A week in Malaysia

We left KL on Thursday afternoon on a comfortable bus up to Butterworth in the north of the Malaysian peninsular. We foolishly slept for the whole 5 hour journey which ruined another night of sleep (we got up at 3am the next morning and, being bored, read the only magazines available in the room which happened to be the Malaysian equivalents of cosmo). From Butterworth heading to Penang island you can either get a ferry or drive over an impressive bridge. We got the ferry just as the sun was setting.

Georgetown is the main town in Penang and has an ecletic mix of cultures shown by the collection of buildings from colonial times (Penang was the first British colony in Malaya), mosques, a large Chinatown, and a Little India. We stayed in Chinatown in a windowless, but air-conditioned, room. The two main excursions we took in Penang were to Penang Hill, which is about 800m high and has historically acted as a cool retreat for those escaping the heat, and to a beach in the north of the island. From the top of the hill is a fantastic panaramic view of the island and the surrounding sea. There are lots of walks you can do around the top or down into the botanical gardens but we were far too tired for that. Instead we watched a man pull a king cobra out of a bag and have a little muck around. At one point the snake moved quickly in our direction, which sent us retreating and giggling like a couple of girls. To be fair it it was moving pretty fast. We went to the beach the next morning, before sunrise, and walked up and down looking for a place to have breakfast but it was still too early. Fortunately we stumbled across a mango which kept the tied us over for a little while.


Chinatown, Georgetown

A minibus took us to the Cameron Highlands from Penang in about 4 hours. The traffic was awful because of the Raya holiday (the end of Ramadan). Everyone had come up to the highlands to 'pluck' strawberries. For a couple of English lads the hullabalooza surrounding the strawberry 'plucking' is quite comical. You could buy absolutely anything in the market and it would either be strawberry flavoured, shaped like a strawberry, or have pictures of strawberries on it. A far cry from the rather quaint English experience of strawberry 'picking'.



















The highlands were surprisingly cool, such that my omissi0n in not bringing a jumper became a bit of an issue. Tanah Rata, the main town, consists of a single line of shops and restaurants that leads down to a park. The restaurants are a mix of Indian, Chinese, and Western fast food. There are also some small upstairs cafes where you can get cream teas. The cool weather meant we could do some good runs and outdoor workouts, using children's climbing frames for exercise bars. Very resourceful. We also went on a trek up to see the world's third biggest flower. The flower itself wasn't too impressive but the jungle was beautiful and the swim we took at a waterfall on the way back down provided welcome relief from the sweaty jungle. From the trek we bused it to a village where they showed us their traditional hunting blowpipes. Tim, inspired by the story of William Tell, decided to test how accurate these guys were by using himself as a target. He popped a piece of fruit on his head and stood by a tree with his eyes firmly shut. The Malay marksman lifted the long blowpipe to his lips and aimed. All twenty or so tourists watched, jaws agape, as this brave/foolish man put his face on the line all for the desperate pursuit of banter. Needless to say the marksman withdrew.


Tanah Rata


We have now returned to KL and are waiting to fly up to Phuket tonight and meet a couple of friends. Although this Malaysian excursion has been really enjoyable there has been a nagging sense of longing to cross the border into Thailand since we arrived. I'm sure this will somewhat satisfied by landing in Phuket, but probably not fully until we get up to Bangkok, our final destination.