Stuck in the rain

Since I last left off, I've moved past the organized luxuries of KL, and on to the Cameron Highlands. Apparently Cameron Highlands is where the Brits living in Malaysia decided to vacation a century ago... and for good reason. Much like the Central Highlands of Vietnam, Cameron is elevated to a cool, crisp altitude above the hustle and bustle of big cities. There's only one main drag in the city I stayed (Tanah Rata), so you get to know locals and tourists pretty well. I managed to find myself a nice Indian place to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (yes, sometimes all in the same day... 3 times at the same spot... but for around $1.20USD, how can you not?!?) I wouldn't have found it, however, if it wasn't for a 75 year old English women who was walking around helping the cooks. Let me tell you something about this woman named Elizabeth (fitting eh?). I've probably asked the same tired question 500 times. "So how long have you been traveling?" I've received various responses. '2 weeks holiday'... '1 year around the world'... so on and so forth. But this woman takes the cake. Me: "So you seem to know quite a bit about Malaysia and India. When did you start traveling?" Liz: "1957". Seriously, the lady had been traveling for over 50 years. Not moving from place to place every 3 days mind you, but she would live in Spain for 5 years, Malta for 2, Australia 6 months, South America 3 years, etc. If I happen to say I wanted to visit Madagascar, she's the type to respond "I once fell in love with a man in Madagascar... we sailed the Indian Ocean for 3 years before he came down with a bad case of malaria." No joke though, this woman was fascinating. We basically had a reoccurring dinner date for 3 days. (in hindsight, was I seeing a 75 year old woman...)

One of the 4 days I spent in Cameron I decided to skip the half day tour packages where they shuffle you around to quickly knock out the sights. Instead I walked. And walked. And then walked a bit more since I was bored. In the course of walking upwards of 14km I: held a poisonous scorpion in my hand, chased butterflies through a rose garden, and walked 4km through the most majestic tea plantation I've ever seen. (not that I've seen many tea plantations, but this one is definitely one out of one) Honestly, words can't do justice to this place, so you'll just have to wait for pictures. It seriously looked like a Windows default wallpaper... basically too beautiful to be real. Once at the top, I guided myself through a personal tour of the facilities... All well and good until it started to pour outside. "What shall I do?", I asked myself. After pestering 3 or 4 tour groups for a ride back to town, I came across a Sikh who was interested in my predicament. He was up at the Boh Tea Plantation to measure some electrical readings (along with his team), but since it was raining cats and dogs, they couldn't do much outside. We got to talking, and after a couple 'Yeah, I'm from Texas' and 'Oh I studied in Montreal' he decided it was best to postpone work and have some milk tea. (Teh tarek) 3 milk teas, 1 ride back to town, and 4 hours later, I firmly decided that Malaysia is the friendliest SE Asian culture. Seriously, I've had a number of people go above and beyond what I expected of them. *High five* AND 2 points. And it's only been less than 2 weeks here...

I'm currently in Penang, and will be heading back to KL tomorrow for a day before the big Couchsurfing outing to Melacca. A word on Penang (or several), this place is probably the single most condensed culinary schmorgesbord I've met to date. (at least in Asia) Combine tastes from India, China, Malaysia, and a hint of others... and you've got one happy David (well, David + 10 lbs). It's spectacular. Other than the food, the botanical gardens are amazing as well... especially when you get to hold a 40 pound yellow python on your shoulders.

Like I said, back to KL tomorrow. Next post might be from Singapore. I can't believe I'll be back in the West in less than 2 weeks...