Malacca/Melaka - Cameron Highlands- Taman Negara

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Technically these experiences should have had their own post but I'm going to Put them all into one.

Malacca

Malacca was the next destination after Singapore. Ruben recommendedthis destination and because we trust him we decided to go. So We decided to leave pretty early to get an early bus do that we would have time to visit the city and then continue to KL , what we didMott expect is that the day before last to have had an earthquake and tsunami warnings. Due to that there were not many people travelling so there would onlhave one bus!!! Until we found thegodforsaken station which is not even a station but asparking place- everyone we asked directed us somewhere else! We finally reach the station, see our bus, but no driver, he must have been sleeping inside. We gotsoaking wet as it decided to rain that moment, we were on despair, we asked several drivers, none that could speak good English until someone told Joanna that we have to go to Hotel 81, theycould direct us to where we can buy tickets. The ticket shop was actually a tire shop, no signs indicating that a bus would pass from there. After we find out that the bus leaves at 5 and we have more than 3 hours to kill so we ended up going to a mall nearby( with all our stuff) until it was time!

It was a luxury bus, compared to the ones we are used to, big spacious seats with your own air con and light!😊 loves it. It was spectacular seeing the vegetation in Malaysia, the incredible green, the vast hectares of palm trees, it was unlike anything we had ever seen. By the time we arrived in Melaka it was dark and we had to change currency to pay for the hostel and to have something on us! Thank god it was open, people were a bit pushy , taxi driverswe're there as soon as u got off the bus, and they don't understand what no means, honestly it's a bit annoying , I have followed joannas advice to speak in greek to them and it kinda works. So when we got our stuff done we went to the taxi drivers and asked them to take us to the Little Nyonya. The taxi driver was hilarious, he asked 3 times where we come fromsto which he replied : welcome to Melaka !😊 as itappeared we were close to the historical part of the city, but we did not see much of the Dutch and Portuguese neighbourhoods, we were a bit pressed with time. Firstly we passes from the Portao and then webt up some stairs , saw tge Dutch cemetery, and some other castle ruins where a school had a show but i think the lead singer was trying to be cool and Show off ,he sang off keyWe went to a Palace where there were some creepy dolls that depicted kings etc- it was quite uncanny especially when you least expect it. I fell down the steps on my bum in front of the guards but I expected it because of the wooden floor and my socks.The other sight that we have been to was the replica of a Portuguese ship, also with thedolls but I expected it to be more fun, it was really spacious and it even had the famous copacabana patterned tiles. It was a good experience but we weren't giddy with excitement. I don't know how exactly they arcalled but they had these tricycles that can take people around the city, decorated with fairy lights and fake flowers- a multicoloured vision, extra special at night time! Hostel was ok for its money but what we took with us was the smelL of incense from the repellent. Our clothes smelled like a bbq.

Time for KL, same thing happened, we forgot to write down our hostel address, so we asked mum to help. She got a bit confused do dad took over and instead of giving us the directionspin writing he just told us the name which we heard wrong. So we arrive in Kl with no clear directions, we just know its near Chinatown. It starts to rain and we are furious,after some failed attempts to hail a cab we got someone who actually came down to help us, but he did not know the place. We ended up going to anInternet cafe to find it.



Cameron Highlands


Cameron Highlands was also another recommendation of Ruben which we followed faithfully and it was actually pretty good. the bus was also very luxurious so we did not have to worry about comfort. The only disruptions in the journey were that of a fellow passenger who was munching and burping and answering his phone almost contantly. He was almost sitting next to us but not , Thank God. This is one journey that we took all of our backpack, and we were rewarded because it was kinda cold, especially for me- during the night the temp drops. There was not much to do during the first day because we arrived late so we decided to walk a bit and then have a bite. So we go to this indian Restaurant ( Cameron Highlands from what i found out from the guide has 40% ppl from India , 40 % Chinese ,and the rest from Malaysia, Indonesia etc.) to order. We order the same thing but slightly different , ie joanna orders kebab and me chicken breast.But they forget my order, so when nothing comes i start eating a little bit from joanna's plate albeit a bit cautiously, so if my order comes i wont be too stuffed. It did not come in the end.😞 Ah well

So in between us waiting for the order to come , Jo goes right behind us and asks the Tour Guide about the excursion that he has there, he starts explaining about the Rafflesia, worlds biggest flower btw, and she is hooked, and while we said that we would have done the cheaper tour we ended up doing the one for 75 for 70, a slight discount but hey, its something. They gave us 2 free water bottles and told us that we woiuld need a bit more, because of the jungle trekking. Again the jungle- we cant get enough 😊. So we were picked up by this black sort of safari jeep- that is decorated by 4 buddhas and a machete for protection! The drive to the actual jungle lasted about 1 hour , which is quite long to sit in the car, but it was far away so we got to see some scenery. There are about 31 spots where rafflesia grows and we got to number 11 if my memory doesnt fail me, ther hike was brutal, mostly uphill, in the mud, you feel that it slips, there arent always passageways through watery areas so you have to jump but the absolute worse part was when we reached a cliff like point where you are like, so now what , jump? But no, you have to get down, and get all your clothes all muddy, we managed all to get down in one piece but then you step on what you think is dry land and boom , your boots are in the mud! Poor Joanna had her boots all muddy- socks and all. More sweat and mud later we get to the flower, which is so cool, but not as vibrant as i expected it, i think we were a day earlier before its actual blooming day. On the way back we got to try a mouth numbing flower that acts as a painkiller for the locals, and the ipoh poison substance that they use for the blowpipe darts.Apparently if you have an open bloody wound you will be killed in a matter of seconds, if you eat it though it takes about 20, and for an elephant it is about 20 mins.

The rest was almost unimpressive after the jungle, apart from the blowpipe and the tea factory. My blowpipe skills i have to say sucked but they improved in Taman Negara. The tea place was really cool.. very relaxing scenery to have around you, plus where they build the museum/exhibition place. that structure was really blending with the environment around it.

After that it was the strawberry and butterfly farm, we sort of had expected free tasting etc, but it was just a farm where everything was overpriced especially the strawberries, which did not seem that amazing , but i did not taste them - incidentally the seeds were imported from Holland. I cannot say much about the butterfly farm because we did not have enough money for the boith of us so joanna went and it wasnt only butterflies but snakes and rabbits. One the extra day that we had we went to taste the famous scones, not the tea because from what the guide told us, its not really good because of the technique , its all machine and has branches and eveything in the mix which does not make ideal tea.



Taman Negara

At about 8 we are up and ready to be transported to Taman Negara. 3 Hours bus ride to the destination. Honestly the things that we put ourselves through in this trip are crazzy. We arrive at this sort of boat place where you are supposed to buy a permit for you camera and permit to enter the park. We had to wait until 1 30 to get picked up from the boat which would take about 3 hours as well.We ate lunch there - this lady that serves it must be really fed up with her job, you can see it in her strut, she was also slightly rude. Our boat ride comprise of us , another dutch family and a french pair. We ended up with the family- they did the same things at us. The first day was night walking in the jungle. but that proved to be an adventure because an elephant chose to get lost in the resort that we were staying. It was big news for our guide because from what he said he has never seen one. It was wild . 10 years old with 2 meter fang things , and a bit crazy. We saw many insects and a snake, thigs that we really did not want to see, up close really. We got to sleep- the elephant was still there, we saw the proof in thr morning. Second day in the jungle proved to be the hardest , because in a way it was the only full day that we had. So first in the programme was that we were going to go to a canopy walk. very scary for those who are scared of heights! But we did it , maybe a bit too fast- but i think i wouldnt have managed any other way because - you are up on a tree which is connected with another tree and you have to walk on something that swings, not my best kind of fun! So we finished that and then our really funny guide gave us an option, either we go on a mild trekking or on a really steep one. We all wanted to do the steep one. It was a really interesting trek, It wasnt hard all the time ,and the terrain was soft and not muddy- so almost no dirt on us! We had a drink up on the peak ad talked a bit- found out that the other girl there is on internship for a hotel, and she had done almost the same departments as I did and that the maids there do 29 rooms not the 11 i think that ours do. Pointing this out because people have it worse , but we rarely see beyond the tip of our nose. Next time to get wet- oh boy oh boy, After so much sweating that was refreshing- however sad for me because i lost one of my flip flops😞 I was rying to avenge the boat next to us - trying to splash water onto them with the flip flop in the water and i let go.

In the programme we also had the fortune to meet some people from a tribe. Apparentlythey do not always welcome people, they wont say no, but they will say that someone is ill. Its one really interesting tribe if i have to say, they live like nomads- they dont have a stable home, and that is - if someone fromthe tribe gets ill or has bad dreams within a time frame of 2 weeks they will move the tribe because they believe that there are bad spirits there warning them. Or that the children are smoking from 5 yrs old or that they carry knives- for them its normal.Another very interesting fact that our guide shared with us was the way they bury their corpses ( which is another reason why they will move- when someone dies) they dont bury them , dont burn them but they go deep into the forest where no one can find them and they deposit the corpse high up on tree branches. So that was about it, we woke up thr next morning a bit early because we were ctaching a boat rather than a bus to go to the bus station/ boat station to take us to KL. I have to say , that it must have been one of the most crazy rides that we were onto. He was driving so bad that we were really scared- even his choices of films dvds were not enough to calm us down. There were some vids with this supposed singer that had these weird intros for his clips, like a chicken farm ... etc-It was really weird. We got safely back to KL and then we got a rest for a bit, almost missed the last bus to the airport, but yay we made it!!

Next Hanoi , Vietnam.

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