Day 210-212: Penang, sunshine and rain

And so your motley crew of mostly-MDT's rolled out of the faux-English country side and onto some Island living. Specifically Penang Island, which lies just off the north-west coast of Malaysia and is easily accessible by a beautiful bridge from the mainland (does this diminish it's status as an island? discuss.)

Penang is very different from the Cameron Highlands in a number of ways but the first one that hit us was the heat; below the benefits of altitude we spend out days running from shop awning to shop awning almost melting into the pavement under the sun. It was great.

It's also much busier and it was a pleasure to explore the bustling pockets of the community. As with many other Asian towns and cities that we have visited, areas were here loosely sorted by origin and income; there was Little India (with all the culinary delights that you might imagine and more), China Town (billowing incense sticks, red lanterns and all), the super-rich (malls the size of villages) and the slightly more skanky (where we were staying.)

There isn't a beach per say - basically all available space has been used in the far more profitable business of building giant ports, which was a bit of a shame but a wander down the tiny strip of rocky coast to see locals fishing was well worth it.

We spent our days trying to stay cool and the nights trying to stay dry and as the rains came down we decided where our adventure would take us next, and it was a little further afield than even we had initially expected...

Day 203-209: Sarah in Malaysia

Some people would have been forgiven for thinking that two people who packed their backpacks and said goodbye for a year didn't want to see their nearest and dearest for a good while. Well, if the wonderful liaison with friends wasn't enough to dispel these rumours, Team 365 is way overexcited to announce the arrival of Sarah, my best friend and big sis.

We spent our first days together exploring Kuala Lumpur, a city that is as beautiful and modern in parts as it is derelict and crowded in others. We were staying in China Town, where the largest and cheapest vegetarian buffet (look! it goes further than the camera can see!) kept us going between wanders through the park, ventures into Bangkok-style huge malls and speeding around town on the 'Rapid KL' sky-train (more transport geeking. Apologies.)

But Sarah had come from the big smoke and the weather hadn't really improved too much since our 'Samui days so we headed to, well, yes, a rain forest actually. But not just any old rainforest! A very old rain forest - 130 million years old to be precise. Taman Negara, which we travelled to by bus and a stunning 3-hour boat ride, has remained unchanged by ice ages or tectonic activity and we were going to trek through it...at night.


It was only a short night trek that we did but it was brilliant; by torchlight we saw snakes, huge spiders (pictured), moths and even 'fished' for scorpions which basically involves enticing them out of trees just long enough to blind them with a thousand camera flashes before they return to the safety of darkness.

We also undertook some less scary but definitely more strenuous walks, which lead us to some beautiful vistas and some murky waters. It was brilliant, but with the only 2 weeks to spend in Malaysia with Sarah we were keen to head on.

And onwards we headed to where strawberries, scones and tea are the order of the day, the weather was cool and the hills rolled in glorious shades of green; no, not England. I am writing from the Cameron Highlands (not to be mistaken for the Cameroon Islands...Sarah)

Here we have been happy to indulge in some cream teas (who needs Wimbledon to be on? So good!) and a great tour of a local tea plantation, strawberry farm, honey farm and a butterfly farm that also offered the opportunity to get close to some over-sized and very well camouflaged insects.
It has been so good having Sarah with us and, scarily, we are already half way through her holiday - but rest assured that there is plenty more fun to be had and we'll be telling you all about it.