500 odd km, 1 border crossing, 3+ languages and 2 days of my life at the mercy of bus, train, minivan and tuk-tuk drivers. It wasn’t easy, fun or enjoyable but that said, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I’m a sucker for avoidable challenges. Just because you can fly or jump in a taxi doesn’t mean that you should.

The most challenging moments were:
- waiting at connecting bust terminal while tiring to intemperate announcements (in Malay), having being given wrong bus number anyway.
- crossing the Malaysia/Thailand boarder (by train) with no idea what to do or how far away the connecting Thai train was.
- navigating Hat Yai, Thailand, with no map or guidebooks (let alone the language barrier) or plans about where/what we were actually doing next.
- haggling with street vendor, while simultaneously trying to do currency conversions in my head (28baht to AU$1), without a common language.

Anyway, I’ve always considered myself a relatively patient person, I can fill in hours waiting for trivial events to happen, but yesterday I was pushed to my limit. I’m not sure if it was the share exhaustion of having been moving for so long, or having no clear idea about where we are going, or the eternal search for filling (safe) vegetarian, but it was compounded 10 fold by having to communicate (batter) across languages with people who at times just seemed plain rude and arrogant. I was left with no option but to persevere but a the feeling inside was a crying for a quite retreat into the guide book.

After the calamities had passed the inner dialogue continued for hours as I tried to understand/interpret what it was that had just happened. At the end of it, I realised it didn’t matter so much and that the real challenge is to have plans yet remain calm and flexible, while knowing your boundaries and being comfortable to stop at them.

On a side note; remembering and inspired by that saying a smile is the same in every language, I’ve been moved to cultivate a sincere smile to move others to warmer places.

Warm wishes,

Nathan

gotta hate it… the prospect of spending two days traveling. but when we left Tanah Rata last night and opted out on panang we ended up yet again in the middle of nowhere. bound for somewhere in Thailand… we don’t yet no where.

It’s kinda cool though … to be in a place where people stare and say hello because you’re the first white person they’ve seen in a while!
more later no doubt
e

Time to bring you up to speed. Its been 10 days since my last entry. We are now 6000ft above see level in the Cameron Highlands, a rural tea growing region in the Pehang Provence. There are some good reasons for the 10day gap in entries. Every day has been packed, leaving only room for rest.

In short, after leaving Singapore we spent 3 days in Nipah, a quite little villa on the ocean. Got stuck (between buses) at a plush hostel (by our standards) in Kluang on the way to Melaka after fleeing the sleepy fishing village of Mersing. In Melaka I got mild (but painful) food poising from all the seafood I’ve been eating (since converting to a flexitarian). The calamity was enough to make me revert to being a vegetarian. Also feasted over banana leaves (as plates) on Indian in Malaka. Then it was onto Kauala Lumpur where our bed collapsed (among other memorable things: spending more energy trying to find vegetarian food than the energy gained from the meal, eating a most amazing mango and rose apple (starfruit cross with an apple) in China town.

We then jumped onto a luxury bus to make for our current location, the Cameron Highlands. Where we settled into a lovely hostel 5 min walk out of town on top of a hill… reminds me of the Australian hinterland on a warm winters night, crickets chirping and all. So far we checked out the oldest tea garden in Malaysia… (they seem to take care of their workers quite well, schools, hospitals, church, Mosque and Hindu temple for all faiths here) and the butterfly farm.

Today we had planned a jungle walk to the Buddhist temple, but just after setting off I was overcome by tiredness and decided to have a much needed day of rest.

Hoping you are all safe and well,

Love Nathan