Palace of the Golden Horses Sri Kembangan

... tribe - the native people of Malaysia - they are like Australian Aborigines - apparently nobody's sure if they were in Malaysia first and some migrated to Oz or vice versa - but the 2 tribes can communicate etc....<br>- after lunch, we went to a big tea plantation and tea factory - which altho sounds geeky - was quite cool, considering I drink so much tea at home, it's nice to know how it's made! It was funny, the landscape reminded me of the rice terraces of Sapa (Vietnam) but ...

... above the pavement!! Saw some crazy sites...most notably the Hilton smack bang next to some full on slums...UNBELIEVABLE!!<br><br>Got off the Monorail/skytain thingymajig and bang...it suddenly hit me that I was in the centre of this massive Asian city, alone, embarking on the biggest adventure of my life...and I can not wait!! I didn't think for one minute that I would get a culture shock being here but this is something else...<br><br ...

... was a large expansive pit, a small stream of smoggy sunlight struggling through a narrow leafy opening high above the cave floor. a disorganised troupe of monkeys climbing up the sharp, steep walls towards it.<br><br>With buddhist temples and altars built into the caves, the peaceful sound of irrythmic drums and local wind instruments joined with the screams of monkeys and seemingly lost and confused ...

... KL sucks. Managed to see a little bit of it though just to say we've "been there dun that".<br>So that's about it and all up to date. Looking forward to getting out of cities and seeing some beaches. I think Noma needs some time to relax to recover fully. Maybe be even push to budget to the limit and stay in a hotel with a pool!!<br>Off I go now and don't worry about Noma she's just fine and can't wait to get started again.<br><br>Bye for now<br><br>Macca / Mark<br>

... I had heard you could take a<br>train and then a local bus from Gua Musang over the mountains. After talking<br>to multiple bus stands and locals, no one could give me a straight answer. So,<br>I opted for the tour company that could get me there by 4pm, even though it was<br>$65 ringgit. Okay, $18 bucks isn't so bad for about 300 miles of travel over<br>the mountains. I was on a tight shuttle with two annoying couples from I<br>believe Poland. They were ...

... as good as in London, but not quite. After lunch we further pigged out on some of the many exotic sweets and desserts, like Durian shakes and Japanese puff pastries. So fattening, but so good. We had read that there was a very good fish spa in this building so we decided to try and hunt it down. We found it on the 5th level, Kenko Reflexology and Fish Spa. They had a current promotion where you get a 15 minute aroma footbath, 15 minute shoulder massage ...

... leopard cats are slightly larger than a domesticated cat but have spots like a leopard with long, lean bodies and long tails. They can be very "aggressive" according to the guide so we kept our distance. We also saw a nocturnal Owl Monkey in a tree which is rare to see and some birds. We were pretty excited since we were not expecting to see much, if anything. The next day Julie and I took a small boat to the other side of the river to trek through the ...

KL has some beautiful traditional Malaysian style homes built on stilts, especially in a part named Kampung Baru where I visited one day. It's glaring hold-out against development and modern-city living has turned it into a political symbol of Malay culture. Surprisingly, Kampung Baru means "new village". I didn't see any other foreigners there (now I am used to calling myself a "foreigner", before it ...