Whirlwind blitz through Malaysia

From Singapore we crossed the border and headed to Melaka, a city which has been at different times colonized by the Portugese, Dutch and British. So heaps of different influences on the architecture of the city. We wandered around adjusting to really being in an Asian city. The sites and smells were overwhelming after pristinely clean Singapore. We dressed modestly but still were often stared at by the men. One group even insisted on taking a picture with us. The women in Malaysia were Western style clothing but everything is covered including their heads.

Next it was onto Tepeh. The LP insinuated the ride to be about three hours. Six hours later we were still driving along with no idea where we were. Noone on the bus spoke English so we just held onto hope that we were getting close. Finally arrived and jumped on a rickety bus up into the hills to get to Tanah Rata. We arrived in the pouring rain but the drop in temperature was amazing. We slept that night under thick heavy blankets. Hiked around the tea plantations in the rain for a couple of days, watched pirated movies which made J. Lo's butt look enormous and gorged ourselves on stellar Indian food and mango laisses.

It is of course a vast understatement to say three nights in Malaysia was insufficient to truly appreciate the country. But we had people to meet in Thailand.

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