Month: February 2012

Ipoh to Tanah Rata, Landrover heaven

Day 39, Saturday, 04 Feb, Ipoh – Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands.

I didn’t rush out of bed, not due to the beer and whisky but because I didn’t need to be anyway particularly early for a change and I wasn’t going make the other cave temples in time to get the bus. I went back to my favourite global restaurant, McDonalds for some breakfast and to use the wi-fi to try and book some accommodation in Tanah Rata and back in KL on the 6th. I managed to get a room in the place I stayed in (and got my money stolen) last time I was in KL. I chose the place as it is close to the start of the Thaipusam parade, so easy to get to. According to the internet there are no free beds in the Cameron Highlands….

With that info in mind I checked out of my hotel and took a scorchingly hot twenty minute walk to the local bus station to catch a bus to the express bus station about ten km away. I was told by information I needed to get bus 66 which was “due”, I saw bus 94 had where I wanted to go on its list of destinations so asked if I should get that as time was kinda pressing on  a bit, I had allowed an hour for this exercise, I was told no – bus 66 and it was due. Fifteen minutes later I ended catching a cab, the traffic was bad so I was glad I did I think bus 66 would have got me there too late. As I arrived in my cab (at 10 times the price) bus 94 was pulling out of the express bus terminal… At least I made my express bus!

Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands is about 95km from Ipoh and the ride is scheduled for 3 hours, which seems ludicrous considering we were at the start of the Highlands in just over an hour. The road winds up through some serious hills, but is in very good condition and felt perfectly safe so we were making good time. However…. there is always a however in my posts !  There is one road through the Highlands and a LOT of traffic, mixed with a lot of street markets, small towns, strawberry farms and the Malay habit of parking a car where ever they feel like it (double, triple, whatever) the last 27km took almost 2 hours..

For the most part the journey was quite scenic, with plenty of jungle covered hills.

The Highlands are famous for their tea plantations and strawberry farms, but all sorts of fruit and vege are grown here and once we hit the central highlands the view was blighted by plastic glasshouses everywhere.

I came here thinking I would visit one of the tea plantations but in the end decided that was way too boring so I booked myself on an “Adventure” tour for tomorrow –  bush trek, including a rafflesia (more on them tomorrow) and a blowpipe demonstration.

Bizarrely some of the hotels have a vaguely alpine flavour, bearing in mind I was last in the alps in the eightie, so recall could be a bit flawed.

The highlands is also where Land Rovers go when they die,  I have never seen so many beaten up old Landies in my life, I saw dozens, some of them were even working.

We arrived in Tanah Rata just before 3.00 PM and it was a quick mission for the five other tourists and myself to find a bed as soon as possible. All the hostels and guest houses were chocker, so I ended up in another fleapit hotel for a lot more money than it was worth, but it had a bed – pretty much all it had really.

Tanah Rata is the most boring place I have been ! it is one street lined with shops and hotels, there is no “bar” and only a few cafes that sell expensive beer with cheap (but good) food, my hotel has no internet. I was bored by 4.00 so had an early dinner of dhal and naan bread. By 7 I was bored again so had second dinner of rice and veges. I was in bed by 8, started watching a movie on the laptop and ended up watching Arsenal hammer Blackburn live on ESPN.  My hotel room has a TV but ESPN is the only channel in English, thank God I like football.

 

Cave temples of Ipoh

Day 38, Friday, 03 Feb, Penang – Ipoh

Ipoh is a city of 700,000 in the state of Perak, inland and south of Penang. The city was started in the 1870’s to support a rapidly booming Chinese population that came to develop, own and work in the nearby tin mines. It doesn’t really have much of  claim to fame and I going to say the much smaller Penang was a lot more lively, though it is Friday in Ipoh so a lot of the Islamic businesses are closed.

Anyway, back to the start of the day ! The night wasn’t too bad considered the volume and sheer awfulness of the cacophony from next door, thankfully after some long and rambling, but still loud, speeches it all shut down around midnight and I slept like a dead man till the alarm went off at 6:30. I had allowed myself thirty minutes to brush teeth, get dressed and walk the couple of kms to the bus station. I am going to say even at that time of day power walking with a 15 kg pack on your back and a day pack on your front works up a sweat. On the subject of day pack on the front backpackers, I used to think they looked stupid, I still do, but I am now one of them – it works.

Highly unusually for Malaysia, the bus was late…  something that is very usual though and one of my big annoyances is, I asked how long it takes to get to Ipoh, I was told 2 ½ to 3 hours, which in fact is pretty much the driving time to Ipoh. What they don’t say is the trip actually takes about 4 hours because you stop and wait for 30 minutes in other bus depots, twice. So my expected arrival in Ipoh was around 10 -1 10.30, we arrived at 11.45, at the express bus terminal which is about 15 minutes from town by local bus, which I caught for the first time today !  Yes…

My other pet gripe is lack of information. We got to the first bus stop and were ushered off the bus, no reason why, nowhere to go, even the Malay girl was confused. We stood vacantly around for a while until someone came and swept the bus, we then all got on and sat there for 20 minutes, waiting…

I had planned on staying at the Station hotel in Ipoh, as it was supposed to be a lovely old English colonial hotel, though a bit run down, hence a reasonable price. In fact it was so run down it was closed….

The station cafe was open so I headed in there for my first coffee of the day and to check the guide book for more hotel options – of which they are not many apparently. I met this older American guy in there (and have forgotten his name) and he gave me his map of Ipoh and directions to the hotel he was staying in, in case my chosen one from Lonely Planet, the Embassy didn’t work out.  Which it almost didn’t, I couldn’t find the Embassy, so after over an hour of wandering around downtown Ipoh looking for accommodation that was not too expensive I realised there are two roads named Sultan and I had been looking on the wrong one, so put right I soon stumbled dripping sweat into the Embassy Hotel and took my 12 dollar room. Once I changed the sheets, chased out the geckos and realised that all water, including I suspect some from the loo ends up on the bathroom floor, the room was sorted and mine for the night. For a change I had somewhere to hang washing !

As I had pretty watched seen all the sites of Ipoh,  I had planned on being brave and taking a local bus to the temple caves just out of town.  As I had lost a few hours with the bus and finding my hotel I just decided to take a cab as it was only $4. My cabbie, Sam, was a great guy, sister lived in Auckland and he was a retired cop with Ok English, nice to chat with someone after quite a few days of being alone.

All around Ipoh are a number of small limestone hills, randomly dotted about, I would love to have been here to see them before they stuck a small industrial city in the middle of them. A number of the hills have Buddhist temples and shrines in them.  The Perak Tong temple complex was amazing, not particularly old being started by Perak Tong in 1926, but built inside and above a cave system in the limestone hills.

Inside there are a number of paintings on the cave walls, along with half a dozen large statues of Buddha figures.

Come here young man !

The alien scared the crap out of me though, I thought it was just a movie!

There is also numerous steep staircases to pagodas scattered around the top of the often jagged hill and this quite cool shrine.

Sadly the view from the top is dominated by an ugly industrial wasteland infront of those beautiful limestone hills, tragic !!!

I was quite impressed with the place, especially as it was one of my key reasons for coming to Ipoh. I will aim to get to one of the other temples tomorrow. After the temple it was 4.00 PM I was very hot and dehydrated and had not eaten all day so when I went outside to wait for a ride back to town I decided whatever came by first would be ride, bus or cab. I got a cab, it was the shittest cab I have been in in my life, I am fairly sure we just made it back – it is only 6km..  I snacked at a hawker stall on the local speciality Kway teow, which I happen to like, bonus ! and then went to McDonalds for a shake as I knew it had free wi-fi from when I had walked past it earlier in the day.

Strike action ! Just like home.I then wandered back to my room about 6.00, and did not much, but I did have a hip flask of Famous Grouse scotch to keep my spirits up as I watched The Mechanic on my laptop, what a great movie, well all things considered, a great movie…

Am currently in Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. My hotel does not have any internet so I am in one of the Indian restaurants that has free wi-fi. I have just had the best paneer mattar ever !

Georgetown

Day 37, Thursday, 02 Feb 2012, Penang.

A good day in Penang !

Day started really early with one of the other hotel guests coughing up both lungs for about an hour from 5.30am. I got up about 7.00 and started my day. I had planned on going via bus to the Kek Lok Si Temple which is about 10km from town, I also wanted to suss the time of the of the bus to Ipoh tomorrow morning so I headed to the bus station a km or so down the road. The sun was low in the sky and the day looked like it was going to be a good one.

This area is a working commercial part of Penang, lots of small businesses run out of shop houses, I love the mix of businesses in these lovely old buildings, food shop, bike repairs next to rice wholesalers and Angry Bird t-shirt importers. In the main they are in wonderful condition though they are outside the heritage area. Occasionally I came across some that are about to renovated.

I booked a 7.15 am bus to Ipoh, I don’t think it is one of the fancy VIP busses I have been getting so will see in the morning, another early start though ! I also managed to get a bus OK to Air Itam where the temple is located. I got off the bus at a local market and picked up some curry puffs for breakfast. I passed this specialist physician on the way…

The Kek Lok Si temple, is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia, and contains a 36.5m high statue of Kuan Yin, goddess of mercy. The Ban Po Thar Pagoda which is also in the grounds was closed unfortunately. To access the temple, you, naturally, have to walk up a number of stairs, though these were fully enclosed and surrounded by shops primarily selling cheap tat, Angry Birds t-shirts etc. From the main prayer room of the temple you take a small funicular up to the Kuan Yin statue, which is mighty impressive !  I spent a couple of hours in the temple area, it was all quite interesting and being slightly up a hill there was a nice breeze blowing too. I even bought my first souvenir, as small Buddha!WTF !! This was in the temple complex.

I loved these windows I shot on the way back down.

I discovered the way to catch a bus when you cannot find a bus stop is to step into the road and hail it, well it worked for me ! I had lunch a great kaoy teow for lunch at the New World Park food court as it was on the way back to the hotel and highly recommended. I then spent a couple of hours at the hotel and did a bit of email and blogging while the worst of the heat left the day.

After lunch I headed towards the heritage area of Georgetown to see more of the sites. The weather wasn’t so kind with a constant off on rain. With Georgetown having such a mix of people there were a large number of temples or religious buildings from all the big regional faiths, Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Buddhism. I took photos of a quite a few ! But the highlights, which I will share were the little things.

Trishaws

A record shop – no cds here… (pity it was all old school Indian music).

 I have seen a number of armed guards, usually with shotguns, at jewellery stores around Malaysia, but this guy was awesome, nice uniform, revolver and beret, I asked before taking a photo.

This guy was making some quite interesting sounds as I walked past so I asked if I could take his picture too !

 There a lot of small street shines all over, and I have a few photos of them, but loved this one in a tree best.

And of course I had to show some colonial architecture ! The town hall.

I wandered back to the hotel about 6, it was raining fairly constantly so I just decided to chill in the hotel for the evening and just eat some of my snacks for dinner – slacker I know, Alex will be so disappointed – all that good food !

I have enjoyed Penang, a good place to wander around, I hope Ipoh is good and I am not wasting a final day in Penang for nothing.

I had a call from Trefor tonight saying he is heading back to Brisbane for a few days so I wont be able to stay when I am in KL next week. Bugger –I was looking fwd to catching up, and now I will have to find a bed for a couple of nights.

Langkawi to Penang

Day 36, Wednesday 01 Feb 2012, Langkawi – Penang.

The day started much the same as the last two did, got up when I felt like it, just before nine and went to the restaurant and ate like a pig for forty minutes! More fruit today though. Spent a couple of hours in the lobby using the wifi and booked myself flights to Puerto Princesca on the Philippine island of Palawan for the tenth of February. I am flying from Singapore and going via Manila.  I screwed up slightly and forgot I needed to allow time to get from Melaka to Singapore, so I have cancelled a nights accommodation in Melaka and will leave there a day early now.

The ferry to Penang was not until two thirty so I dragged out my departure from the resort until five minutes before checkout then got  a cab to the ferry terminal in Kuah arriving there at one.

Damnit ! The two thirty ferry was full, so I had to get a ticket for the five fifteen, this meant a few extra hours at the Jetty with not a heck of a lot to do and too far in the sun and heat to walk a long way to town. I walked around the jetty area for a bit and then slobbed in Starbucks and used free wi-fi for a couple of hours. Langkawi means reddish brown eagle.

Yes I was bored, so here is a bridge.

The ferry was very full, every seat taken, so luckily the three hour ride to Georgetown on the island of Pelang was smooth ! We even got to go out on deck for a week bit. Inside the ferry it was absolutely freezing cold, I had my jacket on but my feet and legs were like ice by the time we arrived just after eight pm. I was originally planning on getting to Georgetown in daylight so I could more easily find my hotel without resorting to a taxi, but decided to give the walk a go anyway.

Penang’s location has made it one of the oldest trading ports in the area and has been heavily populated Chinese and Indian immigrants. Georgetown is the oldest of the English settlements in SE Asia. A part of Georgetown is now a world heritage park area and has apparently been well preserved, I walked through a section of it on the way to the Georgetown Hotel, my lodgings for two nights.  I am looking forward to exploring the town tomorrow.

The hotel is a wee bit further away than I would have liked and took me a good thirty minutes to find it, though surprisingly it was fairly easy, even in the dark. The room is ok, small, but clean and tidy, paper thin walls though!  I have never seen this before, everything in the room is for sale !

Frustratingly the wi-fi only works in the lobby, which they are decorating at the moment, so perched on the edge of a couch while they wallpaper around me.

I went for a stroll back towards town and had dinner at the Red Garden food court, along with a thousand other people !

In Malaysia, Vegetarian basically means no red meat, so chicken and fish are in vege meals.

Love this vege fish head mee toon

An interview with myself.

So Phil, you have been on the road for just over a month now and are enjoying a few days rest at a beach resort.  How is that going ?

Its great ! I am really enjoying not doing much at all apart from read and swim, oh and eating monster breakfasts which are just awesome. When I decided to come and chill out for a few days I pretty much committed to not doing any sightseeing so there was no pressure to be active at all. I really needed a re-charge, I was tired and probably pretty dehydrated, so just eating, drinking gallons of water and resting has been a real lift.

Overall, how has the trip been?

It’s going OK, I am not going to say it’s fabulous as that would be complete bullshit, it definitely has had it’s ups and downs.  I have really enjoyed some of the places I have visited and have seen some pretty cool things, especially the animals I have come across in the wild, monkeys and turtles etc. Of course seeing the orang-utans was a real highlight for me. I also really like the architecture, especially the mosques and shop houses, all the things we do not see so much in NZ.

On the downside, having my money taken was a real lowlight,  Malaysia has been such a safe place to visit that I had got a bit lax with my possessions at times, though having it stolen from my secure locker was very frustrating.

I am mostly cool with the travelling alone thing and have been really lucky to meet some pretty good people on the way, but yeah, sometimes I struggle with it. Anyway I am enjoying myself for the most part, Malaysia and Brunei have both been interesting and friendly places to visit and I am looking forward to hitting the Phillies for a week or so in Feb.

On the subject of meeting people, how have the fellow travellers been ?  From what we have been reading, no single women yet !

Ha ha, yep, no single women travellers yet, well not that I have seen anyway. I have met some great people, Jay was good to travel with for a few days and Lizzie and Dave in Miri were awesome, Miri was the best place I have been for meeting people, maybe due to the good vibe in the hostel,  it was a small hostel and they seem to be a bit more personal than the bigger ones.

There are a few anti-social people out there, when jay and I stayed in the awful Lucy’s in Kota Kinabalu I said hello to a northern European couple and they didn’t even bother replying, so obviously not all travellers are friendly !

What are some of things you are missing ?

Mainly my family and friend of course.  I have had a couple  of conversations with my sons and plan on keeping that as regular as possible, I have sporadic Facebook messages with my daughter in England, but that was the norm before I left ! Would like to do some Skyping with them at some stage. Of course if anyone fancies a wee holiday to SE Asia I am happy to meet them somewhere !

I am missing NZ music, I have a bit on my laptop, but not enough, plenty of non_NZ music  and really, I have only just started listening to music, first few weeks I was happy not too for a while.

And lastly, cool weather !

Back when you started your travelling  you put a post on the awesome wheresphil blog about some of your fears about the trip, have you had to face any of those fears yet ?

Hmm, yep I think I have pretty much experienced most of the things I am a wee bit scared of, dislike or feel uncomfortable dealing with ! I know that though I have experienced  bugs and beggars and touts in Malaysia they are nothing compared to what I will have to contend with in other places, so some big culture shocks yet to come.

But I have seen my first few snakes, the first one gave me a fright, but at least it slithered away from me faster than I could have run from it. I have had tolerated the crowds and the noise and the bloody awful music ! I know I am far more tolerant of these than I was at home, so none of that sort of stuff has really bothered me yet. However, I will see how the crowds at the Thaipusam festival will be !

I guess my key disappointment was not making the Pinnacles due to a wee bit of vertigo, but I went into the walk knowing that may be the case.

Sleeping has been a minor issue , but I am doing surprisingly well at times, and fan rooms in hostels have been fine, so i don’t always need aircon. I have used the silk liner most nights and have been reasonably bite free, I have a couple on my chest which are clearing slowly, and apart from one really bad snorer the noises have not been a major.  I must admit the nice sheets and fluffy pillows in the resort is most awesome !

How has the stomach been? And health in general ?

Stomach has been great, only once did I have to make a really fast walk to the loo after a meal and that was in Miri, apart from that it has been all good and I have mainly eaten local foods at the cafes and hawker stands, had some great meals, especially with Alex showing me around the various types of Malay food in Kuching.

Health has been good, losing a bit of weight, if I didn’t drink beer I am sure I would have lost more !

I think hydration is probably my main concern, I drink as much water as I can but I sweat so much, like the guy said at the Pinnacles walk, drinking is like pouring water into a sieve – it just leaks out everywhere.

How is the planning going and how are you going about it ?

I must admit I am finding planning a struggle! I guess I set out with this ridiculous ambition to not be a typical “lonely planet” traveller, and to try and get off the beaten track and do or see some things that not everyone else does. But I am just not confident enough to do that yet, so my travelling has been very guide book orientated and I am spending more money that I could by not doing the local buses or other cheap methods of travelling around the towns I have visited. I am slowly getting into it and hopefully my confidence will build, that is one of the great things about travelling with others, I am way more confident!

I am slowly learning that the guide book is just a guide ! The information is often out of date, in fact getting useful info seems quite hard, I use the web a lot, read blogs and a number of traveller forums, often with vastly contradictory outcomes! Meeting people and talking to them seems to be the best resource for good info. So planning has been hard ! however I am getting better at it and have started booking things ahead. Hopefully by the time I leave Langkawi I will have booked through to the Philippines !

Highlights / lowlights ?

Lowlights, definitely not making the Pinnacles climb, I was disappointed with myself with that. Obviously having money stolen was a major lowlight and I would like to be more confident in myself than I currently am, but hopefully once I am back on the road after this break things will perk up.

Loads more highlights though ! Orangutans definitely a highlight, the diving was awesome and I really enjoyed my day at Niah Caves with Dave and Lizzie. I surprised myself by really enjoying the two big mosques in Bander Seri Begawan, especially when they were lit up at night.

And spending time with people on the way, Alex showing me around Kuching and catching up with Trefor in KL – and being invited to stay when I return in a few days.

So what is next?

Hmm, good question !

The current plan is, and I aim to verify travel times and look for accommodation tonight, so it is not cast in stone yet….

Boat to Penang and couple of nights there, bus to Ipoh and a night there, bus to Tanah Rata and a couple of nights there and then back to KL on the 6th and 7th for the Thaipusam festival.

In a bout of planning enthusiasm I have booked 3 nights accommodation in Melaka from the 8th so I don’t get stuck staying comfortably with Trefor in KL !

From there I am either going to go down to Singapore or back to KL, depending on where flights to the Philippines are cheapest. Then fly to Puerto Princesca on the Philippine island of Palawan and spend 8 -10 days on the island. From there i will probably fly to Bangkok, dunno about that bit yet, too far ahead !

This is what happens when I have too much downtime!

Two blurred days

Days 34/35, Monday 30/31 Jan 2012, Meritus Pelangi Beach Resort, Langkawi.

My two full days at the resort pretty much blurred one into the other and I managed to achieve my goal of doing nothing much at all, no touristy things, no site seeing, no big walks – nothing!

The day(s) started with a monster breakfast, fruit, yoghurt, eggs, sausages, hash browns, coffee – basically I ate until I could eat no more.

This was followed by lying down by the pool / lying down in my room,  a swim in the pool followed by a nap then another swim in the pool, walk to town for dinner and then internet in the lobby bar over a drink. And a wee bit of Premiership football on TV, though I missed most of the Arsenal FA cup win over Aston Villa.

On the first day I did get into the sea for a swim, certainly not as a clear as the dive spots near Semporna and the water tasted pretty bad, so I didn’t stay in long and did not go back in again on day two.

The days were both fairly overcast which was a shame but the sun made a brief appearance at sunset at the end of the both days so I did snap a couple of pictures from the beach on the way for food.  

On day two the sun also popped out mid-afternoon so I nipped out to the swimming pool near my room and had a cocktail in the pool bar. My first pool bar drink !

After the wee tipple I went for a wander round the block.

Then back to town for a Thai, another sunset, but photos still on camera.

Have found the strongest cocktail in the bar – 357 magnum…