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Published: October 29th 2012
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Butterfly farm in Cameron Highlands
Large butterfly on marigold - it will only live for three days. Sad. Lordy is it hot? 38 degrees is mighty warm. And we have just visited a charcoal factory - my heart goes out to the workers. They are muslim women, and it is too hot for them to wear their scarves, and they work in appalling conditions for around 20 RM a day - around $7NZ. Criminal and dreadful working conditions too. No photos - it made me feel sick.
On the other hand, we started the day at a butterfy farm, we thought it might be a bit tacky/ho hum, but it turned out to be seriously interesting with a range of critters - including snakes, (lots of them), scorpions, hamsters, rabbits, buttterflies of course, scarab beetles, stick and leaf insects and in a carefully tended, if chaotic, garden. Lots of the expected pix of brave folk holding strange creatures.
We left the cool and clean air of the Highlands and descended into heat. A fantastical hindu temple built into the side of a cliff and a pomelo shop were the next visits - we have cold delicious pomelo in the fridge for later on. It is like a very refined grapefruit and, we suspect, is the original ingredient
Stefan gets brave with critter
Stefan joined our tour with his wife and two other Germans in KL. Stefan and Marion live on the Baltic coast in the north of Germany. of our Cambodian restuarant's grapefruit salad, having had it a number of times in Vietnam.
We had an extremely disappointing lunch in a Chinese restaurant after viewing the royal dwellings, mosque and gallery in Kuala Kangsar - extraordinarily beautiful edifices. It is interesting that early Indonesian settlers managed to turn themselves into Sultans (kings) and now the seven Sultan families take it in turn to be King of Malaysia for a five year stint. The role sounds pretty much like what our GG does - but the accommodations are far more sumputious and glorious. And, talk about a ruling elite??
We also visited a mangrove swamp which is important for ecological purposes - it is not particularly exciting to look at, but it was cooler amongst the trees and we saw a number of odd birds and animals.
Davie was most impressed with the bridge to Pinang - 35 km long and, apparently the fifth largest in the world. A new bridge is being built which will be the second largest.
Our hotel is on the northern coast on a glorious beach with soft blue sea (waxing lyrical here), lots of lovely trees and gardens, and
a very pleasant place to be.
We had a bit of a wander through the night market - but it being Sunday, a number of stalls were empty. Anyhow, it is all much the same stuff we see everywhere - knock off branded shirts, belts, bags, scarves and stuff, some food and a whole of of plastic junk.
The biggest treat of all was our dinner at the Ferringhi Gardens - we tend to buy two meals and share them, so as to get the best of both, so we had briyani (sp) and a chicken curry, both were really great, and we had a nice wine which cost more than twice the cost of the meal! Liquor is pretty frowned on here, and the taxes are very high - I suppose to discourage consumption The venue was lovely too - lots of flowers, water features and orchids everywhere.
Then home to bed in our second last hotel. Tomorrow is our last tour day - and we are promised the best Indian meal ever.
Mahindra, our guide and driver, turns out to be a bit of a food fantatic, and when he discovered that we, unlike
Ubudiah Mosque in Kualar Kangsar
Simply incredible and off limits to unbelievers like us. Our two Muslim companions were disappointed not to go in. most tourists (who want European food, and moan when it isn't what they expected) are relatively adventurous and don't mind spicy. Well, have we had some lovely food? Oh yes!
Roti chenai and vindaloo for breakfast? Murtabakas, different chicken curries, lovely sambals - oh boy, it is all so yummy. Our problem lies in our inability to eat everything we want to - still to try Laksa and Haianese (sp) rice chicken and a full Nonya meal - not for the want of trying - but just not enough dinner and lunchtimes to fit them all in!!
PS sorry about the lack of paragraphs with the last blog - wifi in the Camerons was a bit doge, i.e. intermittant, and I raced too fast to finish the job properly. I have been doing the text in 'notes' and copy and pasting, but I lose my formatting. Never mind, I can always redo it if i want. Cheers.
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