Speed-touring Malaysia

Monday, 25 May 2015

We’re just about to leave Malaysia after one afternoon, one full day of being tourists and one morning of driving again.

It may have only been one day, but we packed a lot in! We visited a hot springs family park and bathed in the hot waters, then had a cold mandi (scoop bath), visited a beautiful waterfall and swam in the pool below, saw orang utans on an island sanctuary, camped in a palm plantation beside a lovely clean creek and visited Penang Island briefly.

We’ve just met a German traveller in a Mercedes camper van who lived in Australia for 16 years and now lives in Thailand. He and his wife have driven all over the world over the last 20 years and haven’t finished yet! We plan to meet up with him tomorrow as he’s heading home to Thailand to pick up his wife. We’ll collect Peter Hendo tomorrow. Change of dynamics! Who gets to have our washing flapping in their face?

Gastronomically speaking…

It’s amazing to think we were in Timor-Leste, Timor and the rest of Indonesia for more than two months. It was just great: Smiling faces and willing helpers for us and a nice dose of comfort also!

Gastronomically speaking, Alan and I have always been more into “pedas” (spicy) food than Donna and Barry and this has continued to be the case, with Barry searching out Kentucky Fried, burgers and pizzas! They’ve risen to the challenge on a number of occasions and sometimes suffered, sometimes enjoyed the new tastes.

First new one for the Armstrongs was fresh banana chips, cooked by 11-year-old Dora, Rina’s niece in Dili. Fried in oil, made from thinly sliced and lightly salted green lady finger bananas. We’d loved them in Iran when we were there and were excited to find them again. B and D like them too.

Next was pink seaweed jelly slice on Artouro Island. I liked, they all disliked! Alan and I also enjoyed mini banana fritters with ice cream, chocolate sauce, chocolate sprinkles and grated cheese.

We also ate chilli cockle shells last week and chicken claws. We only ate them as our friend, Leili, loves them and she said they’re good for the skin. B and D wouldn’t try them – and we won’t again! I now refuse to go into any Chinese restaurant with chicken feet hanging in the window. We also ate stink beans that night and they certainly do! They were okay – even Donna tried them! – and they’re good for kidneys.

We’ve had some street food – pancakes laced with sugar crystals, crushed nuts, chocolate sprinkles and pastry parcels of either vegetables, banana, noodles or sprouts.

Then there were durian cakes. Only Al and I tried them – yuk!!! Green, with soft, creamy white filling that was slightly sweet with an overriding taste of boiled onion! Gave the rest of the box to Leili!

Only other oddity is Alan eating goat kebabs one night and commenting “a bit chewy”.

On another note and to finish up, when travelling a few years ago, a friend named Graham showed us how he remembers his travels. He doesn’t buy souvenirs or take many photos, but writes Japanese haikus. Here’s mine for Indonesia:

Rice traffic jams smiles
Fish friendship smells politeness
Patience
TII
(In India, our guides taught us TII – just take it easy, which is India in a nutshell. It goes for Indonesia too!)