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So after Malaysia, Rosemarie came back with me to Melbourne to hang out with us for a couple weeks while Scott was still not allowed to BLT (bend, lift, twist). She is a good sister/sister-in-law.

As usual we tried to cram a million things in so we had to have a group meeting about our goals, and a whiteboard, and a schedule. This is normal family behaviour, right? Rosemarie wanted to see an emu in the wild… unfortunately we didn’t find any of the four-legged variety for her.

We checked out Moomba. Saw some waterskiers and some jetpack people and some skateboarders. Got tacos and horchata from Dingo Ate My Taco.

Piccolina vegan pistachio ice cream. Yum.

We made Nagi’s beef rendang and tried three player Unfair a couple times. Still hate it. Scott sold it after that.

Rose and I drove across town so I could play free pickleball and she could have a swim. Then we went to Girls & Boys ice cream shop, the completely vegan ice cream shop I love. The lady scooping our ice cream told us about her explosive diarrhea. But the ice cream was amazing, as usual.

The next day I dragged Rosemarie to my usual pickleball session where we accidentally dressed the same and confused every single person there. They still have not recovered from this.

We went to the new St Kilda Pier to see penguins for free. They haven’t opened the penguin viewing platforms though so instead you have to cram together at the fence and hope a penguin decides to come out into the open. A few did, but I forgot to put the memory card in my camera so this fantastic phone picture is the only photographic evidence you’ll get.

Rosemarie really wanted to use our new mixer to make a pavlova. It turned out great! We brought it to family dinner at Jemma’s house.

My friend Steph told us about a free archery session we could do for International Ladies Day. It was fun to try a new thing and catch up with Steph (unpictured).

White-plumed Honeyeater
Magpie Goose
A lot of Magpie Geese
Emu

We went on an excursion to Serendip Sanctuary, near Geelong, to try and find Rosemarie an emu in the wild. It’s a lovely state park, with lots of different short walks and bird hides. The emu was technically in an unenclosed area, however I think it does get its food from the park, so not sure if that counts as wild or not. Most of the emus I’ve seen have been in campgrounds though, so I guess that’s just kind of how they get their food.

On the way back we stopped at Tofu Shoten, where we ordered one of everything. This was something like a strawberry mochi red bean deluxe dessert. It had a lot of elements. I liked some parts but not the others. Rose and Scott got things with matcha and coffee and I can’t remember what else. We also bought some biscuits that I really liked, and some savoury tofu for cooking later.

Cookin’ sisters.

Our final project was to make roti at home. The dough was easy enough to make in the mixer, and once we accepted the sheer quantity of Nuttelex we needed to stretch and form and shape and fry the roti, they turned out pretty good. We made plain roti and egg roti, served with a random curry pack we had in the freezer, and then a dessert course of Mars bar roti. Epic meal.

Unpictured stuff:

  • Between each of these activities, we played A LOT of board games. We played Everdell, Orleans, Kingdomino, Wingspan, Unfair, Qwixx, Empire’s End, Drop It, Welcome To, Deep Sea Adventure, Concordia and Crokinole.
  • We did NOT play Finspan because it arrived two hours after Rosemarie left. Womp womp.
  • We took Rose to the footy and we got drenched by ice rain and had to move undercover but still had a good time.
  • Rosemarie helped me fix up the backyard that desperately needed some attention. We did some major lemon tree prunage. Thanks sister.
  • We went to trivia in the boonies with Ash and Charlie and we won!
  • Rose did a bit of work, Scott did a couple job interviews.

All in all, it was an excellent visit and we were sad for her to leave. I wish we could spend time together all the time.

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Prepare yourselves to see a lot of mango smoothies. :D

It was a bit of a journey to get to the Perhentian Islands, but it was seamless. We flew to Kota Bharu, then caught a one hour Grab to Kuala Besut Jetty, and then a half an hour ferry that delivered us right to our accommodation. We got the last two spots on the boat, right at the front with all the bags. This ended up being extremely painful because the boat only seemed to have one speed (very fast), and every slam of the boat onto the waves reverberated up our spinal columns and turned them into dust.

We had three nights booked on the small island, and two nights on the big island.

We ended up arriving at our hotel in Coral Bay way before our room was ready so we went for a swim, checked out the restaurant next door (10 out of 10 mango ice blended), walked to Long Beach on the other side of the island, and swam again.

Ramadan had just started, and it was only the very very beginning of the tourist season there, so probably about 75% of the resorts and restaurants were closed. Options were quite limited at some points but there was still enough open for us to be looked after, with some flexibility. And on the plus side, there was barely anyone around so nothing was busy or crowded.

The customer service at Ombak was really great, like fancy resort style, but our actual room was pretty dingy, so we didn’t spend a lot of time in there. And there was A LOT of mosquitos so you need to have bug spray and cover up as much as possible at night.

Playing games in the resort restaurant area with my emotional support bug spray and my anti mosquito pineapple pants.

The view from our resort.

We booked a full day snorkeling trip for the next day, as this was what we had come to Perhentian Islands for. We went to a bunch of different places and they were all pretty amazing. At one of the places we saw more reef sharks than I have ever seen before, combined. Dozens and dozens of them! Very cool. Another place had huge turtles. One place had sooooooo many anemone with clown fish in every single one. We also saw sting rays, and lots and lots of types of fish.

I don’t have any underwater pictures because my GoPro died on Christmas Island.

We stopped at a beach as well. Rose and I did a game where we had 5 minutes to find the best piece of coral we could. I picked mine because I think it looks like a lizard, and Rose picked a piece of ROCK ON coral.

Back at Amelia Cafe for a pre-dinner snack (and game) because how could we possibly fast from 5:30pm to 7pm while the restaurant people had a break during their DAY LONG fast. Hehe. We had banana Sneakers roti, and mango ice blendeds, of course.

Exploring the much fancier resort next to ours at sunset. (Waiting until we can eat again.)

Then fish BBQ for actual dinner! We tried barracuda and kingfish. It was like $10 for a big piece of fish, rice, potato, salad, and fruit. Loved it, although it did take a very long time to come out.

The next day Rosemarie booked a few dives so I had a solo morning. I went for a walk and found another big monitor lizard. And got eaten alive by mosquitos.

Alone-y lunch back at the local. Delicious nasi goreng and a low mango mango blended.

I saw a lot of support for Palestine all throughout Malaysia. So refreshing.

When Rosemarie got back from diving we went for a little hike up to the windmills. It was hot. I got even more mosquito bites. And you probably shouldn’t go for a hike in a damp full body bathing suit. We got really stinky.

We had fish BBQ for dinner at Amelia Cafe again. I got barramundi and Rosemarie got a whole squid.

The next day Rosemarie did one more dive and I tagged along and snorkeled.

We had one last breakfast at Amelia Cafe before catching a boat taxi to the other island. We had three types of roti. We always had the same waiters looking after us every time we ate there because they get no days off! They were always asking us funny questions. When we told the waiter guys it was our last meal there they wanted to take a picture with us, haha.

Quick and easy boat taxi trip to the other island. The big island is bigger, but has less options on it. Again the service at our hotel was great (complimentary banana bread!), but the entire building felt like it was made out of sponges.

Hammock time. And the view from the big island to Fishermans Village on the small island. We heard a lot of prayers sounds from that mosque, at all times of day.

This was not our best meal. Really missed Amelia Cafe at that point. Probably our fault for going out to eat right before sunset when the staff was probably at their most exhausted and hangry.

The next day we booked a half day snorkel tour that would bring us to a few new locations. It ended up being a private tour with just Rosemarie and I, and our very sun smart boat driver who looked like a ninja.

It was good to go to new snorkel spots but there is probably a reason why they weren’t on the popular tour. Some were a bit choppy and it was a bit harder to see stuff. But it was still great! We didn’t get to see any Napoleon fish unfortunately, even though our ninja guide told us exactly where to look and how many to look for (one, and four, lol).

Post snorkeling mango ice blendeds. These might have been the best ones yet. Look at that height! Look at that shine!

We were hanging out in the hammocks and heard a weird sound that we hadn’t heard before. Went to check it out… MONKEYS! The best!!

Trying out another BBQ joint. This time we split a whole tuna. I asked what type of tuna it was and the man was like “It’s just tuna tuna”. Haha.

One last mango ice blended. The two ladies running this beach restaurant just sat in the shade as much as possible. You want food, you get the menu yourself and come to them, ha. I get it.

And then finally we caught the ferry back to the mainland. This time we were much smarter and sat right at the back of the boat. It was much more comfortable.

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Our next stop was Penang. Mostly for eating, hehe.

We decided to get off our bus early and take the ferry to Penang Island rather than sit in traffic over the bridge because our hotel was right next to the ferry terminal anyway. The ferry felt just like the Seabus in Vancouver!

We went to the Jetty Food Court for dinner the first night in Penang because someone had recommended it, and it looked cool and had tons of different options all in once place… but it was very mid. We had noodles and then walked around and tried to find another place for a second dinner/snack, but ended up in an Indian garment making area that was interesting but not food-filled.

Eventually we found a little roadside place where we could get cool drinks and finally try kaya toast (liked it).

Penang has lots of street art.

The next morning we caught the city bus (Penang has a lot of easy to use buses) around the north of the island to Escape Penang, because I wanted to go on the Worlds Longest Water Slide.

The amusement park actually has 4 Guinness Records:

  1. Longest Tube Water Slide – 1,111 metres – chairlift to the top, takes like 5 minutes to get down, very fun, you can see monkeys from the slide
  2. Longest Zip Coaster – 1,135 metres – absolutely terrifying, do NOT ask for an big push, wanted off the ride after the first 30 seconds, also lasted about 5 minutes, legit thought I was going to fall out the entire time
  3. Longest Tubby Racer – 453.3 metres – still pretty scary, worried about flipping and grating off all of my skin
  4. Largest Tipping Bucket – 28,757 litres – RIDICULOUS, requires several lifeguards to make sure that people don’t actually die when it tips, knocked me back about a meter into the stranger sitting behind me, a funny bonding experience

The park also had other extreme waterslides, like a carpet racer with automatic launching device, an aqualoop, some steep drop slides, a banana shaped slide that launches into the air (with a sign warning of high risk of dislocations). Also a lazy river that had no current and you had to legit paddle a boat with the shortest paddles ever to get around, and a Wipe Out type inflatable course that was fun and hard.

There was even more activities on the dry side of the park, like high ropes and rock climbing, but after our terrifying experience on the Zip Coaster, and sweating our way through the seven sketchy ziplines we decided we’d had enough and headed out.

Overall the park was extremely exhilarating. I’m glad that neither of us hurt ourselves.

We had to wait a long time for a bus on the way back because of a downed power line. By the time we got back to town it was dinner time so again we got off the bus early and headed to the Kimberley Street Food Night Market. We saw a big line for this little cart so we lined up. Turns out it’s a Michelin Guide joint famous for its braised chicken feet. (We didn’t get that… we got some type of koay teow soup.)

There are a bunch of restaurants nearby that will let you bring in outside food as long as you order a drink or a dessert. So we also got some satay skewers from another street vendor and some deliciously refreshing icy desserts. Such a good meal.

The next morning we checked out the jetties near our hotel. They are quite touristy but it’s neat that people live right on them. And I like their concrete bucket piles/footings system.

Then we went back to the night market we were at the night before, but in the morning, so we could try Penang-style laksa. Did you know that laksa is a breakfast food? We also got one of these Chinese meat pastry thingies that was super oily delicious.

We caught a Grab to Penang Hill and took the funicular up to the top. It was very high!

There were monkeys at the top and they were very funny, even though they were totally pests. We greatly enjoyed watching them dig through bins, try stuff, and throw things they didn’t care for.

Another couple of funny monkeys.

It was very hot up there but the view was nice we did a few little hikes. We were strategically picking routes that were mostly downhill, but ended up walking too far down and then we couldn’t get back on the funicular unless we walked way WAY further down, and it ended up being quite a long and tiring and sweaty experience.

On the plus side, we found a different type of monkey at the funicular midstation! So cute!!

Then we caught another Grab to a hipster market and had some kimbap and did a lil’ shopping. I got some cute stickers and Rose bought some socks that have roti on them.

For dinner we had nasi kandar, which is similar to nasi lemak but more curry-y and even more customisable. There were dozens of choices of proteins and vegetables. To be honest we were quite overwhelmed, but the restaurant dude was super helpful and patient with us! We chose a piece of fish and some marinated chicken and then he picked out a bunch of sides for us. It was tasty and the perfect amount of food. I liked seeing what plates the other people built for themselves.

The next morning we were up before sunrise to catch our flight to the East Coast!

Penang was great. So delicious.

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Some might say that wolfing down a spicy som tam salad and a spicy nasi goreng immediately before going on a 5 hour bus ride to the Cameron Highlands was a risky move.. but thankfully we survived. Iron stomach. Our bus broke down on the way but they organised a replacement bus quite quickly and the new bus was better so all good.

Eventually we made it to Tanah Ratah where it was at least 10 degrees colder than Kuala Lumpur. Our hotel booking got upgraded to a two bedroom place so we had lots of room to spread out.

The area is known for tea and strawberry farming in particular, so I had strawberry juice several times. It looked like they grow all sorts of stuff in the area, there were really crazy looking vertical farms on the hillsides everywhere.

The next day we took a half day tour of the area. It was very foggy/cloudy/misty so we didn’t get to see that much of the view, but what we did see was still beautiful!

The first place we stopped was the Boh Tea Plantation. I think Boh is kind of like the Lipton of Malaysia, but the scenery was awesome and we really enjoyed the tour of the tea factory. We saw how they do the plucking, drying, rolling, fermenting and more drying. It’s a pretty quick process. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in there though.

So many colours of flowers.

After that we stopped at a couple other places to admire the views. :D

We went for a short walk on the side of the road on the way to the Mossy Forest where the guide pointed out a bunch of edible plants. It was so lush. The guide said “OK?” after literally every sentence he said and it really made Rosemarie and I giggle. OK?

The Mossy Forrest was indeed very mossy. And moistly. And cold. We were wearing every layer of clothes we brought and still had to keep moving to stay warm.

There were tons of these endangered carnivorous striped Malayan montane pitcher plants (thanks Wikipedia) in the Mossy Forest. Pretty neat.

Then we went to a tourist trap strawberry farm but it wasn’t really strawberry season so instead of buying anything I looked at birds.

Found some!

That was the end of the tour. We asked to get dropped off on the side of the highway so we could walk to a restaurant that was serving bamboo biryani. I didn’t know what bamboo biryani was but after seeing it on a billboard I had to try it. Turns out it’s rice cooked inside tubes of bamboo which they dramatically knock out of the tube onto a plate in front of you. I couldn’t really taste the bamboo but whatevs it was a fun gimmick.

Afternoon snack. Mangosteen are so good. It was only the very tail end of the season so they weren’t even at their prime but they were still amazing. Next time I go to Malaysia I’m going to make sure it’s mangosteen and durian season.

We went on a short hike to a garbage-filled waterfall and then warmed ourselves back up with a giant steamboat hot pot. This meal was a splurge meal for us… I think it was $20 hehehe.

In hindsight we should have booked a morning bus to Penang because we didn’t really have anything left to do in the Cameron Highlands at that point. Instead we slept in, had roti for breakfast again, went for another short hike along garbage-strewn streams, and attempted to find birds.

We had Indian food for lunch and epic mango smoothies before catching the bus to Penang, about another 5 hour trip.

Cameron Highlands is beautiful, and the cool temperature feels great after being so sweaty in KL, I would recommend going there, but you only really need one full day there and then you can continue on.

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In hindsight, it was not the best decision to book an international flight leaving at 6:15am when we live quite far away from the airport. Waking up at 3:30am is not fun. At least there was no traffic.

KUL airport is super far away from the Kuala Lumpur as well but the train was very straight forward. I got some cash and lunch in town and then headed towards DQ’s apartment where Zeph met me at the monorail station. DQ works at an international school and they have been living there for a few months. Their apartment is pretty amazing.

This was the view from DQ’s shower!!

That first evening we went out for nasi lemak and a little walk around the neighbourhood. Nasi lemak is like a super popular customizable meal where you get to pick all sorts of different bits to go with your rice, and then it comes with sambal, fried anchovies and peanuts. Delicious.

Because this was a carry on bag only trip, I only brought my 50mm lens, my 16mm lens, and my cheapy telephoto lens to try and reduce weight. Most of the time I only brought one lens on my camera out with me, which was a fun challenge. I greatly underestimated the size of the Petronas Towers the first time though, haha.

It was really nice spending time with Dan-Que again after so long. We have been friends since Grade 4!

The next morning Dan-Que and I went out for an epic roti breakfast. We ordered way too much haha. But each one was like $1-2! If I remember right we got plain, egg, egg + onion, and banana. It came with three different dipping daals/sambals.

After breakfast we went to the market to try and buy a variety of mangoes to do a taste test. There were lots of different types and they were so affordable (1 kg for $1.40 AUD!!) but they were a little pushy about buying many kilos at once, and there is only so much mango we could eat in time, especially when it’s already ripe. So we ended up with like 3 kg of mango but only two different types, heh. We did get to try slices of a few other varieties, and another dude let us try salak/snake fruit (not great imo).

Later we went for another walk to KLCC Park, alternating outdoor time with mall time for temperature regulation. That is a Oriental Magpie-robin. We also saw a Black-naped Oriole.

We stopped in a food court for a snack. Dan-Que ordered cendol and a sirap bandung on my behalf for us to try because I was completely paralyzed with indecision. The cendol is an icy coconut dessert with pandan jelly and beans. It is nice and refreshing and not too sweet. The sirap was ultra ultra sweet. We couldn’t pick the flavour at first but then eventually figured out it was rose flavoured.

We had Indian food for dinner and then had to try and meet up with Rosemarie at the subway station, 2000s style, because she had no internet. We had come up with a plan ahead of time, and then just had to be there and wait for her. Remember when we had to do that all the time?!! Our dinner ran a bit long, and we weren’t 100% sure which metro exit she would come out of, and what she would do if she beat us there, which was a little bit stressful, but we just used our sisterly intuition and it worked!!! Reunited.

The next morning we all went to Batu Caves. It is so colourful and cool! Unfortunately it was raining quite a bit. The rain cooled us down a lot, but it made it hard to take pictures on the fun rainbow stairs, and also we didn’t see any monkeys, which is unusual apparently.

It is a pretty neat place though.

After showers and wringing out our shoes we headed out again. We had regular bak kut teh, which is a very porky soup dish, and dry bak kut teh which is the same thing but caramelized, and doughnuts and kangkung belacan (water spinach with shrimp paste). I liked it, but I wouldn’t want to have it too often.

We walked around some more touristy areas.. Chinatown, some neat alleyways, some hipster shops, and this bookstore that I’m pretty sure I saw on an episode of Amazing Race.

Assume that every activity is separated by showers and/or swimming. I was having like 3 or 4 showers a day those first few days. Dan-Que’s apartment has a really great covered pool, which is epic. I am cry-laughing in this picture because someone turned on the jets on the lounge beds and my bathing suit kept filling up with air that I could not get out.

Night time photoshoot at the Petronas Towers. It was going so well until it started POURING. Even though they only live 10 minutes walk away, and we were prepared with umbrellas, we got fully drenched again. A moistly day!

After another roti breakfast the next day, Rosemarie and I met her friend Daph at the KL Bird Park.

I didn’t realise that hornbills were so huge! It was a pretty good bird park, and we saw monkeys too, but I was also having some kind of allergic reaction to something for the last day or so and my eye was getting hella hella swollen at that point so I was a little miserable.

Daph made some calls and organised to take me to a clinic, where I saw a doctor, got an antihistamine and steroid shot in my bum, and a prescription for the next few days, all for $30 AUD and done in like 45 minutes. Amazing. I am very grateful that she was able to help me out with that. My eye felt better almost immediately and by the evening it was back to normal size.

Daph took us to her favourite banana leaf restaurant for lunch. All the curries and pickles on the leaf are unlimited! And then she added on calamari and goat. You eat with your hands! It was really delicious and lots of fun. When you are finished you fold your leaf over a certain way and then they know you are done.

We went back to Daph’s house for a rest and to wait for the daily rain to pass. Weather apps do not work very well in Malaysia, but her dad said he thought it would stop raining at 7PM and he was pretty much spot on. Years of experience > computer modeling.

Daph took us to her local night market and explained what everything was and we all bought different things to bring back to her house for a feast. Her information was so interesting and helpful! We tried rojak (fruit and veg salad with a sauce), stinky tofu, a Chinese pulled sugar dessert thingy, corn in a crispy shell, salt baked chicken, carrot cake, a vegetable stir fry wrap thing, longan juice, and probably a bunch more things that I have forgotten.

Finally we caught a Grab back to Dan-Que’s place and the next day Rosemarie and I continued on to the Cameron Highlands!