This is my last week in Malaysia - I'm off to Phi Phi at the beginning of June, and from there hopefully into Vietnam and Laos.
It's been a really interesting time here in GT, I've definitely learned soooooo much about life, the universe and everything, and got a fairly good grip on Bahasa which should serve me well if I ever do make it to Indonesia.
Today I went to the Tropical Fruit Farm with my Indonesian friend Siti, which was amazing. Up in the 'heart of Penang', it was surrounded by amazing jungle, and they had about 200 types of fruit, although we didn't see them all! I felt very bad for the state of English fruit though, we just can't compare. Siti asked me what fruit we grown in England and I could only think of apples, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. Rubbish in comparison to huge mangoes, papayas, jackfuit, pineapples (which grown on the ground, not in a tree - who knew?!), as well as the nutmeg and cinnamon and all the other spices. Mmmm, and then we got to try all the fruits, quite a lot of which I'd never had. It was a fruit bonanza. Except for the durian, which was utterly the most disgusting thing I've eaten. Siti ate the entire 2kg durian, which is a huge thing that kind of looks like a spiky green coconut, and has this yellow, creamy fruit inside. Which tastes like raw garlic. Just unbelievably vile, and stinks so much that they don't allow it in hotels or shopping malls!
On the way back we picked up a hitch-hiker who was a fruitarian...I was tempted to ask if that meant he only eat food that had fallen from the tree, because picking it was murder, like in Notting Hill, but it just meant that he only ate fruit. It seemed like he was trying to convert me to the fruitarian way of life, but I value my meat and veg waaaay too much!
I'm off now - hopefully I'll be on an island in Thailand next time I update you :D
PX
