a quick tour of Malaysia

it is 2:00 a.m. on Friday Feb 23 and I stand in Changi airport in Singapore awaiting our 9:30 flight to Bali. Our plans to catch a sleep at the airport hotel were quashed as they are full so looks like we are napping in chairs. And how did we get here???


the bus from Hat Yai, Thailand to Penang, Malaysia was interesting. I had no idea what to expect in Malaysia, thought it would be like Thailand, only maybe poorer. Very wrong. As soon as you cross the border you notice the improvement in the highways and the care in the landscaping around them. They also have much nicer cars. When we reached the 1st city there were new developments that looked just like suburbia at home. Very nice, very modern.


Arrived in the city of Georgetown on the island (there is a bridge) of Penang. Hadn't done much reading on this either, expected a small city and got a large, densely populated one. Quite late when we arrived so we went direct to the recommended guest house. They had no rooms with a private toilet and it was too late to go searching, so we took what they had. It was a lovely (?!?) attic room, accessed by climbing what was more like a ladder than stairs. Room had 2 beds and nothing else and faced the main street. Not much sleep was had.


Penang being not what we expected, we booked a bus out for the next afternoon, did a little wandering b4 that. I think it is a nice island once awy from Georgetown, but did not find out. The plus and minus of not planning - we ended up somewhere different than expected but were able to leave right away.


the afternoon bus we took went to a city called Tapah. I thought it was going to Tanah Rata. Close though, both are generally in or near an area known as the Cameron Highlands. There were a couple of ladies on the bus who also wanted to go where we wanted and offered to share a cab from Tapah but it was quite expensive and our bus driver insisted it was better to sleep in Tapah and catch the 8:00 a.m. bus to Tanah. There were 2 hotels we could see so we went to number 1. For lack of a better term, it was a shithole. Dirty, water leaking and some lumps on the floor that looked remarkably like mouse dirt. It seems $12 doesn't buy what it used to. But we stayed. Being late (after 9:00), we went looking for a place to eat. Choices were a small roadside cafe or KFC. The cafe won - no English on the menus but the waitress spoke a little and we managed to get some pretty decent chicken and rice.

Next morning we caught the local bus to go to Tanah. The bus was obviously painted with a brush and looked like it was homemade 40 years ago. After a quick stop to get a gallon of oil, we were off. The bus actually did quite well, covered the 52 km. in just over 2 hours. All uphill on a narrow ashphalt road carved in the side of hills/mountains. Lots of switchbacks, one of the most scenic drives I have ever been on.

Tanah Rata is a very nice little city, surrounded by tea plantations and gardens. Went on a little tour that afternoon and saw a plantation, rose gardens, strawberries and a butterfly farm.

The big draw to the area is the cooler weather and jungle hikes. Next morning I headed out with a map (Monique was not feeling up to hiking). Ended up in the jungle for about 5 hours and saw 5 other human beings that whole time. Hike was great, but very difficult with steep climbs and descents. I loved it!!! By the way, we found a really nice little guest house here to stay in for 2 nights.

Thursday morning it was time for another bus (a much nicer one!) and we headed out for Kuala Lumpur. Stayed right in Chinatown at a decent place. Arrived around noon so had lots of time to wander. Next day we did the Petronas towers (they were the tallest buildings in the world until 2003). Great views. And did more wandering, train and monorail rides and a little beer and food. Quality time b4 we caught an evening bus that 5 hours later got us to Singapore. Where the airport hotel is full and I stand at an internet terminal, now at 2:30 in the morning.

Hope everyone is doing well - miss you all!!

PS. Malaysia was great, would love to come back sometime and see some of the stuff we missed.