Malaysia Quickie

So in Malaysia we went to Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang for about 1 week....

Kuala Lumpur: I was still sick but I pushed through. OMG I found  Krispie Kreme Donuts by our hotel and was so happy. Other than that my meals were pretty lame in KL because of my stomach. We went to see the towers at 8am one morning but apparently the tickets sell out at 6am (!)...so we did go up but I think I was satisfied seeing it from the outside....after that fail we somehow wound up in a chocolate boutique that's only for people on tours...we got to sample some chocolate :D....we shopped in chinatown and at the main market (the main one is better...although if you're looking for the bootleg stuff, chinatown is the way to go)...we rode the monorail around which was nifty.

Ipoh was on our list because of their caves. Ipoh is really pretty...giant rocks and mountains everywhere...I'm not sure how high up we were (i don't think very high actually) but we were literally driving past clouds...really cool views. This was the first place we actually stayed with a couchsurfer whose family had a baller house. He was awesome and helped us get around. The actually day we went to the caves turned out to be a huge adventure just getting to the caves...there was a taxi driver who tried to scam us and ended up dropping us off somewhere, next was the bus ride that dropped us off 2km past where we wanted to be, there was the 2km walk back to the entrance and then finally the additional 2km walk to the cave itself (all in the blistering sun)...what a busy morning. In that last 2km we were all alone wandering down the road hearing random rustling in the nearby trees and bushes...saw a monkey dart across the road from the distance...not sure what else was there haha. Rewarded ourselves with ice cream and then checked out the caves which were pretty cool. There's a really cool part in the cave where you feel wind coming at you from all directions. Our journey back wasn't as dramatic as we hitched a ride for the first 2km and waited at one the closer bus stops. Once we were back in town, we checked out some temples that were carved in the mountains...love the idea of building into the rock (they had similar temples in India). The food was great in Ipoh...Ipoh is known for its white coffee...which I hated (because I hate all coffee) but Lauren really liked it so I'm guessing coffee lovers would like it. Went to some local markets with two different couch surfers and got to try some really interesting foods...including deep fried ice cream....yum.

Penang is where I finally started feeling better. This was the only place where we stayed in a dorm style hostel. There we met a Canadian girl and we toured around Penang. Penang is pretty cool and I would love to have spent more time there. We went to the Snake Temple which had poisonous vipers lying around...vipers are very strange looking. We also took the Penang tram which is an extremely steep ride up a mountain with some amazing views. We saw alot of monkeys at the top climbing the cables and a pretty cool looking Hindu temple. They had more snakes at the top that you could hold and get a picture with...we didn't do it but we watched other people do it while they were freaking out...that was quite amusing.