Hello folks,
What would a trip through SE Asia be without a story about rats? So here it is, nothing squeemish though, so please read on...
We are just finishing up in Georgetown (also known as Penang, got to love the hangover from the Brit Empire). In fact if we are lucky, and the Thai authorities allow us (by that we mean Christopher) into the country this afternoon, we will have spent our last night in Malaysia, for some time.
The Cameron Highlands were quite interesting, a real agricultural oasis in the heart of northern peninsular Malaysia. We got to have a cup of Boh tea on one of the larger plantations here, owned by a Scottish family no less, so we knew it was going to be good. The tea is hand picked up here because of the hills, with gents earning about 44 RM a day (ie NZ$ 22 or 11ish pounds), it looked to be unbelievably hard work to us (but darn good tea). We also had to partake of some strawberries, a tad cheaper than those on offer at Wimbledon, and we would argue a lot better! One of the highlights of Tanah Rata (sp?) was staying in the post WWII Anderson Shelters, again left by the Brits. Oh and don't let any Malaysian tell you that the Cameron Highlands are cool (temp) Christopher was sporting lobster arms after an afternoon mooching about. Even the locals were complaining of the heat.
The bus ride from the Cameron Highlands to Georgetown was fine, nice to mix it up a bit. After numerous inquiries about our final destination, we were assured we would end up in Penang. Needless to say, that when the bus stopped at Butterworth, a ferry ride across to Penang, and the driver said we needed to get the ferry... a mild panic ensued as we grabbed our mountains of gear and disembarked. Turned out that the ferry was really simple and cost us about NZ$1.20 for the two of us. One ferry ride and a 20 min walk later and we had found a home for three nights.
On our first day here we ventured out to the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia on the public transport (cleaner than the London buses, for sure, and cheaper). It did what it said on the tin, lots of Buddha's! The town has a pretty nice vibe to it and again, it is all a lot wealthier than we thought. Yesterday, we went to a beach about an hour out of town, only to come across a Hard Rock Hotel... imagine our dismay! But the sun cooperated luckily, even after we had checked the weather forecast to be told thunder showers for all our time in Georgetown. Christopher is redder, Nicola is browner!!
We have been treated to some good eats here in Georgetown, the best Chicken Tikka we have ever had was consumed a couple of nights ago at a 24 hour restaurant, no cutlery and little English. It was Indian food again last night, we are making the most of it as we are unsure how much more Indian we will get in the next four countries... who knows. The highlight of last nights dinner was the company we had for our satay appetizer. We rocked up to a hawker stall as Christopher had been craving satay after the great stuff we had in Taman Negara. We ordered and sat down on the side of the road, Nicola then proceeded to inform Christopher, in calm and measured tone, that there was a rat in the sewer. Having seen numerous rats Christopher thought nothing of it. As we waited the rat proceeded to move to the top of the sewer and hang out for a while about half a metre from our dining table, it must be said he was delightful company, well mannered and behaved, although he (or she) could have done with a shower.
Thoughts on Malaysia... it has been a lot more developed than we thought it would be, definitely hot and toasty although we are sleeping without a/c now, the mix of cultures has been a real surprise, the country is a real melting pit, definitely easy to travel through, splendid selection of grub...
Thailand, here we come... hopefully.
