The Cameron Highlands

Malaysia's Cameron Highlands are a really great place to chill out. The temperature here hovers around a moderate 20°C and the seemingly endless amount of hikes, coupled with Tanah Rata and Brinchang's laid back mountain town vibes make you feel like you don't really need to leave anytime soon after all. The countryside is beautiful and relatively new as far as development is concerned; commercial development only began here in the 1920's, around 40 years after it was first "discovered" by a British surveyor. However, farms and tea plantations are popping up at a mile a minute and it is clear to see that the landscape is changing very quickly. Tourism appears to have taken its toll as well, with boutique hotels under construction and many new residences being built.

We stayed at Danny's Lodge, otherwise known as Chang's Lodge, which had a big outdoor covered common area and a really rustic and charming bar called the Jungle Bar where a bonfire burns every night so you can dry the mud from your socks and escape the sometimes chilly temperatures of the highlands at night. Tanah Rata has some serious charm to it, great Indian food joints and Malaysian food markets, and an awesome little cafe called the Lord's Cafe where you can get some fresh warm scones with whipped cream and jam, apple pie, and taste some of the local tea, which is delicious by the way.

So we spent most of our days in the Cameron Highlands hiking for a few hours through some of the local trails that form a massive system throughout the highlands, exploring a tea plantation (and buying a lot of tea), went to a butterfly farm, and did a tour with the local Orang Asli tribespeople to find rafflesia flowers, the world's largest flower. We also got to try our hands out at shooting the long blowdart guns they would hunt with traditionally, but now just use for fun when they drink. By night we would sit by the fire, sip on Bombay gin and drink Guinness, and talk with the other travellers while the daily rains came down around us. Oh yeah, and for some strange reason when we were exploring the market we couldn't help ourselves but buy some retro, extremely neon ski jackets, that we will never ever need on this trip through tropical South East Asia.. So yeah, we have ski jackets now. Sweet.

View from the top of trail 10.

View from the top of Gunung Brinchang.

Tea plantations.

Claire wearing a traditional Orang Asli fern crown at the beginning of our hike to find the rafflesia flowers.

The rafflesia flower.

Hiking in the mist.

Lol.

Pulau Pinang National Park, Creepy Stuff in Georgetown, and the Human Impact on Beautiful Places.

After our journey through parts of Thailand, we decided to pay our friends at the Couzi-Couji another visit in Georgetown, Malaysia. Most of our days were spent exploring Pulau Pinang National Park and some of the abandoned colonial buildings around Georgetown, Claire earned herself that traveler's mark of passage: a second degree burn from a scooter's exhaust pipe, we watched an incredible (and incredibly loud) fireworks display marking the last day of Chinese New Years celebrations, and of course we partied with our friends at the Couzi-Couji and ate obscene amounts of Indian food. The photos that follow are from the national park and old creepy stuff we explored.

 The national park was teeming with monitor lizards. We caught this one just coming ashore after a swim.

A funky little crab we spotted after seeing the monitor lizard.

Just out for a dip.

The residents of monkey beach, crab-eating macaques (Macaca fascicularis) one of whom snatched a pouch of tobacco thinking it was a snack, and was sorely disappointed.

Monkey beach was about as close to the perfect, secluded, soft sanded beach that many travellers search out that I have seen on this trip. Surrounded by jungle, with only a small fishing community behind the fringe of palms, it was made extra rewarding due to the fact we had to hike through hot humid jungle for two hours to reach it. 

A little shack behind monkey beach, near where we stopped for lunch.

A dusky leaf monkey (Trachypithecus obscurus) in Pulau Pinang National Park.

An old Chinese schoolhouse that burned down in Georgetown. 

We had passed this old graveyard by night, on our way to a bar, and wanted to get a sense of how old it was, so peeked at this headstone to see the date. Not only did we learn the date, but that the man remembered by this headstone was murdered by a gang of Chinese robbers. Not the cheeriest fact to be remembered by.

These mudflats behind turtle beach in Pulau Pinang National Park become whats called a meromitic lake between May and October of each year. The monsoon waves flood the flats, and their energy kicks up enough sand to block the inlet and trap the water inside the flats. Then, rainfall and rivers fill the lake with fresh water, which stays separate from the warmer salt water. This causes the lake to have to distinct layers of water, one fresh and cold, the other warm and salty. Then when the storms return in October, the sand dam gets washed away and the lake becomes a mudflat again.

Barnacles on barnacles on barnacles...

Despite the national park's secluded location, the effects of humanity are all too clear along this coastline. Refuse washes up, having been disposed in the sea and carried along ocean currents, being brought ashore by the tide to spend a time on this beach before being carried away once more. To me, this issue is one of humanity's greatest challenges, and one of its most unifying causes. All across the world there are people, what ever differences they may perceive in one another, who are fighting the same fight, facing the same challenge. And this challenge will not be overcome unless we as a species come together to make meaningful change and right the wrongs that we collectively have commit against this planet. Until such a time, beaches will continue to be littered by our debris, and the oceans will suffer for it. Plastic will degrade, lead to death and sterilization among creatures marine and terrestrial alike, oceans will acidify, beautiful places will be ravaged, and unless we do something about it, our planet may no longer sustain us. It is a cause both terrible and beautiful, incredibly important in its necessity for us not only to rise up to it, but to rise up together.

Human footprints in the sand, both literal and figurative.

Here among the litter tide line, I found a styrofoam depiction of a clownfish. I found it sad and ironic that lying amongst the very stuff that destroys ocean environments was a child's art project depicting their favourite sea creature, cast carelessly into the sea in an act of reckless disposal.

Chiang Mai, Pai, and Goodbye

They say Chiang Mai is the cultural center of northern Thailand, and it's hard to disagree with that statement when walking through the city. Every couple of minutes you pass a temple, chedis are found not only on temple grounds but in people's backyards, and the monk to average citizen ratio is pretty damn high. The city's ancient Lanna culture is both celebrated and well-preserved, and evidence of the surrounding hill tribes abounds in the markets and countless tour operators located throughout the city.

We arrived in Chiang Mai after a 39-hour transit straight from Koh Phi Phi with the wolfpack. We were feeling pretty stoked to have such fun-loving and excellent people to travel and meet other fun-loving and excellent people with. After two separate 14 hour train rides and the better part of a day spent bumming around in Bangkok's train station, we arrived in Chiang Mai at the break of dawn and set out to find our hostel. After eating only train food and snacks for nearly two days, a breakfast of eggs benny was greatly appreciated. We checked in to the Living Place, run by a hippy Thai woman named Ari, and it proved to be one of the most fun and social hostel experiences I've encountered on my travels. The beer is cheap, the people are keen to have a good time, and Ari makes it all flow together oh so well. Our days were spent exploring temples and markets, indulging in northern Thai cuisine, scootering around the city, playing shithead (a card game, don't worry mom), and hanging with fashionable chihuahuas. Our nights were filled with more shithead, a lot of beer, barbeques, partying at a bar called Zoey's, watching Muay Thai (Claire got way too into it and super aggressive.. heads were turned), and laughing at some guy going through a crisis because he got sucked off by a lady boy (sorry mom, I know its vulgar).

So after Chiang Mai the wolfpack, along with our new Dutch friend known only as Seth Rogen, decided to rent scooters and brave the three hour, 700+ turns windy road that leads to scenic Pai, the proclaimed hippy haven of Thailand.

A buddhist monk walking through the monks' residence at one of the many monasteries in Chiang Mai.

These young girls, dressed in traditional Karen hill tribe garments, stand at the base of Chiang Mai's most popular temple amongst tourists. Their families bring them here to collect money from tourists. They didn't seem to enjoy that job very much.

The golden chedi at the centre of the temple mentioned above.

Sunset over Chiang Mai.

Some artsy pictures and the beginning of our adventures through abandoned buildings.

We arrived in Pai with our scooter gang, no one having bailed, and only having had a couple of scares along the way. After riding on scooters for close to four hours, our kiesters were all feeling pretty sore. We settled in to our respective hostels and reconvened at Happy Pai, home of the NHL in Thailand, to watch a prized Canucks game after three months of having seen no hockey. Unfortunately Claire and I caught some kind of virus and spent the next five days bedridden while our friends were out having a great time in Pai, and we parted ways having been unable to spend our last few days traveling together actually being together. Once recovered, we did what we could to see what Pai had to offer, visited the local hot springs, and watched the sun set over Pai canyon. It wasn't the ending to our journey with the wolfpack we had hoped for, but sometimes unforeseen circumstances pop up while on the road, and you just have to roll with the punches. Looking back on it, the disappointment of those last few days is hardly a memory. It's the good times that stand out the most.

Fabulous.

Finding Friends on Koh Phi Phi

Koh Phi Phi is one of those places that you have so much fun at, that you can't help but go back if you get the chance. After our first visit to Penang we headed to Koh Phi Phi, and returned there before making our way to Penang for the second time. This was in part because the island is just a really fun place to be, and part because when you have friends halfway around the world, you can't help but meet up with them. 

Our first trip to Phi Phi we woke up before the crack of dawn to board a bus that would take us from Penang, across the Malaysian-Thai border, and on to Krabi, where we boarded a boat to the island. Up until this point, we had been in areas where we might find a few dozen other travellers, at most. This boat had more travellers on board than we had seen in the entirety of our trip up until this point, and most of them were in the mood to party. See, we timed our arrival on Phi Phi just a few days after one of Koh Phangan's full moon parties, and many of the full-mooners make the trip from Phangan to Phi Phi to keep the party going. The beaches were busy, the bars packed and lively, and the island's energy was buzzing and alive. 

Koh Phi Phi teems with energy, and we were lucky enough to have some friends on island to spend our days with (as well as travel north to Chiang Mai and Pai with). We met some incredible people on this idyllic island with whom we spent our days pool partying, deep water soloing, scuba diving, chilling on the beach, filling up restaurants, and imbibing in some adult beverages with. Matt, Harry, Travis, and Cory, along with Justin and all the others we met along the way proved to be the highest quality of travel companions, and they made the experience along this leg of the journey what it is. We also had the good luck of having a friend living on island, Claire's friend Tim, who she did her Scuba Instructor program with, who was able to give us the goods on Phi Phi and through whom we met some awesome people living on island.

Now, the second time we went to Koh Phi Phi was a little more of a spur of the moment decision. After leaving northern Thailand and parting ways with the wolfpack Claire and I had a mind to find her grandfather, who spends the winter months in Thailand, and we had a lead that it might be Phuket that he spends his time. So after a feeble few days of searching for Claire's "guido" (a chapter in the story we seriously wish could bear the title "Finding Guido") that included Chinese New Years celebrations in Phuket Town (complete with a street-side performance of a Thai Highschool Hardcore band) and a visit to some of the local beaches (complete with a jellyfish sting for Claire, a dinner provided by 7-11, and a painful three hour odyssey of trying to find a taxi that would be willing to take us back to Phuket Town) we decided we needed to end Thailand on a good note, and we headed back to Koh Phi Phi to meet our friend Donald. And what began with a pool party our first time around, began with a pool party again... and on the story goes. Photos from Koh Phi Phi are courtesy of Claire's (now missing) iPhone, and GoPro screenshots. Because Graham was having too much fun to think about pictures. Enjoy!

Ibiza Pool Parties

Finding Tim

Koh Phi Phi Leh

On our way to deep water soloing.

The main beach

The climbing wall

Dinnertime at Papaya

See ya next time!

Penang: "the Pearl of the Orient"

If Malaysia is a model country for multiculturalism, then Penang is one of its prime examples. The city has a rich and diverse history - reflected in its architecture and population - due to the fact that it sits along one of the most active maritime trade routes of human history. Amazingly preserved examples of British colonial buildings make up the heart of Georgetown, where you can find Chinese and Hindu temples mere metres from mosques, churches, and synagogues. And if there is one thing that really exemplifies the fusion and preservation of different cultures across generations in this city, it is the excellent Indian, Chinese, and Malay cuisine that can be found at every street corner. Here, you are really spoiled for choice: tandoori chicken, curry rice, and roti washed down by fresh fruit juice at one of the Indian joints of Little India? Or won ton mee, chicken fried rice, and spring rolls with a delicious iced white coffee from one of the many Malay-Chinese fusion food courts around town? If for no other reason, visit Penang for the food. It will keep you there longer than you anticipated, and make you want to come back, which is exactly why we find ourselves back here today.

We first arrived in Georgetown the night of February 4th, 2015. We settled for a basic guesthouse for the night before setting out the following morning for our destination: the Couzi-Couji hostel. Couzi-Couji is the place to stay in Penang. The owner Alex is incredibly helpful and fun-loving, always has some kind of party planned for the night, and has three kittens that roam about the hostel causing trouble. When we arrived in the hostel we were about to pay for our room, when Alex came up to us, all excited, telling us that a bunch of people at the hostel were going to be going on a cruise ship that night to indulge in all-you-can-eat buffets, the ship's pool, and a lot of whiskey and vodka. We had five minutes to decide. Convinced, we dropped our bags, grabbed our swim suits, and headed off to the boat. That night we ate a poolside buffet, enjoyed the boat's pool and jacuzzi, ate a fancy Chinese food buffet, watched a really cheesy magic show, drank whiskey and played cards for a few hours, caused the ship's security a lot of grief as we snuck in to every pool on the boat (including a secret one spotted from an upper deck), had a late night karaoke session (which also got shut down by security), and finally fell asleep on the pool deck once we were told we would be spending the night in security if we were caught causing trouble once more. And we made a whole lot of good friends while we were doing it. After the fairly dismal hostel scene in the Philippines, Couzi-Couji came as a real relief, and although people don't always enjoy Penang (it isn't the most happening place in South East Asia), those who stay at Couzi-Couji tend to have a pretty good time.

The rest of our time in Penang was spent enjoying all the delicious food the city has to offer and exploring the city's history through its architecture and street art, some of which was commissioned by the city and outlines some of the unique cultural characteristics this city has, both historically and today.

Anyways, here are some pictures.

Part of the cruise ship crew. Including old man Wan in the middle and Alex, the hostel owner on the right next to the random Chinese tourist passing by.

A sweet piece of commissioned art inside the Couzi-Couji hostel.

The streets of Georgetown are safe with this lineup.

Captain America looking fairly stereotypical.

Even super heroes need their morning coffee.

Surprise Thaipusam in Kuala Lumpur

Each year, when the moon is full during the Tamil month of Thai and the star Pusam is at its highest point in the night sky, Tamil Hindus pay penance to the lord Murugan in a festival that is aptly named Thaipusam. It was at this time that Claire and I arrived in Kuala Lumpur, two nights before the peak of the festival, and the celebrations had already begun. We spent our first night in KL exploring Chinatown, where we first discovered what all the hype about the food in Malaysia is all about. Trying to make it back to our hostel, we were swallowed up by thousands of people taking part in what we later learned was a procession leading 15 km from a temple in the city centre to a system of caves on the outskirts of the city called Batu Caves, where Thaipusam is celebrated in KL. Feeling pretty lucky, we decided to stick around KL for the festival and get a bit of a dose of local culture.

The following morning (February 2, 2015), the Super Bowl was playing at 6:30 a.m. (it was still Feb. 1st back home). Having been told by the hostel's barman the previous night that they would be showing the game in the morning, I woke up early ready for a little bit of good old American football. When I got to the reception area I found two Australian guys in absolute despair trying to explain to the hostel's staff what the Super Bowl actually was. "How can you not know what the Super Bowl is, mate? It's only the most watched sporting event on the face of planet Earth!" They were pretty upset. Apparently in the whole city of Kuala Lumpur, the only bar that was showing the Super Bowl was on one of the far fringes of town, around 20 km away from the hostel. The guys invited me to come, but I declined because Claire had yet to get herself out of bed. "She's holdin' ya back, mate." Well that's what they had to say about that.

We spent the 2nd and 3rd of February exploring the festival site at Batu Caves, getting blessed by holy men, getting ash rubbed onto our foreheads, getting my ears pierced, witnessing some pilgrimages and Kavadi rituals, and of course doing a healthy dose of shopping, which is Claire's favourite pastime here in Asia. Below are pictures of Thaipusam 2015.

The stairs to the temple, February 2, 2015. The statue is of lord Murugan, who the festival commemorates. 

The temple inside the cave.

The staircase February 3, 2015.

Some Kavadi.