now in Kuching

After a flurry of travel, we're now in Kuching, in Malaysian Borneo. We're here because when we were trying to decide where to go in Malaysia, a black cat came up to us and started meowing. Kuching means "cat" in malay, so here we are.

First, though, we did a couple of days in the Cameron Highlands. This area is a hill station known for growing tea and strawberries (we bought a bunch of strawberry tea as a souvenir, but then realized that we'd been bamboozled and that what we'd bought had been imported from Sri Lanka). The climate is similar to San Francisco, but about 5C warmer. They've got good fog, though, and a daily deluge in the early evening. Since it's so much cooler than the rest of the region, we did some good hiking, from which Rich will hopefully post some pictures. We punctuated our hikes with tea and scones in town, which is a facet of British colonialism that's survived in this era. It actually got Rich liking tea!

The highlands were a nice introduction to Malay culture. The country is a mix of Muslim, Chinese and Indians who all seem to get along, at least on the surface. You certainly see plenty of people from different races dining and hanging out together. Malay food seems to be Thai meets Indian, but less hot (as in piquante) than either.

Yesterday we took the bus down to Kuala Lumpur and a flight out to Borneo. We're currently trying to readjust to the heat (amazing how just a few days of normal temperatures has unacclimated us) and figure out what we want to do here besides be amused that we're in a city named "cat".