Two travel days, one missed bus, and one killer haircut later, we made it to the Cameron Highlands. We spent a bit longer than planned due to the fabulous weather, the laid back life, and the Quitenas we met. Oh, and by killer haircut, I mean awful haircut M received while we accidentally missed our bus, but anyway, on with the story:
Our first day was spent lazing around the town of Tanah Rata in the highlands, drinking way too much coffee and gorging on vegetarian tom yam soup. Yum. We stayed at a place called the Papillon with extremely helpful owners suggesting we skip the tour because the attractions are easily walkable. Apparently this guy is "quite famous"so we took the advice. On our second day, P decided to try and get her glasses fixed since the eye exam in Japan resulted in the wrong prescription (hmm, I wonder how that might have happened?). And just for fun, M sat for a free eye exam as well. Two hours later, P had brand new lenses and M walks out with glasses! What?! M's still getting used to the fact that she has glasses, she keeps muttering "A bad haircut AND glasses, I don't know about these Malaysians."
Bright and early the following morning we stepped into our hiking shoes, grabbed some water, made some sandwiches and were off to Gunung Berinchan, the supposed highest peak in peninsular Malaysia. Though it's a pretty short hike, distancewise, it's quite steep and after days of rain, it's a slippery mudslide...fun! We were covered in mud by the time we reached the top and exhausted for the continuation of the day. We gathered enough energy to begin the walk back down, started walking down the paved road towards Boh Tea Plantation, got sick of it and hitched a ride. The tea plantation was gorgeous! (just try to ignore the fact that native forest was clear cut to plant it) The green reminded us of the rice paddies in Japan. Check out the photos. We were to continue the walk to the main road to hit some strawberry farms when the rain began. And when it rains, it really rains so we needed a way back to town. Thankfully this is where the Quitenas came in. M asked around and scored us a ride from Michelle and Melissa, 2 girls who grew up half in the US and half in Quito. If you've been following this blog, you know how much we LOVE Quito, so we were pretty damn excited. Michelle braved the steep, narrow road in the rain and drove the rental car up Gunung Berinchan in hopes of the rain clearing for a beautiful view of the highlands. No such luck, in fact, the rain came harder once we got to the top. So, back to town for more delicious Tom Yam was the consensus.
We met the girls at the only bar in town that night for a birthday celebration, where too many gulps of Bear Beer were downed, which made for a painful morning. Really, what were we thinking? We got talked into staying another day by our new friends and headed off in the rental car to check out another plantation and some strawberry gardens which certainly helped the hangover.Thank you Bear Beer. Back for more Tom Yam for dinner, a little more birthday celebrating and we had to call it a night. The Cameron Highlands were lovely. Not entirely public transportation friendly, so may I suggest you find some crazy, fun girls from Quito with a rental car?
Melaka, or Malacca as you might see it spelled- was just plain funny to M, who couldn't stop thinking of the meaning of "malaka" in Greek. It was just too much for her to handle.
BUT once she calmed, Melaka (we'll spell it this way so our Greek speaking followers can handle reading this) proved to be a fun little town in SW Malaysia- site of the famous Strait ofMelaka which connects the Indian and Pacific oceans.
We unintentionally had a walking tour of the town the night we arrived as we strolled the streets with our packs on looking for a guesthouse. We refused at least a hundred trishaw offers since their going rate was often more than 20MR! We eventually found a guesthouse and settled into the 10 dollar, air conditioned room. Melaka has a vibrant Chinatown where you can find anything from $8 "birkenstocks" to Charles Cham's Oran Utan Shops and any mass produced Malaysian souvenir you can think of, fun! Renting bikes for a couple of bucks a day is the best way to explore Melaka, so this was the route we took. We spent most of our time seeking out the temples of Chinatown, browsing artists' studios, popping into crazy malls for some aircon time and turning down trishaw offers- they'll even offer you a ride as you roll past them on your own bike! One thing about Melaka that wasn't so fun was trying to find a restaurant open later than 10pm (S.America messed us up), this left us having to resort to 7-11 cup o' noodles. Though, if you do get in before closing time, many restaurants offer an avocado smoothie topped with chocolate syrup- sounds gross, tastes delicious! A definite must try!
Our first day was spent lazing around the town of Tanah Rata in the highlands, drinking way too much coffee and gorging on vegetarian tom yam soup. Yum. We stayed at a place called the Papillon with extremely helpful owners suggesting we skip the tour because the attractions are easily walkable. Apparently this guy is "quite famous"so we took the advice. On our second day, P decided to try and get her glasses fixed since the eye exam in Japan resulted in the wrong prescription (hmm, I wonder how that might have happened?). And just for fun, M sat for a free eye exam as well. Two hours later, P had brand new lenses and M walks out with glasses! What?! M's still getting used to the fact that she has glasses, she keeps muttering "A bad haircut AND glasses, I don't know about these Malaysians."
Bright and early the following morning we stepped into our hiking shoes, grabbed some water, made some sandwiches and were off to Gunung Berinchan, the supposed highest peak in peninsular Malaysia. Though it's a pretty short hike, distancewise, it's quite steep and after days of rain, it's a slippery mudslide...fun! We were covered in mud by the time we reached the top and exhausted for the continuation of the day. We gathered enough energy to begin the walk back down, started walking down the paved road towards Boh Tea Plantation, got sick of it and hitched a ride. The tea plantation was gorgeous! (just try to ignore the fact that native forest was clear cut to plant it) The green reminded us of the rice paddies in Japan. Check out the photos. We were to continue the walk to the main road to hit some strawberry farms when the rain began. And when it rains, it really rains so we needed a way back to town. Thankfully this is where the Quitenas came in. M asked around and scored us a ride from Michelle and Melissa, 2 girls who grew up half in the US and half in Quito. If you've been following this blog, you know how much we LOVE Quito, so we were pretty damn excited. Michelle braved the steep, narrow road in the rain and drove the rental car up Gunung Berinchan in hopes of the rain clearing for a beautiful view of the highlands. No such luck, in fact, the rain came harder once we got to the top. So, back to town for more delicious Tom Yam was the consensus.
We met the girls at the only bar in town that night for a birthday celebration, where too many gulps of Bear Beer were downed, which made for a painful morning. Really, what were we thinking? We got talked into staying another day by our new friends and headed off in the rental car to check out another plantation and some strawberry gardens which certainly helped the hangover.Thank you Bear Beer. Back for more Tom Yam for dinner, a little more birthday celebrating and we had to call it a night. The Cameron Highlands were lovely. Not entirely public transportation friendly, so may I suggest you find some crazy, fun girls from Quito with a rental car?
Melaka, or Malacca as you might see it spelled- was just plain funny to M, who couldn't stop thinking of the meaning of "malaka" in Greek. It was just too much for her to handle.
BUT once she calmed, Melaka (we'll spell it this way so our Greek speaking followers can handle reading this) proved to be a fun little town in SW Malaysia- site of the famous Strait ofMelaka which connects the Indian and Pacific oceans.
We unintentionally had a walking tour of the town the night we arrived as we strolled the streets with our packs on looking for a guesthouse. We refused at least a hundred trishaw offers since their going rate was often more than 20MR! We eventually found a guesthouse and settled into the 10 dollar, air conditioned room. Melaka has a vibrant Chinatown where you can find anything from $8 "birkenstocks" to Charles Cham's Oran Utan Shops and any mass produced Malaysian souvenir you can think of, fun! Renting bikes for a couple of bucks a day is the best way to explore Melaka, so this was the route we took. We spent most of our time seeking out the temples of Chinatown, browsing artists' studios, popping into crazy malls for some aircon time and turning down trishaw offers- they'll even offer you a ride as you roll past them on your own bike! One thing about Melaka that wasn't so fun was trying to find a restaurant open later than 10pm (S.America messed us up), this left us having to resort to 7-11 cup o' noodles. Though, if you do get in before closing time, many restaurants offer an avocado smoothie topped with chocolate syrup- sounds gross, tastes delicious! A definite must try!
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment