When I was in Phong Nha, I met a French girl who had been travelling in Malaysia before making her way to Vietnam. I was excited to ask her what she thought of it -- I had heard great things about it and hadn't met a lot of travellers on the backpacker circuit who'd been there.
"It was horrible," she said. "I was travelling with some of my girlfriends there and we felt so uncomfortable. Everyone stared at us like we were whores."
I wondered what she and her friends were wearing, but she insisted they were dressed fine. Her remark made me nervous, so before boarding my bus from Singapore to Malacca, I pulled out the long, ankle-length black skirt and loose white tunic blouse from my backpack and hoped for the best.
Read MoreWhen I was on my overland adventure last fall in Kyrgyzstan (and briefly Uzbekistan), I asked the very-well-travelled tour leader what some of his favorite places were. "Here," he said, motioning out at a large farmer's field we happened to be camping in for the night en route to Karakol. "This is one of the best places I've ever been."
"OK, well, obviously," I said (Kyrgyzstan is totally amazing). "Where else?"
He paused for a moment and said thoughtfully, "Malaysia. I really like Malaysia."
Read MoreToday marks the official halfway point of my trip, just two months to go. I don't know whether I'm sad that it will eventually be over, or excited to head home to SF and see friends, family and eat burritos (and be cold! Oh, sweet cold).
Of course while I've been jostling around dusty roads in tuk tuks and not sleeping on night trains rumbling through Vietnam and watching endless palm tree plantations drift by bus windows, I've been dreaming of new adventures out there in the world. Here is the start of a list (I'll be adding to this list!) in no particular order.
Read MoreYes, for the first time since arriving in Bangkok on April 1, I have had the good fortune to find myself cold. I took a bus to the Cameron Highlands in central Malaysia (peninsular Malaysia, obviously) and upon getting off the bus nearly swooned from the delicious temperature. It was probably in the low-80s, no humidity, just lovely.
If I haven't made it really clear, Malaysia is by far my favorite stop so far on the trip. I enjoyed Cambodia and Vietnam (and I'm definitely really happy I visited) but I absolutely love Malaysia. The country is just so easy and laidback and mellow. The people are really friendly and nice and the vibe is just relaxed and chill. And having a couple days in cool weather paradise, it made my love for Malaysia grow even more. I stayed at a guesthouse in Tanah Ranah where I ended up meeting a lot of fellow travllers, did a fun day tour on my first full day that took me along winding roads through the tea plantations, up to the top of Mt Brinchang to climb a lookout tower, on a walk through the 'mossy forest' that grows at the top of the mountain, and then to the tea plantation to learn more about how they're grown and to have a cuppa. I had the tour guide drop me off in the town of Brinchang and ventured to a strawberry farm (where I learned they import their plants from California "because they're the best"... my state pride just swelled even larger than before!), then tried to find this Buddhist temple (I got close but couldn't figure out where the entrance was), and walked a path home that took me by a waterfall.
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