Random notes

These statements may not constitute actual truth, but they are faithful record of what I have observed during our travels.

Tinkerbell lives in Tanah Rata

I can almost hear the chorus of resounding slaps from jungle-ophiles everywhere, but honesty requires the admission that I was a little disappointed by Taman Negara, peninsular Malaysia's largest national park. Before we'd even left Australia it was the first place I pointed to in our guidebook and announced to Doug "We have to go there, it sounds amazing".

It has been two months since we managed to get ourselves onto a plane Singapore-bound. We've spent most of that time traipsing around peninsular Malaysia. From time to time we've managed to post some pictures or tell a story about some of the beautiful places we've seen. Occasionally we even post a little video that Doug slaves over – anyone who remembers my old blog knows that I can't edit video to save my life.

Naturally posts haven't kept up with adventures, so you'll be seeing much here that's of a retrospective nature. Aside from that, lately I've been lamenting that we've lost the personal aspects of the dreaming track, somewhere in all the gorgeous beaches, rainforests, monkeys and mosques. There's not much in our recent posts that can totally reassure you that we have not been possessed by touristically inclined robot intelligences. If we still have regular readers (I'm pretty sure there are at least a couple!) then I can imagine you saying “Where's the human interest?!” and “Who are these people again?” or maybe “This is a bit like Aunt Beryl's slide show nights” and so on and so forth.

With this in mind, I thought I had better write a post about what the last two months have felt like and what's “the haps” from here with these two dreaming track kids on a personal level...

Festival of the Nine Emperor Gods, Tanah Rata, Malaysia

Here's some pics from the opening ceremony of the Festival of the Nine Emperor Gods in Tanah Rata. I don't mean to be in any way disrespectful, but that's some serious body piercing! The participant in the last photo executed about six swift revolutions, intentionally dashing the end of his - um - accoutrement onto the road surface on each turn. I knew this type of obeisance was practiced in Hindu ceremonies, but had no idea it was also to be found in Taoism...