Mossy Forest

Next stop on our little tour was the Mossy Forest. Our knowledgable guide Bob took us into what he called 'the luxury forest' which he said had no spiders, snakes or leaches. Right. Anyhow, despite being ankle deep in mud with totally inappropriate shoes on we enjoyed this bit of a bush bash. The jungle is truly amazing with it's mooshy floor giving the best suspension. It's so thick we kept thinking about all the books we've read about people bashing their way through jungle, it must take hours to go a kilometer and it's so disorintating, and we were on a tourist path!

Guning ?

Here we are on the top of a tall mountain in the Cameron Highlands. I've forgoton it's name and cant find it anywhere just now. The view was excellent all over the surrounding areas. Behind us we could see the sea (only just) along the west coast.

Boh Tea Estate

On the tour we headed higher into the mountains, stopping here at the BOH tea eatate to be educated on the finer points (?) of tea plantations by Kumar. I wonder that he hasn't just made up his lecture over the years... I'm sure there was fact in their somewhere! It was entertaining anyway. We also met Andrea, a teacher from Cologne, who we adopted for the next few days.

Cameron Highlands

The trip up in the bus was amazing, wish I'd taken photos. The first half was fine, regular highway, then we started climbing into the highlands on this tiny road, it was raining like I'd never seen before in my life and there were spots on the road where landslides were obviously a problem! At one stage we passed a massive rock in the middle of the road, recently fallen from the steep cliff! We headed off on a tour the next morning, here I am in shock over the temperature, must have been about 18 degrees.

Notes on Nepal #2

So I have been in Nepal for more than a week now, it's been an interesting time. How to sum it up in just a few short paragraphs! We have finished our lanuguage course and I suprised myself doing quite well in the test yesterday, not quite fluent yet mind you! There was a group of about 10 of us taking part so we had some good laughs. Today we are splitting up, with some people off to their placements.

A group of us are going to Lamatar village today. It's a small village on the outskirts of the Kathmandu valley. There we will stay with a Nepali family for 4 nights, eating their food, using their bathroom (apparently thats quite an experience) and getting involved with village and family life.

After that we head to Chitwan national park, where we will do some whitewater rafting, and elephant safari and jungle treking.

I have changed my placement slightly, I will be staying in Chitwan for an extra week, taking part in some conservation work, planting trees and searching for seedlings (?) After that I will be heading back to Kathmandu to do a 2 week placement in the Balaju orphanage. Friends of mine have headed there today so they are going to email me what it is like! I'm quite excited now because there are so many different things coming up!

Back Packing in the Cameron Highlands

When we decided to travel to Malaysia we thought we'd do a bit of the back packing bit and stay in some nice places as well. This was the closest we got to backpacking I think (other than the packs we carried!). We did catch the bus to get up to the Cameron Highlands, but the bus was hardly roughing it with massive seats like business class. This was the 'Executive Suite' at Father's Hostel. We had a great time here, everything was so well organised and everyone was very friendly.

Poser

Here I am at the end of the show. I think the guy next to me is meant to be a head hunter from Malaysian Borneo. There were all kinds of different dances from the different areas. They ended with that 'Visit Malaysia' promotional song from last year, 'Malaysia truly Asia'. I had it stuck in my head for the whole trip.

Traditional Malay Dance

On our second night in KL we headed just over the road to have dinner and watch a performance of some traditional Malay dances. The food was delicious and the dances were entertaining. I ate a whole lot of Satay. This was the ONLY time I drank wine on the whole trip... Those of you who know me well will realise how unusual this is!

One more...

The hydrotherapy pool was bliss after a humid day of sightseeing, eating and shopping!

Swimming Pool

Here's Zadok at the pool, which had an inside/outside type of thing going on.

Notes on Nepal

Here I am, sitting in a dodgy internet cafe in Kalanki, Kathmandu. I'll give you a bulleted run down on my last few days...

• 1 calm, quiet flight with no airlines going bust or flights being resheduled.
• 4 language lessons, taught OLD STYLE .
• 1 thin hard bed in a dubious state of cleanliness (thankgoodness for my Lulu slepping bag)
• No coffee since Sunday morning.
• No Meat for the last 3 days (and none on the horizon as far as I can see).
• No alcohol for the last 3 days (and none on the horizon as far as I can see).
• Lots of really friendly, nice people.
• A lot of good laughs, mostly about the toilet/shower.

Anyway, so everything is going well, we are mostly in the hostel doing the language bit but on Friday we start sightseeing and on Monday we go away to a village and Chitwan National Park. I'm getting used to the meals and the facilities, I just have a feeling it will be worse in the orphanage!

Hotel Maya

Our first hotel was the only thing we booked before we left Dubai, and it was lovely. Being low season they upgraded us, we had a lovely room massive bath etc. etc. it's a hard life!

Shark!

Nothing special about my photo taking skills but I thought this was a good one! Remember creatures are 30% bigger than they appear!

Backpacked and ready to go!

So once again I'm in the airport, my 4th in about the same amount of days. Heading to Nepal for 5 weeks. I woke up this morning thinking I was crazy not to be on my usual path of travel at this time of year, heading to Australia for a month of doing very little, seeing family and friends, but I feel a bit better now. Let's see how I feel this time next week! Still posting Malaysia pics, I've got a few more scheduled then we'll have to see what happens when I am in Nepal.

KLCC Aquarium

Zadok hadn't been to an Aquarium before so off we went to see the fishies. We had great fun petting the Bamboo sharks and watching the fish. Here is Zadok looking a lighter shade of pale in the tunnel!

The view from on top

Actually, it's not on top at all, the Sky Bridge is about halfway up and is as high as the general public are permitted to go. It's still a good view round the city mind you. You can see our hotel, Hotel Maya, it's the big white building in the middle.

Up the towers

It's free to go up to the Sky Bridge, about halfway up the towers. You have to line up early because only a certain amount of tickets are available. Here we are enjoying the Petronas video with our stylish 3D glasses, then all the buttons in the lift. The towers are no longer the tallest in the world, I think they are nearly 500m tall. Burj is headed for 800m... Imagine the buttons on that lift!

The Petronas Twin Towers

By day, and by night. First photo taken from the KLCC park, the second outside our hotel. We had this view from our hotel room when we were in KL at the end of our holiday. Impressive!

Pork!

Zadok was quite impressed that pork was fairly readily available, despite Islam being the official religion. 1 sweet and sour pork, 1 mee goreng, 1.5 l of beer, 40 ringget (40 dhs, about $13) magic.

Chinatown

Hi all,
Still in Malaysia, leaving early tomorrow (fingers crossed) despite the fact that our airline has collapsed since we arrived... I'll post the whole story when I get home if i have time.

I'm going to try a photo a day type effort for my pics, we'll see what happens. If photo a day annoys you you'll have to just wait and check back in a week or something.

we spent a couple of evenings in Chinatown KL, eating good food and drinking good beer. And buying handbags.

Malaysia

So we are in Malaysia. We have been away for about 5 days now and are having such a great time! What a beautiful country full of friendly people and delicious food. I've got heaps of photos of course and stories to tell... But they will have to wait! We have been in KL and I am posting from the Cameron Highlands. Off to Penang tomorrow, followed by Langkawi then back to KL. Stay tuned for pics!