10/29 Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Well I made it to Asia. Strangely, the time here is exactly 12 hours ahead of home. For me, its 5pm for you its 5am. At least on the east coast.

I gotta say Asia is pretty wild and amazing. I feel like I'm in an unending San Francisco Chinatown. The scent of the place, well it continually smells like I'm in a Chinese restuarant. So there are familiar sounds and smells and sights but put it all together and its all new to me.

I flew from Cape Town on the best flight I've ever had. I had my own little TV with a personal controller and played video games and watched movies for the better part of the 10 hours. What a way to travel! Arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital at 5am and got to my hostel circo 8am after customs and all that. They were nice enough to tell us immediately after landing about the local time, temperature, etc, as well as, "Drug trafficking is punished by death in Malaysia." Whew. Nice greeting.

So jetlag was about to kick in, because I didn't sleep on the plane at all - 8am was about midnight where I'd been. So I took to the town and checked out The World's Tallest Buildings. The Petronas Towers. And wow, talk about gorgeous buildings. Easily the two most gorgeous pieces of architecture I've ever seen. The circular spires are covered with shiny glass and stainless steel that gleams in the morning sun. And they're tall. Damn tall. I just happened across the tourist kiosk and next thing ya know I'm halfway up the skyscraper and spending a few minutes on the bridge connecting them, gazing across the town. Wandered around town a little bit before heading back for some lunch and a nap.

Next day I was off. Singapore. Wanted to check out this little island City-State and well, its amazing. Possibly the most well organized city I've ever been in. Traffic signals on every corner, with the hitech LED lights in every one, and above the little red or green walkdontwalkguys, was a timer counting down, basically, how long you have before you have to run. The subways? They had these cards that you just wave over the swipe area and the turnstyle opens for ya. Pay at the end. Slick. Tall buildings, nice restaurants and a beautiful waterfront on the river all made it an enjoyable little daytrip. Pretty wild! Its this little oasis of sanity in the chaos of Southeastern Asia. Despite a bit of draconianness (things like chewing gum and not flushing the toilet when you are done are punishable by law), they've put together a gem of a place. And malls! Never seen so many malls! You like malls? You like Singapore!

The lowlight of Singapore (and Kuala Lumpur for that matter) is sweat. Wow, its hot and humid and wow do I sweat. Sweat sweat. Eyebrows. Why do we have em? Well, I don't wonder now, they're Sweat Gutters, deflecting the flow of my Sweatriver around my eyes. We all know it stings. And they're gettin' some sort of workout here. Just walking around the streets you dripdripdrip.

Back to Malaysia where my primary goal is to get my Indian visa, and took care of part one on Monday and part two is Thursday so I headed to the Cameron Highlands. Its hilly and the altitude high (and the temperature low - read NOSWEAT!). Its tropical and lush here, green as green gets. Rainforestish. They grow tea here too and all the buildings are cute little painted affairs with cute shingles and faux-arbors in the rooftops. My cute hostel has a campfire every night - or at least last night - and the travel book claims the indian restuarant in town is the best in peninsular Malaysia and after eating perhaps the best indian food ever there last night for $2 I am not one to argue, although I think I may need to sample some other items on the menu, just to be sure....

Got up this morning and took a great hike. Into the jungle to the top of the highest, I guess mountains, in the area. Its about a mile high here, 6000ft'ish. And they don't look like mountains, the tops covered in greenery. The trails aren't muddy despite continual rain, but ya walk on a lot of roots which can be slick. On the top we were able to watch the clouds roll in and enshroud us in this silky creamy foggy nothingness. On the way down we passed the golf course ($20 for a round) and a small waterfall. Its a nice place that would be easy to lose a few days in.

I've found SE Asia to be much more relaxed than Africa. No one seems to hustle you into buying this, or buying that. Singapore and Malaysia are relatively afflulent and there is loads of English which makes travel easy. And they're friendly. They have genuine concern when you ask for directions or explaination of food.

Ah, and then there's eating. Lots of noodles and chickens and ducks and BBQ pork hanging in the windows. Its all pretty good as I've sampled lots of it. And I looove noodles. Then there's chopsticks, which I'm pleasantly surprised I can still do. I got a little pinky cramp at first, but the endurance has gone up and I can eat almost eat as fast as with a fork. I ate at one of the food courts in the mall in Sinapore, and got to watch people eat with a fork. The kids especially liked to do it, maybe part of "eating out" for thme. And they we're too good at it either - or just do it differently. They use the fork as a shovel, and shovel the stuff into a tablespoon and eat with the tablespoon. They were eating spaghetti. I was pretty amused.

Well, that's life down here, twelve hours separated from you guys. A few days in the highlands, and I'm off to India!

- Ryan