Confessions of an absent blogger
And once again too much time has passed and my little blog has been forgotten. When was I in Laos again? November? Now it’s January, Christmas and New Year have been and gone and I am in Malaysia. There is a lot to catch up on as i’ve visited another 4 countries since I was in Laos and I’m still only up to Nepal in the online world. I’ve been travelling for 3 months now and if nothing else, it’s made me realise that I am very good at doing nothing - hence the lack of updates. I have no problem being on my own for long periods of time. I can entertain myself for days just wandering aimlessly. If I find a decent bookshop, I’ll be happy for at least an afternoon. I like sitting in coffee shops, people watching, exploring random streets, walking for miles (when I’m not being asked where I’m going every 2 minutes). I do not like being dragged around temples in the middle of the day by tour guides, people asking me where I’m going and guest house rooms with no plug sockets.
I have been in Penang for nearly a week now and I’m very confused. I expected Malaysia to be similar to Thailand but from what I’ve experienced so far, it seems to be a country with multiple personalities. Georgetown is a big mashup of Chinese and Indian culture, with a dash of colonial (or as I prefer to think of it, Pirates of the Caribbean - all palm trees and cannons) architecture and then the call to prayer filters down the streets from the mosques (which by the way is beautiful - I’ve never heard anything like it before). And it is so HOT here. This is the furthest south I’ve ever been and I can feel it - I just have to walk down the road before my entire body is dripping with sweat - pleasant! And now I’m on the beach there are no air conditioned malls to escape to and there are jellyfish in the sea so I can’t cool off that way.
I’m here for 2 more nights and then I’m catching a bus (the guy in the travel agency told me to find some friends because the cost of a taxi to the bus station for one person is the same as the bus ticket - the cheek!) to the Cameron Highlands and I’m looking forward to chilling out there in cooler temperatures for a while and doing some trekking before I head down to Kuala Lumpur. Hopefully this will give me a bit of free time to do some much needed blog catch ups. Now where was I?
