Cameron Highlands

It looks like it could be out of an episode of "Pimp my Bus"--red plush seats, televisions on the back of every seat, air conditioning, and complimentary bottled water are just a few of the comforts on our overnight bus from Singapore to Malaysia's Cameron Highlands. In between bouts of sleep, I pass the 8 hour journey listening to music, watching movies, and journaling. During our main pit stop the bus drivers smoke around a metallic fish fountain. Signs advertise lucky porridge and bee venom therapy outside the small grocery store. The next time I wake up the moon is a luminous pearl against an ink sky. It is 5:30am and the air is noticeably cooler as we wind around narrow roads surrounded by stars and silhoutte mountains.

We arrive in Tanah Rata and choose Daniel's Lodge for it's laid back atmosphere and $4 pricetag. And our room sets a new record for small--It's literally 2 twin beds separated by a few inches. The bright blue door barely clears the edge of the bed. I like our view of a tree stump table and mini-buddhist temple with rusty bikes leaning against it. In this ramshackle small town, our days fall into a pleasant routine. I usually eat a mango from my favorite fruit stand guy at the end of our street before heading to Restoran Kumar with it's menu pasted inside a scruffy photo album. After breakfast, Laura and I hike one of the many jungle treks surrounding the area. Then we sit down for a banana leaf meal where they give you several piles of veggies, rice, and curries to mix together. Evenings are spent reading, drinking Anchor beer with other travelers around the fire pit, or playing with the 3 resident puppies. The puppies were found by a traveler in the jungle and now belong to a girl working at the hostel.

Hiking in the Malaysian jungle has presented some challenges. Each trek is designated only by a number and none are well marked. Only rudimentary maps are available so even finding them is an adventure. Trek #2 meanders through narrow, steep terrain to the next town over called Brinchang. Much of the hike was more of a climb as I grabbed thick roots to hoist myself up to the next portion of an overgrown path! Trek #10 took us to the top of Jasvar mountain, overlooking all of Tanah Rata. My favorite was Trek #7 which ended up at Robinson Falls. We were never able to quite locate #13, ending up instead in someone's backyard with chickens squawking all over the place!

But it's not all paradise. Some parts of town have an overwelming sewer smell that makes me gag. There are discarded water bottled floating at the bottom of the beautiful waterfalls. Tanah Rata is known for it's strawberry farms and expresses this pride with several tacky tourist shops selling everything from strawberry keychains to huge strawberry pillows. Still, I can live days filled with amazing hikes, great food, and comfortable surroundings for about $15 here so it is hard to complain!

We head back to Kuala Lumpur this afternoon and fly to Phuket, Thailand on Saturday!