Agra

Bangkok (Last Stop in Asia)

Koh Samui and Koh Tao

Christmas in Melaka

Cameron Highlands

I arrived in Cameron Highlands on the morning of Tuesday, December 15th. This turned out to be one of my favorite destinations, despite having quite the bed bug problem; apparently, going off the word of several other travellers, Father's Guesthouse was only one of several in town experiencing difficulties with the critters. My days in Cameron Highlands were mostly easy-going, spending most of my time reading, writing, watching movies in the lounge, and walking into town several times each day for a taste of the wonderful and inexpensive Indian cuisine that one finds all of Malaysia. I took a couple jungle hikes during my six days there, and also went on a day tour to see the Rafflesia Arnoldii flower, Orang Asli village, Boh tea plantation, and Mossy Forest. The flower is the largest on earth by weight and takes five years to open. Once open it stays so for only four or five days. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to see it, and the path that led there was quite exciting as well. It had rained for perhaps 36 hours almost without pause before our arriving and the terrain was rather affected. I was fortunate to have landed with a tour operator that had done many years of competitive off-roading, boasting to have flipped over twenty vehicles, and who had extensive knowledge of the local flora and fauna, having operated the tour for 5 years after receiving his degrees in Ecology and Herpatology and volunteering with the tiger project in Taman Negara for some time.

Photos: Mushrooms on forest floor, tea plantation, smoking tobacco grown by Orang Asli and rolled in mystery leaf, Rafflesia flower, winching Landrover through the muddy incline, shots from the guesthouse estate, and a video of Satya doing his Landrover magic.

Kuala Lampur

I arrived in KL on Saturday, December 12th. Here I hooked up with Yee Guan Chew, friend of Jasmine, and another one of the travellers that I met from the Saigon - Phnom Penh bus. My first two days in KL were a blur of restaurants, malls, mosques, temples, and parks. Yee Guan drove me in her little red car all over and around the city with her friends Sin and Kim. At the end of the first day she quized me on what I had seen and I was unfortunately unable to give many answers. It wasn't until I had a chance sit down and update my journal that I was able to collect my thoughts and memories on what had just happened. My third day in KL I had to myself while Yee Guan was busy at work. It was a less eventful day, but with the many hours of walking over blistering sidewalks and streets, it was no less a drain on my mind and body.

KL was a dizzying array of freeways, highway, bridges, meandering and merging roads, and a street layout that perplexed me. It stands out in my mind as the only city I have yet encountered where I rarely knew exactly where I was or even which direction I might be facing, despite having massive skyscrapers like KL Tower and the KLCC Towers to guide me. I was generally lost, but usually managed to find my way to where ever I wanted to go. KL seemed to me the first truly developed, well designed, relatively clean, and affluent city I have encountered with the exception of Pattaya in Thailand. The architecture of the city was marked by its strong Islamic influence. The geometric stylings of the mosque can be seen everywhere from government building, to train stations, to parking garages; the imagery is practically inescapable.

Photos: KL Tower (Seattle Space Needle Ripoff), built in 1996 during a heavy rain, Dim Sum with the girls, Hibiscus (Malaysian national flower), KLCC Towers at night, the entrance to Batu Caves Hindu temple, various mosques, and a cityscape photo of KL.