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Published: March 17th 2015
On the cable car on Langkawi
The high peaks of the island are behind usOn the bus to Medan, Indonesia March 15, 2015
The impact of landing in Langkawi was immediate. As we stepped off the boat surrounded by pleasure yachts (including a three masted luxury vessel) it felt like we had entered a country with developed levels of infrastructure for the first time since leaving Baku in Azerbijan. One clear sign was that electrical poles carried individual or double twisted cables. Throughout most of Asia we have been used to seeing a cats cradle of wires between poles with no discernible order. I don't think we have seen a dirt road since we entered Malaysia and there has not been a power cut.
Langkawi is an island about the size of the Isle of Wight, off Malaysia's North West coast. In fact it is 99 islands and we just stuck to the main one. We had an excellent large room at the Rahsia Motel. It wasn't so easy to find in the dark set back from the road behind some residential housing (apparently rahsia means secret!). It was very clean and cool and had a fridge and kitchenette so we could do our own breakfasts. We made use
of the water melon stall a hundred metres down the road.
It was very easy to arrange a rentacar (120RM+25RM for petrol) to be delivered to the motel for the next day by phone on SkypeOut and we were ready to roll by 10.30am. A major attraction on the island is a cable car which takes you up the tallest mountain in the NorthWest corner. The area has fascinating geology, some old rocks that once resided at the South Pole and is a listed UNESCO Geopark. The cable car has one span that is almost a kilometre long. At the top we had great views of the island despite the sky being over caste. Down the coast was the main beach area (Pantai Cenang) with its many hotel resorts, which we made sure we avoided.
Just below the top cable car station they have built a 'sky' bridge across a steep jungle ravine. It is supported by cables from a pylon. We had aerial views of the jungle below (see panarama). It was very hot. The stainless steel rails burned to the touch. It was a weekend and popular with local tourists.
On return to sea level we fancied a swim and set off in search of a North coast beach. Most were not so appealing because of a keen on shore wind. We drove up to the private resort of Tanjung Rhu and discovered that once you have sign a paper saying you will obey the rules they let you use the river mouth beach for free. It was a gorgeous spot. Your view was dotted with karst cliff islands, the sand soft and white and there were trees offering shade from the midday heat.
That evening we went into the island's main town, Kuah for dinner. We went to a recommended Chinese restaurant, Teo. We got there at peak time and unfortunately in the end waited over an hour for our food. It was particularly disappointing because the food was great when it came. We splashed out on giant tiger prawns which were very succulent. The fried fish was great too, moist inside and crispy on the outside.
Our next port of call was Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. We got good advice on the route and were at our hostel by
5.30pm after an early start. The trip involved:
Taxi to Kaeh ferry port (30 min 40RM)
Ferry to Kuala Kelah (1 hr 45 min 23RM /person)
Taxi to Alor Setar bus station (20min 20RM)
Bus to Ipoh's new long distance bus station at (4 hours 35RM/person)
Shuttle bus to Ipoh local bus station (20 mins 2.4RM/person)
Bus to Tat Rata, Cameron Highlands (2 hours 18.5RM/person)
and all went like clockwork.
The bus winds up from Ipoh on the coastal plain through jungle scarps. The Cameron Highlands are at 1500m and the typical year round high is 26C during the day compared to 35C+ on the coast. It rains most afternoons. The area was first 'discovered' by a British surveyor, Mr Cameron, in the 1860's. A British governor then heavily promoted it as a hill station in the 1920's when they started planting tea. It is now an area for vegetables and strawberries as well.
The Malaysians are quite happy to carve up a hillside when they want to add a building often ignoring effects on erosion. There were also many areas inundated with poly tunnels. There were
far more than you see in our native Kent. The Cameron Highlands are popular with local tourists and like the rest of Malaysia relatively developed. We had a super room in Father's guest house. The staff were very friendly. They offered a variety of tours. Unfortunately out timing was a little early for wild orchids and the world's biggest flower, Rafflesia, was over.
There are excellent hiking trails and we tackled these instead. Trail 1 went to the top of Gunung Brinchang (2031m). The trail was through jungle. Some places were very steep and the many roots spread over the ground provided good hand and foot holds. In places the ground was very sandy and occasionally we stepped over granite boulders. It was muddy in places and I was glad to be wearing my boots having briefly considered doing the walk in sandals.
At the top we met LT and Vyni, two students on a short break from University in Kuala Lumpur. They were surprised that people our age would be doing such a trail and even more that we were travelling for one year. Like so many Malaysians their English was fluent. In
fact they spoken four languages: Manderin (their mother tongue as they were third or forth generation Chinese immigrants), Cantonese (to communicate in Kuala Lumpur), Malay (to speak to the 65% of the population of local descent) and English (for the rest of the world).
We walked down the hill together to get to the Boh tea plantation. Actually after some poor directions I took us up a wrong road and we were saved by hitching a ride in the back of a farm truck. As we descended the short valley we were surround by tea plantations. Every where you looks the rows of short trees covered the ground. Its big business. Boh is Malaysia's leading tea brand and is still run by the original family. It is mostly mechanised (think two man hedge trimmers) and a guide we met later said that a lot of the labour in the area was with illegal immigrants. Boh put on a good display and we were happy to buy LT and Vyni tea and cake at visitor centre. They explained how a common way to drink tea is with condensed milk. We have enjoyed the equivalent coffee combination since Vietnam.
In tea it is all a bit too sweet for my taste.
LT and Vyni headed back to town whilst we did the short tea factory tour. So now we know how tea is made. It sounded like there was still a lot of muck and magic in the crucial oxidation step when the fragmented leaves change from green to brown. I am not sure what Ian would have made of the factory. Some of the kit dated back to the 1930's and there was a good deal of spilt tea on the floor.
We managed to hitch a ride close to one of the strawberry farms. The strawberries were not cheap at 60RM/kg (£12). They were well presented and in our opinion no match for Kentish strawberries which must be slower growing. As we deliberated what to buy we talked to an owner. Apparently they import the young hybrid strawberry plants ('at great expense') from Holland. The plants last two years although are less productive in the second year. He was going to double the price the following week when it was a Malaysian holiday. They grow the plants off the ground in
grow bags presumably to limit disease.
The street food stalls in Tanah Rata were much better value. For breakfast we twice had roti, a layered pancake, filled with what you want that, if savoury, you can dip in dahl. We also had excellent Indian curries and a Chinese 'steamboat'. The steamboat is a boiling bowl of chicken broth in which you cook vegetables, sliced meat and fish and noodles at your table.
On our second day we did another jungle walk from our guesthouse. Jane struggled to relax always worried about which creepy crawly was going to be around the corner. It did not help that we met a pack of feral dogs on the path even though they ignored us and went in the opposite direction. There seemed to be every shade of green. Mosses covered tree roots and tree ferns hung over head. You could hear birds in the canopy and we could never see them. The walk finished through a market garden, with row upon row of cabbages, beans and courgettes growing up to the edge of the jungle.
You could feel the heat increasing as we wound
Tea plantations covered every slope in the valley
The leaves on the steep slopes are still picked by hand down the valley towards Kuala Lumpur. We had decided not to hang around the city (and did not even see the famous Petronas twin towers). We immediately took a clean and efficient train to the Southern bus station and then the first bus we could to Malacca (aka Malaka). At least it had a bit of a sea breeze.
We have both impressed with Malacca and could have spent more time there. It has a depth of history and is very much an Asian tourist hub. There has been much restoration, especially after it got UNESCO status,a few years back. Despite all this it still feels like a genuine lived in place and not a 'Disney' facade.
It helped that we had booked ahead into the Apa Kaba Home and Stay (apakaba28@gmail.com). This is in an old house in a suburban enclave on the edge of the town. There are just 6 rooms. We had a large room. It had two fans which kept the heat at bay (just!) and we decided at long last to rig up one of our mosquito nets. (We have carried them from England and after eight and half
Strawberry growing Malaysian style
The plant seedlings are sent from Holland months have final used one.) The window was wooden with slatted shutters that could be moved up and down with a central bar. One bathroom had a hot shower. We have discovered that around the equator you don't need hot water. A shower of cold water, to be honest it is not really cold, is bliss in the heat.
The family were friendly. The father took us on a mini tour and showed us other old houses in the area on the way to pointing out a cheap restaurant for lunch. He was a retired English professor who had done an MA in Sheffield. At one point we came to a vacant lot with a coconut palm in the corner. He said, 'This is where I was born. The house is not here any more.' There had been a small plantation of coconut palms around the house and the one is the corner was the only one left. It clearly meant a lot to him and gave him an anchor.
The story of the succession of colonial powers (the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and the English) fighting for control of the strategic city
and the famous Straits they overlook is colourful. Add in the long time Chinese origin traders, the so called Baba Nonya or Peranakan, and there is a rich tapestry to fill several museums.
We joined a free guided walk the local tourist bureau offer three times a week. He gave a flavour of the different cultures mixing in Malaysia and Malacca and spoke surprisingly favourably about the British influence.
We enjoyed the quirky 'Customs Museum' with it collection of confiscated contraband including 'pornographic' (by the Malaysian definition) statues. We enjoyed the fantastic tour of the Baba-Nonya Heritage museum. This is the Victorian era house of a very wealth Chinese spice trading family. It gave a fantastic picture of how the elite from this group lived and their traditions and beliefs.
Outside the old Dutch buildings and China Town the new Malaysia encroaches with high rises and air conditioned malls. They have their uses. We relaxed one afternoon out of the midday sun in the air conditioned confines of the local multiplex cinema. It was a pity we did not make a better choice of film.
With all the
cultural mixes the food is excellent. We queue with many other locals to get our chance to eat at 'Capital Satay'. There is no menu. You go and choose what meat, seafood, or vegetables skewers you want from a cold cabinet and then cook in a boiling vat of spicy satay sauce in the centre of your table. The waiter comes regularly to stir the vat and add more sauce as necessary. At the end they counted our wooden skewers, we had a few, and charged us 40RM (£8).
We tried the famous Cendol dessert. Who would have thought that red kidney beans and bright green corn flour noodles topped with shaved ice, coconut milk and caramelised palm sugar would taste so good.
I also liked the local dumpling. These are pyramidal banana leaf packages which contain a sweetish meat filling surrounded by a layer of sticky rice. The ones from the East West Rendezvous on Lorong Hang Jebat which had been rightly recommended on the internet were blue in one corner where a local flower is used to colour the rice. Now that is a colour you do not often see in the
Bicycle rickshaws in Malacca
These were unbelievably kitsch. As well as the LEDs they blared cheesy music. The Asian tourists seemed to love them........but then they also like Karoake. kitchen.
Our time in Malaysia is up and this morning we took the ferry to Dumai in Samatra across the Malacca Straits. Malaysia has really impressed us. The people have been consistently friendly and helpful, it has been so easy to travel and the buses are spacious. It is clear that Malaysia benefits hugely from having the most expensive city in the world, Singapore, on its doorstep. Apparently, 300,000 Malaysian commute their every day. It is clearly very varied and has left a lot more for us to explore in the future.
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Tom
non-member comment
Red buildings
Hi Jem and Jane. I have spent a lot of time travelling around Malaysia and as you enjoy it immensely. The Red Buildings (or The Stadthuys) were coloured that way by the Dutch who built them in 1650 and have been kept that way ever since. Enjoy your travels. Tom