Hiking in the Cameron Highlands

I never thought I'd say this but after four months of temperatures in the mid-30's and upwards, it feels damn good to break out the jeans and feel chilly again. 

The Cameron Highlands is one of Malaysia's old hill station districts, with towns scattered throughout the region situated at a pleasant 1400m above sea level and year round average temperatures of around 20 degrees. The highlands are covered by mossy forests, tea plantations and increasingly, some fairly hideous mock-Tudor style resorts. 

We arrived in Tanah Rata a few days ago from the rather disappointing town of Ipoh (apparently infamous for a sleazy prostitution scene) and bought a map of the surrounding walking trails, all ready to shake off the muscle atrophy that comes from 5 weeks of beach-bumming.

Despite much bitching and moaning online about the lack of signage, difficulty in finding trails and poor maintenance, we found Trails 1 and 10 easily (and this from the people who couldn't find the defining feature of the Penang Botanical Gardens!). 

Both hikes took us through pretty forest to the peaks of Gunung Jasar (Trail 10) at 1670m and Gunung Brinchang (Trail 1) at 2000m. Trail 1 was definitely the better of the two, with stunning, resort-free views on the way up and an observation tower at the top with awesome 360's of the surrounding valleys. 

Although there isn't a lot of wildlife to be seen, the forest is very atmospheric and feels like it could well be home to faeries, pixies and goblins (in addition to the less exotic but far more commonly sighted mosquitoes). 

 

Coming down the other side of Gunung Brinchang we were treated to lovely vistas of tea plantations, stretching far off into the distance. 

Although it is bright and sunny in the morning, by mid afternoon the rain clouds roll in and it begins to pour down. We were lucky both days of our hikes- about half an hour after reaching the top of Gunung Brinchang we looked back to see that the peak had been consumed by clouds and the view we had enjoyed so recently had been completely obliterated. Good thing I have Martijn to make sure we are always early birds!

Penang- Pearl of the Orient (and darling of the Malaysian hipster-verse)

The island of Penang sits just north of the Malacca Straits and, like any strategically important place, has seen more than its fair share of foreign invaders, settlers, traders and travelers. The English claimed formal possession of the island in 1786 and promptly went about creating a trading centre to rival that of Dutch Batavia (present day Jakarta). And while Penang's importance declined with the foundation of Singapore, the island has remained one of the most economically important states of Malaysia today.

Georgetown, the island's capital, reflects the various foreign influences in its inhabitants, architecture and (most appealingly) its food. In Little India you can find Bollywood flicks at Lakshmi Video, browse saris in a bewildering range of colours and munch on dahl, paneer and Galun Jamun to your hearts content.

 

Chinese temples and beautiful old shop-houses in varying states of decay are a constant reminder of Chinese dominance in trade and the local economy. 

This dominance (Chinese are estimated to control 90% of the Malaysian economy) combined with poverty among rural ethnic Malay and an unsuccessful policy of government positive discrimination has been the source of inter-ethnic tensions for decades. Not that you'd ever know it- the steamy streets of Georgetown seem remarkably harmonious.

While there are lots of reasons to love Georgetown, it was the appearance of dozens of tragically hip cafes serving Illy and Lavazza that sealed the deal for us. After spending more than half a year in the caffeine wilderness of Russia, China and South-East Asia we were overjoyed to find proper coffee...even if it did mean blowing large percentages of our daily budget on the luxury. 

After hitting the Sang Som we'd brought from Thailand one night we woke with raging hangovers and decided to go out for breakfast. We had two coffees each (macchiato- oh joy!!), juice and some kick-ass, fancy pants egg-based brekkies....the bill came to a jaw-dropping AUD$30, almost half our daily budget, but it was worth it. A rough comparison would be dropping AUD$120 on eggs and bacon back home. Where are young Malays are getting the money to fund their forays into the hipster-verse??? 

 

After spending a few days wandering the backstreets of Georgetown we rented a moped and drove to the Kek Lok Si Buddhist Temple just outside the city. 

Kek Lok Si is supposedly the biggest temple in SE Asia and won points from us for the liberal planting of grass, trees and flowering shrubs (instead of the concrete-fest that usually dominates temples in Asia). We also visited the Botanic Gardens where we somehow failed to find the waterfall that forms the centre piece of the park. It seems that even after successfully navigating our way around foreign cities for the last two years, a well planned out and thoughtfully signposted garden can still defeat us. 

Here comes the rain..

Click here for some atmospheric start-of-the-wet-season tunes...

Because the best travel stories are horror travel stories...

I just got back from a visit to the local medical clinic here on Ko Samui, after spending the last few days gazing worriedly at a line snaking its way across my belly, much like a tiny little mole was burrowing his way to my belly button. 

Turns out it's not a mole; it's a parasite!!! Who would have thought that after traipsing through South American jungles, swimming in Amazonian rivers, sleeping on the ground in Laotian rainforests and eating at questionable market stalls the world over I would finally pick up a pet in sanitized Ko Samui?

I feel almost maternal about my first ever parasite- I'm going to call him Tony after that other great parasite currently leading Australia. Wouldn't it be nice if seven little white pills were all it took to get rid of him too?

Two Years of Wandering

Damn, time really does fly when you're having fun. This last year has gone even faster than the first one we spent away from home...maybe because we spent four months of it in Holland where some semblance of a routine (not to mention a hectic social calendar) made time whiz by faster than usual. 

In the tradition of our anniversary of leaving Australia, here's a little snapshot of how we've spent the last 12 months. 

Number of countries visited: 12 (Cuba, Netherlands, Germany, Scotland, Russia, China, Mongolia, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar)

Total distance traveled: somewhere around the 30,000km mark, including the flight from Cuba to Frankfurt

Favourite places: Vinales Valley (Cuba); Berlin; St Petersburg; all of Mongolia (except phenomenally ugly Ulan Bataar); Beijing, Xi'an Muslim Quarter and Guangxi countryside (China); Muang Ngoi Neua and Si Phan Don (Laos). 

Number of bottles of rum tasted: 16 (can this really be accurate?? I thought we drank this many in Cuba alone). 

Best Rum: Diplomatico Reserva 8 Años; Ron Matusalem 15 Años and special mention to Myanmar's Mandelay Rum for producing probably the world's best flavour:price ratio rums.

Money, Money, Money: ahhh, the question on everyone's lips. Many, many people have asked how we've managed to live work-free lives of leisure for the last two years. Well...there's no big secret peeps. 

We saved a shitload of cash; that's how. 

Since leaving Australia we have spent around AUD$64,000 which averages out to $87 a day. During our four months in the Netherlands we earned enough money to cover our (mainly beer-related) expenses- around $11,000 between us- but aside from that all of our cash was earned before we left in Oz. 

Our budget has been generous- we allowed $100 a day for Latin America, Europe, Russia, Mongolia and China and then dropped back to $75 a day once we hit South-East Asia. This lets us do pretty much everything we want, though granted we have inexpensive taste in terms of food, accommodation and transport. 

Hell, if we didn't like sundowners and have a predilection for rum we could probably have squeezed an extra year out of our money!!

The One-Fifth Philosophy

Joe Hockey's recent announcement that Australia's pension age will likely be raised to 70 served as a reminder that taking 2+ years off work was probably the best decision we've ever made. In fact, we're so happy with our mini-retirement that we're thinking we'll take one every decade.

We both managed to spend at least two years of our 20's overseas and this trip will account for our 30's. If we manage to keep up the trend through our 40's, 50's and 60's that will translate to 10 out of fifty 'working' years spent in semi-retirement. 

Assuming the pension age will be pushing 75 by the time we're closing in, this will put us almost on par with the lucky generation of Australians who retired at 60 and have a life expectancy of around 84 years of age.

Rather than waiting to enjoy the leisure of that one-fifth at the end of our working lives, we're choosing to spread it out...hedging out bets if you like, since let's face it, some people don't make it to the golden years they've looked forward to all their lives.

This lifestyle is dependent on a few things of course- namely: no kids, no mortgage and no career-related ambition. All of which we are very happy to live without.