Helllooooo Pennnaannnggggg!

Or something like that.

It's been a while. Sorry to be such a lazy poster. It's been tough to get myself to sit in front of a computer when the sunny beach is sooooo close.

We took the night train to KL from Singapore a couple of days ago. We then promptly left an hour later. We saw the Petronus towers, we were actually pretty close but too late to tour for the day and we were definitely not staying hte night in KL so we left at 10. Off to the cameron highlands we went. The first half of the bus ride was a breeze but after a couple of minutes heading up a mountain the turns became tight, the road became narrow and the driver started to smoke (and not slow down). It was an .... experience to say the least. We made it though. Beautiful mountainside, tasty food and good company were had in the town of Tana Rata. We arrived in the afternoon and stayed for two nights. After our first night in the town we had enjoyed some crazy tandori chicken, a bonfire with some travellers and some locals and a couple of good bob marley toons played by the brother of the guy who runs the hostel we stayed at (daniels). The next day we set out for a mountain adventure and definitely got one. A standard hike on a standard trail was where we started. Saw a nice waterfall with a bunch of garbage at the base of it. After reaching the end of the trail we were met by a local who saw us hiking and offered us a ride to the top of the next hill to see the tea farm. After offering a lot more we accepted a ride. We stopped a couple of times to talk to tea harvesters and too see some views but arrived at the tea plant far sooner that we had expected. After turning down an offer for a ride back to the town which was said to be 20 km away we walked to the peak of the mountain, took some pictures and went for tea at the tea house near the top of the hill. Boh tea was had by all and after we set out back to the town.

After reaching the bottom of the hill/mountain we were offered another ride, this time by some locals with a pickup truck. A free ride was no problem for us so we hopped in expecting to arrive in Tana Ratta in a couple of minutes. We then hopped off at some random intersection hardly closer to our destination and thanked the driver for the ride. Off we set for a trail we had seen on a passer bys map that was not on our own. Probably an hour later we had finally found the trail and about 2 hours after that (including a lot of dense narrow trail, muddy bums, sweaty everythings and some really good pics) we arrived back at the town and sat down for some chinese food.

The next morning found us on a bus to Ipoh/Palau Penang (Penang Island). We arrived in the afternoon, caught a taxi to a place to stay and basically walked straight into the water. This was the first time the ocean was ever warm enough to swim in without freezing and I liked it. No surf unfortunately but we have made do. Today we rented scooters and spent the day driving around the island. Saw some monkeys ate some deep fried things (who knows really, potatoes, bananas, sandwiches, whatever else). The 4 of us each had a plate full and the total for all of us came to 2 ringget (3.5 ringget = 1. us dollar). It's pretty hot. Nice hot though.

Tomorrow we head for Langkawi which is supposed to be a very beautiful place. We are hoping to find a beach bungalo style place right on the beach and sleep in hammocks. hopefully we get it. After that Ko Lanta, then possibly off to the east coast to see some islands there. Everything is going great. I am hoping to get the camera hooked up to one of these computers soon so we can show you some pics.

word.