The last 7 days

Sorry for going AWOL on you guys, and thanks for the concerned phone calls! I'm alive and well. I just haven't had the time to blog. So, here's a summary of my last week:

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - Penang was awesome! I stayed at Ginger's parents' beach house in Batu Ferringhi, which was brilliant. We ate amazing seafoood, including crab, oyster, squid and the best Char Kuay Teow I've tasted. Water sports were great too. I was scared shitless while parasailing but it was still fun. And that was followed by four of us on a banana boat, which included a plunge into the river when the boat took a sharp turn. Saw the sights, including Fort Cornwallis, Khoo Kongsi (the Khoo clan's meeting place and temple), Kek Lok Si (a huge Buddhist temple with a pagoda made of three different levels of different styles and huge bronze statue of the goddess of mercy), Penang Museum, Air Itam dam, and climbed a little known waterfall just behind the beach house.

Thursday and Friday - Cameron Highlands. Saw a tea plantation, a strawberry farm (where I had fried ice cream - not bad), a butterfly farm, a bee farm, an orchid farm, and went to Gunung Berinchang (at 6666 ft, the highest part of Cameron Higlands that can be reached by car) where our guide took us for a short hike through the mossy forrest. Made my bus to KL in the nick of time (had to pay the taxi driver extra to get me there on time).

Saturday - Genting Highland. Don't know how I agreed to go to an amusement park. The queues were really long so we only got on four rides (a twisty roller coaster, a really sharp dropping thing, a water slide and a moving cinema thing). Saw the casino. Nothing special.

Sunday - Went to Melaka with Farah and chilled. Came back to KL in the evening.

Monday - I'm in Kuala Terengganu to take advantage of the beach and snorkel if I have the chance. Plan to do that tomorrow and then head to Taman Negara (national park) for some serious jungle trekking.