Recently our young friend Katrina came for a short visit- she was on her way to England where she will study on exchange for a year, and thought she'd like to stop in and see us, and a bit of Malaysia, on her way. She arrived just before Hari Raya, the celebration for the end of Ramadan, and we decided to go and meet her in KL, do some sightseeing there, then drive back with her. We'd been told KL would be deserted, with everyone (certainly every Malay) having gone back to their home towns to visit family, but obviously other people thought, like us, that leaving their departure till the Thursday afternoon would be a good way to avoid traffic. There are two lanes on the North-South Expressway, but that obviously insn't enough for the impatient Malaysians, who make a third lane by driving in the emergency/ motorocycle lane. You'll see in the picture that the polite ones who stay in the lane are so polite, they drive to the right to make plenty of room for the impolite ones. The red and blue sign says "kecuali kecemasan", or "except for emergencies". Apparently getting home for Raya is sufficient emergency. The madness and family rituals surrounding Hari Raya are something akin to our Australian Christmas.
Katrina and I did some sightseeing together on a few days when the Inventor had to work. I had been to this waterfall near Chenderiang before, but no-one in the family had wanted to venture up the steep stairs, so I had no idea how beautiful the falls are. Katrina, with her energetic enthusiasm, wanted to explore everything, and we found this rope bridge and the very attractive falls at the top of the many stairs.
It was late in the day and we were hot from all the climbing, so despite having no swimming gear, we decided to have a dip in the clean, cool waters. The pools are only shallow, but so refreshing
Just as we were getting out to leave, we heard multiple screams, and turned to see a body hurtling down the waterfall. A number of teenage and preteen boys had clambered up the rock face at the very right of the picture below, and one of them, while either attempting to swim in the pool at the very top of my picture, or, more likely, to traverse across, had lost his footing and been swept over the edge. We all stood in silent horror as his body was swept and battered over the rocks, Katrina noting his last, futile attempt to grab at the last ledge before plumeting into the miraculously empty pool below. Not one of us watching this dramatic twist to adventurous stupidity thought for a minute that after a face-first landing and such a fall, that he would manage to pull himself, with some help, out of the shallow pool and then walk unaided down the steps to his shaken but grateful family. But by the grace of Allah, he did, and I hope he will use his bonus life to tell other young men of the dangers of overestimating one's capacity, or underestimating the power of water.
Katrina and I also did a girls' day trip to the Cameron Highlands. There are two advantages to living in this area: 1) Some of the sights are so beautiful, it really is no bother to go back there, and 2) there are so many things to see, there is always something new that we haven't discovered. I was keen to go and see the Mossy Forest atop Gunung Brinchang, and we weren't disappointed. Nestled right under or amongst the clouds, at around 2000m it is cool and damp here. The boardwalk has been built over the original track which actually picked its way through the roots and branches of the strange, moss-covered trees. At the end of the boardwalk, Katrina and I picked our way for a little further through the roots, as we had been promised by some mud-covered French visitors that we would see some pitcher plants, which we did indeed find. I will be returning there one day with The Inventor in tow, to show him the amazing views and eerie plant life of this extraordinary place.
I've been to both of the Boh Tea Plantations on the Cameron Highlands before, but the spectacular scenery is worth a revisit. In this photo, Katrina is resting on a rock enjoying the view after failing to find a geocache, though after this we disappeared deeper into the plantation (whose tea bushes seem to stretch forever) and after a precarious drive along narrow tracks that hug the sides of the steep hills, we did manage to find the next geocache on our list. This is the first cache find I have managed to log since arriving in Malaysia, as we seem to have lost our GPS and the phone is proving to be a most unhelpful GPS.
There are entire towns within the BOH Tea Plantation, where workers live, their children attend school, and all manner of activities take place. Mosques, temples and chapels all exist here, and the workers probably have little need to ever leave.
We'd decided to go somewhere this past weekend with Katrina, before she left, so I chose a large Lake in the north of our state of Perak called Lake (Tasik) Temenggor. She had been in Penang the day before and caught a bus across to meet us, so we drove up on the Saturday morning after dropping our cat (more about that in another blog!) with a friend to be looked after. I included this picture for family who visited earlier this year, in case they think they have covered the Malaysian experience. Here we are eating "roti tisu", the first time we have had it and a must-try for any sweet-tooth or anyone who likes roti chennai. Crunchy, sweet, warm, yum. Enough said.
The hotel room at Banding Lakeside Inn did indeed offer the 180 degree views of the lake as promised. It was a lovely change from the view of dirty apartment buildings that we have from our house.
We stayed overnight at the lake, and had planned to take a boat trip on the lake on the Sunday, to the famous Belum National Park, our main aim being to see a Rafflesia flower. However, when we got to the jetty, we were to discover that there were no Rafflesia plants in flower (it's just a matter of chance, there is no special flowering season) and we decided that the RM550 was a lot to hire the boat to see other things that we were somewhat indifferent about (an elephant salt lick, a waterfall, and an orang Asli village). So instead, we decided to go and find our own things to sightsee.
Ironically, the first thing we decided to look for was an "elephant crossing" sign. Ironic because we drove for some way across the lake and further west, before turning back, only to find this one right outside our hotel! It says, "Warning, elephant crossing area 500m ahead". A guard at the Tenaga Nasional site across the road assured us that elephants cross there every night. Yes, every night, at 6pm. Enam petang, every evening, even when it rains like it did the previous evening at 6. Great. We weren't impressed to discover this when it was too late. These are wild elephants, some of the few that still live in the more remote forests of Malaysia, and we all would have been very excited to view them.
As we drove back southward, there was a surprising number of tourist signs along the road- brown
signs announcing sights and the distance. They were unfortunately not
followed up very well, and we didn't find the waterfall we were looking
for when we discovered this rubbber plantation. Surprisingly, some of
the trees are still being tapped. I'm not sure if you can see the
tapping marks on the trees, or the cups for catching the latex, but if
you look very hard you will see the blue shirt of The Inventor, and look
even harder and you will see Katrina. She is making a series of
"Where's Wally" photos of her trip, though I suggested they might more
appropriately be called "Where's THE Wally". She made it particularly
difficult on this day by wearing one of her father's old army khaki
shirts.
We had only just been talking
about the ancient human remains that had been found in Perak, nicknamed
"Perak Man", when we came across a series of signs to caves, some of
which indicated one was the origin of "Perak Man". Though we didn't
actually find the cave that Perak Man was found in, we did find this
series of four caves, one of which still has achaeology
strings marking out the floor. The one pictured here was the most
impressive, though it did involve somewhat of a clamber to get to it, as
you can see in the picture of Katrina and The Inventor
making the descent.
We had a wonderful time discovering new places, particularly nice as we shared these places with no other tourists. The only people we met were locals in villages along the way. There is so much more to be discovered here, if only we had more time. Perak is a fascinating state, and Malaysia is an interesting and varied country, and I hope we find more opportunities to discover new things.
