Top Malaysia!

With more than a week delay, I am posting this blog (wifi wasn't working properly, I think...). We are now in Bali, but will write about that next time!

Luckily our experience in Kuala Lumpur got better and we had a lovely second day in KL. After dark we went on a boat ride and saw an amazing 'show' of fireflies who were all around us in the trees lining the river. It was beautiful (but the pictures are not so great...) and definitely a highlight of our stay in KL.

 The girls also loved feeding the silver leaf monkeys on our way to the fireflies.

This beautiful temple was also part of the tour.

By bus we took the winding road to the Cameron Highlands, where the temperatures are a lot lower, although a sweater is still not necessary.

Unfortunately the long walks we wanted to do here failed as the tracks were either not safe or difficult to find. We did walk to a waterfall but seeing all that rubbish in the water and knowing how beautiful it could be if people would just put their rubbish in a trash can was a bit disheartening.

As the public transport (besides private taxis) in CH isn't great (well non-existent) we took a tour to visit the sights. With a ramshackle 4WD we went up the hills to visit mountain Gunung Brinchang and Mossey Forest where we did a short jungle trek. We would love to do more, but the cooler weather was still 24 degrees and the girls really thought this was enough.....

As CH is tea plantation and factory country we couldn't skip a visit to one of these. It was interesting to see where the lovely teas come from! 

A swim near a waterfall was the perfect end of the day.

We were wowed by the island Penang and its main city and Unesco World Heritage Site George Town. What an amazing and beautiful city. Although they do lack pedestrian crossings (why? Do they just expect you to cross anywhere and hope for the best? They do have sidewalks!), it was a pleasure to wander around town. So many tasty restaurants, nice little shops, amazing street art and old, historic buildings. 

We spent hours in the old mansions that are open to the public and even more time in the Kek Lok Si Temple (the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia, and that is not a lie!). With a cable car you can visit the highest level, which is a the foot (literally) of a 36.5m-high bronze statue of the goddess of mercy.

As our first two weeks in Malaysia coincided with school holidays we were happy that they were over, but apparently after the school holidays is the time for maintenance, as the Penang Hills were closed when we wanted to pay them a visit.

That gave us time to see the Clan Jetties, which used to be one of the worlds most thriving ports. It became the place for the ever-growing Chinese community to live and is nowadays a low-income area with people living in floating and stilt houses.

Penang is a wonderful island and luckily we had the opportunity to visit its national park and had a walk in its jungle forest. It involved some climbing, but we all loved it!

After a short flight we arrived on the island of Langkawi two days ago. This tropical place is our last stop in Malaysia before we head to Bali for the final stretch of our trip.

Langkawi has white sand beaches, turquoise water and lots of tourists! 

Yesterday (well, now it is a little bit longer ago...) we rented a car and drove around the island. Of course we took the cable cab to see Panorama Langkawi from the stunning mountaintop of Gunung Machinchang. Amazing views, also from the SkyBridge, a simple-pilon suspension bridge.

Now the girls are asleep after a day of island hopping. A speedboat took us to two other islands today where we could kayak, swim and just hang around. No pictures unfortunately, so you just have to take my word for it that the scenery was stunning!