Malaysia Part 2

Pilau Pinang
I set up a host in Penang, and jumped on a bus, where I met a few chinese dudes from Beijing who I'd see again later on. My host, a middle aged Chinese guy, swung by the bus station on his motorcycle and gave me a lift to his place (with my giant pack and guitar). He was responsible for the organization of most Chinese cultural events that took place in Penang, like operas, dragon dances, kung fu, drum shows, the list goes on. And I happened to have rolled into town on the 1 year anniversary of Penang being declared a UN World Heritage Site, so there was no shortage of interesting things to see, with front row or backstage access no less. Wasn't so lucky with my living arrangements though. Contrary to the spare room I was told I'd have to myself, which was being taken by a fellow couchsurfing couple (he had double booked), I was sleeping on a stained mattress in a storage room. Did I mention he lived in the Fight Club house. Pretty close. It was POURING rain outside, and the roof wasn't so watertight, so I was basically sleeping on a dry 3 x 5 patch on a filthy mattress, waterfalls dumping down around me, in a room filled with shelves of pails, buckets, and mops, all with an inch and a half of dust on them. Just before the first night, my host tells me "oh....if you hear any sounds, don't worry, it's just the rats chasing the cockroaches". I woke up with small red bites all over my body, and surely enough one of the other CSers woke up to find rather large bites taken out of his recently purchased pears, and his baseball cap. Needless to say, I didn't care to stick around this place for very long. Turned out, my host was jam packing his place with travelers because he was writing a book on them. Hosting allowed him to interview them and compile the feedback.

I had one other night at his place before we were saved by his friend Chin Chin. She offered to take the couple and I to her house for a few days. It was like night and day. She lived near the beach resorts on perfect crystal blue water, by lush green mountains, surrounded by palm trees, in a beautiful, pristine house, nay, palace. Well....house. There was no turning down her continuous offers to buy us meals and drinks, give us malaysian cooking classes, present us with feasts of fresh fruit, chauffeur us around the island, give us a tour of her friend's vegetable/fruit garden, a textile factory, and so many other interesting places. I think she showed us every restaurant worth eating at in Penang.

On my last day with her, I thought I'd check out a 'Fish Spa', which is a place where you put your feet in a pool of water and let the hundreds of fish nibble at the dead skin. Its a mix of being ticklish, and painful, but you feel like a million bucks coming out of there. Then I caught a ride to a national park, and hiked for a few hours, until I reached the remote 'Monkey Beach', which contrary to its name had no monkeys at all, only dozens of sea-doos and vacationing Arabs. Malaysia, being a partially muslim country with halal restaurants and countless mosques, is an ideal beach vacation getaway for muslims. I went for a dip, chatted with some locals, and paid a boater for a lift and bike ride back home. The next day, I said a sad farewell to Chin Chin, and the american/polish couple, and headed off to the Cameron Highlands.

Cameron Highlands
The chinese dude I had met on the bus had sent me a message that he lost his buddy and wondered if I'd be interested in some hiking with him. So, we met up again in Cameron Highlands, land of the mountains with a perfect climate for tea plantations. I only had one full day to spend there, so we made haste. Joined by a british dude, we did some jungle hiking, hitchhiked in the back of a 60s truck that reeked of goats or something, and explored a tea plantation with flowers of every color. The walk back from the tea plantation was about 2 hours long through the green hillside. By the time we got back and took off our boots...it was like "aaaahhhhhhh". Yup, one of those.

That night I was looking at a map on the wall and a western girl pointed out some other good hikes for me. She looked strangely familiar, so I told her so. The 'where are you from, who do you know' game ensued, and she turned out to be the T.A. from my first field course in geography! No joke. In a small town in the mountains of central Malaysia, I ran into my T.A. from a first year field course. We all stayed up chatting and reminiscing, had a run in with a Syrian guy who was angry at the world, particularly at us 'Americans', then we called it a night after some street pad thai. The buses were sold out, but I caught a ticket on the 'locals' bus. A rickety old thing with springs sticking out of the seats pulled up at 8 am, and I laughed out loud. It turned out the be the nicer bus behind it that I'd be riding. Phewf. It was the milk run, which was fine by me because I got to soak in some more scenery. A quick transfer back in KL, and I was bound for Singapore.