2nd Blog...

Malaysia Part 2

After spending a few days on the coast we headed  to Penang. This was a  
place which we had been looking forward to for a while. Penang is  
meant to have the best food in Malaysia- so we had been told.
However we arrived to a flooded Penang; all the shops and restaurants  
were closed just like a ghost town. After sleeping for a few hours  
hoping the rain would pass we headed out to get some dinner- but no, everything  
was still closed.
The next couple of days in Penang didn't get much better. We took bike  
rickshaw tour and saw some beautiful and very interesting parts.  
Little India looked stunning with all the decorations ready for  
Diwali- 'Festival of Lights' Hindu Festival. 

One afternoon Berwyn and I passed the hours by going to a fortune  
teller. This was a great experience- in a tiny box room sat us two,  
the fortune teller and his interpreter, so the majority of the  
reading was lost in translation!
After 2 nights in Stardust guest house Penang we headed to middle  
Malaysia "Cameron Highlands". Up in the chilly mountains amongst  
jungles, tea plantations and strawberry farms. Cameron Highlands was  
the perfect place to escape the boiling muggy temperatures and mozzies!!
We loved this place! Although it was a last minute add in to our  
itinerary we were so happy be came.
We stayed in Daniel's Lodge where we met lots of great people. 

We did our first mega  trek which was extremely difficult! We trekked for 3  

hours in search of the worlds biggest flower ( which in by opinion was  
no way worth the pain of running up the jungle trying to be back  
before the storm arrived) it looked more like a fungus to us lot! And  
if I'm honest I was more interested in getting by breath and strength  
back than looking at the bloody thing!

Anyway we were so glad we did it when it was all over! That evening a  
group of 15 of us (mainly people from our trek) all went for dinner  
followed by Karaoke, a fantastic night!

The next day 8 of us- Erica, Abu, Jenny, Arthur, Marte Cecile and us  
headed back to KL. We all got on so well and had a fab few days  
together. We spent evenings having a few drinks on top of reggae  
mansions roof top bar over looking KL's skyline. 

One day we treated  ourselves to Sunway Lagoon- theme park, water park

 and zoo all in one.

After having a great time with "team lagoon" (nick name Erica created  
for us) we slowly became a smaller group. Abu headed off to Singapore  
to catch his flight to Australia and Cecile said Bon voyage and off  
she went to Burma.
The rest of the group headed to Melaka together to celebrate Diwali.

Melaka is a lovely town full of Dutch history and is extremely arty.  

It is fairly busy but the complete opposite of KL. Although there  
still is quite a bit of traffic the whole town feels very calm and  
slow. The main focus point is the beautiful river running through the  
middle of the town. Many pretty bridges cross the river and underneath  
them is different displays of lights which we saw on our evening river  
cruise!
We were told by a local in Cameron Highlands that Melaka was a great  
place to visit for Diwali as all the local Indian communities head out  
of the major cities to the smaller towns for the celebration. Hence we would get to see  
some great celebrations... We looked and researched but nothing. We  
were all gutted. Little India was a ghost town and the main Diwali 
party had been cancelled! So we just had to accept we weren't going to  
experience anything remotely Indian!
Arthur and Marte a lovely Norwegian couple left "team lagoon" the  
following day. We made the most of our final evening together by  
finding the only Indian restaurant in Melaka that was still open...and  
it was perfect!
Berwyn, Erica and I became quite attached to Melaka and stayed for a  
few more days. We hired push bikes and explored the town some more.  

Berwyn found a great little fishing lake so spent an afternoon there,  
while Erica and I had a relaxing massage.
Eventually we departed ways with Erica which was very sad as we had  
all become such great friends and had experience so many brilliant things  
together and had many laughs!
We headed back to KL for our last night in Malaysia- we decided to  
treat ourselves and stay in Reggae Mansions... This place is  
incredible. It opened two months ago and it is pretty lush so we enjoyed  
flash packing it! We stayed in the dorms as the rooms were  
extortionate. Each dorm was like your own little cabin with a  
curtain. We stayed in a 24 bed dorm. The hostel had its very own  
cinema and sky bar over looking the KL towers!
The following day we checked out as we had to be at the airport for  
4am the next day. We killed a lot of time in the cinema-however to my  
disgrace it was Halloween so the hostel was only showing horror films  
(which I hate!!)
We watched anyway because we had so much time on our hands. The first  
film was the final exorcist documentary style- it was awful and very  
disturbing!
However we were in luck for the second showing as we were the only  
ones to show up, so of course they let us change it and we watched a  
comedy- Arthur starring Russel Brand, which was brilliant.
We arrived at KL airport at midnight as that was the latest train  
going to the airport. Our flight wasn't until 6:15 am so we just waited  
and waited..

We reminisced about the wonderful experiences we had in Malaysia 

with the great friends we had made, and now looked onto the future in

Vietnam! Hanoi here we come....