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Kuala Lumpur:
A city desperately trying to be modern and full of so many different cultures. It was Chinese New Year so the red lanterns were in abundance, firecrackers as loud as gunshots were heard at all times of the day and the Chinese temples, particularly the one outside our hostel room, was swarming with people begging, hoping to be given a red lucky envelope of their own. We explored the city on foot and by the haphazard metro system. We visited the golden triangle area for a glimpse of the mighty Petronas Towers, the beautiful park hosting a fountain show similar to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the malls at the base of the twin towers, which was home to the likes of Chanel and Versace. We had drinks at the well known backpacker hangout of reggae mansion and had a night time view of both the KL Menara and the Petronas towers. But beer is expensive so we only had 2 bottles each! We walked to both Little India's and had many great curries, naans and roti canai. We happened to be in the Hindu temple at prayer time, which was rather loud and involved every person worshipping every statue of one of the gods, which took about half an hour! We also were walking past the main mosque when prayer time (azan) was called and the men who could not fit inside, prayed in the roads still all facing the same direction. Fascinating! We took the train to the Batu caves housing one of the most famous Hindu temples outside of India. There was litter everywhere and the smell of sewage was horrendous, we both felt we were going to catch something off of the hundreds of pigeons flying around. We also happened to be here for a ceremony of which we found rather strange. For 20 minutes the loud music continued and people prayed whilst a man at the front constantly threw jugs of (what looked like) mud, milk and water over an upright spear. To finish he then dressed the spear in a material and placed a flower necklace around it. The curtain closed and everybody got up and left. Later on we intriguingly tried to look up what we had seen, but had no luck! On our last night we went up the Petronas towers for a final glimpse of the city. What was rather exciting was that we hadn't actually anticipated seeing the twin of the tower that we had gone up. This actually ended up being much more interesting than looking at the city itself, as the towers are even more spectacular lit up and close up. We walked over the skybridge connecting the twin towers and were told about the bridges' half a metre movement allowance for strong winds etc! We then got the lift to the 83rd floor to the observation deck. It was definitely worth the money to come up here!
Cameron Highlands:
After the rather hair raising journey winding around the mountains, on ledges only wide enough for our coach, we were at the Cameron Highlands. We had seen a range of agriculture on our trip; palm plantations, rice fields, rubber trees, pepper, tapioca, maize, pineapple, dragon fruit, but we had come here to see tea plantations. The weather was like summer in England, very sunny but has a slight chill in the air. The first day we walked along one of the trails, past the mock tudor buildings and ski chalet style homes, to the next town along and went to a strawberry farm. The next day we trekked up a mountain, through a mossy forest and down to the tea plantations with our Malaysian Chinese guide Jason (who had a very posh English accent!). Jason went to school with the family of the plantation owner so we were allowed access into the plantations and working quarters. The workers, all Bangladeshi, had just finished their days picking and were unloading the tea leaves into the driers. It was fascinating! We then finished the 10km trek with a cuppa from their very own plantation and admired the view. A great trip! That night we were invited out to celebrate a belated Chinese New Year with Jason and a few others. We shared a steamboat, which is a cooking pot full of stock where you add noodles, egg, vegetables, meat, seafood and fish all at once to create something than looks disgusting but tastes rather nice! Jason even paid!!!!
Malacca City: This UNESCO World Heritage site can be found two bus journeys and a train away from the Cameron highlands, two hours south of KL. It is famous for the oldest and original colonial buildings in South East Asia and its history with the Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese and British. It also has a very diverse culture just like the rest of Malaysia so you can find many many preserved Chinese temples and clan houses, some very old churches and a few mosques. We spent our time strolling the historic streets, taking a river cruise and eating lots of new types of food that we probably should've tried before our last stop in Malaysia- especially Chinese chicken and rice. In particular, we also discovered we don't mind the smelliest fruit in the world- the Durian! And a dessert called Cendol. This contains crushed ice, coconut sugar, palm sugar syrup, coconut milk, green noodles made from pandan and kidney beans. Surprisingly the kidney beans do go well with all this sugar, especially when they get extra cold towards the end!
It had taken a while to get into the Malaysian way of life as there is so much to take in, but towards the end we finally found our feet and really enjoyed ourselves. Sadly my memory card corrupted mid-malacca so the pictures are stuck on there until I get home!
Best thing about Malaysia: Indian food- tandoori chicken, naans, roti canai and banana leaf meals!
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