Malaysia

Our past 3 weeks, spent in Malaysia, have been beautiful, relaxing, and uneventful. Our trip to Singapore was quickly followed by a train to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, and a city that easily compares. It nearly tops my list of favorite cities, left behind only by Tokyo and Singapore. KL's claim to fame are the Petronas Towers, a seemingly impossible feat of modern architecture. The twin towers, replicas of the Muslim star, are relatively disappointing in the daylight, but spectacular when lit up after dark. I visited at night with a friend and had one of those experiences when it all sinks in. The pair of us, a Canadian and a Brit who met in Taiwan, laid on the pavement in Malaysia looking at the Petronas Towers and exchanged pictures of the Taj Mahal. It's a charmed life!

From KL we made our way to the Cameron Highlands, a much appreciated reprieve from the heat of big cities. The pink parade, in all of our pink glory, boarded the rickety local bus to the tea plantation. We hiked through the plantation, which was lush, lush green and beautiful......until it began pouring rain and we realized the person responsible for the directional signs was likely stoned when they took the measurements. 2km really meant an uphill 5km. Still, it was a worthwhile hike for the pink parade, if for no other reason than it ended in chocolate covered strawberries, Pringles, and stolen coffee. After the Cameron Highlands we descended into the heat of Teman Negara, Malaysia's 20 million year-old rain forest. We trekked for about 8km and starting sweating like ____________ (insert your inappropriate comment here, Ben!) from the word go. We walked across a series of canopy bridges about 10m off the jungle floor and took in some amazing views. Definitely a cool thing to have done, heat and all.

We rewarded ourselves for all of the walking in Cameron Highlands and Teman Negara by a trip to the amazing Perhentian Islands, where we did the following:


Nothing.

Sweet, blissful, unproductive nothing. Doing more than 1 thing a day became exhausting and downright intrepid, so we were forced to split up our tasks of checking email, getting money and doing laundry over a course of 2 weeks. It was kinda gross. Our laziness was bordering on repulsive, but who can blame us when lazy looks like this:
A hut on the beach, 30 feet from the crystal clear sea, and days topped off with fresh seafood and tropical fruit shakes. A total motivation killer, but in an absolutely fantastic way. Nothing could've made me happier over those 2 weeks then being the unemployed sloth that I was/am.In effort to rejoin humanity, we have now left the islands and find ourselves in Cambodia...on a beach. We're sad, sad excuses for human beings. My excitement to get home is beginning to wear down my travel bug, so Cambodia will be a short trip at under a week. Following this we'll bid our 2 years in Asia farewell with a little shopping in Bangkok and Hong Kong before heading to London, England on May 16th. I'll be visiting my sister, whom I haven't seen since I left the country over 2 years ago. After that we'll head to an as of yet undecided sunny spot for one last hoorah before our most exciting destination yet...CANADA. I can't wait. So much has changed since April 29th, 2005 and I can't wait to get caught up. And speak English, not Chinglish. And pee in a toilet, not a hole. And eat a pita.

India and Singapore

After 4 days in Jaisalmer, we began our long, looooong trek to Goa, half way across the sub-continent. We broke it up into 3 legs. Our first stop, Jodhpur, is known as the blue city for obvious reasons: it's blue. I'm not sure how or why this came about, but it's an aesthetically pleasing place to be and made for a good side trip. I hired a tuk-tuk to show me the sights and somehow got taken under the wing of a happy, little, old Indian man who couldn't speak a lick of English. This didn't stop him from excitedly showing me around and presumably telling me all about it...in rapid fire Hindi.

We boarded our train for Mumbai that night and had what was a most eventful trip. Upon boarding, a flashy twenty-something in skin tight jeans up to his nipples, thrust his phone at me. A woman speaking Hindi was on the other end. Confused, I handed him back his phone. A little while later, after he'd killed 45 minutes of travel time by relentlessly staring at me, he sat down 5 feet away from me and VERY unconvertly tried to covertly take a picture of me. I nearly took his head off. Sensing (or more likely hearing) my displeasure, the kind man beside me blocked the creepy creeper from engaging in any further photo ops. While much appreciated, my new-found friendship opened the floodgate for a never-ending offering of food. My willingness to overstuff myself with dodgy food came to a halt with the grapes I saw washed in train water, which is roughly the same colour as dirty dish water. My digestive system would've likely been destroyed upon contact, so I politely declined. He politely insisted. One thing led to another and the grapes slyly made their way to the only possible hiding space I could think of: my bra. They were then transported to the bathroom and dropped down the toilet. Stealth :)

Many hours and many loud snorers later, we made our way to Goa, aka the hottest place on the planet. Goa was moderately relaxing, but the staring, constant sweating and constant hassle made it much less than the tropical paradise we had in mind. The heat forced us out after only a few days and we bid India farewell. It was undoubtedly an amazing experience, but we both felt relieved to leave hassle behind.

Our next stop, Singapore, contrasts India probably more than any other area in the world. It's more orderly than any Western city, as beautiful as any European city, and as lush as any tropical city. The overall effect was almost euphoric after having been in India. A great place to recover!