cameron highlands, malaysia

well everyone, these last few weeks have been quite busy. Eye-opening, life-changing, and FUN! Its been about two months since I have been out here which is really hard to believe because I feel like I have been here forever...not that it is boring and dragging me down...I just feel like we have accomplished so much in so little town. It just makes me wonder how things will be when I go home...if I'll keep busy and take advantage of each and every opportunity as I have been here...or if I will be bored with the daily routines college life at home brings...regardless I am excited. As I was saying these few weeks have been crazy..we went to Cameron Highlands in Malaysia...just me and the boys...well it started off as a venture with Charlie. He's super fun, he was headed there by himself and invited us all..as usual i was the only one up for it. But I'm so glad I went. I'll post pictures when I get a chance..but yeah it was beautiful up there..cold which was so weird because it has always been hot and humid anywhere we have gone, I was definitely under prepared.

It was here where we developed an amazing relationship with one of the local mom and pop stands. It was in the middle of no where, a kind of dark and dingy place..but being in adventure mode (and starving for breakfast) Charlie and i decided to give it a shot...sometimes these are the best places :). We were the only people, seated outside..well thats the only seating that existed...with an aluminum plated roof...across the street from an abandoned building, lets just say the view was breathtaking. They had pancakes! so excited. I have been eating this Singaporean delight- consisting of toast with kaya (egg and coconut jam type thing), half-boiled eggs, watermelon/banana (mix it up), and coffee/tea/milo $1.80...its amazing but im kind of getting over it. Anyways this first day at our mom and pop place...the old malaysian (assuming) woman comes to take our orders, charlie goes first...we order in English...she doesnt understand. so we do the standard point and shoot method (c) daniel kamen. she attempts to see exactly what we want and uses her hands to show a cup, hot or cold? she grunts and motions with her hands. Usually id be weary...but i thought it was beautiful..its an incredible thing to witness and partake in the merging of two different cultures...our hands never fail us. non-verbal communication is key. we went to this place each morning. the last. the old woman hugged me. her husband waved by. i never could tell them that we wouldn't be back. but it was a lovely relationship to have built. their banana porridge and peanut butter toast were amazing!!

The rest of the weekend consisted of adventures, standard. We toured a tea plantation, butterfly farm, rose garden, bee farm *lame*, local village, learned how to use a blow pipe (like in jungle-2-jungle), went off roading, hiking, saw a rafflesia (the world's largest flower), swam in a waterfall!! in my clothes haha, and had amazing south Indian food. It was such an adventure getting back to Singapore...our tour took longer than anticipated and our tour guide was minorly shady but whatever... we were waiting for a cab...missed our bus. attempted to walk down the mountain (7km) i think. it was fun for a while, people were waving at us like we were in a parade..honking and such. so random. lol. before it got old we caught a cab. went to the bus station. found out there werent any buses left to Singapore or kl, so we had to go to some random city (i forget the name now) but we had no other options. the bus was coming in an hour. so zach insisted we get reflexology (foot massages) like $6US for an hour. not too shabby. caught our bus. arrived in the random city like 2 hours later. still no buses to Singapore or the Malaysian border. so we had to go to kl. which was totally out of the way. 4 hours. drive. some how lost my bus ticket in 2 mins. but the man let me on. luckily. arrived in kl. 1:30 am. still hours away from Singapore. the boys have class in the morning. solid. oh yeah. charlie went to penang. i was with zach and david. anyways managed to find a bus to the border. arrived at 5 am. took a public bus across to Singapore. another bus. the mrt. and another bus. arrived at my dorm at 7 am. wow. long journey.

The town of Cameron Highlands was really quaint. It was a great weekend getaway, oh and they had the BEST vegetables ever. ohh and strawberries :).