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We entered Malaysia on a boat trip from Satun in Thailand to the beautiful island of Langkawi. We stayed at the Palms guesthouse, run by Sue and her husband. It’s a very nice, if a little basic chalet but, your right near the beach and you have everything you need within walking distance. The beach is the best bit. Ok the water is not as clear as in Thailand, but the sand is far better. Its that perfect white, powdery feel, and you can laze away for many a day. What is quite amusing, is to see the Malay guys, pretending to be taking a leisurely stroll on the beach, whilst all the time they are ogling the pretty young girls who have decided to strip bear (arguably for their pleasure). What is also almost immediately noticeable is that everyone seems to get on with each other. There’s a lot of different ethic groups here, but they all seem to live in harmony, a utopia if you will. Of course there are political problems here, as much as anywhere else in the world, but Malaysia has a rather strict legal system, and therefore there are strict, sometimes deadly penalties for disobedience.
It works too, not that it is right to scare people into submission, but what has resulted has been something I wish many other countries could achieve.
We did not manage to do much else in Langkawi. You can hire a motorbike, but you must have a license. The police here are ever present, and heavy fines are enforced. Needless to say after my life-threatening experience in Thailand, I aim to stay away from motorbikes for a while. However, if you do get a chance, it’s a nice drive around the island. Its not a party island by any means (at least not when we were there), and we soon headed across to Penang.
Penang is another island of the peninsular Malaysia, but is connected by a rather long bridge. It became a settlement for Chinese and Indians after the British took over (we are so generous), and allowed free trade in penang. And so it became that you probably had the world’s first multinational inhabitants. What has now become evident is that, although everyone gets on with each other, they are still segregated by choice. Indians mix with Indians, Chinese with Chinese, and so have developed areas
this amazing beach
has to be the best sand so far. so fine it squeeks!! like little India and Chinatown.
There are many site of historical importance here in Penang, but the one that really caught the eye was the Chinese mansion. This mansion was built by Cheung fat xe, a local trader, who made his fortune by selling silk and other materials. He was a businessman of great acumen, and became dubbed the rockafella of the east. He built this mansion out of wood, with no nails (as was the Chinese tradition), and it became his favorite place. Its now a museum, which also doubles as a hotel (for those who can afford 300RMB/night). There is a walk through the mansion, with a guide, and they give a very interesting historical account of his life and that of the mansion.
We then take a bus to the Cameron highlands. It’s a long journey, but well worth it, as this is the place to get away from the heat for a while, and sample some very nice local tea. Its also the place where you can see the Raffelasia, a 1M circumferential flower which takes 3 weeks to bloom, but lasts 7 days, emitting a rotten meat stench. Its pretty cool, as you
go for a little trek in the highlands, and they also take you to the tea plantations, meet local Orang Asali people (the original people of Malaysia), get to shoot darts wit ha blow pipe (as the aboriginal people do to catch their dinner), and you even go strawberry picking!!!
We met a very nice English couple called Matt and Gerry. We figured that we had been following each other from Thailand, and now that we were in the Cameron, we should get to know each other. It was a great few days away from the heat (you even needed a jacket), and the tea was great!!!
Next on the agenda was Taman Negara. This place is famous for its rainforest, which is older than the Amazon or the Congo!! Alas, I have fallen foul of some dodgy food yet again, and am confined to bed for a day. However, we do get to do a tree top walk, which starts off at a leisurely pace at the start of the forest. We spot wild pigs, a goanna and some wild foul, but nothing spectacular. We then get to the tree top walk, which is some 50M high.
Its steel cables with plank wood, and we are told that it has a tension strength of 10 Tonnes. That’s great, but the plank of wood that holds me does not look like it has tension strength of 10 tonnes. Infact it does not look like it has a tension strength of 10kilos!!! Never the less, we start our crossing. The rules are. No jumping, keep atleast 5M from the next person, and no more than 4 people on at 1 time. We seem to be the only ones on at this time, and although I never had a fear of heights, I now have a big one. No only this, but there are now a group of Chinese or Japanese people on the boardwalks, and they are jumping, swaying and screaming as loud as they can. They have broken all the rules, and now we are 50M up, no where to go, and if anything goes wrong, we’re going 50M down!!! We finally manage to get off in one piece, and I have started to become a grumpy old man!! I start shouting at the people behind me, telling them off for not following the rules, and putting our
lives at risk. What is happening to me?
Some people did 3 day hikes into the jungle, but hear this, this is not really the jungle, and you definitely won’t see ant big animals here/. The salt licks are the same…overpopulated by people hoping to see a tiger or elephant in the wild, but all come back disappointed!!! But I guess its still a great experience. We liked Taman Negara a lot, and would definitely recommend going there.
We then get into KL. This is unfortunately our last stop in Malaysia, as time has run out. KL is very cool thou. Very clean and tidy, everyone follows rules, no real crime you hear of. We do some more shopping (including buying a laptop, so I can get on with these blogs!!).
So there we have it, Malaysia in a nutshell. We think we missed some really nice places on the south china sea side ( puala tioman/redden etc), but we will leave that for the next trip. So long Malaysia, and thanks for a great time.
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Mark and Marias Great Adventure
Mark & Maria
FAB
You're giving me itchy feet again with your stories and your photos... It's the bank holiday weekend here in Old Blighty and the weather's only good for ducks... Now I'm depressed! :D Keep enjoying your travels guys! PS. Shouldn't this blog be after Thailand and not before? I'm confused....