Touring Perak- A Photo Show

 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.

Sunday Exploring

Today was a very different, relaxed and enjoyable Sunday. We decided to stay home rather than driving to Ipoh today, as I have been getting quite tired and a little run-down. We have been quite busy lately, and we also haven't been getting a lot of sleep, so a quieter day was in order. The lack of decent sleep has been in a large part due to the adoption of our little black cat, which we have named Possum. The name, courtesy of fellow Australian Dame Edna Everage, is a reference to the spectacular fluffy “feather duster” on her rear end, a tail which for a Kampar street cat is unusually complete, long and possum-like. She was starving when she landed on our doorstep, but after four weeks here is now growing well though still small. The lack of sleep is the result of the vet not wanting to spay her until she is healthy enough for the general anaesthetic. She is now in her second round of being on heat in two weeks, the yowling and unsettled behaviour being very disruptive to our sleep (and probably everyone else in our neighbourhood, as we live in a townhouse).

Having decided to skip church and Ipoh, we got up fairly early so we could have a bike ride before the heat of the day. Bikes loaded into the tray of the D-Max, we drove a few kilometres up the main road and parked by the bridge over Sungai Kampar (Kampar River). From there, a dirt road leads along the river, and I had explored it once before for a short distance. Our goal today was to continue along the road until the end, and we had a delightful time exploring the kampongs, tin-mine lakes and farms along the green, quiet road. We called “pagi” to all and sundry, raising smiles and replies from the friendly Malay women and men who worked or relaxed outside their homes. After some weaving and turning and agreeing with little concern that we were probably going to become lost or at least well off-course, we emerged at a major road we knew, and interestingly very close to where we had expected to emerge, despite the road we had traversed being unmarked on any map we have access to. After more weaving, exploring, side-tracks, pedalling and “pagis”, we found ourselves back at the car with surprisingly few hiccups. Getting off the beaten track and into nature for the morning (actually, only about 80 minutes, as it turned out, though we had been prepared for longer) was so relaxing and enjoyable, after a rest, a nanna nap and a late lunch of Japanese-style pancakes, we decided to do some more exploring in the D-Max. For three hours we drove here and there, discovering a new development at the back of Bandar Baru which looks like a new city and will house thousands, and then a short-cut through more farming land that will offer an alternative route to Gopeng once the roadworks are finished. Our curiosity, always active, led us down a number of green, shady side-roads and we discovered parts of Malaysia that we never knew we right behind our home. The most interesting were a large fish farm, and a Chinese kampong that we suspected to be one of the “new towns”, fenced villages which were established in the 1950s to house Chinese inhabitants during the communist threat known in Malaysia as “The Emergency”.

The last exploration of the day was to finally explore a road that we have been interested in since a “land for sale” sign appeared some months back. We wound up a rough dirt track, thankful for the high clearance and four-wheel drive, until I dared drive no further, then we clambered on foot up the weathered and eroded remains of road through the wasteland of the of the forgotten subdivision. Now on the market again, we dreamed of building a house there high on the hill looking away from Kampar towards the solemn hills cloaked in deep, dark rainforest, hills that reminded us so much of the dearly-beloved ancient neighbours which hang over our home in Smithfield. As we completed the drive home, the panic returned as I remembered the long list of jobs that I had allocated for Sunday, but this was a day of outdoors, relaxation and exploration in which google had no place, and for that I am happy. Tomorrow life can crowd me in once more.

How the other half live

The more progress is made on the project, the sooner the invention will be off the ground, commercialised, being used, and ultimately, making money. So, we try not to take off too much time, and try to make the time that we have as productive as possible. To help the inventor focus his time on the technical side of things, I am now going to the lab 2 days a week, to help with organising the office and doing some of the simpler jobs. The inventor rarely leaves the lab before 7pm, and while he says his brain needs "downtime", can often seen in bed later at night reading articles with titles I couldn't even hope to repeat. He tries to work at the lab on Saturdays also, if we are at home. It's hard to devote weekends to work, though, when we are living in a new and interesting country with so many places to discover, and we are often away on weekends. He also loves to spend time on Saturdays with me, and I'm grateful that he's still as devoted to me as he is to his new project. Sundays are our day off, usually busy days in Ipoh, so he doesn't get many quiet days at home.

This month we have been away a lot. The first Saturday of the month, we went to Port Klang to meet up with my parents for the day while their cruise ship was in port. The second Saturday of the month, I had decided we needed some culture, and we spent the weekend in Kuala Lumpur taking in a band concert and two plays. We had a weekend at home, then the fourth weekend just passed was another weekend away. We left as soon as we were packed on Saturday morning, as our 28th wedding anniversary fell on that day. It took us four hours to drive to Berjaya Hills, as we stopped for drinks and fuel, then again for drinks at a cute Malay stall after we had left the expressway, and then for a delightful lunch at a Chinese restaurant, I think in Batang Kali. The driving component we estimate to be about 2 and a half hours, but we were in no hurry.

The Chateau, Berjaya Hills

Our room at The Chateau was ready for us when we checked in a little before 2pm, and we were thrilled that we didn't have to check out again until 2pm, giving us a whole 24 hours in our delightful spa suite. Often we do little more for our anniversary than a special meal at home or at a restaurant, so booking the spa suite was a real treat, and not a thing about this stay disappointed us. The whole anniversary celebration was brilliant, even matching up to our 25th anniversary which was spent at a castle-hotel (Parador) in Spain. In fact, it was particularly reminiscent of that anniversary, as The Chateau has been styled off a particular French chateau and is very castle-like. I was quite impressed with the architect's ability to blend the haphazard chateau style with modern, crisp finishes. Our room was lovely, with a spacious bathroom, and doors from both the bedroom and large sitting room opened to a large deck where we had our own lounge chairs and spa bath. I had plannned to make it to the pool for a swim, but with such a wonderful private space right at our door, we didn't see the need.

 

We did, however, leave the room for dinner, where the brilliant, attentive service was even more pronounced, as we were the only guests in the restaurant. A number of treats "compliments of the chef" made their way to our table, along with the duck and poussin we ordered, and our dessert, raspberry souffle and a chocolate dish. Despite the lovely piano entertainment and wonderful food, the highlight for us, somewhat ironically, were the bread rolls. Fresh and soft with a crispy crust, we have had nothing as superb since we landed in Malaysia. The Malaysian bread never fails to disappoint us. Often sweet (especially the white loaves) and usually dry, even the bread we have bought at specialist bakeries and patisseries has been disappointing. The two things that set apart this hotel from others we have been to were the polite and always available service, and the bread.

A lovely little treat that appeared in our room!

Breakfast was equally thrilling, not just for the made-to-order omelettes, waffles and pancakes, but because the same bread rolls were served. It is the first buffet I have attended where I did not need to leave my seat once. My coffee cup was not empty for more than 30 seconds, and even when I tested the staff's attentiveness by sending away my cultlery on a used plate, the clean cutlery appeared immediately. My only complaint of the hotel would be that we were not able to get any exercise, for when we mentioned we would go to the nearby Colmar Tropicale, a busier, livlier hotel complex where there are shops and more restaurants, they insisted on driving us and also magically appeared with a car as we were walking back. I did, however, manage the complimentary yoga class at the hotel, for which my shoulders are still suffering.

On "our" balcony

We've stayed at 5-star hotels before, but this level of personal, attentive service is not something we have experienced before, and being looked after so well is something we could get used to!

The disappointing smoke haze courtesy of the Indonesians this weekend. Straight ahead is Colmar Tropicale, The Chateau is to the right.

Not-so-feverish rantings and more family

Today I'm finally feeling quite a bit better, after days and days of feverish blur. My mind has been a little lost without a body to take it places, but even my thoughts have tossed and turned as my body took on the ominous charge of killing the millions of viruses that came and stayed like unwanted houseguests. With my inpatience, three days in bed seems like a month, so today I am feeling somewhat cheery that I have been able to do some things.

The ship docked in Port Klang

Now I am left hoping and praying that the vigilance of the inventor and myself was sufficient to keep the germs to ourselves, because many weeks before we had arranged to meet up with my parents on Saturday. They are travelling on a big cruise liner around the world, or, as my father puts it, "going from Brisbane to Sydney on a boat". It's more than 100 days, and the second port of call was Port Klang, the port for Kuala Lumpur, last Saturday. We'd stayed the night in KL, having been there a good part of the previous day sorting out things in the office, so we just did the one hour drive to Port Klang to be there at the pre-arranged meeting time of 10.30am. They were ready and waiting, though not, as I had assumed, to go sightseeing. Their shopping list included shoes for my 80-year-old father and a glasses chain for mother, coffee, beer and a few other essentials. There was also the drama of my mother's tooth, as she had lost a sizeable filling and needed a dentist. The difficulty was compunded by the fact that it was not only a Saturday, it was a public holiday, so I suck my nose into my ailing Galaxy S and started google searching and phoning to no avail. Imagine our surprise and delight when the inventor suddenly pulled the car into a u-turn and suggested, "Let's try this dentist", then our further delight when he wandered back out to the car two minutes later and announced, "He can do a filling right now".

Not the day I was expecting in Port Klang, though we did manage to fit in all the sights I was hoping to visit, as the entire list of things worth seeing, all three of them, were within a few blocks of each other, and there really was little point getting out of the car to look at them. It left us time to fit another saga into what was left of the afternoon- the saga of the ice blended. I'd had a coffee ice blended for breakfast earlier in the morning, and my mother decided she'd like one. She also hadn't eaten lunch, so we pulled into a shopping centre and found a park. The four of us hobbled in, the 80-year old with the injured back, his elderly wife (perhaps the most sprightly of the group), the red-nosed and sniffly inventor, and me limping, my injured knee stirred up from the morning's shopping escapades. The shopping centre eventuated to be smaller than it had promised, and there weren't any specialty drink stores. From the meagre selection of food outlets, though, we did find one with ice blendeds on the menu, so in we went and found a table. Unfortunately, today they weren't serving ice blendeds, in fact, they only had juice or coffee. Up and wandering again, our searching led us to the first floor where we found another place. Yes, they were serving coffee ice blended. Yes, please, she'd like a one, we'd like Tiramisu ice blendeds, and also and a plate of chips. The tiramisu blendeds came first, and the inventor and I had only just put our germy lips to the straws when the waiter reappeared. He was sorry, but the machine had broken and they couldn't make the coffee ice blended. My mother settled for an iced coffee. I hope she managed to find a coffee ice blended in Langkawi, which would be their stop the following day, after sailing through the night. In our hot climate, ice blended is the most refreshing culinary highlight of Malaysia.

The Sultan's Palace, Port Klang. I wouldn't mind living there!

This mosque, which we just happened upon, was far nicer than the dull one that my DK guidebook said was a "must-see".

We enjoyed each other's company despite me using half a tube of antispetic hand wash. It has only been a few weeks since we saw them in Brisbane, but bonus day was a delight, as we probably won't see any family now until Christmas. It was a more relaxed and enjoyable way to see family than having 11 of them come to visit at once! For Christmas we are planning to head back to Brisbane, though our life is so unpredictable and uncertain right now, I will not say we'll definitely be there, even though I have booked the flight. We will all have to wait till later in the year to know about that!

 

We drove home via The Blue Mosque in Shah Alam, a truly beautiful sight in the late-afternoon sun.

 The minarets are said to perhaps be the tallest in the world, and

The mosque is the one of the largest in southeast Asia.

Kuala Lumpur

I have been up the Petronas Twin Towers now. It's one of those “must do at least once in a lifetime” things, and despite visiting Malaysia in 2010 for a holiday and then living here for another six months, I still hadn't managed it just that once.

Yesterday, we rode to the Sky Bridge and then to the 86^th floor observation deck with our son and his girlfriend. It's not cheap, especially when paying for four, but it was a good experience, and we can now say, “been there AND done that”. The first stop is the Sky Bridge, which joins the towers on level 41 and 42. I actually found that the most thrilling, as you are standing in a suspended corridor, with nothing underneath. The guide who welcomed us was on the deck when the movement joint closed by 5 inches as a result of the tsunami earthquake. I think the year was 2002. The people on that day felt the movement, though we thankfully had an uneventful visit. The lifts sweep visitors at an astonishing speed, though to get to the 86^th floor, we had to disembark the high-speed main lifts at the 83^rd floor and enter two slower ones that go up the final three floors. They seemed frustratingly slow after the ear-popping ascent to the 83^rd. The 86^th floor observation deck affords 360 degree views of KL and the opportunity to photograph the other tower, though it was disappointing that the afternoon had become typically KL-hazy and cloudy, after a bright and clear morning. Still, we could see for miles around, as far as Batu Caves and the mountains. 

 

After the towers visit, we visited an exhibit called “The Sultans of Science”, about Moslem contributions to the Sciences, then drove from the KLCC Suria shopping complex to the nearby Pavilion Shopping Centre so we could all experience TGI Fridays. We created our own tapas menu by sharing a number of plates of appetisers and mains, probably the last western food we'll get at a restaurant for a while. The kids were thrilled to discover a shop that sells nothing but DC Comics merchandise. I was not thrilled that we took more than an hour to drive home, a result of a nasty chance collision of all of the usual KL driving calamities- traffic jams, difficulty getting the GPS software to run on my phone, and mistaking one of the numerous expressway exits for another, which as usual resulted in a 20-minute round-trip on another expressway and back again.

On Saturday we had also managed an exhausting dose of sightseeing, covering the wonderful technology shopping centre Lowyat Plaza, KL Bird Park and Petaling Street Markets. Having a car in KL does add driving and navigating stresses to the day, but an advantage is being able to pop back to the hotel for an hour or two rest, which the kids appreciated after their big day of travel on Friday.

In two weeks' time our daughter and her boyfriend arrive here, and we hope to be able to do some trips with them also. We have booked a few days at Genting Highlands for the six of us. How lovely to have family time together. No doubt you will be hearing more of our family adventures as our eleven Aussie guests start arriving in Kampar for our mega birthday celebration.

Penang

One of my son's friends recently said on his Facebook status update, “must take some time out and see more of the places around where I live”. Isn't it true? We live somewhere, complain about having nothing interesting to do, and end up seeing little of what is around us. Because the Inventor and I have moved around quite a lot, we have always been aware of it, and despite the awareness, the good intentions and plans, still mumble and grumble of missed opportunities, and unseen beauties.

Crossing the bridge to Penang Island

Last weekend, we travelled to Penang to cross off a “must-see” from our list. Fortunately or unfortunately, this one has not been crossed off, as it must be relegated to the other list, the list reserved for places and experiences that offer too much to be digested in one sitting. Penang, or Pulau Pinang as I should more correctly refer to the island, is a modern, interesting, attractive place, and we hope to go back again. It is steeped in history, and many of the buildings from its colonial past remain. It is also pitched towards tourists, and one does not feel out of place there, sightseeing, shopping or just looking. Some English is spoken by most people, and strangest of all for us was the masses of white-skinned people, both residents and tourists. We are accustomed to being the only white-skinned “orang putih” around, and experience something of a celebrity status because of our ethnicity and skin colour. At Tesco people have become more accustomed to our presence, aided by the fact than another family of “orang putih” also moved here just before us. This family also were nice enough to have seven children, every one of whom has striking blue eyes and a shock of white-blonde hair. Hence, I feel that the novelty of white people around Kampar has worn off to a large extent, though I still pass people who seem surprised or interested to see a white person, and many seem a little awed to meet us. Our friends Desmond and Swee Yee tell us that foreigners are respected in Malaysia above locals, unlike Australia where foreigners can be treated with suspicion or disregard.

In Penang there were many, many white-skinned people. We heard English being spoken regularly, and I enjoyed hearing the familiar Aussie accent as I wandered past groups of people. Up until our trip to Singapore, we had been counting the white-skinned people we had seen in a day, and the highest daily total so far achieved had been eleven, on one of our trips to KL. The record was blitzed at KL international airport, and in Singapore it was pointless to count. So too, Penang.

Two views from our balcony, to sea, and inland.

We had planned to go to Penang the previous weekend, and so had Desmond and Swee Yee. Strangely, both lots of plans had fallen through, and at church on the Sunday, we decided to go together the next weekend. They had acquired vouchers for three nights' accommodation at a time share hotel in Penang, and invited us to join them, using one of the vouchers to pay for our first night there. We had discovered that our passport renewal applications could be submitted with the honorary consul in Penang, so decided to stay for a second night so we would have time to see some things as well as renew our passports, which we want to get done now despite their not being due to expire until July, so that the two-year visa we have applied for can be stamped into our new passports. The Inventor has also read that the Australian government plan to dramatically increase the cost of passports to raise revenue.

We enjoyed a delightful two days in Penang with Desmond, Swee Yee and their four-year-old son Daniel. Desmond and Swee Yee appointed themselves travel guides, and in the process of showing us around the island, discovered some places they had never seen themselves. The drive along the coastal road to the village of Teluk Bahang was a scenic delight, and so much like the Cairns- Port Douglas road, it made me both nostalgic and a little melancholic. Even the vegetation is similar, and I find it strange that parts of Malaysia are so similar, yet so very different, to our previous home. A highlight of our trip for me was a visit to a batik factory, where we were shown the batik being stamped by hand. I knew, of course, how it was done, but it was great to finally see the real thing! We also stopped and had a walk through a lovely private botanical gardens. The herb garden was interesting but it was the trail up and down the hill through the rainforest that I loved, again reminding me of the tracks and trails around Cairns and the fun walks I had there with friends and on my own. We even managed to see the night markets despite the rain- unlike in Kampar, the stall-holders are well equipped and had no intention of missing a night's trade because of a little bit of rain, however thunderous. Strangely, the one tourist venue that I had wanted to see seemed to have closed down, which would explain my failure to contact them on each of the numerous phone numbers I had found on google. The cultural centre had seemed very popular and won awards for its displays of dance, music, games and other cultural displays, so I wonder why it is now closed.

What little boys do!

Having Desmond order the food for us at nearly every meal made it easy for us, as communicating can be a stressful and difficult task, and when a Chinese speaker does all the interpreting for you, there are also less surprises when the food arrives! Another highlight was the steamboat dinner. Our steamboat was lit and the soup poured in, then it was up to us to choose from the hundreds of meats, seafoods and vegies and take them back to the table to cook in the soup or barbeque on the hotplate that surrounded the steamboat. Dozens of other pre-cooked foods were available, too, and we all ate far more than we probably should have.

The hotel Desmond and Swee Yee had taken us to is right on the beach, and from the hotel lobby one walks out to the pool area then onto the beach. While Desmond fished from the beach, we played with Daniel in the sand and in the little waves that splash onto the beach, and wandered along the surprisingly uncrowded beach. More adventurous tourists zoomed around on hired jetskis, rode on inflatable bananas and soared over our heads under parachute canopies, but we enjoyed taking it easy and having a bit of down-time. The inventor was a little disappointed to discover that the two hobie cats that lay stacked at the top of the beach were indeed as non-functional as they appeared, so we remained on solid ground.

So cute- sometimes! He speaks two languages already.

As we navigated our way back across the Penang bridge back to the mainland after lunch on Tuesday, I was sad to be having to leave. Penang really appealed to me, with its azure ocean views and verdant mountainous interior, modern shopping centres, Chinese food places, clean and tidy presentation and Western feel. This is one place to which I am sure we will return.

I had wanted to see the historic O and E Hotel, and we miraculously drove straight past it on our way out of town.

A weekend away

It was supposed to be a relaxing weekend away. Really, we would have preferred a quiet few days at one of the Malaysian destinations we are hoping to visit, but the 90 days of our Visitor's Visa were nearly expired, and we had to leave the country in order to re-enter and obtain a new 90-day visa/ pass. This could have, and should have, been a simple affair.

The Thai border is only four hours' drive north of Ipoh, and it's a favourite for visa runs from Perak. Because it was a long weekend, however, we decided to make a trip of it. It seemed simple enough, but after an entire week of searching and googling (and I really do mean an entire week!), our plans to visit the Malaysian island of Langkawi and the Thai island of Koh Lipe fell apart and, back at square one, we opted for the path of least resistance and booked tickets from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. Even that seemingly simple plan came loaded, and I spent another stressful day organising accommodation, transport, and activities. I cannot even begin to explain the idiocy that drove the whole thing, because I don't even understand how things became so complicated, but by the time we actually left I was incredibly stressed and still considerably disorganised, never a good scene to set for a relaxed weekend away. I didn't actually calm down properly until we got home, though we did have a nice weekend away. Taking a short break is definitely not worth it if plans are so complicated!

One of the complications that presented itself was that the Inventor discovered that a group from our church would be visiting a mission on the Cameron Highlands on the Friday. For some time we had been wanting to go up there to see some of the isolated Orang Asli (aboriginal inhabitants of Malaysia), how they live up there and the issues facing them, and the inventor got it into his head that this had to be the occasion. I booked our tickets to Singapore for the Friday night so we could spend some of Friday visiting the Orang Asli.

Orang Asli men making the roof.

Our long weekend launched with an early start, picking up Lorena at 6am, as we'd offered to take her up and then drop her in KL. We crawled through the tortuous bends of the old road up to the highlands, to be at the designated meeting spot in Ringlet at 7.30am. From our rendezvous point, our little convoy of three cars snaked along the magnificent highway that heads south through the less populated part of the Cameron Highlands. Our goal was to visit three of the Orang Asli villages where Christian missions are reaching out to these disenfranchised people, who have been driven into isolated corners of the country by the invading Malays, Chinese and other races that followed. The story sounds all-too-familiar, and the challenges faced by these people to a large extent reflect those experienced by the Australian Aboriginal people. In contrast to Australia's aboriginal people, these people have been left largely alone until quite recently, and retain many of their traditional cultures and skills, although identity struggles are one of their major challenges. Alcohol in Malaysia is generally expensive, and being non-Halal, hard to obtain, and the problems associated with alcohol are rare. We were surprised to see in Singapore a group of young people staggering home from celebrations, as we hadn't realised that it had been months since we had seen anybody even slightly intoxicated. The government's response to the Orang Asli currently seems to be to visit a village and “convert” the chief to Islam, then offer gifts of brick houses and services in exchange for their faithfulness.

The Chinese helpers building the flooor.

We delivered two fridges to two different villages and then bounced and slid our way in four-wheel-drive along a single dirt track slippery from the heavy rains of the previous night. We passed many Orang Alsi along the way, making their way on motorcycles to the village we aimed for, and others further afield. At the village we hung around aimlessly, watching the men build the mission house in mainly traditional style. The ladies of the group handed out snack foods to the children and I played with them and entertained them taking photos. The poor inventor managed to slip while carrying two bags of rice to one of the huts, and his scratches were treated with some native medicine, a medicinal leaf, kneaded together with saliva to produce a yellow paste, as no-one had thought to bring a first aid kit.

 We left the village after lunch of rice, fish, chicken and jungle vegies which our large group took sitting in a circle around the bamboo floor of a hut, and then bounced our way back over the dirt road, now much less slippery, the sun having turned the thundering rains of the night into humid steam that rendered us lethargic and heavy. Back on the bitumen, we settled our heat-weary and muddy bodies into the airconditioned comfort of the D-Max, returned to Ringlet, then many curves later, to Tapah. We gratefully swiped our toll card, entered the expressway and pointed the mud-caked nose of the D-Max towards Kuala Lumpur. By 7pm we had managed to drop Lorena at a train station and successfully navigate our way through the maze of expressways that entangle KL, park the car and check in at the airport. The entire day was executed with only one major marital dispute, and less than two dozen navigational errors. We even arrived at the correct terminal, despite originally setting course for the low-cost terminal, many kilometres from KLIA terminal. The D-Max slunk into a dark and lonely corner of the airport carpark for a well-earned rest, while we exchanged muddy work-clothes for some more respectable attire (the majority of the mud had already been removed using taps at a highway rest-stop, where we had also acquired some fresh fruit to eat and bubble tea to drink).

Because our hotel for Saturday night was some distance from the airport and expensive, we had decided to spend Friday night closer to Changi Airport, and through miscommunication, misunderstanding and stress, ended up at a Hotel 81 which was not only not cheap, it was not clean, not pleasant and sealed its fate when another guest unlocked the door and walked in as I was getting dressed in the morning. I took great joy in rating it on Travel Advisor. The strangest thing of all with this hotel, was that the bottom sheet had been put on the bed so it failed to cover the bottom 18 inches or so of mattress. We had to remake the bed before we could sleep in it!

By the time we checked out on Saturday morning, I was almost beside myself with exhaustion, stress and disappointment. My legs went to jelly and tears welled in my eyes with relief when we finally checked into our destination hotel, the Swissotel Stamford, though it was too early to go to our room. We left our bags and headed out via train and taxi to Singapore Zoo, where spent the remainder of the day exploring. After three months of living in Malaysia, I particularly enjoyed the clean, tidy, prefectly-groomed surrounds of this massive and beautifully presented zoo. The zoo has a large range of primates and many other species, and we didn't leave until we had seen most of them, around 6pm closing time.

A young proboscis monkey.

No explanation needed. It's a giraffe!

Two bunnies.

At the zoo- the giraffe behind us kept trying to exit the photo.

One of the things we had enjoyed on our first trip to Singapore, and missed on the most recent, was the Suntek Plaza Fountain of Wealth, so we managed to drag our weary bodies from the king-size bed on the 22^nd floor back out to see one of the light and water shows. Although a few blocks from our hotel, we walked nearly the entire distance through underground malls. The light show was nowhere near as spectacular as we had remembered, but afterwards we were allowed to walk out to the fountain and walk around it three times with hands in the water, “for wealth”.

On the boat ride at Singapore Zoo.

For the superstitious, the omens are good- we are blessed by the Fountain of Wealth, my left palm is also regularly attacked with bouts of itching, so wealth must indeed be on its way! For the less superstitious and the sensible, the omens are also
good. Testing and development on the project continues to go well, the inventor has unearthed some research projects that have given him additional useful information, and pressure is now on to get the pilot plant running by Chinese NewYear. Plans have changed slightly, though, and it seems now that the pilot plant will not be one-tenth scale as planned, but full-scale. Supplying the raw product to run in it is no problem, and the market exists for anything produced, provided its quality is satisfactory, and the lab is there to check that. The main difficulty is organising the assistance needed to get things built by the specified time, communication difficulties being less language and more cultural.

We hope to have things really rolling by Chinese New Year, as this will be a big time for us. In the five days spanning Chinese New Year, the inventor, D, my father and myself all have birthdays, the inventor and my father turning 50 and 80 respectively. We have big plans and are going to take some time off, as we will be visited here by both our children and their partners, my parents, both my sisters and a brother-in-law, and also, I think, the inventor's mother. We are looking forward to spending some time with family and doing some sightseeing. James will be on university holidays and is coming earlier to spend a few weeks working in the lab, hopefully working on the building of the pilot plant, which should be in full-swing by then.

Cadbury popping chocolate. Just like magical elves, only bigger!

After the emotional day in Singapore, we had no energy left for the planned visit to the restaurants at the 72^nd floor of our hotel, so we grabbed some snacks on the way back to the hotel and enjoyed the view from our hotel window. The following morning was much the same, and apart from wandering down to the pool deck on the 10^th floor, we didn't do much. We had planned to have Sunday brunch in one of the hotel restaurants, but $300 seemed excessive for a lunch, even in Singapore dollars, so instead we found a nice Vietnamese pho bar in the shopping centre downstairs. We enjoyed wandering around the shopping centre, and I became unduly excited at the purchase of real vanilla essence, real Allen's snakes, and a block of Cadbury's Marvellous Creations Jelly Popping Candy– real Cadbury chocolate imported from Australia, which tastes so much nicer than the Malaysia Cadbury's. Singapore is just so western compared to anywhere in Malaysia, even KL. The absence of restrictions imposed by Islam makes a difference, too- stores can stock a wider range of products- and the presence of more “expats” means stores are more inclined to stock foods that appeal to we foreigners. Even in Ipoh, there is little demand for many of the products I would like to buy.

We returned to the hotel to pick up our bags from the luggage room, and the inventor asked about going up to photograph the view from the pool deck, however the girl mistook our request and directed us to the 72^nd floor restaurants. Apparently it wasn't a problem, and being mid-afternoon, there were few patrons to disturb, so we had a little wander around and enjoyed the spectacular views. I have read that Swissotel is the tallest hotel in Singapore, and the Singapore vista is an interesting and attractive blend of fascinating architecture and blue waters. I had been terribly disappointed to have missed coming up here, so it was the icing on the cake to snap a few shots with my wide-angle lens before slipping down, down, down to the subway and clattering our way to Changi International.

Our arrival at KLIA was unimpressive and blessedly uneventful. The passports were stamped with the new 90-day visas, we found the car, paid for the parking and navigated our way to the KL office without fuss. Just at the corner we found a clean, simple and cheap hotel, and next to it an acceptable restaurant. We were parked at the KL office around the corner early the next morning, and spent the entire morning there, meeting with D, the new Belgian general manager, and a business associate of D's who may well become involved with the project. It was good to touch base with the girls in the office and Harry, too, though the gentleman accountant was away.

The weekend ended with the two-hour drive back to Kampar, relieved, tired, and grateful to be home. Hopefully, this will be our first and last border-run, as the company is now registered and we are just awaiting the official papers so we can apply for a proper visa, and then, a bank account. For now we have happily fallen back into our quiet everyday life in the backwaters of Malaysia's north.