Getting artsy in George Town

We spent a few days tromping about George Town on the island of Penang. Most of the time was spent exploring the restaurants and alleyways of the Old Town district. It is another UNESCO site and is home to some incredible art painted on the side of buildings you find while stumbling around the narrow streets. Really though almost every building and store front, crumbling wall and even sleeping foot cart drivers seem like a work of living art. It really was a charming city and also home to some of the best Indian food I've ever tasted.

 

Making new friends.

Rhiannon working on her own art.

View from the top of Penang Hill

The Super Mario flower and jungle friends

We decided to spend one extra day in the Cameron Highlands and I'm really glad we did. We woke up early in the morning to trek into the jungle in search of the elusive Raffleisa. Well it's not too elusive since there 52 know sites near the Highlands where they grow, but since they only stay in bloom for 5 to 7 days it is still pretty cool to see one in person.

The trek was a relatively easy 2 hours through the jungle to get to the flower site, with a couple of stream crossings and a number of critters along the way. The payoff was great. A three day old Raffleisa that was over 80cm across. It really was quite a site. It seriously looked like something out of Super Mario Brothers.

The cherry on top of the day was shooting blow pipe (the non-poisoned darts of course) after a quick demonstration. Naturally I got a bulls eye, well close enough.

Keeping it cool in Cameron Highlands

It has been hot in Indonesia and Malaysia. Pretty much I've been sweating for two months straight, which is great for your pores. My skin has never looked better. But it was nice to finally find some relief from the constant swelter. After leaving Kula Lumpur we decided to take a break from the boat and headed overland via bus to the Cameron Highlands.

The Highlands are a "hill station" developed by the British early in the 1930s and has become and agro-mecca for tea and strawberry lovers. The cool weather has some pretty great appeal too.

We spent a few nights here escaping the heat, treking through a very wet jungle to the top of Mount Brinchang (the highest mountain in the region at a whopping 6,663 ft above sea level), explored a butterfly farm, a mossy forest and the beautiful hills of the BOH Tea Plantation.

All in all it was a great retreat that at times felt more like we were in Britain than Malaysia.

But I think I'm ready to sweat again.

 
       

                        

The Kuala Lumpur kaleidoscope

Like much of western Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur has a unique history of varied ruling empires and trading civilizations that each seem to have left remnants of their unique culture melted over the city in layers throughout time. It can be seen in the contrast of modern skyscrapers against the back drop of century’s old architecture in Malaysian, Indian, Dutch and Chinese neighborhoods. We spent a couple of days in KL, exploring museums, mosques, parks and alleyways.

We also headed to the northern suburbs of the city to Batu Caves and climbed the stairs into the Hindu temples housed in the caves themselves. There also just so happened to be really good rock climbing on the north side of the mountain so we took advantage and climbed a couple of days

Batu Caves: