A final "adieu"

So, what's been happening these last few weeks?

Spent a lovely day with mum as she stopped over in KL on her way to Europe. We went to the KL Lake Gardens and saw all the beautiful flowers AND the butterfly garden. Showed her my "crib" and went to a yoga class before filling up with food and sending her on her way!




Otherwise, it's mainly been studying for exams. They were alright but what's most important is that now it's OVER!!! Have to say, studying was actually really fun. Stayed away from Ally as much as possible to avoid our gossip sessions, discovered how weird Tom really is (he's really weird), practically moved in with Sian and studied for hours on end in her company. A very healthy and fun study period. Sian even came over this morning to support me in my final efforts before today's exam! Pre-exams is not usually such a good time, so was great!

Off to Vietnam tomorrow for the week. Will be back next Saturday, hit Reggae bar one last time, pack in the morning then off to Melbourne. Only momentarily though. Am hiking for a week in Tassie with Paddy, Alice, James, Ryan & someobody else i don't know. My current fitness is questionable. I'm not sure my "Sun Salutations" will have me well prepared but am looking forward to it all the same.

OK. Well, at the risk of sounding lame & teary I'd like to make a few special mentions (it is my last post after all...and this time it really will be my last post, I promise!).

I would like to thank my parentals for supporting me throughout these adventures that started out as "my year overseas" and turned into "a year and a half a little bit all over the place"! I also want to thank family and friends back home for reading my blog and keeping in touch and all the people I've met and new friends I've made througout my travels - without whom there would have been no stories to tell :)

Things I will miss:
- Malaysian food
- Elias
- Arthur
- crazy fun times with Ally
- tea, food and study with Sian
- cheap and brilliant Yoga
- the weather (storms especially)
- Reggae bar
- the cheapness (eg. 1AUD packets of OREOS)
- Sunway Campus and class mates
- microbes with Tom
- dancing with Lee
- answering to "Alex" when I'm not being spoken too (when ppl talk to my name twin, unfortunately Zan never took off)
- Malaysian english la!
- Sunday & Tuesday market
- not wearing closed shoes
- Craigie-Berns (those cheeky South Africans)

Things I will miss less:
- Air-con
- traffic
- sweating and smelling most of the time
- 3am wake up calls from James (although, to be fair he hasn't done this recently :P and he even cooked us up a mean pasta dish last week)
- being inappropriately stared at
- nasty taxi drivers

Things I am looking forward to:
- being an Auntie!!!
- fun times with friends and family
- Summer
- recycling
- Sorrento back beach rock pool
- HOME!!!

Adios amigos xoxo

Olenka

Malaysian Textiles

Today I took a (perhaps not so well deserved :P ) study break and released my inner Picasso. I made Batik with Scarlett, Liz and Averil.


Denni and the others showing off (I think they've done this before!)


Averil's beautiful Batik


My masterpiece :)


Scarlett working hard!

A wonderful morning overall, topped off with a chocolate factory visit and more yummy Malaysian food...back into the study for now, first exam on Thursday!

Oh, and mum will be dropping by on Friday. Looking forward to some TLC :)

Hope you're all well

Love from Ola xoxo

Recipe for satisfaction and contentedness

INGREDIENTS
Vegetable farms
Strawberry farms
Steamboat dinner
Mossy forest walk
Flower farms
Tea plantations
A good book

1. Ask a friend to join you for a weekend in the Cameron Highlands (in this case, Lauren).

2. Take a bus from Pudaraya station (in KL) to Tanah Rata and stay in a quiet hostel nearby, Daniel's Lodge.

3. Book a couple of half day tours combining the above ingredients.

4. Sprinkle with some tea and scones with jam & cream.

Note: For best results, don't forget the random bus trip home that stops to pick up anybody on the road only to arrive at your destination 2 hours later than expected.

Photos of some I prepared earlier...


Lauren lost amongst flowers


BOH Tea plantation


Vegetable farm & Alex

Love to all

Olenka xoxo

Family Reunions

Anne left me just last Saturday after a wonderful couple of weeks together. It was great, we didn't even fight (I was quite impressed)! So where to start?

Spent the first weekend at the Perhentian Islands with Ally. We flew up to Pulau Kecil (pronounced Ke-chill, as in we ke-chilled on the island) and were dropped off by water taxi to our lovely, secluded beach hotel D'Lagoon (more like shacks surrounded by jungle on one side and beach on the other). It was gorgeous, perhaps my favourite place I've been to so far. It was the end of Hari Raya so the owner even gave us a free meal on the Sunday...food tastes amazing when it's free :)

Ally convinced me to try some diving so we went on a discovery dive. Lasted about an hour, 12 metres deep. Saw lots of little nemo's and plenty of other fish. It was fantastic. Also got to see a turtle when snorkelling!



Came home for a couple of days for uni. Caught up with friends, took Anne to all the crazy malls and then we were off again. This time to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysian Borneo.

Stayed in KK just one night, enough to go to the crazy night market with the philipino bbq and delicious mee goreng (added deliciousness because it only costs 1$AU)! We then moved on to Mount Kinabalu National Park to attempt the 4000 metre peak. It was pretty tough, up all the way (well, we were climbing a mountain) and our legs were sore for a couple of days afterwards. What was most disappointing was that we were only able to make it to the Laban Rata guest house (3200m). We woke up at 2am the second day and waited for the OK from the ranger to continue the climb and watch the sunrise (or the sunset come up as Tom would say). But strong winds and rain meant that this was impossible. So back to bed, only to wake up in a few hours and return to the bottom. We were quite upset but a visit to the Poring Hot Springs, back to KK and we were quite satisfied all the same. It's quite a beautiful walk. Ally climbed just a couple of days after us and the photos look amazing.


We then moved on to the East coast, Sandakan, where the Orang Utans live. Went to Sepilok to watch them feed and all. Very cute. I think I prefer them to monkeys. The rehabilitation centre was quite similar to the elephant one I visited previously although they have less contact with humans really. Decided to spend 3 days on Jungle camp...Uncle Tan's Wildlife Addventures!!!


Absolutely loved that. We had guides take us Jungle trekking and on river boat rides to see the wildlife. Managed to see wild orang utans, crocodiles, millipedes, monkeys, monkeys and more monkeys! And there was plenty of food (Alex was happy). Stayed in open huts with mosquitoe nets to protect us overnight. No showers so we were pretty smelly by the end of the trip! What was a little strange were the surrounding Palm Oil plantations. We took 2 hours by bus to get to the camp as well as a short boat trip and all the way we could only see palm oil plantations. They're not so pretty either. It's not very cool seeing an orang utan up in a tree, sleeping and then seeing/hearing a giant truck about 20 metres behind it.

Made our way back to KL and said our good byes. A pretty wonderful holiday over all.

Uni is coming to an end soon. Just a couple more weeks of classes and then exams. :( It's all gone by very quickly. They're even having a farewell dinner at uni tonight (a bit too soon I think but never mind).

Dad is arriving tomorrow. Visiting for the weekend. I have plenty planned to keep him busy, should be fun.

Love to all

Alex xoxo

Kuala Gandah

Today I had a splendid time playing with elephants at a relocation sanctuary about 2 hours north of KL in Kuala Gandah. We had the opportunity to feed, ride and bathe with the elephants. They are quite amazing creatures with very rough skin and surprisingly hairy! I have quite mixed feelings about the centre though. It's never nice seeing animals chained up but at the same time I know that these elephants are probably safer here than in the wild.

The centre was very honest about their work. Basically, rainforest and jungles in Malaysia are diminishing in size due to palm oil plantations. Animals are forced into smaller areas and sometimes cause trouble to farmers in damaging their crops. The conservation unit relocates the elephants to national parks such as Taman Negara on the Malaysia Peninsular. However, due to lack of funds, they can't afford to attach satellite devices to all the relocated elephants which means they don't know if the herds are reunited or where the elephants go after release...so basically, they have no idea if this is relocation thing is working.

So I guess it's a good thing that the farmers are asking for help rather than killing the elephants but we don't really know if the elephants are better off...

 

 

Feeding time!

 

Chris "Fonty" Funtera and Alex-"Zan"-dra riding an elephant :)

Quiet weekend otherwise. I was shocked at the idea of "replacement classes" on a Saturday afternoon...with a test! Malaysia...Truly asia! Have been studying hard with Lauren (Chem Eng buddy...Control in particular) in her VERY quiet appartment...Everybody is travelling all the time. Trying to get assignments done early so I can relax when Anne arrives on Saturday.

Next destinations: Perhentian Islands followed by Malaysia Borneo!

Biz lah!

Ola xoxo

Quick link

Anne and I are visiting the orang-utans in Malaysia Borneo in a couple of weeks.

'Green palm oil' claims land Cadbury's in sticky chocolate mess

But I bought a block of Cadbury chocolate just yesterday. It's in the fridge, will have to check the ingredients!

Ola xoxo

The Lucky Country

Another long weekend! I was a good girl (or study nerd...or both) and bailed on my trip to the Cameron Highlands due to Uni work load :( This meant that it was also my first weekend without Ally! We haven't spent this much time apart since we left Australia!!! It's been hard but I am coping...

Quick story -
Was coming home from Sunway Pyramid on the bus yesterday. I only had a 10RM note for the 1RM fare and as I searched for shrapnel in my wallet, a Malay lady who had bought her fare just ahead of me quickly placed some coins in my hand. She paid for my ticket! It's not much but I can't help thinking that I wouldn't have done the same. Just another example of how friendly the locals here are!

Good night and sweet dreams

A-ROD