GLOBETROTTER

It is independents day in Malaysia today. 51 years anniversary. Yesterday was a great countdown party. But as always the rain come in the evening. We plan for that so we were sitting under the roof. I am sorry to say that Norway beat Scotland yesterday, but that was not in football. There was a beer drinking contest and I was the fastest. I was so lucky that I dont have to compete with the english pub drinker because he was really fast.

Tomorrow we will move to George Town and try to get a ticket to Thailand. It is time to move on. We have been here for 8 days now and Rose’s visa is running out. We plan to go to Ko Samui and maybe the full moon party at Ko Phongan on 15. september.

Selamat tinggal Malaysia – Goodbye

It is a great view from Penang Hill, just to bad that we did not walk all the way to the top. Our plan was to take the tram up, but we where told that it was out off service. We went there with our friend Stephen. Here is the link to his blog with picture. http://blogs.bootsnall.com/stevieblunder/ . He tell everything that happen so no need for me to write it again. It is even pictures of us in his blog, but dont believe everything he write he, he.

It was warm to come down to lowland again from Cameron Highland, but the good thing is that it is not so cold in the evening. We spend our first two nights in George Town. Arrived in rain the first day so we just check in to the first hostel we found. Found out later in the evening that we where not far away from the backpacker area. Met Stephen the second day in his hostel. He was really surprised to see us. We went to Penang hill in the daytime and had some (read too much) beers in the evening.

The day after we manage to move to Batu Feringgi, thanks to my girlfriend. We did not really know what we was going to, but Stephen said it should be a nice place, and he was right, it is a nice beach here with not to many tourist. The accommodation is from backpaker place 45RM to 5 star hotel. We stay at Baba Guesthouse next to the beach.

Yesterday it was time for a long walk again. We took the bus to Telok Bahang and went into Penang National Park. It was free to enter. We just had to make a registration in the entrance. We went all the way to Monkey Beach. That took us about 2 hours. It is also possible to stay there in tent, but you have to bring food and water. We did the mistake not to bring enought water and no food. Our plan were to go all the way to the Light house, but we had to return. In a way that was lucky because heavy rain start after we come back. It is heavy rain here everyday in the evening and night time, but yesterday it start earlier.

Our plan for today is just to relax on the beach. We were really tired yesterday. It was not the same to walk in the lowland as up in the cold mountain. Our friend Stephen went to Perhentian Island yesterday, maybe we will also go there. Have to make up our mind today.

Gunung Brinchang today was a hard peak to reach. It was realy steep up to 2220m(6666 feet). We walk 4km up from the village Brinchang and before we reach the peak we got rain so we could not see anything. We choose to take the road back down where we saw some big Tea platation.

Had a long walk today, more than 20km in jungle and on road. It was amasing how my Filippina girlfriend manage to do all this walking and she was not more tierd than me. For those of you who have been in Philippines you will know that Filippino dont like to walk. Even onley 100m they need some transportation. It was one that ask us where is your car and I answer that question as usual “no money” he he. Dont know if he belived us. In Philippines they ask you the same question every 100m if you are walking.

Yesterday we where on Gunung Beremban 2010m and 2 days ago Gunung Jasar 1850m. It is about 14 Jungle walk here and we have done most of them in the 8 days we have stayed here. It have been a great week up in the mountain, but tomorrow it is time to go down to lowland and warmer climate. Trousers and sweaters can be packed away. We will met our friend Stephen again in Penang. We both look forward to that.

I am happy to see that 19 have read my blog so far and that is not onley my friend and family. Norway manage to reach the final in handball today in the Olympics. Hope they can win the final also.

Have not manage to eat dinner yet because of rain. But it is not a big problem since we had a late lunch at KFC on the way home. A nice guy pick us op outside Brinchang today so we save our feet for 5km. There is many friendly people in Malaysia, and it sems that they have jobs here. It is not like Philippines where my girlfriend is from. There it is around 50% unemployment. Most be hard after everything become more exspensiv this year.

Makan ayam nasi goring – eat friend rice chicken. Most popular here, hard to get beef and pork since the Indian dont eat beef and Malay (muslim) dont eat pork. Some chines resturang have both.

It is great view up here. We (Rose and me) are on the top of Genung Jasar, a peak at 5,565 feet (about 1850m). It is a sunny day so we can see in all direction. More lucky than yesterday when it was heavy rain all day. The way up was steep, but it did not take long time. We ended opp in Aboriginal village Kampung Orange Asli on the way home. Different from others here in Malaysia. Malaysia is a great country. It is a mixture of many religion with the majority Malay muslim.

This is my first blog, hope it will not be my last. I am writing in english so my norwegian friend have to live with that. But I am sure you will understand. I met a open and “crazy” english man here in Cameron Highland name Steven. He had been travelling for 2 1/2 year who convince me to start a blog, and here I am.

I went to Singapore 15. July to work. My girlfriend from Philippines was also coming there. My job is electrical engineer and i worked in a shipyard on Smart1 Project for 3 weeks. After working we decided to go to Malaysia. Had a stopover in Malacca and KL before we arrived here one week ago.

Cameron Highland is about 4 hours from KL. It is up in the mountain at 1500m above sea level. The rainforest up here make it raining nearly every day in the afternoon, so it is not so hot as in the lowland. Night time can be as cold as 15 degree Celsius. Here nobody need any aircondition or electrical fan. There is many jungle walk, strawberry farms and tea plantations so you can easily be busy for more than one week here. You can find accomodation from 8RM for a dorm bed. We had a double room with toilet and hot water shower for 45RM. There are also hotels, bank and many different restaurants here.

1US$=3RM

1RM=1.67NOK

1RM=15 Philippine Peso

Terima kasi  Thank you Tusen takk