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Train to Port Klang
Our little commuter - 18 stations later we arrived at our destination. Friday 4 June 2010
It has been another frustrating few days. We don’t know where the days go but they seem to be taken up by waiting for the good news and getting over the bad news. The good news as I write this week’s blog input is that we are no longer in Kuala Lumpur. We received the good news, finally, on Tuesday afternoon that customs at Port Klang had accepted that we had got permission to drive on Malaysian roads, we had insurance and we had a Carnet that we could use to import and export the car into this country. So Wednesday morning, John and I set off for the final time from our hotel, where we had got to know the staff very well, and headed with our bags to Central Station to catch the local transit train that would take us to Port Klang.
But before continuing with the journey update, I should take a step back to the weekend and fill you in on what we did to amuse ourselves as we were getting quite frustrated at the lack of progress to free our car. You will be aware that I said that John and
Port Klang station
A pretty depressing end of the line here - we caught a taxi to ·Golf Shipping Agency and even the taxi driver had to ring for directions! I were going to go and see some elephants on Saturday and so we did.
I was feeling pretty lousy on the day, but could not miss the opportunity of seeing one of my favourite animals, and as it turned out, because we were the only ‘tourists’ going to the elephant park from our area of KL, we had a limo to ourselves, air conditioned which suited us both in the circumstances. Our route to the park was across to the eastern part of Malaysia, where the jungle is still intact and many wild animals can be spotted. Our driver, Ahmed, a Malaysian resident, was excellent and able to converse with us about the country and the attractions we would be seeing during the day. The journey was two hours in the car and before we saw the elephants, we were to stop off at a deer park run by a private individual who was very much into conservationism and wanted to expand his park to enable Malaysian tigers to be protected in his park. The deer park held several other animals which you will see from the pictures I have put onto the blog. John also took several good
photos of some of the local houses that we passed on our way to and fro from the parks, which again I have put on for readers to look at. Then I guess the highlight of the afternoon, was the elephants and most specifically the washing of them in the river. That was a real treat and as you see from the photos the elephants just seemed to love having human contact in the water (not so sure about the wandering trunks, that would disappear under water, and you would have no idea where they would emerge!).
On Monday we were due to visit the tallest building in the world up until 2004 when Taipei 101 overtook it. How these monstrous buildings get built neither of us knew - our trip to see our shipping agent was blocked by the receptionist who insisted that we had ID to go up and unfortunately neither of us had in our relaxed state. So we never made the 41st floor to walk across the linking walkway. But even so just the external views of the twin towers (which still remain the tallest in the world) were impressive. Standing 452.02 metres high, and boasting
88 floors, the twin towers are a wonderful reflection of Malaysia’s progress since the 1960s. We were also hoping to hear that the car had cleared customs that day but no such luck so another night in the Gardens hotel, which ended up with a further two before we finally booked out this last Wednesday. For anyone considering the movement of a vehicle into or out of Malaysia, as part of a road trip of a life time, you really do have to consider the consequences of all these delays - any schedules can easily be eroded thanks to the slow, ponderous customs process in place over here.
We did get word on Tuesday that our car had been released and we could collect on Wednesday, which we did and once we had found a way of getting our baggage into the car, without disrupting the loading arrangements already in place, we set off on the lovely roads to Johor Bahru. Jannet, our Gulf Shipping agent promised to fax down the Carnet to our new shipping agent for Australia, that would enable our car to be loaded into a container today, so while on the journey south we enjoyed the
Rubber trees
It may look unimposing but for the younger readers, this is what a rubber tree plantation looks like. wide open express ways and good driving by others on the road.
And then we arrived at our very modest new hotel (£12/night each) where I made a call to say we were in Johor Bahru and where should the car be delivered? The answer I got back was very negative. For one, it seems that the completed Carnet form to import the car had not been faxed until later that afternoon; secondly, customs would not clear the car for export because of no Carnet showing import; third, there is another public holiday on Saturday, so no customs people working and finally, no container because the shipping agents cannot book a container until all the paperwork has been completed and then it needs at least two days to process. So our ship sailing on Sunday will do so without our car; we wait now to hear from our shippers what ship we are going to get the car onto. The bottom line: here we go again.
Yesterday, we checked out the cleaning company that will hopefully prepare our car for shipment before it reaches Australia and then I took John off up the east coast of Malaysia to some of
Cutting and bleeding
The rubber tree is cut in a spiral fashion to allow the sap, the rubber to run down the tree into the collection bowl at the base of the tree. the haunts that I used to visit back in the 1960s. What is so staggering in the years between is the expanision of progress; JB now extends many more kilometers into the hinterland; what was once a twisty single track road, is now becoming an expressway too, and therefore the only roads that are not dual-carriageways are those that really go off on the beaten track, some we went down towards the South China sea.
So until we hear more information about our car, John and I will be exploring JB and also visiting Singapore from where we will hopefully fly out next week. Here’s hoping.
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Barry and John
Fruits of Malaysia
Hi Tan, Well, you are half right - the hairy one is the Rambutan but the smoother skinned fruit is actually a a Langsat, not a Lychee. All three fruit are very similar in texture once peeled, and all have similar taste. All though are delicious! Thanks for coming back to me on that one. Barry