1. Culture contrast: Malaysia is a truly unique country, with a mix of three very different cultures – Malay, Indian and Chinese – along with their respective religions – Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist.  It’s fascinating to see the cultures combined out on the street… an Indian girl in a brightly colored sari, next to a head covered Muslim woman, and then a Chinese girl in stilettos, miniskirt and a Prada bag walks by.
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2. The letter K: As previously mentioned, ‘K’ is probably the most popular letter in Malaysia.  After a few days in Malaysia, the letter ‘C’ seizes to exist in your mind and suddenly you’re emailing and Fakebooking, I mean Facebooking, about taking teksis, buying a tiket, and going to the kafe!
3. Shopping in Kuala Lumpar: While I’m not usually too keen on shopping, I had a great time bargaining at the night market in KL.  After buying 2 sundresses and some gifts, I was waiting for my travel buddy to finish their shopping.  I kept getting the “You buy, you buy, only $1″ lines even though I wasn’t shopping anymore, I teasingly turned their pushy sales tactic back on them for a laugh, but got the biggest laugh when I was leaving the market, he ran out and gave me a coin purse for free.
4. Cameron Highlands: One of my favorite places in Malaysia was the Cameron Highlands.  In contrast with the rest of mainland Malaysia, it’s higher in the mountains with low humidity.  The highlands are an agriculture zone, known for their tea plantations, strawberry fields, veggies, markets, honey bees and butterflies and excellent hiking opportunities.  The perfect place to go when you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of SE Asia.
5. Amazing Indian food for $2: I had read about a restaurant in Meleka that served a $2 10 item vegeterian lunch, so when my tri-shaw peddler recommended a place, I was happily surprised to find out that it was the same place!  After setting you up with your own banana leaf placemat, they spoon dish after dish of curries and rice, filling the leaf (utensils optional). Amazing!
6. Pedaling Tri-shaws in Melaka: While I have no plans to move to Malaysia to be a tri-shaw peddler, I had fun taking turns pedaling with my tri-shaw driver on my tour of the town.  And the bicycle bell was quite useful to ring as I passed other tri-shaws.  I’m not sure who was more surprised, the other drivers or their passengers. ;)
7. Massages: Let’s face it, sometimes the $3 massages in SE Asia aren’t that relaxing! You’re practically on the sidewalk, there’s lots of traffic and then they spend the whole time giggling.  I found that the average massage in Malaysia was a great value, a step up from Thailand, but way cheaper than Singapore.  Most of the workers are Thai anyway, but there seems to be more of a spa atmosphere in Malaysia.
8. Monkeys: They’re everywhere!  Tip: keep shiny objects in your bag. They love cameras and candy wrappers and just about everything else. There are definitely some cheeky monkeys in Malaysia, and they’re so unpredictable!
9. Tea fields in Cameron Highlands: I had no idea how beautiful the tea fields in the Cameron Highlands were going to be. Hill after hill of patterned green. Truly amazing.
10. Malay food: I don’t know if Malaysia invented the sweet and sour approach to food, but they’re rocking it regardless.  I found Malay food to be a really unique mix of flavors, with a lot of coconut, mango, peanut, tamarind and fish sauce.  And I could have eaten for days on all of the treats I bought at the night markets.

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After the zoo, we headed back into town. A few of us went to Raffles for Singapore Slings and then walked around the Clark Quay area. Singapore is fun, but you can spend too much, way too easily here. This isn’t going to be an easy week, budget-wise.

This morning, I did a river tour and then a tri-shaw ride, which I ended up peddling part of the way (and no, he wouldn’t give a discount). We had them drop us off at an Indian restaurant that has a ten item vegetarian lunch for only 6 ringetts (that’s $2)! Amazing! We walked back to the hotel, using the sun as our compass, and then headed over to the Chinese reflexology and Thai massage. I got a Chinese reflexology feet and back massage. Refreshing! And they gave us ginger tea to drink. After dinner at The Geographer, I browsed the night market, trying different street food sweets. Melaka has been a really fun city and really affordable.

This evening, we went to look at the Radio Tower. The restaurant requires two week advance reservations, so we just had drinks and pizza below the tower.

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.

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.

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!