Advertisement
Published: February 22nd 2010
Edit Blog Post
9.00 am saw us introducing ourselves to Ali our driver and guide, and climbing into the back of our air conditioned Mercedes (yes, this is certainly a holiday of extremes!) Ali had a wealth of knowledge on Malaysian history and culture that keep us entertained for the long journey.
We also stopped a few times - the first at the Batu caves, the largest of which is Temple Cave, a Hindu shrine, with the world’s largest Murga statue. Luckily we weren’t here 3 weeks’ ago, when an estimated 1.6 million people visited for the Thaipusam festival, famed for the masochistic feats of its devotees! Apparently all Murga’s temples are above ground, so we had to climb 272 very steep steps, stopping occasionally to watch the antics of the monkeys who learned it’s easier to rob the tourists than forage for food in the jungle. I especially enjoyed watching the families at the shrine with their babies and children (while I got my breath back!)
The caves consisted of two huge chambers with various statues positioned around the walls which also supported an array of natural
geological features. Each chamber contained a temple structure that attracted many worshipers. Several, including some babies, had shaved heads that were covered with orange powder, others took offerings, and one lady carried a large icon decorated with peacock feathers.
We then had the ‘visits’ that are inflicted on tourists ... we were shown around a pewter factory, well, actually we were given a 5 minute talk on how the tin mines of Kuala Lumpur resulted in the pewter trade and then we were shown into a huge showroom full of overpriced items made from pewter and also of onyx, apparently also found with tin in the mines. The mines have since shut down. We didn’t buy anything. (Hope the two aren’t linked!!)
I just happened to mention to Ali that I was interested in fabrics and we suddenly found ourselves being whisked to a batik factory. Well, actually we were given a 5 minute talk on how batik dyeing is done and then we were shown into a huge showroom full of overpriced items made from the fabric or the fabric itself at wildly inflated prices compared to Little India the previous day. However, we fell in love
with one of the old copper blocks in the shape of a peacock that would have been dipped into the hot wax and put onto the fabric. I only asked if they had any of the old blocks for sale as a matter of interest and they managed to dig up 2 which were covered in dust - ours even has a dead spider on it! We had long discussions as to the weight issue (we actually got charged excess baggage on the last flight!), and then I negotiated at 25% price reduction, so we bought it anyway!! And I’m thrilled with it! (as you can tell !)
After a long smooth trip on the motorway (gosh the roads are good here), we turned off onto a more windy road leading up to the Highlands. Once again, we’re lucky we weren’t here last week - apparently people cleared out of Kuala Lumpur for the Chinese New Year holidays, and many went to the Highlands - the traffic was diabolical. We stopped a few times to admire the view and also to met some indigenous Malay people around their village shacks. One showed us how to blow poisonous darts at
prey - John had a go and managed to hit the target ! He also had a go at banging a large piece of bamboo to make music, with less success .
Our next stop was at some beautiful waterfalls where we saw some gorgeous butterflies, some as large as your hand. The KL tourists were also stopping here and swimming in the falls, which I must say looked very inviting. It was also here that we saw our first strawberries. The Cameron Highlands have an equatorial climate, going up to mid/high 20s during the day and can get as cold as 16 degrees at night. Bliss! So, in the early 20th Century, the British started building here for somewhere cool to live. They then introduced tea plantations in 1929 and market gardens for fruit and vegetables. But strawberries are what you see everywhere - strawberry brollies (yes, it rains too), bags, slippers, balls, hats, you names its, they’ll be in the shape of strawberries. Oh - you can buy real strawberries too, or jam, juice, concentrate, dried, you name it ...
We had a rather tasty
curry meal in one of the local towns before being dropped off at our hotel in the hills, the aptly names Strawberry Park Resort. A very quiet night with a slow stroll around the resort admiring the fantastic views and the flora: Agapanthus and amaryllis growing wild; tree ferns that are slowly unwinding their leaves; all forms of orchids, including some of the insect trapping varieties like ladies slippers.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0237s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Daughter darling
non-member comment
But...
... where are your walking boots?! I spy flip flops x