miss wago

i wake up and rush to find the bus to the bus terminal.  i give up and take a taxi.  the bus terminal which is a tent is filled with touts who just descend on anybody walking in but they leave me alone as soon as i purchase a ticket.  it's five hours from KL to Cameron Highlands and i get to see more of Malaysia.  it is truly a beautiful country and the last hour before we stop in Tanah Rata the bus climbs a steep winding road through the mountains and for the last bit there are tea plantations everywhere.

i check in and later one of the staff approaches me and asks how to pronounce my name "Vagabond Cowgirl". i just nod when he says wago. every morning, afternoon and evening i hear 'hello miss wago'.

it is cooler in the highlands so it is a good break from the rest of Malaysia. it's jungle trekking time again and i go exploring with a group of people we find a Raffelsia flower which is one of the largest flower species in the world.

we check out the tea plantation and tour the grounds ad factory. i'm no tea connoisseur so it all tastes the same to me but it's cool to see where it comes from. there are a bunch of strawberry farms around and so we eat fresh strawberries the whole stay. it's a saturday night so there's a market and i eat my way from one end to the other.

i meet an Iranian girl here and we spend hours talking about human rights, family, politics, religion and freedoms. we are bonded in a way because we both come from countries that the rest of the world loves to hate.