Cameron Highlands and Kuala Lumpur

This was sort of the trip that wasn't meant to be great, but it was pretty and relaxing.

Matt and I always have a "machloket" (disagreement) about when it's appropriate to arrive at the airport. When we lived in NYC, we often met at the airport, because we couldn't agree on a good time to arrive. I'm a two hour lady, and Matt's a 45 minute man.

We decided we would go to the airport an hour and 15 minutes before our flight, but by the time we left, it was about 15 minutes late, and then we looked for a taxi or 15 minutes, realized we didn't have Matt's phone (which we needed to get a update on the Kitty), and went back to get it...we arrived at the airport 40 minutes before our flight, and the check in was closed. That did not make me happy.

We ended up going through, paying $5 to check my bag, and we were off to Kuala Lumpur (KL).

We arrived at the airport, and we quickly found out that we were not at the "airport." We were at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT), which is apparently not only a different terminal, but it's a separate airport. Ok. We changed some money and hopped on a bus to the city. We had an excellent Indian/Malay lunch (and only walked in on one man peeing). Then our bus was 1/2 hour late, and we jumped on to head up four hours to the Cameron Highlands. The ride was straight and fast for two hours and then nutsy, curvy, turny and crazy for two hours. But it was gorgeous. Nevermind that our air con broke on our bus. We just drove with the door open.

We arrived at our little town of Tanah Rata, and we were told to simply walk up this road to find our guest house. We walked up, and it got dark and didn't look like there was going to be a guest house. We went back down and re-asked. Same answer. Kept going up, and finally found the place (not ONE sign...). We got our room, and we were pumped to shower and go to bed. We turned on the water heater (it's COLD up there!), and we went to a great Indian dinner in town. We loved our banana leaf spread. When we returned, it was clear that the toilet would not flush. Nor would the faucets run, and nor would we have nice warm showers from a long ass day of traveling. Ok. We froze and slept (with a little cuddling mixed in).

We were assured sun in the morning. The morning will be the time to tour, and the afternoon will be the time to relax. Ok. We signed up for a tour. We woke up early, ate our western breakfast of eggs and toast, and we hopped in a Land Rover with three other people. Oops. There was so much fog, you couldn't barely see the road ahead of us. Luckily, our first stop was a view point, and our second stop was the highest peak in the Cameron Highlands. Well...for some reason the first view point actually was in the middle of clouds or something, because it was breathtaking, but the second one stank.

After a crazy muddy walk through a mossy forest, which was quite cool, we arrived at the tea factory. But...oops...the tea factory was closed because it was a public holiday (which is actually on Monday, NOT Friday, but whatever). The factory's shop was not closed, though, and our cup of tea overlooking the plantation was one of my favorites ever. It's just gorgeous there.

We got back to the town, grabbed a bite at a place with weird decor, and since there was sort of sun, we headed off to find a trail on the outskirts of town. We looked for trail 13 for about an hour. Nothing was marked on the map, so we gave up and went for number nine. Nine was accessible, and it was a long walk down a gorgeous waterfall. Only...it started POURING in the middle. Okay. Whatever. At least we would get back and have a nice, warm shower...

So we got back to our guest house, and Matt got in the shower...but there was still no water. We got into bed anyway, because we were freezing, wet, and it was still raining, and there was nothing else to do. Backgammon...There was also a sign that there would be no electricity from 4-7pm, but it was already 4:30 pm, so we weren't relying on that.

Finally, I literally shook the shower faucet enough to clean my important parts, and we headed off to dinner. This place put our choices in the microwave before putting them on our plate, and my vegetable murtabak was really an onion murtabak...and I really hate onions. This meal stank. So...we decided to change to the 8:45 bus from the 11 bus and head back to KL sooner.

All in all, we definitely want to go back to Cameron Highlands...not near the rainy season (which technically starts in Nov), and not stay in the same guest house. The area itself is unbelievably gorgeous, and the people were so chilled and relaxed. We loved the feel. It's funny, though, because it was started as a place for Europeans to escape from the city, so the architecture is pretty European. Totally weird in Malaysia...

After an uneventful bus ride back to KL (with air con) we arrived at an area near Chinatown. We grabbed a great lunch of two different kinds of nasi goreng (friend rice), and we had A&W root beer floats for dessert. We walked around Chinatown, but it wasn't as exciting as other citys' Chinatowns, and we had already eaten...so we walked and walked. We finally arrived at KL Tower, which is like the CN Tower, but it's in KL. We went to the top, and it was a great view of the city. It's amazing to see the contrast between the developed areas and the not so developed areas.

Finally, we jumped in a taxi and headed for our luxury Mandarin Oriental. Thank goodness. Hot showers, clean hair, beautiful pool and relaxation. We sat by the pool, read, did nothing. We ate amazing ex-pat food for dinner, we walked around to check out the night scene, and we finally went back to the hotel around 9 pm. We're such partiers. We actually just wanted to take advantage of good cable and a big comfy bed.

This morning Matt slept for hours and hours and I started my P2 reading. We went for a nice breakfast, sat by the pool and read, and then we headed to Kampung Bahru (new kampung/village/neighborhood). It's an old little village in the middle of a new city. It was pretty remarkable to see, but way too hot to enjoy walking around with all of our stuff...We headed off to KL Central to take a bus to our non-airport airport, and finally we headed back to Singapore.

Overall, we relaxed a lot. We ate mostly good food. We sweat a lot.

Click here for our pictures.