One Sandal

Last night was really fun. I ended up out with an English girl (Victoria) and a Spaniard (Jose). We had dinner and drinks at this Indian restaturant/disco in Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. Our server was an honest-to-pete eunuch. I guess they are quite common in India, there is a whole eunuch community. But I didn't know that they exported them. (S)he was a good server, though, and the Indian beer was cheap. Which of course, led to far too many of them, and Victoria talking the DJ into playing "Hey Ya" so that I could dance before the end of the night. The funniest thing about the trio last night is that Victoria is an accountant, Jose is a consultant, and I'm a lawyer: we had to be one of the most overeducated backpacker cliques ever.

I barely made my 8 ayem bus to Kuala Lumpur, but I got down to the bus depot in just the nick of time. I slept most of the 4 hour ride to KL, then I had to get on a train to get to the airport, and then I boarded a ($25) flight to Langkawi. It's an island on the far north of the Straits of Melaka, and it's basically like the Malaysian Outer Banks, but with better scenery and snorkling. So far all I've really done is check into my room and watch the sun set on the beach, but it's quite beautiful here - and very tranquil.

But the Cameron Highlands were really relaxing, and it was sad to leave. One one of my hikes I went through an Orang Asli (native tribe) village. They all live in wooden shacks on stilts on a hillside. They were really nice as I hiked right through their village, and the little ones were very eager to try out their English on me. Of course, then I got lost in the Malysian bush for a couple of hours, but I emerged no worse for the wear.

Not sure what I'll do tomorrow, maybe rent a motorbike, maybe take a tour of the island, maybe go snorkel, maybe just lie on the beach.

For some reason Bob Marley is really popular in this country, and especially in this town.

I also need to eat dinner, and this town (which, oddly enough, I don't even know the name of) actually has a few more choices than Indian/Chinese/Malay, so I may do one of those "real" backacker no-nos and eat Western food. I'm hungry!