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Published: April 5th 2010
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Nissen Huts at Fathers Guesthouse
Our accomodation in the Cameron Highlands Well, the last time we updated this blog we were leaving our 'Palace' in Kuala Lumpur and were heaving our backpacks back on (which seem to be getting heavier funnily enough), to venture up through Malaysia.
A reasonably comfortable 4hr bus ride took us from the chaotic bus station 'Pudaraya' in KL to the peaceful town of Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands (centre of Malaysia).
We had luckily prebooked accomodation as it was a suprisingly busy wee place. We rang Lonely Planets
Our Pick place called 'Fathers Guesthouse' and booked ourselves into the more basic option - the Nissen huts'. These were old military huts built in 1956 for British, Australian and NewZealand soldiers. It was a very basic room with a shared bathroom (felt like we were camping), but it was clean with friendly owners and a fantastic bargain price of 32 ringetts (US$10). I did have to christen the mosi-net here though, as they were huge and apparantly I am very tasty!!!
We spent 3 nights in the Highlands as it was a nice relaxed change from KL. We did the must-do 'Countryside tour', which was an action-packed morning for a bargain RM25 + RM10 entrance
fees. Starting at a rather modern Chinese buddhist temple. built in the 1970s, at the top of a hill with a great view over the valleys, we then went to a strawberry farm and had a delicious strawberry milkshake made with an entire punnet of strawberries (highly recommended). After this we visited a rose garden which had a great variety of roses and other exotic native flowers. From here we headed to the BOH tea plantation (the main thing the Cameron Highlands are famous for) to have a factory tour and enjoy the amazing view of rolling hills covered in neatly pruned tea trees (yep it grows on trees!) as far as the eye can see - while enjoying a cup of tea of course! Following this we went to a Butterfly farm which had a large area filled with hundreds of the biggest and most beautifully brightly coloured butterflies I have ever seen. They also had a large collection of various live insects. spiders and reptiles all from Malaysia, which our guide kindly organised for us to hold some! Adam was brave enough to touch a huge rhinoceros beetle and he even had 2 large scorpions on his arm!
Beautiful butterfly
At the Butterfly Farm in Tanah Rata Neither of us were keen on holding the tarantula or massive millipedes though! And lastly a quick stop at a nearby bee farm. All of this before lunch! Phewww!!! Us poor oldies were worn out so we had a nan-nap in the arvo before heading to the night market after dinner where we tried some delicious coconut snack, which was sweet coconut toasted and rolled into a banana leaf with a lump of sugarcane melted in the middle - yum nom nom :-)
The next morning we were fortunate enough to witness a hindu ceremony, which we only knew about as the owner of the guesthouse told us about it. It started down a road near a river where we watched a group of Indian locals chant, pour yellow liquid over themselves, make food offerings and burn incense in front of small homemade shrines. We watched as a jolly looking man was having his back pierced with several hooks weighted with limes, and a somewhat smaller and skinnier guy had a small spike pierced through one cheek and out the other! As they both danced themselves into trances, the whole group started walking towards the town, certain individuals carrying
Scary scorpions
and a very brave Adam the home-made shrines. The guy with his cheek pierced was even attched to his shrine (the biggest of them all) by small chains with hooks on the ends pierced through his back! These guys volunteer themselves for this and have to fast for a few days beforehand too! We followed for a while quite amazed at what we had just seen and feeling very privileged too.
That afternoon we went for a jungle trek with a lovely dutch couple we met. To be honest I'm sure it was beautiful, but I was too busy looking at my feet and thinking about all the bugs and snakes I'd seen the day before at that were all around us! After about 90mins of negotiating narrow slippery paths and clambouring over fallen trees we emerged in the middle of a farm near a road, so we decided to walk back along that rather than go back the same way we came. When we noticed a sign saying 9km to Tanah Rata, and the ominous rainclouds overhead we decided to stick out our thumbs. It is suprisingly safe to hitchhike in Malaysia, esp in the Highlands. The dutch couple we met had walked
High pain threshold!
As part of the Hindu ceremony we saw this guy had hooks weighted with limes pierced into his back! to the Tea plantation the previous day and had heaps of locals pulling over asking them if they wanted a ride! It only took a half-a-dozen cars before a friendly local and his wife pulled over and took us into town. Malaysian people are great and genuinely friendly (well the vast majority of them anyway).
The next day we got a shuttlebus from the guesthouse to the jetty to take a fastboat to the Perhentian Islands (top eastcoast). We decided to get dropped off at the smaller island 'Pulau Kecil' in the more backpacker friendly 'Coral Bay'. The whole trip took about 8 hours (inc. a lunch break) and cost RM130 (US$40) - including return boat ticket. Once we got dropped off the race was on to find accomodation, as we had heard stories of people having to sleep on the beach the first night as all rooms were full (cheap places only take walk-in bookings); so the jandals were kicked off and we power-walked our way down the beach splitting up and checking various places as we went. Adam found us a great place - right at the far end of the beach called 'Butterfly Chalets' for RM50
What some will do....
Also part of the Hindu ceremony in Tanah Rata we saw this guy get a spear peirced through one cheek and out the other! (US$16 - a bargain here). A
very basic hut with gaps between the plank walls, rusting 'wardrobe', missing bed slats and pieces of rope used to close windows BUT it had a mosinet, fan above the bed, toilet with shower over it and an
amazing location - perched on the rocks overlooking the beach and the ocean. Our bathroom stank though - so Adam talked very nicely to Barry (the owner we think - well he seems to run the place from from the pile of rubble which is the 'reception') and he let us move into another hut further around, 2 days later, when the existing person moved out. A fantastic move - this hut is so much better, our balcony overlooks the ocean, is more private and has a ladder from our balcony which takes us down onto the rocks below so we can dive straight into the liquid-glass ocean. The bed is better, the bathroom doesn't smell and a far better view all for the same price! We even have houseguests - a family of geckos all about 20cm long (who we have called 'Gordon' - remember the Wall Street movie? haha).
We bought a cheap string
The long walk to the temple
The same guy with his cheek peiced then had this shrine attached to his back by pierced chain hooks and carried it through the town to the temple hammock pretty much straight away and got it hung up on the balcony - I must admit, I seem to be in it a lot more than Adam (tehehe). I love spending afternoons sitting in it watching the sunset until the power comes on (generator only 6pm - 7am) signalling time for dinner.
Food options are a handful of 'cafes' right on the beach where you can enjoy freshly caught and bbq'd seafood (or chicken curry for Adam), with the ocean lapping at your feet underneath the table. Bliss.
I'm finally getting some decent tanning done too - spending several lazy hours lying on the beach broken with refreshing dips in the sea. We walked to a beach yesterday just north of our chalets, that we had all to ourselves for the afternoon - well except for the huge monitor lizard that joined us (approx 6ft long!)
The snorkling here is amazing. We went on a snorkling trip[ today where we saw some brilliant bright coral, hundreds of tropical fish, giant sea-turtles and even a shark (the last was amazing - kinda scary though we knew he was harmless. He moved to quick for us to get a decent
Adam and Klaas
Waterfall on the trek we did through part of the highland's jungle photo though). Well worth the RM35 (US$12) as it even included breakfast and took most of the day!
We will have been here a week tomorrow and could spend weeks more - however there is so much left to see on our trip yet - so we are forcing ourselves to move on to Penang Island (westcoast) later this week for a couple of days before onwards to country #4 - Thailand.
Til next update...
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