Trip to Malaysia

It seems a bit odd to write a blog about our experiences in Asia after we have returned home. But we won't see many of you for a while, and that includes all our closest family members, so we will tell you some of our last stories.

After finishing my work at the university we left the next day for a trip to Malaysia. There is a cheap southeast asia airline, and we booked this trip a while ago. Malaysia is a diverse, fascinating and colorful country, as we found out. Most people there are Muslim, some Hindu and the clothes the women wore were beautiful. Kuala Lumpur was a very modern city, with a very good sky train system that we used every day. On our first day we went a short ways out of town to the Forestry Research Institute, where we went hiking. The hike included a canopy walk high in the trees. I think, however, there were far too many people there to see much wildlife.

Our hotel was near Little India so we were able to find great Indian street food to eat, and on Saturday night we found a great night market. Since our suitcases for home were already full, we shopped only for desserts, enough for the next three nights. That was fun. Later in the week we went to Chinatown and the street market that is most popular there. I think we will miss shopping at markets after we get back to the US.

A trip to Kuala Lumpur these days is hardly complete without a trip to the world's tallest twin towers, the Petronas towers. We got in line for tickets before 8 in the morning, and I was the second to last person allowed in. After a two hour wait we got our tickets, and returned in the late afternoon for our 10 minutes on the skybridge between the two towers.

In the middle of the week we headed up into the mountains, a cooler place to be. This was the first time we adopted a backpacker mentality in our travels, and didn't have either transportation or lodging arranged ahead of time. After a 30 minute sky train ride to the edge of the city, we purchased tickets on a bus that would take us 2 hours out of the city. We were dropped of in a small town where we purchased tickets for a more run down bus that would take us up into the mountains. It sure helped that most Malaysians speak several languages, including English. The Cameron Highlands were very cool. We enjoyed visiting a tea plantation there, walking, and eating great Malay, Chinese and Indian food. Austin, finally, got to use his Christmas money from my family for 18 holes of golf with Ron. Janaya was pleased about the bus ride home, a very nice bus without a transfer in the middle. But the heavy perfume worn by the Muslim women on the bus, combined with the windiest road we have ever been on soon made her sick. But we don't think she was the only one that needed a bag on the trip down the mountain.

On the last day, Acacia cashed in a birthday gift for a fish massage - something we had seen in several places across Asia. She put her feet in a pool of small fish, which quickly removed the dead skin from her feet. It tickled her quite a bit.

After a year in a developing country, Malaysia was very different. Modern transportation, cleanliness, rest stops along the major highways and public restrooms (for a fee) were all pleasant, after a year without these things. It was also the most culturally diverse place I have ever been. We are fortunate to have had the experience.