach. Today we took a day trip out to Ko Phi Phi. We boated out to several islands, and swam, snorkeled, and laid out. Then we went into an inlet area with sheer rock face cliffs and blue, shallow water. It was really gorgeous. We got out of the boat to swim a little and there was even a rope swing! Then, we stopped at a cliff area, where all of these monkeys live. I had never seen a monkey, other than the zoo. They’re kind of crazy though. They have really unpredictable movements, so they’re kind of unnerving.

We stopped for lunch on Ko Phi Phi Don, the main island, before stopping at one more beach to swim. It started to rain while we were there and after waiting out part of the downpour, we headed back to Ao Nang. It rained the rest of the way back. A big storm is definitely rolling in. After getting back in town, it stopped raining, until we headed out to the waterfront for dinner. By the time we arrived, we were “wring out your clothes” soaked. So we ate dinner, dripping wet. After dinner, we went and got massages. I could get used to this. I don’t think I’ll be able to pay American prices for massages ever again. On the way home, I found some of the super comfy Thai fisherman pants, like the kind that I wore at my massage.

After over 24 hours of traveling, the last thing I wanted to do today was to hit all the tourist sites. Instead, I walked to Khao San Rd, (and yes, it’s every bit the hippy backpacker ghetto that I imagined). So far, Bangkok just seems like any other massive city in Asia… dirty, crowded and busy. I bought the Lonely Planet SE Asia on a Shoestring guide book, got some pad thai for lunch, and then went to a salon. I got a manicure and pedicure for 180 baht ($6) and then an hour Thai massage for 200 baht, before walking back out to the sweltering heat. After a day of relaxing, I met up with the group for the overnight train to Surat Thani. I went to KFC at the train station, (I know, I never go there at home, but they had salad and mashed potatoes). Thailand trains are way nicer than the China train! The bunks fold down over the seating area, so it’s only 2 bunks high, and you have a curtain! After arriving in Surat Thani, we bused several hours down to Krabi. We finally arrived in Krabi around noon. We’re staying in Ao Nan beach area. I grabbed a wrap at a restaurant down the street, before meeting the truck for rock climbing. Three of us decided to do the 1/2 day climb, and it was so much fun. I officially love climbing! It looked a little scary, but you’re wearing a harness, and Krabi is a really popular climbing destination, so it actually felt really safe. The guides were pretty funny too. After our boat got back from climbing, we went next door to the, you guessed it “Thai restaurant”. ;)

Asia, take two. What a long day! I woke up at 3:30am to take the shuttle to the airport. I got to Melbourne around 8am, just in time to sit at the airport for five hours. Ahhh, airport fun! So what do I do in an international airport with five hours to kill? Coffee, sudoku, reading the Financial Times, Wii Sports in the electronics shop, Jelly Belly pear jelly beans, pretend shopping, reading, pancakes with maple syrup, 1/2 hour Internet, more Wii, and suddenly it seemed like I was being rushed onto the plane. ;) An hour into my JetStar flight to Bangkok, I decided to pay for the movie player. After that, time went pretty quickly. I watched No Country For Old Men (sad), Charlie Wilson’s War, and The Bucket List. A good use of $12, I’d say. After what felt like several days of travel, I was in Bangkok. I grabbed a taxi to my hotel and crashed.

I slept in this morning, before heading to the Auckland airport for my flight down to Christchurch. I took the $5 bus into town. It’s kind of nice visiting the same town again. I know where everything is and it’s all so easy on the second loop through. I walked to Pac’n Save to get three boxes of muesli (granola) bars for SE Asia, did some last minute errands, did laundry, and then packed for Thailand.

Farewell New Zealand. I’ll miss you.

I never give big cities a chance. After breakfast, I walked down to the docks to see if there were any spots on the ferry left to Waiheke Island. There was still room on the 10am ferry, so I ran back to the hostel and grabbed my backpack. First, I took the bus around the island, and then went back to the town center, where I looked at shops, walked through the art gallery, stopped at the info center for a map and the bus schedule and then got wedges at a cafe. For the afternoon, I decided to walk out to one of the closer wineries. It was a nice walk, a few sprinkles, but generally a pretty walkable day. The winery ended up being closed for a private function, and it was already 3pm, so I kept walking up around the hill to the next vineyard. There was an amazing lookout on the way that looks back over to Auckland. I stood on the picnic table and took pictures of the sea, the Skytower and the islands. Very cool. The winery ended up being really busy, but I did a tasting when there was a gap. It was only $5 for 7 wines. The Chardonnay was amazing, Rose kind of blah, and the reds so-so, but two were good. One of the descriptions was “with a hint of pencil shavings” hmmm… clever or cliche, I found it rather amusing. After the tasting, I walked back down the road and then took a side trek (track) over to the beach area. It was signed, but totally not a path, so it felt like I was walking through someone’s farm land! I arrived back in the central town area just in time to grab the bus back to the 5pm ferry. What a fun and relaxing day. When I got back to Auckland, I got take-away pizza for dinner and headed back to the hostel to eat. As I sat down in the cafe, I looked up and happened to be staring across the room at my favorite Irishman! I just can’t get rid of him! It was really nice to end New Zealand with a friendly face.

I had breakfast at Replete Food and people watched. I could totally live here. After checking out of the hostel, I wandered around, and did some shopping. I ended up buying a blue tank top and a hat (for Thailand) at a surf shop. At noon, I caught the Stray bus headed to Auckland.

I officially hate cities. I’m feeling a little down this evening. It’s raining, I’m tired, I’m alone in a big city, and I’m leaving New Zealand in two days. This happens every now and then, but I’m totally in a funk this evening.

We booked a tour to the Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland for this morning. It was fantastic. I took way too many pictures of boiling mud, the geyser, sulphur pits etc. Nerd day out! Seriously, though, it was great. After the bubbling mud, we stopped at the geyser. Oh and buzz kill, they put soap in the geyser at 10:15 every morning, which is why it’s on a precise schedule. After watching the geyser, we did the 1 1/2 hour walk through the “wonderland,” before heading back to Rotorua. We grabbed lunch a cafe and then watched Whale Rider, a movie about the Mauri people.

Around 4pm we walked to the bus station and soaked our feet in the thermal spring at the info center while we waited for my bus. It’s been really nice traveling in a little group of three, but it’s time for me to leave New Zealand, so I’m headed back to Taupo and then up to Auckland. And then there was one… for real this time.