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Published: July 19th 2015
7/8
thJuly 2015
So after 46 weeks at home, we're off again. Not a Big Adventure this time, more an extended holiday for 3 months.
Around 5pm our two house sitters Jo and Catherine from NZ arrive to look after our house for us.
Caroline calls to say that Clive's car won't start so we take a taxi to the airport. Check in all goes smoothly and eventually we board our Air Malaysia A380, the big double decker plane. We're on the first floor right at the back----- next to the toilets. Well at least we won't get any kids behind us screaming all night.
The flights pretty rough and we're strapped in most of the time. The highlight is the chicken and rice dinner, expect it's so popular that there's none left by the time they get to us. Breakfast is spicy prawn and rice, we pass !
Twelve and a hour hours later we reach Kuala Lumpur and walk out to 30 degrees and high humidity and it's already 7.30pm.
We book in for the night at the Concorde Inn on the airport ready for another flight early tomorrow.
The hotel
reception looks quite swish but all the rooms look like something from Butlins! Still it's only one night and the shower's great after the long flight.
So our travels begin with another early night and listening to the Geckos.
9
th July
We wake at 4am due to jet lag and get up around 5.30 in plenty of time for breakfast and shuttle bus back to the airport for our 10am Air Asia flight to Penang. A taxi takes us to our hotel The Chulia Mansion, in Georgetown. It's a lot better than most hotels we've had in Malaysia.
We walk out and it's a very buy town with traffic everywhere and no pavements. Red lights are optional at corners and crossing the road a game of chicken !
Georgetown is a World Heritage Site and some of the buildings have been restored and look good whilst the most work many have had done to them in recent years is the fitting of a satellite dish. There's also a lot of murals and metal artwork on the buildings.
We end up along the waterfront and visit Chew Jetty. A large collection of small timber and
sheet metal houses built on timber stilts by the Chinese in the 1800's. It's very ramshackle. Tan Jetty and Lee Jetty seem a bit more upmarket !
We return to the hotel for a rest as we're worn out from the jet lag and humidity.
Later we go out again and end up in Little India. It's a lively place with loud music, lots or bazaar type shops and street food stalls which smell wonderful.
In the evening we dine at an Indian food court with plastic tables and chairs and have a great curry as we watch the first downpour of the monsoon season. Luckily it stops before we walk back. Another early night !
10
th July
This morning we have another walk around town and look at the many Colonial buildings and street murals and art work. We visit Fort Cornwallis down at the shore and have to take shelter in the cafe due to a monsoon down pour. We're stuck for over an hour and spend our time eating ice cream and watching strange team building games by a group of Malaysian insurance agents. Eventually they take pity on us and give
us his and hers plastic ponchos to keep us dry.
We finish our tour of the fort and take a quick lunch before finding more murals and street art to look at. We get to see many Chinese temples with wonderfully decorated roofs.
Having run out of money (I still can't work out the conversion) we have to return to the hotel and go and visit an ATM to top up spending money.
Exhausted from the heat we return for a snooze.
In the evening we eat at a hostel full of young travellers and feel about 100! Our evening ends with a further down pour making us return to our room for the night.
11
th July
We get a Skype first thing from Roger S. Is he missing us already or just making sure we've really gone !
A long walk to the bus station and a 45 min ride to Penang Hill. We get on the vehicular train and play sardines in the carriage all the way to the top. After a short walk and wonderful views of the Meleka Straits and Penang we pick up some lunch. A 3 day
old samosa and a curry puff that needs a chisel to break the pastry. Christine settles for yesterday's luke warm chips.
Malnourished we go for an hours walk along a road bordering the jungle and see great trees and hear birds and insects. A nice walk.
After resting for a while we catch the train down and board the bus back to Georgetown. The bus soon fills up and resembles a crowded tube train. A group of standing young girls giggle and laugh as they lurch backwards and forwards as the bus stops and starts. They think it's great fun.
We jump off the bus in town and soon realise we don't know where we are. After a heated debate and much going round in circles we find our way to the hotel.
In the evening we join the Hotel roof top party to celebrate there first year. They provide a free BBQ which is swarmed upon by the Chinese like locusts and quickly disappears. The rest of us have to wait until reserves are brought out.
Later we get talking to Mike who has been travelling for a 11 months and his partner Christine
who joins him from time to time. We swap stories and have a good time until nearly mid night. A rare late night for us.
12
th July
We leave the Chulia Mansions. A hotel that exceeds all others ! Clean, modern, friendly and provides free tea, coffee and ice cream all day long ! Even one free drink in the evening.
A taxi takes us to Batu Ferringhi the best beach resort on the island. We've booked a special late deal at the 4 star Bayview Beach Resort Hotel with a 56%!d(MISSING)iscount ! Three days R&R around the pool and we spend the rest of the day Kindling and swimming.
Late afternoon we walk into the town and it's pretty scruffy and hard to see why the place is so well regarded. It's not even possible to swim in the sea due to jelly fish.
We get caught in a downpour and luckily have our ponchos with us !
July 13
th Get up as stiff as the ironing board in the wardrobe. The bed's rock hard ! But at least we've both survived the curry and stir fry from last nights local
restaurant.
An early walk into town and we sort out our onward travel arrangements for Wednesday and then book a hotel for three nights. We spend the rest of the morning and afternoon on the sun loungers Kindling and snoozing. It's like being on holiday.
Late afternoon we take a walk along the beach to no where in particular and then back along the road and see a “ crocodile” swimming in the river. Until we realise there aren't any in Malaysia and it's a huge lizard.
Just before going off for dinner we get a surprise Skype from Richard E. He's somewhere in Croatia on a sunbed. Unfortunately he's doing his best Norman Collier impression and so after a few minutes we have to leave him to his sunbathing.
Dinner at a Trip Adviser no. 1 recommended restaurant proves a good choice.
14
th July
Get up and my back's worse than it's been for ages. A real lazy day around the pool swimming and snoozing.
Late afternoon we get on a bus to the next village. It's not a tourist resort but just a small fishing village and we see the real
Malaysia. Small timber and metal buildings in not very good condition. There are a few more modern rendered ones but still in poor order.
But everyone's happy and smiling and most shout “hello”.
We walk along the river and see all the fishing boats and large lizards swimming out and catching fish.
We reach the National Park but we don't have the right shoes for going in.
After dinner we walk to McDonalds and have an ice cream which brings back memories of our last trip. It's still the cheapest around!
Wednesday July 15
th A travel day. We pack after breakfast and hang around for our taxi to the bus station. It arrives about 10mins late and we shoot off for Georgetown. We arrive around 12.30 in plenty of time for the bus however the driver gets a call to say the bus station isn't in Georgetown but near the airport! We have 20 mins to get there. We drive like mad and arrive to find there's no bus ! The driver checks and it's not due to leave for another half hour. Panic over !
All goes well on the drive and
we pass fields of palm trees and then jungle. It's a lovely route. Two hours later we pull in at Ipoh bus station and the driver says we must change buses as there's something wrong with ours. We are split into two groups and are led off being told we will have to get the next bus.
We're left with four others just standing around and no one can tell us when the next one will come. An hour and half later it arrives. We're really running late.
The journey's very spectacular with jungle and mountains all around. We gradually rise and there's mist around the tops of the hills. The scenery is really lovely.
At last we arrive in Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. It looks like the poly tunnel world !
There are acres of them for the growing of fruit and flowers.
We check in at our hotel, the Heritage. Another 4 star hotel. We're starting to feel like frauds for travelling in such luxury, but the discounts are too good to miss!
Thursday 16
th July
First thing we walk into town and book an excursion for tomorrow morning.
We then visit the tourist info and book our coach to KL for Saturday. Coaching is so cheap !
The excursion chap tells us of a jungle walk and then takes us in his car to the start of the trail as he says it's difficult to find. They're all so helpful.
We trek up hill for about two hours climbing over rocks and tree roots all the way. It's hard going but not too hot. We hear a few birds singing and lots of insect noises. The trees and ferns are amazing. We also see growing wild orchids and pitcher plants.
At the top of the route we get some nice views over the jungle and distant tree covered hills. It's then another hour and a half down to a power station and then an hour along the road back to town.
We stop in town for a snack and a rest, we need it after over four and a half hours walking !
Back at the hotel we have a good rest and a quick snooze before going out for dinner. Curry again and even Christine has one !
Friday 17
th July
First thing we walk into town and meet the other people on our tour this morning. We're a multi national group of two Dutch, an Argentinian, French, Japanese and Englishman. We soon set off for our first visit to tea plantation and see it growing over all the valleys. The area is vast.
Our land rover chuggs off to our next stop along narrow winding steep roads. We start to climb some serious hills and smoke starts to poor out of the engine. We have over heated and water pours out of the radiator ! We have to continue on foot to the highest point in the Cameron Highlands whilst our guide, Mr Grumpy calls up for help. He's always complaining about everyone's poor time keeping but never actually tells us what time to regroup!
He gets on with fixing the land rover and we climb a tower to get a view over the Highlands. They are attractive.
We next walk to the Mossy Forest for a jungle walk, it's pretty muddy and we let the others go as we've seen enough jungle without getting caked in mud.
We then squeeze into a replacement vehicle
and go off to a tea factory. Unfortunately it's not working as today is a public holiday. The end of Ramadam and everywhere is packed with people.
We go round and see the non working machinery before leaving.
Our next stop is a butterfly farm. It's really underwhelming! Only one type of butterfly and a few caged reptiles.
Our fixed land rover returns and off we go to another tea plantation but only for a cup of foul tasting tea and cake. Mr Grumpy then takes us back to town. We've had a good time with the others but the trip was only so so.
Saturday 18
th July
Another travel day. We board the coach at 11am for KL Central and after one stop we arrive at 2.30. The journey's very scenic for the first two hours as we twist and turn our way down out of the Highlands. There's lots of road side stalls selling fruit and veg.
After joining the motorway however we see a nose to tail traffic jam for miles in the other direction as it's a public holiday.
We get dropped off at Central and go down to
the train station and get straight on a train to KL airport. 28 mins later we arrive and then go out the door and onto the shuttle bus to our hotel. The Concorde Inn where we started 11 days ago.
After checking in we relax by the pool for the rest of the afternoon as it's been a long day travelling.
Sunday 19
th July
We make sure our bags are properly packed and check out of our room. We intend to sit round the pool for the day but it's a wet one, so the day's spent in the hotel lounge.
We read all day and go to the airport around 6pm for our night flight to Darwin.
Our second visit to Malaysia hasn't been as exciting as our first one due mainly to the fact that the places haven't been so interesting. However we've met some nice people along the way and the Malaysians have again been very friendly and helpful wherever we've been.
And so onto Australia and into the outback!
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Carol and David
non-member comment
Captain Slog Stardate July 19th
It's a really wet Sunday morning here and we can't even walk the dog, so, in desperation, we turned to reading your blog. An interesting first report from our intrepid travellers. (intrepid - fearlessly facing up to danger or hardship - we looked it up) We were in a similar jungle a fortnight ago - oh no, that was the Houses of Parliament. You get tea there too. Expect your next report will be from a town like Alice, cuddling a reluctant koala. Open a tinny for us and keep up the intrepidity. D&Cx