muffaluffagus

yo!

a quick update of the past week here in the stinky tropics:

singapore was good, but expensive. the night the boys arrived we wandered through chinatown looking for a relatively quiet place to just sit and chat. it took us a while to find an establishment that wasn't blasting karaokee or dance mix '96 tunes... so when we finally found what looked like a fairly mellow place, we quickly settled in without noticing that all of the patronage were males. -- turns out "tantric" was one of the higher-end gay bars in town, but we stayed anyways for shits and giggles and a good time was had by all.

the next day we checked out a few of the cultural districts in singapore (the arab quarter, little india) but everything was too funk'n' expensive... so the next evening we hoped on the train headed for malaysia and spent the night sleeping on the rail with kuala lumpur as our destination. we arrived early in the morning and agreed that we didn't want to spend too much time in the big city - so we promptly jumped on a bus to the cameron highlands in central malaysia. the bus ride was a scenic five hours through the mountains - a long and winding road that showcased the amazing rainforest as far as the eye could see.


we arrived in a small town called tanah rata, and stayed in a popular backpacker hostel called Daniel's Lodge. it was funny because the majority of the occupants were canadian and there was even one mennonite dude from brandon who had a bunch of family from altona. small world indeed. the highlands were refreshing and beautiful. we spent a full day hiking through the jungle and got a little lost at one point, but found our way in the end. the area was also known for it's many tea plantations and hillside vegetable farms which we explored as well.

after conquering the central jungle, we decided to tackle the beaches of the west coast and soon found ourselves on the island of puala penang. we settled into a nice guesthouse right next to the andaman sea and spent our first evening just chillin' on the shore with cheap beer and some thai whiskey.


today, we rented a few motorbikes and toured the whole island in style. it was a blast.

we met a few swedish gals (sisters!) on the beach. they were nice.

our next destination is puala langkawi. our ferry leaves early tomorrow morning. im hoping to get a chance there to post some of the many photos i've take so far...

true.

somebody tell my mom i'm still alive.

word,
jd.