When I last left you I was getting ready to leave Egypt. I met Jennifer for dinner that night and then took off for the airport. At the Cairo airport they have a bunch of different times you have to pass through security. At the last security check just before boarding there was this guy ahead of me, tall, thin, pasty white with little round glasses and a black sparkling glitter shirt who was getting his bag searched. All of a sudden out come the "Love Cuffs", he starts flailing around, jumping in the air trying to grab the box while security waved them around, it was hilarious! Anyway, I arrived in Kuala Lumpur (KL) and took the KLIA express train to town, transferred to the local monorail and arrived in the Golden Triangle, my neighborhood for a couple nights. A friend of mine from NYC who is originally from Malaysia is back here and living in KL...Justin Tan, aka JTPI. He was out of town for work my first night so I got settled and headed to the hawker stalls. YEAH! I'm back in Asia where the food is DELICIOUS! No offense to Morocco and Egypt but you can only eat so many vegetable tagines and couscous. I had "famous spicy prawns", what ever that means, and ice cold Tiger Beer. Yes, beer, it's everywhere! The next day I did some "business", banking, laundry, etc. and I walked to the bus station and bought a ticket for the next day to go to Cameron Highlands and then walked to the Petronas Towers...WOW. They are beautiful. I took a ton of photos during the day but somehow managed to not take any night time photos which was a big mistake. At night they look like diamonds and lace. I know it sounds like a bad country song but they are probably one (or do you say two?) of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen (sorry Empire State Building). That night I met Justin and Kamal (Justin's Husband) for an excellent dinner at another hawker stall where we dined on sting ray, squid, prawns and veggies. The next morning I was on a bus to the Cameron Highlands. It's about a four hour bus journey from KL winding up to around 6000 feet above sea level. It's really peaceful and lush with tea plantations, strawberry farms and insect eating flowers. I arrived in the early evening at Father's Guest House, got situated, had dinner and made myself comfy in the communal room where I watched Blades of Glory. One of the great things about Asian guest houses/hostels is they almost always have communal areas with movies playing (it's actually probably a bad thing since you should be out doing something cultural or intellectual). The next morning (well I slept till noon, so not sure I can call it morning) I went to a tea plantation...Gorgeous! The hills are blanketed in lush green tea plants. The rows of plants almost look like giant, dense, plush corduroy. It's still a bit colonial up in the hills so I sat at the cafe admiring the view and had tea and scones like any proper young (that's a stretch) lady (even bigger stretch) would do. That night I had dinner with Jenny (another traveler) and watched more movies, Lovely Bones (they always have new pirated movies) and Deja Vu. The next day I just chilled around Father's before I took off back to KL. I was headed back specifically to meet Justin, Kamal and Arlene (Justin's cousin) to go to Thaipusam. Thaipusam is a Hindu religious festival celebrated at the Batu Caves where millions of pilgrims come to pay homage to Lord Murugan. Let's just say there is a long procession with a 5 ton chariot, devotees, trances, piercing and head shaving...but how would I know, I didn't get to see it! We headed out to the caves a little before midnight because that's when the fireworks and height of the festival were supposed to happen. We sat in traffic for about two and half hours and once we arrived we couldn't find a parking space. Shiva take the wheel! Are you kidding me?! Really? I bet if I was going to a Betty Crocker bake off followed by knitting classes and ballroom dance lessons it would actually happen! Oh well, like any good Malaysian would do (or so I'm told) we promptly took ourselves out for a late night snack (it has a name but I forgot) and then headed home at about 4:00 am. We thought we would give it a second try the next night so one of Kamal's friends was going to pick us up and take us there. Guess what? His car broke down and he didn't make it. There were a couple slashings (that's what Kamal calls them, I think it means getting cut with a knife but I never really clarified) and a kidnapping so I'm just going to assume that someone (maybe Ganesh?) was looking out for me just like the time I couldn't book a hotel on the Tsunami side of Thailand and that's why it didn't pan out. I forgot to mention that I stayed with Justin and Kamal this time around for four nights; they have a great apartment, a really cute dog named Bobby Brown, Bob or Uncle Bob and they are excellent hosts, thanks for the hospitality guys. That night Justin, Arlene and I went to Chinatown shopping and out for Thai food. The next day Arlene treated us (including Justin's good friend Christine who was in town from Singapore) to dim sum at the hotel where she works, it was delicious. Justin and Arlene dipped in quickly to the "Fish Spa" where hundreds of tiny fish eat the dead skin off your feet. I have been dying to do this ever since I heard about it, but in Malaysia they use a communal tub and you all know how I feel about sharing, no fish spa for me. That night we ordered Domino's pizza with a funky phyllo dough crust and stayed up playing Wii till 4:00am. I'm excellent at tennis and bowling but my guitar hero and boxing skills could use some work. Monday was a holiday, so after another sleep in we went to Kamals cousin's restaurant for banana leaf. It's traditional, vegetarian, Indian food served on a banana leaf that you eat with your hands, I loved it! We ran around and did their errands and mine and then headed home to watch the Grammy's. The next day I caught the morning bus to Lumut and then the ferry to Pulau Pangkor, an island off the west coast of Malaysia where I am now. Yesterday I swam in the ocean, baked in the sun and had beers with Stuart, a guy from London who I briefly met on the bus/ferry and now we are staying at the same hotel. I'm meeting Justin and his family in Penang around the 12th for Chinese New Year so I may stay here the whole time or head up to Langkawi island, I'm not sure yet. I probably won't have much to report until after Chinese New Year so just assume I'm propped up in a chaise lounge on the beach, laying in the sunshine with an ice cold beer, good book and delicious seafood. Peace out...Jan
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