Art & Andrea's vacation in Malaysia and India

We spent eight weeks traveling in pennisular Malaysia and India where we shot 18 rolls of film. I've picked a few pictures of the highlights, but there are plenty more!

Taman Negara, the national park in pennisular Malaysia was great. We took a 12 mile hike to a wildlife viewing "hide" where we spent the night. We were very pleased when two tapirs came to the salt lick in front of the hide. At sunset, the insect sounds were incredible.

After Taman Negara we took the "Jungle train" to Kota Bharu near the Thai border. Kota Bharu has two impressive markets: The night market, and the central market in the photo below.

From Kota Bharu we traveled down the east coast of Malaysia to two islands, Pulau Kapas and Pulau Perhentian. Perhentian is the nicest island we've visited. Great sand, a nice atmosphere and incredible snorkeling. The beach front huts in the photo below cost about $15 a night.

The first time I looked at the picture above, I didn't realize I was in it. If you look closely you can make out my arms and legs amoung all the fish.

Apparently the reef shark in the picture on the right above is harmless, but as you can tell from the fuzzy photo I wasn't close enought to take any chances.

From Malaysia we flew to the Indian Himilaya. While we acclimitized to the altitude, we rented a motorcycle and visited several Buddhist monastaries around Leh.

I've now ridden three Enfield "Bullet" 500s, and never was there a motorcycle with a more misleading name. Rifled slug maybe, but certainly no Bullet. Luckily there wasn't much traffic around Leh, since the bike had the gear shift and brake pedals on opposite sides from the positions I'm used to.

One evening we were visiting a Buddhist monument called Shanti Stupa in Leh when four bus loads of Indian soldiers arrived. Apparently they were on a break from their duties and sight-seeing. Andrea became an instant celebrity. She had at least 50 requests for photos.

After a week of acclimitizing we took a six day trek through the Markha Valley. This was an organized trip with a guide, a "pony man" and three ponies carrying our supplies. It was no wilderness hike, plenty of people live in the valley and we met many other people on the trail, but the scenery was spectacular.

He we are at the literal high point of our hike, Gongmaru La at 16,700 feet. With us is a couple we met from Israel, Arie and Mila. After we reached the pass our descent took us through the Shang river's canyon where we had to constantly cross and recross the river. Since it had been raining for the three previous days, the last crossing was quite exciting. The rains continued and in two days the roads were washed out to Leh, so the only way in and out of the region was by plane.

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