Peninsular Malaysia!

Ok, so now that Michelle and I have finished East Malaysia, a.k.a. Borneo, and have gotten our weekend getaway, it was time to get back to work and finish off the main part of Malaysia, the Peninsular Malaysia! As we have spent a lot of time, and money, experiencing Malaysia, we both wanted to move through the main peninsula as quickly as possible. However, we still wanted to appreciate the islands here and we needed a few days of staying put in one place after constant movement around Borneo and then flying to Bangkok for the weekend. So we decided to take our first stop and savor it!
PALAU TIOMAN
We spent 3 glorious nights on Palau Tioman! We rented a chalet on the beach with a front porch and hammock and just relaxed for the next 3 days! Our first full day it was stormy all day, but this was fine with us as we just wanted to sit in our hammocks on our porch and sip cocktails anyway... Completely RELAXING! We needed a rest. We also met 4 guys from the Royal British Navy who were on leave for the weekend. They quickly befriended us and helped us drink cocktails on the porch in the rain; as if we needed help. They became our companions for the next 3 days. I am happy to say the weather the second day was gorgeous! And after a great first day 'sinking' into the relaxing environment,we were able to spend the second day swimming and enjoying the islands lack of population. There wasn't much to do, so we swam during the day, ate great island feasts with good company and drinking good wine at night. Unfortunately this heaven could not last forever as we had to move on to keep seeing the peninsula... Next stop, KL!
KUALA LUMPUR
Kuala Lumpur has been cool enough, but not as exotic as I anticipated. As we all know, expectations are a bad thing, but I think being in exotic Bangkok the weekend before also helped to minimize the 'foreign effect' of KL. However, that being said, Michelle and I of course made the best out of it :) Right away we made a new friend, Alex (New York, 25). He ended up touring around with us the whole time and being our 'bodyguard' against the Muslim men. Thanks Alex :) -Let me assure you, Mom and Grandma, before you worry to much, we did not NEED a bodyguard, it was more of a joke than anything else.
But of course, when in KL there are certain touristy objectives that need to be checked off the list. First we walked around the city, getting familiar with our surroundings. We ended up at the end of that day at the KL Tower. This place is magnificent! For 40 MYR (US$11) you can visit the observational deck. Or for another 10 MYR (US$3) you can go upstairs one more level and view the city from a table with an incredible buffet lunch! Did I mention the restaurant rotates while you sit and eat the delicious food! Oh, did we show some glutenous behavior at lunch, haha. To be fair, don't set 3 backpackers down in front of an all you can eat buffet and not expect them to take FULL advantage! They had a western buffet and a local buffet, of which I visited both. Then the third buffet was all you can eat dessert... Cakes, mouse, pastries, and loads of ice cream, Mmmmm :) Afterward, we visited their little zoo at the bottom. This was mostly full of snakes, but they also had an albino monkey and a few colorful birds. After viewing the sites from our rotating table, we visited a weekly drum circle at the National Monument.


The following day we went to Batu Caves. These are limestone caves about an hour north of the city. It is a sacred area for Hindu's and as such many make a pilgramage there every year from all over the world. We climbed 275 steps to make it to the top where a temple lay and the cheeky monkeys played around. In the picture to the left, the steps are on the left of the big, gold Hindi statue.
Finally on our third day we visited the infamous Petronas Towers. Not as exciting as you would think seeing as you are about half as high up as you were in the KL Tower 2 days before. However, to visit and go to the double decker bridge of the Petronas Towers is actually free. But first you have to watch a marketing video on how wonderful Petronas is as a company, which stunk. The twin towers themselves were cool, but not as cool as the KL tower. Being twice as high up and having the buffet might have had something to do with that :) After the twin towers, Michelle and I went to a proper mall and did some window shopping. Man, did it feel good to try on real clothes again! Its been ages since I have worn good clothes in decent condition. Of course our budgets, and the fact that whatever we travel with is bound to get ruined, didn't allow us to buy anything- but we still had fun pretending :)
CAMERON HIGHLANDS
Next stop were the highlands... THANK GOD! It is so hot in every day of my life here. It is a heat like no other, being almost on the equator. You almost suffocate sometimes, you even sweat profusely out of every pore as you do nothing but sleep. God forbid you sleep under a sheet because of the heat, but yet you have to find a way because otherwise your body becomes an all you can eat buffet for the mosquitoes. So needless to say, Michelle and I were quite grateful and ready to move on and up to the highlands.
The Cameron Highlands were excellent. It is a place full of cultivating Tea plantations. This is the big highlight for the region. When we got there it was rainy and cold...YAY!!! I actually got to snuggle up under a huge comforter and wear my hoody around. We got there late in the afternoon so we didn't do much then, except I went online and made a BIG decision. I'M COMING HOME! On the 4 hour bus ride from KL to the Highlands I thought about it and realized I really need to come home for a visit. I miss everyone so much and really wanted to see the growth of my nieces and nephews since I left. I also wanted to be home for my godson's baptism. So I am coming home June 4!
But back to the main story... The next day Michelle and I walked an hour or so through tea plantations and finally wound up at the tea factory. We learned how the tea leaves are plucked, rolled, fermented, heated, crushed, and finally made into a delicious cup of tea :) We ate scones and had ourselves a couple pots of tea under the cool, brisk, and beautifully overcast sky of the highlands. It was wonderful. After we left there we did a 3 hour walk back to the village. Along the way we witnessed a couple getting married in the plantation. They had only the minister and a photographer with them, it was a beautiful and serene setting. The bride was wearing Crocs as her shoes, haha! We also stopped at a honey bee farm, cactus farm, strawberry farms, and a butterfly farm. This region is filled with farms and fresh vegetables and fruit. I had the best mandarin orange anyone has ever had here. It was like heaven bursting in my mouth. All in all, there is not much to do in the highlands except relax and enjoy being out of the heat. But this is exactly what we wanted, an area to do not a whole lot in while we stopped sweating for a couple of days :)
PENANG
We didn't stay in the highlands to long, the next day we caught a bus to Penang, back to the heat. This is an island off the Northwest of Malaysia and is where a lot of travelers go while they await their the Thai visa's. The city of Georgetown sits on Penang, and is the second largest city in Malaysia. That being said, it only takes 20 minutes to walk around the entirity of the city. The water here is no good for swimming, so we mostly just walked around the city, and watched the elder local men play checkers with beer caps. This is also sadly where mine and Michelle's journey together ends. It has been a great 6 weeks and I enjoyed having company for a little while. But from here Michelle went on to Thailand, and I prepared to start making my trip home, HOME SWEET HOME! Thanks Michelle for some great memories!


More pictures can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/find.barlow/PeninsularMalaysia#