My Day with Bala

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So I just arrived in the Cameron Highlands which is located in the central western region of Malaysia. This was my first real taste of what I can call paradise. Many travelers reading this are probably scratching their heads thinking there are other greater places than this, but I've only been in Asia for two weeks and up until recently I've been bogged down in major cities. Its about 1500 m into the highlands which means that it is hilly, cool and very tranquil. It took about 4.5 hours to get here from KL by bus where half of the time was just climbing the hills. The LP says this is the land where bus drivers age quickly and their buses come to die. I can see why !!!! A little frightening going around blind corners where the cliffs can fall hundreds of metres. Not to worry though as the bus is the big boy on the block but I'd hate to be a speeding scooter coming the other way. Upon arrival you notice that this is very similar to some sleepy towns throughout the prairies in Canada. Just one man road about 1 km long and a couple of side streets that support housing and even a fantastically modern hospital. I took one of the side roads that sent me up to Daniels Guesthouse, which has been my favorite lodging so far. Totally carefree and cozy. I'm staying on the top floor which is really a long narrow loft which houses three separate but connected dorm rooms. I'm paying 8 ringit a night which is about $2.80 CAD. The beds are comfortable and the loft feels like I am staying in a 1960s cabin in the mountains of Canada. The bonuses: heated water tanks, book exchange, T.V (didn't use) with 900 stolen movies and best of all...the Jungle Bar. The Jungle Bar is connected to the guesthouse by quickly walking outside, past the Koi pond, and some rickety old stairs. Its an open air concept that has the walls lined with booze bottles left from past tourists. There is a TV which plays the Euro football matches, a pool table and a fire pit out back where locals and tourists pick up the ancient and decreped guitar (missing two strings) and play various tunes to our enjoyment. Great place sit back and enjoy a tall Tiger beer and chit chat. Alright, enough about the guesthouse, but I still love it.
The weather in the Cameron Highlands suits me very well, it never gets colder than 10C or hotter than 24C. Its always sunny in the morning and usually pours rain in the late afternoon. On my first day, I met up with a girl named Marrissa from Ireland. I made the mistake of trying to guage her accent by suggesting she was from county Mayo b/c it reminds me of my godfather's wife who I think is from that area. BIG MISTAKE !!! I take it that county Mayo isn't the most glamorous place on the isle. So Marrissa and I walked around the town for a bit, visited a small public garden. At the end she and another Kiwi friend got new prescription frames at the local optometrist. I wouldn't know but they paid about $40 CAD for the service and received them within an hour, apparently very good on price and service. Marrissa even felt that her prescription was more accurate than her previous lenses. So from this you can tell that there are professionals living amongst the simple folk. That night we ate fantastic Indian food (you can always get great Indian/Chinese food anywhere in Malaysia). My Kiwi friend is a promising up and coming cinematographer with his own in-house production company that he runs with his friends. He has a great attitude and I'm sure his work has/will reflect this. It was awesome to talk about movies with another film buff who has had the fortune to work on The Return of the King and the King Kong remake by Peter Jackson.
The next day was my favorite day in Asia so far. Myself and Marrissa booked a day long tour through the highlands. We started out by meeting up with Bala, our tour guide who the locals think is the Indian Jones of the highlands. He has a badass Land Rover (that's stick shift....sweet) and runs his own tour company. The first stop was a half day jungle trek which was about 40km outside of our guesthouse. To get there you have to 4x4 (or walk) from the highway up to the jungle. Seeing the conditions the road was in, I was sure we would not get up as we struggled many times to make traction. You could hear the poor tranny of the Landrover just fuming under the stress of the poorly maintained road. Bala didn't break a sweat as his experience came through and we were on our way.
Unfortunately the jungle is considered a secondary forest which means the primary forest was chopped down to make way for roads, towns and other farming. The secondary forest is dense, low-level vegetation that makes it inhabitable for the local wildlife and thus hill tribes people. Progress?? The main goal of the jungle trek was to see the Rafflesia Arnoldii which apparently is the worlds biggest flower, I'll explain in a minute. So we picked up a local tribes person who has extensive knowledge of where this flower grows, as it very rare. So upon arrival, Bala opened a discussion as to why he did not believe this was a flower at. It has no leaves/pedals (think about it) and it grows from an exposed tree root. He considered it, I do too, to be more of a fungi than a flower. The amazing thing is that it takes 5 years to grow to the point where it can blossom and then it will only be open and alive for maybe a week or so. It was cool to think that the flower I saw was born while I was still living in residence at university. After we saw the flower we headed back down to the truck but not before we stopped at a water fall where we hung out amongst the rapids and drank entrapped water from massive bamboo trees. Some of the purest water you will ever drink.
After the jungle trek, we made our way to a local hills tribe people where we were given a blowpipe demonstration. The darts become poisonous once you add the sap of a local tree or the venom of a frog/snake. The venom is so powerful that it will stop a humans heart in about four minutes. Be careful with that dart Bala !!! After the demo we where given the opportunity to try the blowpipe for ourselves, non poisonous of course. The group was split into girls vs. boys to see who would hit the target most accurately. The boy KILLED it (a Whistler expression)!!!! I hit the traget first time around, impressing the local villagers. In the end we all bought a mini, authentic blowpipe made by the villagers for about $6 CAD. The reason was more ethical than materialistic. The villagers are very poor and have difficulty finding food now that the primary forest, and thus their food, has been removed. There are about 18 families living in 12 small shacks made from corrugated sheet metal. The Malaysian government has promised to build them individual homes with foundations, free schooling (with uniforms and luncheon) for their children and a weekly allowance. The catch is that they must convert to the Muslim faith. The villagers refuse to do this as it would be rejecting their cultural heritage which spans dozens of generations. They would rather live in poverty, living hungry than to turn their backs on their forefathers. It really breaks my heart I tell you. I am not against the Muslim faith (far from it) but I am for the choice to live your life as you please. The money they collect from blowpipe sales helps buy rice and some basic clothing. Even in Canada we have the same issue within our past, something that has been recently apologized for by our Prime Minister, from what I read in the local Malaysian newspaper.
The next stop was a tea plantation run by the BOH company, of which the Cameron Highlands are famous for. The tour was short and a bit useless as I could not hear the tour operator's voice above the noise produced from the machinery. We had the opportunity to buy some freshly brewed tea and enjoy the view from balcony which overlooks the hilly tea plantations. Just beautiful and a humbling experience. Next Bala (who purposely was absent from the tea tour) took us down to the fields themselves. He explained why the tea quality has dropped within the past 25 years. He is not affiliated with the tea companies so he was able to open a discussion of why he felt that modernism has effected the tea trade negatively. Past 25 years ago, tea leaves were picked by hand by the locals. Discretion was used when choosing the best leaves and leaving the dying and diseased to rest. Now three people operate a hedge clipper like device which runs through the bushes, cutting all leaves that are exposed. So what is included in that tea you might be drinking now: the dying/diseased leaves mentioned previously, spiders and their cobwebs, snakes and local rubbish which falls into the leaves. Of course the companies try to separate the crap out before processing, but about 30% still makes it through. Efficiency ???? After the discussion Bala told us to feel free to have a nice rest laying down on the tea bushes. We were all a bit hesitant at first, but being a good old adventurous Canadian, I hoped on first. He was right, really comfortable indeed although getting out was a bit of a struggle.
Next we visited a local hydroponic strawberry farm, which I had little interest in so I took the opportunity to chat to a man from Singapore who was visited the Cameron Highlands with his family. Very nice man who confirmed that most people in this region of Asia speak very fluent English. After that we went next door to a wildlife farm, where I got to experience first hand (literally) the bugs, scorpions and butterflies local to the region. We all had great fun as Bala and the local farmer would take the creatures out of thier pens and throw them on our arms,heads and clothes. Totally awesome as we all couldn't stop laughing and taking silly pictures. This concluded the tour and Bala drove us back to Daniels by dinner time. I had a thought that I wanted to share with Bala. I thought that myself and the west could help the village people of Malaysia if I could buy some blowpipes and send them home to Canada with the intention of selling the ethic of sharing our wealth with these people so that they could maintain their lifestyle of choice. I'm thinking of selling a good casue which also happens to come with an authentic hill tribes blowpipe, which took one man all day to fashion. He assured me the influx of money would not corrupt their lifestyle as they have no ambition to become wealthy in materials or stature. They really need the money to support what they can't get off the land. It seemed to me that this may be a method that capitalism can be a win win as I would only make a little profit to further my journeys in Asia and thus furthering my education. Ohh we both agreed the only party to get screwed in the deal would be the Malaysian government would have a harder time converter the locals to the Muslim faith. But I figure the billions of capital they make through Petronas justifies them losing this small battle. I don't know ?? What do you think???? I really don't want to be enlarging my footprint any more than I already have but I feel I/we can help so why not.
I am now planning on heading north along the western Malaysian coastline until I get to Penang which is an island with fantastic heritage and some lovely beaches. I'll keep up to date soon..... oh check out my new map that shows visually how I've been traveling, its also at the top of my profile here on the site, make sure to click 'fit points'.

http://www.travelblog.org/gmaps/map_7i5.html

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Photos

Bala and I
zoom in to check out his rockin' scorpion ring !!!

Sleepy Street
Daniels guesthouse is the long short building

People Watching
the view from my favorite kopi spot

This Tree be High Says I
and also old...400 years old

A Symbol of Life
The roots and bottom half are sperate in three parts but come together to form a whole

A River Runs Through It
runs through our trail that is

Crossing
Bamboo can be extremely strong and versatile...when put together well... I give this a 6 on the Flanny scale

Western Assassins Listen Up
Accurate, silent, deadly...call me if you want more info

Village of the Local Hill Tribe
Bala said we could hunt some chickens with our blow pipes if we wanted to....I declined

Tour Mates Having Fun
thats Bala's hand which comes in to grap the HUGE grasshopper

Scorpion Wins !!!!
don't worry the bigger they are the less serious their sting....I hope

The Downpour
its hard to capture the massive rainfall....can't manually adjust some settings on my camera.... Jon Help !!!!!

Comments

[oldFlan]

Dem bugs
Make sure they don't get in your underwear!!