First thoughts from this Malay foray

James and I at the bungalow, enjoying some Chinese food

The Beautiful sky in the Cameron Highlands

Feeling full--of gas. Asia as arrived in my belly; an all too familiar feeling from time here in the past. And I'm also full of other things. I'm full of emotion and full of love and full of physical warmth. 

It was a big lead up. Months in fact. I can't even recall when James and I came up with the idea to go on this large journey together. I do recall it feeling a bit early on in our relating to be making commitments to multi month adventures in far off places. But here I am in a very white room, with a strange pink quilt on a hard bed in an old English Tudor style bungalow, in the middle of the Malaysian highland jungle. The months of anticipating the journey have passed. And as we suspected, James and my connection has deepened as we live a sweet life of blessings and challenges in Victoria. Here we are on an epic journey with one another. One where we anticipated comfort zones being leapt  out of and where visits to places of our past may bring up some things to be processed...

Since arriving bleary eyed in Singapore after 30 some odd hours of travel (complete with an interesting cruise around Tokyo, our flight stop over spot), we have already seen lots of sights, cried some salty cathartic tears, felt various states of nausea, ate some tasty street food, and sunburned our noses. That was just 5 days ago that we arrived in Singapore! 

We had a couple solid days of exploring the freakishly futuristic megalopolis of Singapore, visiting the homes that James partially grew up in (on bicycle!) wandering strange and lush urban gardens, gawking at floating soccer fields, bizarrely tall skyscrapers, merlion statues, and highly skilled chefs working the wok. We were welcomed warmly by cousins of our friends, whose hospitality was ease-fully provided and gratefully received. We cruised the light rail transit in Singapore and then later in Kuala Lumpur confused by the reasons why many North American cities don't seem to have their act together when it comes to getting light rail operating. It works so well! And is totally used by the masses when it serves the widest area and is kept clean and functional...maybe the $40000 Singaporean tax on just registering a car also helps keep people on transit?!?

I digress. Yep we liked the public transit. We also found our bike butt callouses handy during our two days of long bus rides. 

Now here we are in the Cameron highlands. A landscape that was so formative for James, as he spent most of the first 10 years of his life between Singapore and these highland areas, where tourism and tea growing seem to reign supreme. We're staying at a big English style bungalow that once housed James' family of 9 at Christmas time. 

We had a silly bush wackin walk in the jungle today, one that I think we will continue tomorrow. Onwards the trip down nostalgia lame will continue, as we shift to Chefoo-the boarding school where James spent grades 1-4. 

The air is cooler here then in the lower regions of Malaysia, which makes it a great zone for food crops that require coolness by night. Tea plantations were set up here by the English colonizers and so it carries on as rolling hills of once jungle are cultivated for tea growing. 

I love tea. And often feel like the green and black varieties that I enjoy are disconnected from my localized world view. In Myanmar, I really enjoyed meeting the real live tea plant and witnessing the tea processing. I look forward to exploring the Malaysian ways of tea growing tomorrow, after a big hike up to mount brinchang on the day of my 31st birthday.