South East Asia: Malaysia

I feel like I need a quirky catch phrase to open my blogs because I’m running out of ways to say ‘hello readers’. I’ll work on it. 

Before I travelled further, while I was still in Cambodia, I made the decision not to stay in the rainforest, Taman Negara, Malaysia- the next stop of my original plan. I made the mistake of not doing enough research back in England and I didn’t have the right clothing or equipment. But since I crammed Cambodia into my trip as well I don’t feel like I have done Malaysia justice anyway, so I’ve promised myself to come back to stay in Taman Negara and visit plenty of other places here too. Moral of the story- do your research into the places you’re visiting or you may end up not visiting them!

It was also around this time I began missing home. I’m surprised I hadn’t been homesick until then. It was snowing a lot back in England and I LOVE the snow. I miss wearing jeans and wrapping up warm. I got really excited to go and see my friends and family. I tried my hardest not to let it get me down because I wanted to make the very most of my last month abroad. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only thing threatening my adventurous, enthusiastic attitude. I arrived at Siem Reap airport for my flight back to Thailand only to discover that almost £200 of emergency money had been stolen from the pocket of my backpack that I almost always keep padlocked. It was one of the only times I wasn’t extra cautious and it backfired drastically. What’s more, it was within 3 days after Tom, who I spent most of my time in Cambodia with, had his wallet taken from right next to him while he was on the beach. We both learned our lessons! Tip: no matter how trusting you are as a person NEVER let your guard down.

On the bright side, my first proper day in Malaysia was AMAZING! Georgetown, on Penang Island, is officially a very strong contender in the running for my favourite places in the world. I had only one full day there so I made the complete most of it. My morning was spent getting utterly lost in the small town taking millions of pictures of the colourful streets and walls that were covered in street art. And for the first time in Asia I actually had a good cup of coffee (Thailand and Cambodia have terrible coffee). It is such a buzzing place full of friendly people and if you ever make a trip to Malaysia I would definitely recommend you spend a day or two here. Then I took a bus to Penang Hill where I bought a ticket for a little train up a big slope to viewpoint that was beautiful, despite the fact it was a little cloudy that afternoon. Although I was too tall for the train and it was very, VERY full, I thoroughly enjoyed sipping a cocktail at Penang’s highest restaurant.

The next day I headed to the Cameron Highlands, a town nearer the rainforest. I was so extremely close to missing my bus but, luckily for me, in Asia 8am really means 8:20. I went on a jam-packed tour while I was there. First of all we went to a tea plantation. There were acres and acres of beautiful, rolling hills of tea plants. Then we headed up to the cafe where we could try a cup of their authentic, hand-picked tea and I must say it was aaaaalmost as good as a Yorkshire brew! (Slightly biased opinion since I’m a Sheffield gal, born and bred!) Then we drove to the Cameron Highlands Butterfly Farm. I was hoping I would be able to gather the courage to hold one of the snakes there but we weren’t allowed to touch them. I still had a few butterflies land on me- not long enough to take a photo though because, let’s be honest, who has that kind of luck? After that, we were able to wander around one of the many, many strawberry farms and the market, and once we’d finished our strawberry filled lunches we were taken on a short, mossy, muddy jungle trek to another amazing viewpoint. The jungle went on for miles- perfect for a good panorama.

One of the best parts of Malaysia for me was the food. It’s so necessary that I rave about the mouthwatering cuisine of this country. As you may have read from previous blog posts, I am not an adventurous eater. I enjoy pizza and McDonald’s and all things greasy, but in Malaysia I didn’t crave western food whatsoever. I would always ask the waiter what they would order or I’d choose the most random sounding thing on the menu or at markets I’d get something small from as many stalls as I could. I can’t name a single thing that I ate but nevertheless, I loved it all. In fact, I was so impressed by the food I travelled from the Highlands to Kuala Lumpur a day early so that I could do a food tour organised by STA travel company. 

The road out of the Cameron Highlands was similar to the road to Pai that I wrote about in ‘Thailand Part 1’. To put it in perspective, I looked at the road on a map on my phone and it looked as though a child had scribbled viciously down a page. All I could do was close my eyes and pray for it to be over, and thankfully I managed to drift to sleep.

The food tour, however, was absolutely incredible. I was bursting at the seams after 4 whole hours of eating. The tour guide was so informative about the Malay, Chinese Malaysian and Indian Malaysian eating cultures (there are many overlapping cultures) and he was so funny- there was not a dull moment in my evening.

Unfortunately, it rained for the rest of the day. In Asia they don’t have showers, they have torrential downpours which stilted my outdoor activities for a few hours so I spent my time sat in Starbucks writing the majority of this blog post. 

Even though I didn’t see much of the city, Kuala Lumpur is great for shopping. There are so many markets and streets of designer boutiques and loads of malls, therefore it’s not the ideal city for travellers on a budget, e.g. me. I would absolutely love to come back to this city when I’ve got a little bit more cash to splash! However, I did treat myself one night to a cocktail at one of the cities highest bars, just for the view!

And now I’m off to my final destination! You can keep up to date with my travels by following my instagram and Facebook or wait till my next blog post if you fancy being in suspense for a month! Links are on my homepage, enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Lizzy x