Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

This is funny/not funny. A middle-aged Australian guy moved into my dorm room in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. He bumped into me this morning while I was getting ready to go out and told me I have a 'foot odor problem.' This is actually true. I stopped wearing socks with my shoes back in Thailand and now my shoes reek. He told me it was so bad that he couldn't sleep last night and asked me to wash my feet before I go to bed from now on. I wanted to correct him and say its the shoes, not my feet, but why quibble. I thought it was funny in a not funny kind of way.

It's been a busy day. I went to get my Indian Visa yesterday and failed completely. The High Commission of India is only open from 9:30am to noon and I arrived at 11:30. This was insult to injury since I got hosed down by the cab driver who took me there. 25 to get there, 10 to get back. You do the math.

So I got up early this morning, had Idiappum (sp?) with Vegetarian Korma, and made my way over to the embassy. Even at 9:48 it was competely crowded and no one was bothering to wait in line. You have to get a token and then wait for your number to be called but there were so many people there that thought the rules didn't apply to them. I was there for an hour and a half and all I did was hand in my already completed forms. I paid a 40 ringgit (between 11 and 12 bucks) processing fee as well. I can pay the rest when I go back to pickup my visa. I checked out of my hotel (it was on a whim but I do need to hustle around the country if I want to see everything. I meet Luke in 9 days) and went over to the bus station to see where I could go. Cameron Highlands seemed like a good choice. I'm high in the mountains in an area that once served as a British retreat (I think). There are lots of tea plantations and strawberry fields and there is extensive hiking in the area. I got in after 6pm and haven't yet had a chance to do anything. I had a few beers (by the way, since this is a Muslim country and drinking is frowned upon, there are ridiculous taxes on alcohol. In Kuala Lumpur I was paying more per beer than I was for my hotel room per night) and met some girls who are in town because of semester-at-sea. Actually this whole town right now is overrun with American college kids. There's only one bar in this tiny town in the mountains so I'll head over there after I'm done on this computer to drink and chat.

I guess that's it. I'm gonna book my flight from Singapore to Chennai, India and then write a few emails.

Miss you all.