The girls didn't want to get up early, so I decided to head off to Taiping on my own the next day. Its a very average city, but the lake gardens are very beautiful. At last something a bit different. Its not amazing, but the town is worth stopping in. I grabbed an excellent biryani for lunch and then went to Kuala Kangsar. Its a peaceful, riverside city and the mosque and palace are both very beautiful. If you are stuck in Ipoh and wandering what to do then I would do a day trip here. You may even want to consider staying the night in Taiping as its pleasant enough. I got offered a lift back on the way back, which was the first of many nice things in Perak state. The girls saw a super camp local guy and heard some monkeys while they were in the park. I finished Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, which is a good book, but not one of my favourite Mark Twains.
In the morning we grabbed the bus to the Cameron Highlands. Jessica had been reluctant to go back as she had thought it was a bit shit the first time. We arrived in the afternoon and got one of the attic rooms for 25 ringgits. We decided to do Trail 9A by the waterfall. Its a very nice trail and we were happy to finally be somewhere interesting and exciting after so much mediocrity. At the end of the trek (which is not that long) it battered down with rain and we were luckily offered a ride back by a local. The people up here are comfortably the nicest we have met in Malaysia. It carried on raining all afternoon, so we grabbed some Indian food in the evening.
In the morning we had breakfast with a guy who worked in the local bank. He bought us breakfast after a nice long chat. Again the locals were proving to be super nice. Jessica spent the say on her own and she got two free lifts around the highlands. We walked all the way to Brinchang as there were no buses running and then from there we walked all the way to the tea plantations and back. A round trip of around 25km. It was good exercise. The farms looked a bit boring to visit, but we stopped by one strawberry farm and got some excellent strawberries and cream that we ate on the rooftop. The final 4km to the tea plantation is really beautiful, as you stroll through all the scenes that you see on postcards for the region. Finally. Something pretty. It had a Ha Giang feel, though it was not as amazing as there. Jessica missed it sadly as it was clearly the highlight of mainland Malaysia (not that there is a lot of competition). We got some tea there (which was not as nice as the place was) and watched the marketing video (its boring but the couches are really comfortable). We had problems booking stuff for Kuala Lumpur when we got back as it was Chinese New Year, but eventually found a room for 55 ringgit. Still our most expensive here so far. We went back for an Indian for dinner. Its really good in the place LP recommends. The Cameron Highlands were really nice and we were happy to spend 2 days there. Both the climate and the scenery are really nice and it was the highlight of the mainland.
Our hostel was closed for check out in the morning so we just left the keys on the side and grabbed the bus to KL. Finally the capital and the last 3 days before we flew to Borneo. There were lots of aggressive Indian Malaysians when we arrived and walked round to our hotel. Its a really nice hostel, but once again the Chinatown is a backpacker shithole with ludicrously overpriced local food. We set off for Merdeka Square which is really beautiful. The architecture there is truly special. A mix of Malay, British and Mogul architecture. The main town hall has a very big ben feel about it. Like a Big Ben/St Pancras fusion. The old railway station and adjacent buildings are really cool as well. Its got some great architecture here. Probably the best of the colonial stuff so far. I also liked the fact that the city was edgy. No cookie cutter city like the rest of South East Asia, but some real city grit. Cannelle disliked it for this reason, but I thought that there was a distinct energy to the place. We headed up to the surprisingly nice lake gardens and saw the mushroom trees. Cannelle said that she got the most hassle in all of South East Asia when on her own in Malaysia. Especially on the West coast. In the evening we went to the Petronas Towers. They truly are a very beautiful building. Stunningly lit up in the evening. Sadly we found out that there would be no concerts or visiting of the bridge during Chinese New Year. Maybe later, though I imagine when we come back from the Philippines we will visit Singapore and Georgetown. Not to be stereotypical, but I asked a sports shop about the orchestra (and they had never heard of it) and then I asked a book shop (and they knew straight away). Surprising? Not really lol. The girls stayed in the centre and chatted with the owner, while I went hunting round the golden circle for a place to watch the football. Eventually I found a place and watched us beat Newcastle 2-1. Good result.
The bed bugs attacked us in the night. Shit. As we would have to spend three nights here. Oh well. We hadn't slept much and so limped over to the Petronas Towers in the day to see them and the park. They aren't as pretty in the day as they are at night. We headed out to the suburbs to Carrefour to get a tent etc. In the end we opted against the tent as we figured we would not use it enough and we weren't even sure if it could survive the weather in Borneo. When we came back the cinema was full and the bars were too expensive. It was a bit uneventful for a day, so we turned in. They did get some weird and annoying people turning up in this hostel to check in, including a super rude Italian guy who called the place a shit hole when they said they were full and a Russian who didn't want to remove her shoes as everyone else would be walking on the carpet. One day left on the mainland and one more day with Jessica.
The last day we decided to head to Putrajaya, but first we did our own laundry for the first time in ages. That was a nice feeling and for once it was cheap. We took the expensive train to Putrajaya, which was a weird ghost town. The architecture is really nice, with the beautiful pink mosque and grandiose buildings lining the main street. Its just that there was noone. Really noone. It looked like a post apocalyptic zombie town. I guess its because it was Chinese New Year and being the admin capital, maybe all the officials were on holiday. The camera also died here. Shit. The lens decided not to work. Similar to when it died in Morocco. They have an imitation Iranian bridge here and some quite futuristic architecture. Its certainly worth a day trip as something a bit different. On the way back we went to buy a camera, when it miraculously came back from the dead again. We decided to gamble on its health, but were worried that if we went to Borneo we would not be able to capture anything. Anyway we shall see. We went to the Times Square shopping mall, that has a roller coaster and theme park inside it and watched Die Hard 5 (bit shitty) on the giant screen. Then in the evening it took me ages to upload the photos, while Cannelle and Jessica spent their last bit of time together. Jessica was still hoping to see Amir in the last 3 days she had before she flew to Paris. Ah I hate the dickhead internet cafe in Kuala Lumpur. We have met quite a lot of dickheads in Malaysia. Overall mainland Malaysia was about as boring as I was expecting it to be. Everything was nice but very meh. We only stayed longer so that we could spend some more time with Jessica. Otherwise we would have gone before. Hopefully Borneo proves as good as mainland Malaysia was average. We shall see.
In the morning we had breakfast with Jessica and left early to get to the airport. There was some dickhead who was late for his flight and kept going to the wrong counter. He was sniffing a lot, like a proper cocaine user and maybe he was too fucked to fly. Anyway we checked in and we were finally flying to Borneo. Fuck I hate flying.
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