13/14 February 2009 - KL to Cameron Highlands

13 February 2009 - We decided to take it easy today. Woke up at 10am and out of here at 11am. We started the day by going to “Little India” to check out the markets and searched for an internet cafe. We ended up in a really dodgy tenement block. It was like in someone's unit with 4-5 computers in different booths. There were also phone booths inside the unit. It was quite interesting to walk around in the block checking out the people that live there. The internet cafe was shut at 1pm for prayer.

One thing I discovered about KL is that everything is LOUD. Loud horns from cars, loud music from speakers everywhere on the street, in the market, in apartment blocks (including our hostel). I am not sure how people can live with such loud noise in their lives constantly.

We went to this curry house place for dinner. But we could not understand the menu and the food was in a bain marie. So Naomi decided to pull the plug in case we got sick. We ended up just eating in some random place on the side of the road for Bat Kut Teh (literally meat bone tea). It was spare ribs cooked in tea and served on rice. Yummy! It was soooo good. It only cost us $7 for both of us including a plate of veges and soup. On the way home, we saw another curry house and decided to order a garlic naan. They cooked it in front of us in the tandoor oven. I haven't seen it before in my life. Good expereince.

I really want to buy a new cap from the night market. I gave myself a budget of $2 for a cool hat. I am not sure whether I have much chance. But hopefully with some fierce “negotiation” they'll cave in. I bought a pair of fake Crocs yesterday at this stall that apparently has the cheapest price and does not accept bargaining. After I paid for the shoes, we walked to another store 3 shops down and there were selling it for like 15% less! Absolutely spewing about that. Hopefully I will get a chance to get my hat before I leave here.

Am struggling a little bit with trying to lower out daily expenses. We have been spending time every night trying to work out what else we can cut down. It is pretty difficult to leave my lifestyle back in Bris Vegas and come here to live off on a small budget and not being able to buy those cheap shoes, shirts, wallets etc that I see in the market. Hopefully, after a few more weeks, I will be able to adapt to my new life - P.

14 February 2009 - Yes, thank you Dad for clearing up my confusion about the toilet hoses here. I actually did guess that that's what they were for but I guess I just didn't want it to be true. Anyway, seeing as I am the person who thought Ireland was connected to England it shouldn't come as much surprise that I didn't know what the toilet hoses were for!

We are spending Valentine's Day making our way to the Cameron Highlands where we are hoping it will be a little bit cooler. Actually, the weather has not been too bad since we got here – although we don't have a guage I don't think it would have been more than 30 on most days but it is heaps humid and you get really hot walking around during the day. I can only imagine how hot some of the women here must be because they are covered from head to foot.

Apart from our trip up to the skybridge at the Petronus Towers, most of our time in KL seems to have been spent at one market or another – from China Town to Chow Kit to Little India and others. I'm quite proud to say that my only purchase so far has been a wallet (10RM – about $3 - $4) because my old wallet was crushing my notes. We have given ourselves a budget of AU$50 each per day for the whole trip and to date in Malaysia we have been spending about AU$30 per day including accommodation (we spent about AU$13 each per night in KL). However, you could really live on quite a bit less and I think we seriously need to curtail our eating habits because apart from accommodation this is where the bulk of ou money is going. Besides, we need to spend less now so that we can afford the more expensive countries later (plus we will of course need to purchase further air fares). Suffice to say we spend quite a bit of time each day calcuating our expenses for the day and working out how we can cut costs - N