Coreyography

Kay El

Kuala Lumpur is a fantastic city - very clean, lots of people but not crowded and absolutely fantastic buildings.  It'd be hard to replace the Chrysler Building as all-time fave, but the Petronas Towers are seriously incredible buildings.  I thought they were awesome during the day, then I saw them at night and was even wowed-er.  And designed by an Argentinian architect?  Unexpected.  They are so cool, they even make me want to see Entrapment again which is saying something right there.  Strangely, there are like 55 malls here in KL, but none of them are particularly busy.  And there are KFCs on every corner, they outnumber McD's at least 2:1.  Also prominent fastfood: Kenny Rogers Roasters - I thought these went the way of the Dodo, but apparently not.  It's good to see Kenny in any form.  "Lady..."

While I'm in strong link-o-matic form this is the funniest thing I've seen in ages, I don't care what country you are in.  HALP!

Tomorrow I am flying to Tioman Island and looking forward to getting back to the beach if not the flight itself.  That plane is a bit frightening.  Over the next couple of days I need to make some decisions about the next phase of my trip.  I'm debating between going to Indonesia and/or Borneo or heading back to mainland SE Asia, where I'm really wanting to be.  Some beach time will make this clear, I'm sure.

Cooling Out in The Cameron Highlands

I've been loving the cool weather and laidback atmosphere of the Cameron Highlands for the past few days.  Yesterday I went on a tour of the area and visited a tea plantation, a tea factory and a mossy forrest.  Quite fun, although (three showers later) I don't know when I'll manage to get all the mud out of my toe cuticles.  The temperature here hovers around 70 degrees, which facilitates my reintroduction to several things I'd nearly forgotten: my jacket, hot showers, blankets at night.  Really nice.  I hope I don't faint when I get to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow afternoon.

Before I left, I planned to do three things in every country: get a beauty treatment, attend a sporting or cultural event and interview a government official.  So far all I've managed are the beauty treatments, and they've all been massages.  I had three massages in Thailand.  Two were Thai massages, which are like passive yoga with the massusse twisting you this way and that.  I also had a reflexology foot massage, which was fantastic after walking around Bangkok on Day 3.  Two reasons I had three massages in a month: they are really cheap (like $6/hour) and the massage places have AC.  Today, here in Malaysia, I just got a Chinese style accupressure massage and it was pretty great, too.  There is a whole back-walking section that is not without pain and also lots of slapping, which somehow feels good.  I am more partial to the Thai style, but then that goes for pretty much everything.  Kuala Lumpur holds great promise for culture and sporting events, and when I go back to Thailand Muay Thai boxing is on the agenda fore shore.

Paradise Found

So the Perentian Islands are amazing and you should drop what you are doing and come here immediately.  Once before I thought I had found the Land of the Lotus Eaters (on our trip across the U.S. my friends Harriet and Janna and I stayed with my college friend Alex Dorn in his family's lake house and all anyone was doing was drinking wine and talking about wine and eating fantastic food.  After several weeks cramped in a two-door car, camping and staying in cheap motels, we did not want to leave.) and I feel the same about this place (minus the wine - haven't seen wine for under $20/glass since I've been in SE Asia).  In Thailand, because of the heat and general hassle I was down to eating one meal a day - here I've been feasting on three (or at least two) and sleeping a lot and laying on the beach and hanging out with really interesting people.  It's just been fantastic.  Plus there are spiders the size of your hand.  Plus there are monitor lizards!  I hope to get pictures up later this week when I'm in the Cameron Highlands.  Apparently there are tea plantations, strawberry fields and honeybee farms to visit there.  Sounds like a snack to me!