The Final Countdown

Alright, so we're in the final week of my Fantastically Awesome Year Abroad in the Wild Lands of Malaysia with Outward Bound and Project Trust.

Now that's a scary thought.

Before this week (especially last Saturday), I was just wafting around, feeling like I had all the time in the world to procrastinate (demonstrated by my complete lack of updates for two months). At the same time, I was suffering very heavily from sleep deprivation, whereby from Thursday to Tuesday I couldn't sleep at night, and I didn't actually sleep at all from midday Saturday until Monday night, culminating in a run at 3.30 in the morning and 7 hours each night devoted to the Scrapbook of Awesomeness and Food aka. my PT Community Profile.

But the sleep issue was related to Ramadan, which after two weeks of faithfully being followed, has been left at the wayside to allow me to enjoy two of my favourite things in preparation for leaving the humid delights of Malaysia: sleep and food.

And goodness me, the last month or so has been an absolute delight regarding food. The start of July saw George, Adam and I at the Outward Bound Sabah site, a more rural setting with the most fantastic Ridge Run - wear shorts at your peril - and a Faraway tree, the twists and turns providing excellent handholds for climbing. Our arrival was punctuated with a great deal of surprise, as we were immediately sent off on a 5 day trek through ever changing scenery, a risk of death at every turn due to my failure to bring both contact lenses and glasses. Thank the OB spirit for my compatriots who saved me from 20 foot drops and river baths.

Cheese and Chocolate, perfect combo.

But as I said, food. The delightful instructor Ell had promised me two things: a heaping of pork and fish and chips, both delivered in perfunctory style (as well as being a complete surprise to me when they occurred), and my birthday saw a wake up call with creamy sponge cake, and an overdose of chocolate surprise at lunch, with a fantastic array of snappable, snackable mini chocolate sculptures on top (not to mention the Secret Recipe walnut brownie and white-dark chocolate cheesecake smuggled into the cinema to accompany The Amazing Spiderman).

We returned only to venture onto the Cameron Highlands with the OBML staff, where strawberry ice cream, fresh, creamy, light and sickeningly sweet, sent our stomachs swirling with every mountain bend; our BBQ saw sting ray and chicken, frankfurters and squid, marshmallows oozing in our hands as our eyes watered from the smoke - the smell lasted for days - all washed down with Cameron Boh tea, Didy spilling what appeared to be half the sugar pot into her refreshing green tea.

George and I set off for Outward Bound Singapore on Sunday night, and have been completely dazzled by the professionalism and sheer gloriousness of the site, it being a playground of epic proportions with 4 different high ropes courses, at least 50ft high, with one in the shape of a pirate ship and another incorporating a windmill. To top it off, the instructors were some of the snazziest, loveliest people you could meet and Singapore itself is a foodie heaven - all the possible cuisines of Asia and beyond packed into a 40 mile wide city.

We had dim sum and spicy fish ball noodles; mango pudding and fruit melted together with shaved ice; crispy  crackling and delicious duck; bakkwa, the scrumptious crunchy pork jerky; Turkish ice cream, the consistency of chewing gum, yogurt, gelato and cotton candy for a truly mouthwatering treat; alpokat, consisting of an inch worth of Hershey's chocolate sauce mixed with avocado and cream; chocolate lava (wear a bib, because it will literally explode all over you in a wave); a chocolate martini, that of the vodka, chocolate balls and gold flakes, sipped on the 70th floor of the Raffles City Mall as the sun set; kuih lapis, or layer cake, which takes hours to make, each layer applied only as the last has dried (it tastes similar to banana cake); ah balling, glutinous rice balls filled with red bean, green bean, yam, peanut or seasme seed paste in peanut soup, for a surprisingly sweet treat.

My Birthday lives on!

As you can see, I've gone a tad crazy (not helped by the fact that I have finally consumed a roti naan kismis, kismis being raisins, naan just being plain awesome, as well as receiving a mass serving of that which I have been owed - from Khaliq, the tenderest, juiciest tenderloin steak I have sunk my teeth into it, promised since January; from George, Black Forest Cheesecake from Secret Recipe, a birthday treat; and I am still ignoring the fact that upon breaking fast at 7.30 every night, Pak Ghani cooks up a helping of 3 times the normal dinner choice.


So yeah, I maaaay have put on a bit of weight over the last month or so. Ah well, in less than a week I shall be home, so I might as well enjoy the tempting delights of Malaysia as though they're my last (though I have the sneaking suspicious I will be back again to tremble in the beauty that is the people, the scenery, the heat and the FOOD).

Emily