gone living

when i first left KL's chinatown for my early-morning 830am bus to the highlands, i ducked into my local dim sum joint to get a steamed bbq pork bun (one of the tastiest things to eat in the world) for the road. here's a tip that i've learned about steamed buns with savory fillings -- if they're larger than your fist, they're probably not very good. in this case, the massive but doughy and generally dicey pork bun had to be quickly abandoned, and i went through the 3-hour bus ride to tanah rata breakfasting on leftover ting ting jahe candy from indonesia.

after arrival in the cameron highlands (where every morning was sunny, and every afternoon it rained at 2-3pm, evidently part of the ecological tradeoff for having such a wonderfully cool climate after KL), i read it was vesak day, and gathered some friends from the hostel to set off to the local sam poh buddhist temple up the road in brinchang.

we were warmly welcomed almost literally with open arms, and sat down to a delicious vegetarian lunch at the temple as part of the vesak day festivities. the restaurants specializing in buddhist-style vegetarian chinese cuisine are few and far between at home, such as the now-defunct veggie delight in san gabriel, and garden fresh in mountain view, so i was grateful to have a chance to have a chance to taste this excellent food from the source.

later, after some misadventures trying to find a usable jungle walk, we ended up drinking tea overlooking a massive tea planation and enjoying some surprisingly warm afternoon sun, and spent the evening swapping travel advice on future locations in between games of shithead at the hostel.

but all good things must come to an end, and this particular adventure ended after 3 days with a manic speeding bus ride down the hills back towards KL, constantly honking as the driver swerves past huge dropoffs on the sides, my ears popping with our rapid descent as the TV overhead blared out the driver's particular choice of entertainment: 2 hours of WWE wrestling. media-wise, i strongly suspect (and hope) that tonight's 9-hour train ride to singapore will be somewhat more sedate.