Thursday, May 12, 2005
and the fat lady sings
First an admission. Due to a hideous oversight on my part there are no photos of the speedos. Who could have imagined you'd want or need a camera at the local pool?
Now back to the task at hand. After KL we journeyed north to the Cameron Highlands, which Pr**k from the Crystal Palace debacle kindly told me were a bit crap... see he was a prick for more than one reason!
The Cameron Highlands are the place where Malaysia tries to get in touch with its British heritage. They are full of cool rolling tea plantations and faux mock-tudor high rises (there was even a red phone box), interspersed with some very Asian jungle. We did what tourists there do and went for jungle walks two days running, followed by cream teas. The walks were lovely, the teas (to be brutally honest) needed a little work. In our quest for the perfect scones we went into 3 restaurants on the main street. It wasn't until we recognised our waitress from the first restaurant in the third one that we realised they all shared the same kitchen - hence the uniformly second rate baked goods. And to think I had to eat my way through no less than 5 scones to figure that out (plus 2 more in the nicer place down the road... good god, now that I count, that's a lot of scones for a 48hr period).
Scone issues and high rises aside it was very nice, and NOT crap! Seeing as we've called him Pr**k throughout I guess I'm glad we never gave that guy the website address - but part of me wishes he could just read that it wasn't as bad as he said.
After the Cameron Highlands we bused it to Georgetown, on an island off the west coast. Although this city is also supposed to be a 'celebration' of Malaysia's heritage, this time it seems to be more focused on the Chinese bit of history. Doing our bit to celebrate Chinese history we've toured the British fort and eaten at a curry house! Oh yeah, and we also had the longest tour EVER of a famous Chinese mansion (which is also a hotel) - where the guide spent most of her time telling us the details of the bar fridges and room rates. I personally think the best bit of Georgetown is the incredibly photogenic ramshackle Chinese shophouses. Pete may tell you otherwise, as outside the Georgetown Starbucks he staged his incredible backgammon comeback... and here I was thinking I could rest on my 4 game lead and claim the title 'Backgammon Champion of Asia'. Just like the Premiership.... it's all to play for now.
Now back to the task at hand. After KL we journeyed north to the Cameron Highlands, which Pr**k from the Crystal Palace debacle kindly told me were a bit crap... see he was a prick for more than one reason!
The Cameron Highlands are the place where Malaysia tries to get in touch with its British heritage. They are full of cool rolling tea plantations and faux mock-tudor high rises (there was even a red phone box), interspersed with some very Asian jungle. We did what tourists there do and went for jungle walks two days running, followed by cream teas. The walks were lovely, the teas (to be brutally honest) needed a little work. In our quest for the perfect scones we went into 3 restaurants on the main street. It wasn't until we recognised our waitress from the first restaurant in the third one that we realised they all shared the same kitchen - hence the uniformly second rate baked goods. And to think I had to eat my way through no less than 5 scones to figure that out (plus 2 more in the nicer place down the road... good god, now that I count, that's a lot of scones for a 48hr period).
Scone issues and high rises aside it was very nice, and NOT crap! Seeing as we've called him Pr**k throughout I guess I'm glad we never gave that guy the website address - but part of me wishes he could just read that it wasn't as bad as he said.
After the Cameron Highlands we bused it to Georgetown, on an island off the west coast. Although this city is also supposed to be a 'celebration' of Malaysia's heritage, this time it seems to be more focused on the Chinese bit of history. Doing our bit to celebrate Chinese history we've toured the British fort and eaten at a curry house! Oh yeah, and we also had the longest tour EVER of a famous Chinese mansion (which is also a hotel) - where the guide spent most of her time telling us the details of the bar fridges and room rates. I personally think the best bit of Georgetown is the incredibly photogenic ramshackle Chinese shophouses. Pete may tell you otherwise, as outside the Georgetown Starbucks he staged his incredible backgammon comeback... and here I was thinking I could rest on my 4 game lead and claim the title 'Backgammon Champion of Asia'. Just like the Premiership.... it's all to play for now.
// posted by courtney and pete @ 23:30 
