Malaysia and Our Path
(Note: K.L. = Kuala Lumpur; For reference, Singapore is located 1 degree above the equator.)

Kuala Lumpur: The City, Tasty Snacks, and Neat Indian Temples

• Our plane from Hiroshima decided to make an extra connection through Hong Kong. We had a moment of panic, thinking we were on the wrong plane, but it was just another stop on the way to Kuala Lumpur. Lame. At least we got fed.
• People are aggressive about their bathroom stalls here, even for the squat style! And, look, a water bidet hose!
  
  Chinatown Night Market
• We arrived at our mid-Chinatown hotel late at night and waded through the vendors carting their goods out of the Night Market.
• Swiss Inn Hotel: an absolute maze (it took us three different stairwells in two buildings just to get from our room to the exit) and we had to ask for top sheets.

• Not much opens before 10am here. Either Malaysians sleep in, or it's just a Sunday thing, so we window shopped in the city for a while. Later, my companions found a tailor in a multi-story shopping center called Kota Raya and ordered some custom clothing.
• After navigating the chaotic, crowded, multi-floor bus station, we realized we would have to wait an hour and a half for a bus to Ipoh. So we went to the top floor and waited a half hour for a long-distance taxi instead. Taxis, especially when three are splitting the cost, are cheap!

The City of Ipoh and a Place to Purchase a Man
• During the two-hour, fourteen-dollars-each, taxi ride through the rolling green hills north of Kuala Lumpur headed toward Ipoh, we amused the driver by playing I Spy and singing the Beatles.
• Syeun Hotel in Ipoh: A mix of luxurious and run down. Lobby: red carpet and valet luxuriousness. Room: standard. Bathroom: tolerable. Exercise room and sauna: a joke (the pedal of the bike came off in my hand.) The spa: we had to sign a release form to use it (and so declined.) The rooftop pool was cool, though.

View from the Roof of the Syuen Hotel
• Yummy Chinese food for dinner: after the three of us had ordered six dishes, the waitress said, "Enough." I'm pretty sure she meant, "Is that all?" but it could have gone either way. For dessert, I ordered something I translated as "Iced Love Balls."

Perak Tong Cave Temple Entrance: Us in Front, the Full Height, and Guards (Gargoyles, Not The Dog)

Paintings, Statues, Silliness, and Stairs Inside the Perak Tong Cave Temple

Above the Cave: Gazebos, Views, and Elephants

Kek Look Tong Cave Entrance

The Garden Beyond the Cave: Beauty Within Tall Walls (And Some Silliness)

• Due to shortness of time, we hired a taxi to take us to the cave temples. They were awesome! Temples in a cave: buddhas, paintings on the wall, fortune-tellers, gazebos, it was great! The first one we went to had over 300 stairs to climb until it went outside to the top of the cliff.
• After the temples, we went to the somewhat seedy, but authentic, bus station. But we would have had to wait two hours so, feeling like rich tourists, we flagged down a taxi to drive the next two-hour segment to the Cameron Highlands.
• We amused the taxi driver playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (also called Cusack-to-Cusack) and confused him by pointing to things that were not our hotel.
• Century Pines Hotel: nicest bathroom yet! The luxury here was less dodgy. They even came up and fixed the TV.

The Cameron Highlands
• Tanah Rata was a cute one-street town with lots of western tourists. We wandered up and down it, for once not getting sweaty because the temperature is cooler in the Highlands (so consistently cool that the hotel didn't even offer air conditioning - we didn't need it).
• We changed some more money here no problem. Everyone kept talking to my friend in Chinese (because her Korean background makes her look Asian enough to pass for Chinese. In Japan, everyone talks to her in Japanese.) I had curry and odd pancake things for dinner, but forgot to ask for no ice in my lassi. (As Lonely Planet advised, we tried to make a point of only drinking bottled water and not having anything that might have tap water in it, including watered-down fruit drinks and ice. But we kept forgetting.)
  
  Hiking in the Cameron Highlands (With Those of Many Faiths)
• We went for a hike in the hills and saw a cute waterfall (and also saw a woman in super-full Muslim dress talking on a cell phone.) Then, we went further up and the two of us non-acrophobics climbed the wooden three-story observatory at the top.

Stuff Near Our Hotel: Strange Shiny Glowy Thing and Giant Vegetable Park?
• In the park across from the hotel, I saw a strange shiny glowy thing from a distance and so tracked it down. It was a strange shiny glowy thing. (In other words, a thick post covered with balloon-sized colorful lights or something.) We also stopped to pet the cute kitty and gaze at the random giant vegetables.

• The sunrise tour was cancelled - glad I didn't get up before 6am for it. The next half-day tour around the Cameron Highlands left on schedule, so we got into the bus, rode around the countryside and saw the following:

• Sam Poh Temple: this is a nice enough but fairly typical Chinese temple with its fair share of shiny Buddhas. (Since the three of us had spent the last two years in Japan, which is full of such temples, Sam Poh was not particularly unique for us, but it was very colorful and we enjoyed it.)

• Cactus Valley: This was a large complex full of flowers and cactus and lots of paths to explore it by but... are these native cacti? Doesn't seem authentically Malaysian...

• Strawberry Farm: This was unfortunately not the one with the strawberry picking but it was the one with plenty of sinfully sweet strawberry treats. We had a super-strawberry lunch. The picture shows the pretty view from the farm.

• Butterfly Farm: This place was pretty fun; it had both insects and a whole slew of butterflies and two of our group (not me) held the stick with the rhinoceros beetle on it.


• Tea Plantation: This was my favorite part. The road up was dangerously narrow and full of sharp turns and we were in a nearly full-sized bus so there were a few scary moments, but we made it safely. We walked through the neat pattern of tea bushes (which did not smell like anything) to a tea house, a glass-walled house at the top of one hill (you can see it in one of the photos above). The place was neat and we sat at a nice table overlooking the hills and drank some good tea, but the factory was fairly low budget.

• Honey Bee Farm: This was a nice stroll through bushes and flowers. None of us got stung despite the buzz of bees about. The best part was the giant happy bee statues everywhere, including a Queen Bee holding a soda (?). We bought some honey at the end.

Some "Real Malaysia" shots including a fruit market and the Ipoh Bus Station (Sneaky candid picture taken over my friend's shoulder... you can see her arm on the side.)
• We finally made it in time for a bus so we could have the Real Malaysian Bus Experience. And we did. Both our bus back to Ipoh and the bus we caught from Ipoh to Lumut (perfect timing, except we had to cross a busy traffic circle with luggage - not recommended) were super-local. Graffiti on the ripped seats, sort-of working air conditioning, constant stops to let school children on and off, and general ickiness prevailed. And we were the only foreigners.

Ferry to Palau Pangkor
• Finding the ferry in Lumut was no problem, so we chilled along the ship railing at dusk during the forty minutes from the mainland to Pangkor (and some nice locals made sure we did not get off at the first taxiless stop.) A local that my friend was being very friendly with tried to take my bag to 'carry' it for me off the ferry. Um, not so much, sorry.

• Nipah Waterfront Hotel: It's all about location - the small hotel is across the street from the beach! Other than that lovely fact, the staff were sort of disorganized. They did not honor my called-in reservation despite that I had called again the previous night to warn them we would arrive late. Although the room was big and inexpensive (100 RM - $25) it had almost no amenities. Also, we had to replace our own towels and toilet paper because they did not replace ours after the first night and were not always at reception. (Glad I found the Secret Storage Room.) However, the hotel cafe had really yummy food and a super friendly waiter.

Teluk Nipah Beach - West Coast of Pangkor
(and some frolicking in the warm water)

• This is a small, very low key town. No chain stores, no buildings over two storeys. We walked along the small, main road until we found a beach we liked and we had the place all to ourselves! The water was so, so warm, it was wonderful. Frolicking and a sunburn followed.

Some Silliness and Some Shopping Those in Philly Might Appreciate on the Island's Biggest Town
• We taxied to the other side of island to get to the main town and shopped in the almost entirely non-air-conditioned and non-chain stores. We all got our hair done (for $3) and my friends both got waxed (not me.)

• After taxi-ing back, we returned to the beach and went Jet-skiing. Lots of fun - vast empty water and a lot of freedom about where to take the jet skis and how far. We played in the water some more afterward, noticing that the few local women who were there, went into the ocean fully clothed. (Maybe that's why a couple of Malaysian dudes seemed to be watching us the other day.)

Sunset on Teluk Nipah
• We taxied back into town after dinner (a surprisingly delicious sweet and sour fish at "TJ's Barbecue") and got ourselves a massage. Me and my friend were in the same room. Our masseuses kept giggling, but I suppose we were giggling, too, especially if we got tickled or cracked in an unladylike way.

Monsters of the Deep and Some Fish.

• We woke up, ate delicious banana pancakes with the bananas cooked right in, and snorkeled. The driver, after some random stop-and-gos dropped us off at a little island. The water, like the water at the beach, was cloudy, but there were enough schools of fish near the surface that it was fun.
• We checked out and took the ferry back to the mainland. We timed our bus perfect, as in made it with only a minute to spare where we could buy munchies for lunch. It was a running joke this trip that we had yet to have a proper lunch. Except for the strawberry stop, our lunches have entirely consisted of splitting chips and chocolate in a bus or taxi. At least we picked the nice 'tourist bus' this time. We had a comfortable 4-hour ride back to Kuala Lumpur.

Getting News to the Residents of Kuala Lumpur
• Ancasa Hotel: it was, amazingly, within two blocks of the bus station. It was the nicest and most expensive hotel we stayed at, but it makes me not want to reserve online again. The online company managed to completely confuse the hotel people since the 'voucher' they gave me was just over e-mail. Then the hotel gave us a room with one double bed for three people (assumedly bringing in another bed, but that still only makes two. I guess the online company assumed two of the three adults were a couple?) The hotel fixed it for us and got us a room facing a school instead of the Petronas Towers, but we had fun watching the kids practice sports.
• Joji: Our first impression of him was of a disgruntled and rude bellboy, but he turned out to be extremely helpful to us over the course of our two-night stay, telling us where to go, how to get there, answering our questions, dealing with our luggage, and arranging airport transportation.
• We ate dinner at a chicken place called "Nandos." Because I ordered spicy chicken, I got a little mini flag on my chicken that said "Hot." My friend who ordered lemon and herb got a flag that said "Not so Brave."

Batu Caves

At the Top and Within

Beware of Monkeys. No Really. See?

• Batu Caves, say the tourbooks, so we hired a taxi to drive us the fifteen minutes there. The caves are cathedral-size and complete with chanting and ceremonies, however, the awesome effect of the place (which we had to climb 272 steps to reach) was diminished by the amount of construction. The giant blue-tarp-covered scaffolding near the stairs was actually a really cool huge statue of a warrior, hidden, and at least three different temples were covered in construction and scaffolding. Because of this, I think we were not as impressed as we expected to be. However, we saw lots of monkeys! They weren't kidding! Monkeys in the cave and all over the stairs, leaping across railings and on scaffolding... The only people who did not seem to notice were some kind of training group who not only ran around the complex but ran up the stairs, twice, with a coach shouting at them from the bottom.

Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
(and the Shopping Mall Beneath it)
• Petronas Towers are pretty easy to find, surprise surprise. We wandered in what could have been the Official Take-A-Picture-Of-Petronas-Towers Park, then walked around inside the enourmous 6-story shopping mall underneath the Petronas Towers. We could have been back in the U.S., there was even a California Pizza Kitchen. The only clue that we were still in Southeast Asia was the $2 food court and the Middle Eastern tourists (including full black burqa-wearing women.) If I had to wear a full, only-eyes-showing Muslim dress, then I'd hang out in a giant, air conditioned place, too. A good percentage of women here wear a colorful head scarf, but enough were bare-headed that we didn't stand out much, besides me being as white as mayonaisse.

Kuala Lumper Tower (and the View from it)
• Walked to KL Tower which, because it's on a hill, might be even higher than the Petronas Towers' skybridge. The audio tour we automatically received was smug, but interesting and the view was a bit smoggy, but not too bad.
• After dining in an eatery in Little India that played Bollywood movies (not realizing that the lime wedge was supposed to be for our noodles), we wandered some more and we found a neat area where they had buildings that were a mix of colonial and arabic style architecture. Like columnades with taj-mahal-style towers. Very cool!
• We were flipping the channels that night and found Grosse Point Blank, which both Jon Cusack and Joan Cusack are in, making the Cusack-to-Cusack game quite short.

Petronas Towers, View from the Skybridge

• One of us (not me) woke up REALLY early to go stand in line to get tickets to go up into the Petronas Towers Skybridge. It's free (unlike KL Tower) but only 800 people a day are allowed. The tickets are usually sold out by morning, especially on a Saturday, but she was successful. They allow so few people onto the skybridge at a time (only on the lower level since the upper level is used for building staff) that it felt like we had it to ourselves. It was cool! I felt like Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment. If I really stretched my imagination. A lot.
• We taxied to Little India, but they didn't like to haggle like the Chinese did, so we gave up and took a taxi to our last tourist destination: The Islamic Arts Museum.
• For the first time in Kuala Lumpur, the taxi USED THE METER! We had not realized we were being overcharged at the tourist price since the standard fare wherever we went in the city seemed to be 15 ringgit ($4). But this taxi used the meter. How much was it? 4.50 ringgit! (just over $1). We had been being charged four times the price because we were tourists! Too bad we discovered this our last day.
• The Islamic Arts museum was very cool, though the lady at the desk had to be joking when she said we could get through it in an hour. An hour and a half later, and we were only half way through. My favorite part was the third floor where they had large 3-D models of all the major mosques in the world. It was so cool! The rest was pretty interesting, but all three of us were most rapt by the junior high school group that came through while we were there. All the boys went through together wearing the squarish hats with no brims (like Joji, our personal bellman, wears) and these green apron-skirt things over their pants, then all the girls came through together with white headscarves and long green skirts. They went through in a rush as we tried to think of a way to tactfully take a photo. It was fun to watch kids being kids running around the museum and the guides/teachers trying to hold their interest.
• Both my companions returned to the airport with twice the amount of luggage they had started with. (Glad Joji was helping us!) My one bag had become very heavy, but I still only had the one.

• Well, this day doesn't count since all we did was travel and sleep. No sightseeing. They cancelled our flight home the week before we left and said we could leave a day earlier or leave from Singapore. We decided to fly to Singapore so we would still have most of the day yesterday to finish shopping in Kuala Lumpur.
• Singapore Airlines ROCKS. I wish we were using this instead of Air China to fly home on.
• We never saw Singapore in daylight. We taxied to our hotel after midnight (Southeast Asian Hotel had cancelled our reservation because we were so late, but luckily still had a 3-person room available. Then, they did not take credit cards and none of us had changed enough money into Singapore dollars. D'oh. Luckily, they took American money and we had just enough of that between the three of us to do it. It was the New Zealander, ironically, that had the most American cash since it is practically standard currency in a lot of southeast Asia where she travels a lot.)
• We did not go through Hong Kong on the way home, yay, but our layover in Taiwan was four brutal hours in a boring airport - only one lame restaurant in sight and no English books except for Harry Potter and Stephen King. However, the long wait was made more pleasant by a group of 5-women who gave a nice little music show using instruments not unlike the 12-Girls Band from China.

Durian: The Stinky Fruit of Doom!

Malaysia is nice! It's like Southeast Asia Lite. I saw none of the poverty I saw in China (and that my friends have seen in Vietnam, etc.) The average person seemed to be pretty well off and the neighborhoods I saw were not desolate by any means even if they weren't always as nice as an average neighborhood in a first-world country (what is Malaysia classified as, I wonder?). The bus, train and taxi systems all were quite nice. The newer systems were equal in service and cleanliness to anything in Japan, though the older stuff was a bit run-down. The drivers were not anywhere near as insane as Beijing. They were just like any major city in the States. I wasn't afraid to cross the street.

7-11s prevailed, especially in Kuala Lumpur. It may have been the only convenience store there. It was hard to walk more than a few blocks in KL and not see one. I also spotted McDonalds and Starbucks often, but that's not surprising.

The prices were cheap for certain, but not dirt cheap. In the fancy malls and shopping centers, items almost reached international prices except for food. Food was really cheap here. Hawkers were not aggressive. Only in the airport and in Chinatown did people really try to get your attention for taxis / to sell goods.

The toilets were not bad. I'm long used to squat toilets, so the few that had the squat option only were no big deal. There always seemed to be toilet paper and soap and they were usually as clean as could be expected, though we tended to use the ones in our hotels a lot. All of them had a hose or 'bidet'. Apparently, people here give themselves a wash before a wipe. I just couldn't aim that well.

People generally spoke English. It was strongly accented and fast, but good enough. Some people spoke it really well. We had almost no communication problems our entire trip. That could not be said for a comparable trip in Japan, I would think.

The weather was indeed hot and humid, but since Japan had the exact same weather in the weeks before our departure, it was not a surprise. And a holiday in hot weather is quite different than having to work in it.

The only thing that was a real 'first' for me was the predominance of Muslims. Although Lonely Planet assured me that Malaysian Muslim women have a lot more freedom than their counterparts elsewhere in the world, it was still surprising to see so many women in head scarves (and some the full all-black outfit with only eyes showing. I think this is the first time I've seen that outside of photographs.) Enough women (mainly tourists and Chinese women) weren't dressed Muslim that I did not feel too conspicuous. I've heard that the western part of Malaysia (the part that we were in) is not as strongly conservative as the eastern part.

Overall, Malaysia is a pretty nice place to take a vacation! Though 8 days is far too short, really.