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

8/10/2002

Well, I'm in Jeffery's Bay, South Africa. Surf town. Surf movies filmed here. Surf shops. Surfers. Hippies. Its a bit of Deja Vu. Am I in South Africa or Santa Cruz California? Weather is about the same, water is warmer, and prices are cheaper here. But its weird.

So I'm trying to get out. I didn't come here to be in California. :) But first, an afternoon attempting to Surf. BBQ chicken on the Braai tonight (their work for the grill) and then tomorrow off to the hills for hiking in my sandals. Apparently, I left them at my sisters. How I could back my bag hundreds of times in the last year and not forget my boots, and to do it at my sisters. Wow. "I hope you didn't mean to leave them?" she asked me. Ha! :)

I went back to the place I spent 2 weeks in South Africa. East London. The same guy was working there and we had fun catching up. I even got my guitar back, and I'm trying to decide if its worth the trouble to travel with. East London hasn't changed. We went to Oktoberfest and there were tables and big beers just like in Munich but the band was called the Blarney Band, and played tunes mroe along an irish vein than a bavarian. Which just made it more helarious.

After being in Egypt for a month, its strange here. People are much more laid back and prices are written down. No haggling. Its a nice relaxing change. Had some pork ribs right away, mmmm, as they don't eat pork in Egypt. Its been a nice escape from Politics too, as no one bugs me about being a citizen of King Bush Country.

So I'm working down to Cape Town. Another few days on the coast here. Its spring, and the weather is not that warm, just like California in Spring. Warm when its sunny, cool when its not. Let me tell ya, it feels GREAT to put on a sweatshirt after being in Egypt where it felt like whatever shirt you wore was literally a sweatshirt. Hothothot. I can't even imagine going there in summer.

Back in Egypt to wrap up, me and a few friends went to the desert Oasis. It was amazing. Sand everywhere and then out of nowhere you see palm trees. Tons and tons of them. And water everywhere. So we did a few desert safari's, checking out old egyptian sites, ruins along the old 40 Days Trade Road, and burial tombs where we saw real mummies, tens of them, all shriveled up, and piles of human bones all crushed up. I don't know if I've ever really seen human bones. Certainly not this many. It was pretty cool. Then we hit Hot Springs and Cool Springs, some of them very nice during the day (cool) and some at night (hot) and even a Magic Spring that spit sand around and had swirling sand and bubbling gases that lifted you up out of the water and was great for floating around it, with little bubbles keeping you afloat and tickling your back. The last night we spent in the desert overlooking two mountains which looked like Pyramids, right next to a hot and cool springs and had amazing stars. I tried sleeping outside, but we were out in the desert really, and the wind whipped sand around and around and it was too much sand for me.

Then it was back to Cairo for McDonalds and general reattachment to civilization. But a wonderful and weird excursion pout in the desert.

Ryan