Georgetown to Cameron Highlands

With one day left in Georgetown we headed out in the rain to the Kek Lok Si Temple which is the biggest Buddhist temple in Malaysia.  Influenced by several different sects of Buddhism the temple feels like an explosion of culture that landed one on top of the other on a hill.  We made our way up through the labyrinth stopping to add a wish ribbon to a wishing tree and were greeted at the very top by a massive Goddess of Mercy staring down at us.

seems slightly contradictory

not quite sure how these guys fit in

 Moving from the muggy city streets of Georgetown we traveled to the quiet, cool ranges that are the Cameron Highlands. Exploring the small town we were delighted to find a festival going on not far from our hotel.  Noticing a stage with drums and microphones set up we asked if and when there was live music, 8:00pm we were told, perfect.  We arrived early to get seats but little was being set up on stage so we asked, 8:30pm.  OK, walked around the festival had a snack got our seats,at 9:00 an MC starts talking over blaring music. 9:30pm we find out that there is no live band but instead we are treated to a karaoke competition; awesome. We only lasted three contestants before throwing the towel in and heading home for the night.

vintage Mercedes taxi cabs!

We have spent four days here in the highlands and visited a large tea plantation that we explored before sitting down to enjoy a cuppa of their fine product.  We also hit up a butterfly and bee farm which were interesting enough but felt like a bit of a ploy to get you into their gift store.

Today we awoke at the crack of dawn to beat the heat and went on a hike.  Talking to locals and tourist who have returned to the area we found out that the government has given up maintaining trails using the money instead to develope more agriculture.  As a result the trails are not maintained and few if any tourists explore them.  I was afraid we'd be lost without a machete but it wasn't too bad.  Our main onsticles were fallen trees and slippery sections from the uncleared decaying leaves.  Colin tackeled the slippery slopes fine while I had less finesse (read bruised backside).  The view from the top was a A+ and we took a different trail back seeing only one other hiking party on the entire 4hr hike.  We topped of the day by having afternoon tea at a different plantation, it was a touristy spot but the tea was so good we really didn't give a hoot.












R