Tea, beer, some bowel movements and a lot of loneliness. (Malaysia)

Tea anyone?
I've got some time to kill, I'm here in the Cameron Highlands where its absolutley gorgeous, nothing but green wherever you turn. Unless its raining of course! That's what it has been doing for the last two days and when it does stop all you see is fog.

Luckily this morning and afternoon there was sunshine and no rain, I was able to go for a nice hike. Marlene and I met up with these two English ladies (Claire and Tara). We walked through the jungle for about 1.5 hours and then took a road towards a tea plantation. We were informed by other backpackers to hitchhike up the mountain to the plantation. So we did. We first sat at the back of this Malaysian man's truck and then got dropped off up a few minutes later. Only had enough time for us silly tourists to take some photographs in the back of a truck. Then we got picked up again by some Austrians, in 2 seperate SUV's. Marlene is Austrian so they were all like blah, blah, blah. I didn't understand a word. Anyway, we had some tea and I learned how tea is made. All I can really say is... beautiful.

If weather permits tomorrow I'm going to go for another hike on a higher elevation this time. I'm told that all the hikes around here (except the one I did today) are quite steep. However this Danish guy Anders tells me that I can go to the top of this one mountain and its all paved to the top. Bit of an easy way out, but it seems nice enough. I guess I'm a little lazy, being unemployed is a hard life you know.

Here's a few more stories...


A failed night in Kuala Lumpur

So after a day by myself off to see the Batu caves just outside of K.L. where I had to climb a horrific 275 steps (think about that one) and was greeted by cute monkeys eating everybody's food, not to mention getting startled to near death by a long line of very LOUD firecrackers inside the cave, which echoed like mad, I felt I was entitled to have a night out on the town. This was after I had walked to the KL Tower and the Petronas Twin Towers (which by the way are quite an awesome sight when you're at the base of it). In the bottom of the twin towers was a gigantic mall where I was able to find Erykah Badu's new CD, I was so thankful to find it, I've been looking for it ever since Taiwan. Quite good. I'll call it my Batu souvenir... get it... BADU and BATU... hahaha!!!

The night before Marlene and I wanted to check out K.L's night life district which it is so popular. Well that didn't happen, we didn't know exactly how to get there and all the taxis were trying to rip us off by quoting a crazy amount. We were told by our hostel recptionist that it would be cheap.

Anyway, we took the LRT to the district and we knew we had to walk about 15min before we actually hit the scene. We had a map, I had my compass... all good. Well, we got lost quite quickly. Luckily we found a couple who lived in the area, and English man who was married to a Malay woman. They were very kind and drove us there, thank God because it started to pour rain once we got into their car.

We wanted to eat some food at the pubs, but the food was way too expensive. I ate at food stall down the street. These are normally quite cheap, you pick out whatever food you want and then pay afterwards. I got 2 pieces of chicken and some rice. Normally I select like 3 or 4 different dishes. I had to pay RM7.50, normally it would cost only like RM3-4. I felt like I was ripped off, the guy was like, "oh... 2 pieces of chicken, not 1, then... 7.50!" Fine whatever its not like I agreed on a price before I chose my food, I can deal with that.

My guide book told me there was a bar called "Echo" that played acid jazz on Tuesdays, we couldn't even find the place. So we ended up going to this one place called "Four" (I think) and it was ladies night so Marlene was given 2 drink tickets for free margaritas. That was nice, but nothing for me. I've always hated stupid ladies night, what benefit do I get out of it? Anyway, Marlene was going to try and redeem both drinks at once so that I could have one, but they said one at a time. Fine. I looked at a menu and chose to have "Picor" beer which cost RM12.50, plus a 10% service tax on top of that. This is crazy expensive, normally a beer will only cost RM5-7, it was even cheaper in Melaka.

Whatever, I'm supposed to be having fun, as if I'm not going to get a beer and just sit there empty handed. I have a sip of the beer... mmmm this is so yummy. Marlene has a sip to taste as well. 2 seconds later the waiter comes with the bill and its something like RM18.60!!! How did 12.50 plus 10% come up to 18.60. It doesn't. They claim that their menu is old and these are the new prices. I tell the guy I don't want it. He panics and grabs 3 other waiters and they all come to the table and stand around. I don't think it was to intimidate me, for one thing Malaysian guys aren't very big. It was more like to show that they are concerned, or maybe they wanted to see the stupid tourist who didn't want to pay, I dunno. Anyway, another guy starts talking to me saying "so sorry, so sorry, our fault, our fault" as he's bowing to me with his hands in prayer position. The thing is though, he still wanted me to pay the whole bill. "so sorry, so sorry, our fault, please pay, please pay" If its your fault, why should I pay the whole bill you idiot? Then another guy comes along and takes the bill and says "no, no that's okay", and he walks towards the bar, all 4 other waiters follow. Marlene and I are like, what the hell is going on? I'm like "let's get out of here now". She was really hesitant because she still had another free margarita to go. Hello, I'm about to get kicked out or beaten up in a bar in Malaysia and you want your free margarita?? We left after I said it again, not in a quick hurrying motion, just a casual exit. The thing is though, I really wanted the rest of that beer, it tasted really good and I had only one sip. I would of paid the quoted price, but they just didn't get it.

We found an irish pub and we only had enough time to have one beer. We had to go to the train station by 11:30pm and didn't really know how to get there. We found it right on time, when we ran down to the platform, the train was just arriving.

Well... that's my Malaysian night on the town. Expensive and rushed.


"If you look in your Lonely Planet"

Here's just a quick rant, hope it doesn't offend anyone who uses the Lonely Planet travel guide series. Its just my own opinion.

Everyone and I mean everyone uses the Lonely planet books. Why? How did these books get so popular. I know that they're good, but they're no better than lets say the "rough guide" or the "let's go" books. Whenever backpackers are talking about a specific hostel or a great sight to see, they'll always say "its in your lonely planet".

Okay, for one thing, what makes them so sure I've got a lonely planet? Secondly, when did "lonely planet" become the new word for "travel guide". Its just like how people will always say 'xerox' instead of 'photo-copy'. Everyone always just assumes that everyone else has a frickin' lonely planet.

I've noticed that lots of people are using the "LP for Malaysia, Singpore & Brunei". Its from 2001 for crying outloud, its a little outdated, not to mention that just because it was put out in '01 doesn't mean the info was compiled in '01, its probably from late 2000. Heaven forbid when they were in the bookstore they look at the publication date, if they were smart they'd notice that they could have gotten a book that was published this year. But oh no, they've got to just grab the lonely planet, its the best!

Toilet talk
This is a popular conversation topic among backpackers. I guess its a useful and practical information session. You learn how to use the 'hose' or the 'bucket' or learn how squat, or how the flusher works, etc. However, I don't think I want to hear much more of it.

Since we're on the topic though.... (I'll be brief... get it... BRIEF!... hahaha!)
I had my first case of the runs yesterday, it was minor though. Phew!!! I was lucky enough to have toilet paper with me in my daypack. It must have been the curry bun that I ate first thing in the morning. Note to self: don't do that again.

Today was my first squatting experience, not so difficult. I had the option of using a western toilet, but I was about to take a shower anyway, so I thought I should get the practice.