Monkey Business

This is definitely one of my favorite photos from the trip. It was taken while we were hiking in the Cameron Highlands and I dared Matthias to do the Tarzan act. I tried it, too, but with less success, and fortunately there’s no photo evidence. We are in the Malaysian town of Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands, where the weather is cool and there are a number of nice hiking trails. Otherwise, the town itself is rather boring, and we’re about ready to head off to Kuala Lumpur, where we will spend the last few days before taking off for the US.

More pictures of our jungle treks have been uploaded to the Malaysia album.

Baby, It’s HOT Outside

Well, actually, it’s not that hot anymore as we’re in the highlands, in a real backpacker lodge (read: dump) with wifi internet (finally!) but more on that later.

After leaving Thailand, we spent nearly a week in the city of Georgetown on the island of Penang off the west coast of Malaysia. After spending one night in a cheap and disgusting guesthouse, we upgraded to a comfortable budget hotel, with everything we needed (a/c, clean bathroom) for still under $20 per night. And, the food in Georgetown didn’t disappoint (me, at least). With a Malay, Indian, and Chinese population, and tons of street stalls and food courts, there were plenty of delicious options, and I tried all I could. Matthias liked the Chinese selections – stir-fried veggies and noodle soups – while I went gaga over the roti, samosas, and curries. I’m not sure why spicy food and hot weather seem to go so well together, but I guess since you’re sweating anyway…

Georgetown was a nice city, but also had good transit links to nearby beaches and parks. We loved the Penang National Park, where we hiked along the coast through the rainforest and saw some cool wildlife, including varans (big lizards), monkeys and an eagle. Matthias got into trouble with one of the monkeys who didn’t seem to want to let us pass (bared his teeth and semi-charged at Matthias – not that I saw much of this as I was running away!) But my hero grabbed a big stick and made a lot of noise to shoo the aggressor away, and then dragged me reluctantly along the path. Fortunately, this was on our way out of the park; otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have gone much further! We also went up to Penang Hill (800 meters) where it was a bit cooler, and to the Botanical Garden where we were able to find some shady spots. Georgetown and environs were really very nice, but would have been nicer if it wasn’t so damn hot and humid. It was like being in NYC on one of those torturously hot weeks in August, but admittedly, it did get cooler at night (unlike in NY.)

Today we left Georgetown for Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands, about 1,500 meters above sea level. It is MUCH cooler here (lovely!) and there are supposed to be some great hiking trails through the jungle. There are also tea plantations and strawberry farms aplenty. Should be enough to fill the week before we have to be in Kuala Lumpur. Now that I’ve updated the blog and uploaded photos (new Malaysia album and more added to the Thailand album, including beach photos, Stu) we can concentrate on finding a nicer hotel – with or without wifi.

Potti Mouth

I guess I’ve always had a dirty mind; in my adolescent years (which have never quite ended) we used to get a kick out of substituting dirty words wherever something sounded similar. So, I'm still having fun with the names of towns here in Southern Thailand. I mean, I gotta love Phuket, or at least what the American pronunciation of it would be. Then again, they say Poo-get, which at least is still a little dirty-sounding to me. And the heat is making me feel crabby in Krabi – where I’m just a ferry ride away from the beautiful island of Pi Pi (spelled Phi Phi, but pronounced “pee pee”.) I’m in potty mouth heaven! But how could I expect less of a country whose capital is Bangkok!

So I’ve been giggling my way through Thailand, but we did have a seriously lovely stop in a town called Bang Saphan where we stayed three nights in a bungalow about 10 minutes walk from the beach. Despite it being the middle of the new year holiday week, the beach was almost deserted, and we enjoyed long walks, swimming, and hanging out at the small restaurant by the water.

Then we headed to Phuket, because (besides loving the name) we had heard so much about it. But I’m afraid we should have said forget Phuket (or phucket!) – it was much to hot and crowded to enjoy (especially since we didn’t have our own transportation to enable us to escape the mainstream beaches.) Really, it was like Jones Beach or Seaside Heights during July – wall to wall chaise lounges (all full) and no shade to be had. So, after bouts of being crabby to each other, we moved on to Krabi for a nice surprise. It’s still hot here, but the town is mellow and nice, and the beaches are nice and calm, with plenty of nearby trees for shade.

And now we have almost outstayed our welcome in Thailand. Our tourist visa ends the day after tomorrow, so we are heading to Malaysia. Hopefully, we’ll find some nice places to see there. But if not, as Matthias says, we can always come back to Thailand. Our first stop in Malaysia is going to be the island of Penang, which we hear has some great food. Not that we need any more of that…

Happy New Year

Happy 2008! We welcomed in the new year in Bangkok and we will be here until the 3rd of January, when we will head south to Bang Saphan, our first beach destination. Bangkok has been pretty mellow since we’ve been here – it seems that most partiers have already headed to the beach.

We had a great couple of days in the northern part of the country. On cousin Mark’s recommendation we went to Chiang Dao, just north of Chiang Mai, and it was beautiful. Much cooler, beautiful scenery (we rented bikes) and a brush with the local folks from the surrounding hills (known to tourists as the hill tribes) who came down to the big Tuesday market (yes, Christmas was just another Tuesday here.) My only regret is that we didn’t leave ourselves enough time to travel to other towns in Northern Thailand, let alone stay in Chiang Dao a little longer.

On the way to Bangkok we stopped in Sukhothai, where we spent a couple of days riding bikes around the ruins of the former capital of the Thai empire. I may have mentioned this before, but by now we have become really lazy travelers. We’ve seen so many old cities, temples and royal residences that I barely even read about the ones we are visiting anymore. And besides, we enjoyed riding our bicycles past the fields and rice paddies as much (or more) than visiting the ruins. Plus, Matthias gets incredibly impatient when I stop to photograph yet another pile of rocks.

That’s all for this installment – hopefully the beach will provide additional inspiration for future blogs!