Malaysia

March 7th-18th

I arrived to Kuala Lumpur in the afternoon, and just as I walked up to my hostel, the sky opened up and vomited a thunderstorm. It’s safe to say I’ve lost my Oregonian immunity to rain, and the desire to stay dry outweighed any interest I had to explore the city.

Later that evening, when the rain stopped, I took a walk alone. Tired, hungry, lonely (having just left the Philippines, I hadn’t traveled solo for a month), and still adjusting to a new country…that walk taught me a lot.

one) don’t let your cynicism and exhaustion-driven skepticism lead you to make assumptions about people or cultures. I think I was feeling more fear than I realized, because I as soon as I left the block I didn’t feel safe. I felt threatened by any man that approached me to help give me directions or help me cross a busy street. Later I found, like most of the places I’ve visited in Asia, that people are just extraordinarily kind and want to help. It’s important to stay alert but being closed off is unnecessary.

two) Google maps and your GPS location are not always reliable. If it’s not working for you, stop using it and LOOK UP FROM YOUR PHONE. Your eyes are more useful than a wonky map.

three) It’s VERY easy to over-spend, I’m talking double or triple your daily budget, when you first arrive in a new country. Because even if you know the conversion rate to your home currency, you don’t know the true cost of living there. I spent a grotesque amount of money (ok, in my backpacker perspective) on a seafood feast at some restaurant on the “street food” street, Jalan Alor. I walked right in to a touristy spot, and knew it too, but I was too hungry to use my brain so I gave up a bit of my pocket. Had I been using my head over my stomach, I would’ve ate at one of the small tent restaurants at the beginning of the street, before all the food carts and touristy restaurants, and it would’ve been a third of the price.

The next day, a girl from my hostel and I took the train for about 45 minutes to the Batu Caves, just outside of Kuala Lumper. We accidentally boarded the “women’s only” car (I’d never seen that before, it was a cool find!). We climbed up a massive rainbow staircase, said hello to the monkeys looting tourists on the stairs, and explored the cave and temple. Before heading back we sipped coconuts and munched on some jackfruit, while admiring the coy fish and turtles in the temple pond. When we returned we feasted on Indian food for lunch, eating with our hands straight off the banana leaf.

Feeling satisfied after lunch I bought a ticket for the next bus to Cameron Highlands, then rushed to the station. This was the most comfortable bus I’ve taken in SE Asia. The seats were massive and comfy and reclined so far back it was practically a bed. I arrived 5 hours later, ate dinner, made friends with another girl eating alone, and booked a Tea Plantation tour through my hostel.

Check out my den of a hostel dorm bed!

– The Half-day “Hike” through the “Mossy” Forest and Tea Plantation Tour –

The hike ended up being a 200 meter walk, up a paved path to a parking lot. The Mossy Forest had about as much moss as my backyard in the Pacific Northwest, although, I’m sure had we explored trails deeper in the woods we would have found big spongey beds of moss. But due to restoration efforts, those trails weren’t accessible. However, during our walk we did see some neat nature. Check it out

Tree fern. The biggest fern I’ve ever seen. I loved the sweeping branches!

Pitcher plant. This is a carnivorous plant. It has liquid inside it’s bell that traps insects.

Wild Malasoma (I think. Unless this is just a purple orchid. And I’m not sure how to spell “Malasoma”). This purple plant can(maybe) be used to stop bleeding and prevent infection. It reminds me of an herbal palm plant native to Thailand! supposed to be good for leeches too.

Morning Glory. This purple flower changes to blue when exposed to sun or heat. We tested the effect with a lighter.

Following the hike we went to the Cameron Highlands tea plantation, learned about the history of the plantation land and immigrant workers, saw the tea factory production process, and drank tea and ate biscuits with clotted cream and jam (is this Malaysia or Scotland?!).

The next day I walked to another tea plantation. This timed I had a cardamom tea (mmm one of my favorite spices!) with a lovely German woman, and we hitchhiked from tea plantation back to town.

The following day I left with a minivan for the Perhentian Islands. Because there weren’t a lot of options on Hostelword or Booking.com, I had no accommodation planned. I was a little nervous but as soon as I got to the island I found a scuba shop right on the beach that offered accommodation with the cost of their Open Water Diver Certification course. I am SO LUCKY I found this. This is very likely the cheapest place you can get dive certified in the world. I paid about $250 USD for my PADI open water certification and 3 days of accommodation (and free coffee). Then an additional $200 for my PADI advanced certification and another 2 days of accommodation. I was low on time so the shop condensed both of my courses so that I could complete my open water and advanced in just 5 days. I got certified at Panorama Divers and I can’t recommend it enough(!!). The instructors rocked. Both Jeppe and Jessica were patient and articulate teachers, and fun to dive with. My 5 days in Perhentians felt like summer camp. Diving came very naturally to me, and I’m excited to make this a part of my life. My advanced certification was 2 days jam-packed with 5 dives (which were basically fun dives) where I worked on my navigation, buoyancy, night diving, wreck diving, and deep diving skills. Wowow just writing about this gets me stoked to get back to the sea. As soon as I took that first breath underwater I knew I was a mermaid 😝🧜‍♀️🌊

After we were done diving for the day, I’d grab dinner with friends, usually at the same spot that served some really delicious Malaysian food. Speaking of the food…I think Malaysian cooking has been my favorite in Asia. It’s very oily, but the spices are divine. It’s this beautiful combination of Indian and Thai food, exploding with flavor and spice (i really love spice 🤤❤️🌶).

Dinner was often followed by watching fire shows on the beach (and having fire spun around me! …my face tells all 😅)

On one of the last nights we climbed up a telephone tower at sunset, ate some rice packs, then jammed to some covers and made up some new songs. Maybe one day we’ll reconvene to produce our hit single “This Is Life.”

The afternoon I finished my advanced diver certification I took the night bus to Penang. My flight ended up being delayed which gave me an extra day, so like a day and a half, to explore this foodie, graffiti marked beauty. I met some amazing people at my hostel, 100 centra (there’s a whole story there with an old man long term guest who saved me by letting me in and checking me in to a dorm bed because he happened to still be awake when I arrived at 6 in the morning). I had an afternoon of markets and positive interactions and poetry and beer and art and French and feelings and it was fabulous (merci Liliana).

Met a Japanese friend, Yasu, who you’ll see is my connection in Koh Lanta.

Then I took a night bus back to KL.

There for the second time, I still never made it to their famous towers, but I did play a bunch of rounds of cards with some late night/earlybird party people at my hostel when I arrived.

…then got this nasi lemak I’d been meaning to try, and was a little disappointed. (Too salty too fishy)

Saw some butterflies at a butterfly garden.

Met up with some friends from Cameron Highlands for the bougie-est, most scrumptious brunch in KL. Complete with charcoal latte.

And then…

I ate an unreasonably greasy street hamburger because I had just enough money in my pocket to cover it on my way to the airport shuttle. Yes, I was that person and I ate it on the bus 😂

Anyways, Malaysia was wonderful, delicious, friendly, and I’m thankful.