At Cathedral Rock, Sedona, AZ

At Cathedral Rock, Sedona, AZ

Quote from Into the Wild

If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Penang and Tanah Rata, Malaysia

Penang and Tanah Rata, Malaysia
It was a rough ride to get there but we made it.  After watching about 10 people lose their lunches on the boat ride to the mainland, and almost including myself, we hopped another bus for 6 more hours to reach the town Had Yai, Thailand, where we’d connect to the next bus to Malaysia.  We grabbed a completely ghetto hotel room by the bus station for a poor night’s sleep.  Woke up, bucket showered off, then bussed it again another 6 hours, making our way across the Malaysian border and to the Northern Capital city of Georgetown on Penang Island in Malaysia.  Penang, a very developed city complete with high rises overlooking the sea at almost every turn.  Clean and planned.  The local bus systems were excellent, very clean and comfortable and we were able to find our way around from China Town to the National Park to Little India quite easily. 
Penang’s National Park was a treat, although sweltering hot.  We went trekking for about 3 hours on a well defined and mostly shaded path through the park.  We were lucky enough to stumble upon a band of monkeys as the path wandered to the edge of a small beach area.  They were entertaining to see the least, as they found a small pond they splashed and played in.  (See Video).  We also walked from our hotel in Little China to Little India on several occasions to continue partaking in the excellent Roti and Naan breads with Dahl and spices to eat.  I had definitely the best chicken I’ve ever eaten as well: Chicken Soya from an Indian Restaurant that we stopped in 3 times during our stay.  Ahhhhhhh it was so so good. Christina and I are loving us some authentic Indian food, we are definitely big fans now.  We also took a ride on the longest cable car in Malaysia that runs uphill to a great view overlooking almost the entire coast of the island.  The views were spectacular.  We then plotted our journey to Tanah Rata and the famous “Cameron Highlands Mountains”, only about a 3 hour journey but quite curvy and not so enjoyable a ride there. 
Outside of Penang on our way to Tanah Rata, the mini-bus (small van), loaded with 8 passengers and driver, broke down on the side of the highway, the transmission went caput it appeared.  So we smiled and endured another travel occurrence and hung out on the side of the road for about an hour until a police patrol pulled our van with a tow rope and us inside, to the next exit and we waited until a replacement van could come and retrieve us.   About 3 hours later and a questionable roadside meal, we finally get a replacement van and away we went again.  We were fortunate to make some new friends on the journey, Timmy and Anne from Bangkok.  They were spending some time travelling to new places as well.  Anne sadly had enough of the curvy road up the mountains and got sick herself.  She was the most courteous sick person we had ever seen.  She was so nice.  We ended up having dinner with them that evening at another Indian restaurant in the highlands.  We enjoyed their company and spent the next day trekking over 10 hours together around Tanah Rata and the highland areas: going through some trails, to the Bee Farm, famous Strawberry Farms, and amazing Butterfly Farms together that day.  The weather in the Cameron Highlands is much cooler, very pleasant with occasional rain, easily making for a great tourist or weekend getaway from the heat of the other surrounding areas.  It almost reminds you of a scene out of a Dutch film, very, well…. Dutch looking.  We took some great pics and really enjoyed Timmy and Anne’s company for the time we were there.  They are both graduating college and nearing the next phase of their lives soon.  Timmy was actually from Germany but studied in Bangkok.  The second day in Tanah Rata, Christina and I hiked it another hour down-hill to reach the famous Tea Plantations all along the mountainside.  They were quite beautiful and we stopped at the very busy Tea House overlooking the hillsides to have 2 very good pots of Tea, carrot cake, and donuts J, and watched it rain for about 2 hours.  It was a picturesque spot to say the least as native tourists were snapping photos all along the edge and enjoying the same view.  Funny story: One guy asked if he could sit down with us and just pretend like we were having a conversation with him so his buddy could take a picture of him with the “western foreigners”, we just had to laugh, and obliged him.  We had to play act like we were having a conversation to make it look real. It’s comical being such a “novelty” sometimes, people do stop us and ask to have their picture taken often with us.  No introductions, no name exchanges, just a picture request J  (odd and funny at the same time).
 Ok we’re off to Kuala Lumpur, Christina and I are both excited about seeing the famed Petronas Towers and the 4th highest communications tower in the world also, as well as the famed city itself.    
All is still well.