SINGAPORE, KL, PANGKOR ISLAND AND THE CAMERON HIGHLANDS

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i am now back in Thailand having just spent the past 3 weeks in Malaysia and Singapore.

after my last blog from Hat Yai, in far southern thailand, i took the direct overnight sleeper train from there to Kuala Lumpar, as my thai visa had expired. the ticket was only 518baht (about 8GBP). Although it starts in Hat Yai, it is a Malaysian train, with initially just two passenger carriages attached to the back of a very long and extremely slow goods train. the goods carriages are replaced by a lot more passenger ones at the Thailand/Malaysian border. compared with the freshly laundered sheets, that you could probably eat your dinner off, on thai sleepers, the bedding on the malaysian train left a lot to be desired. it didnt look or smell as if it had been laundered for several journeys! it also was too hot to sleep comfortably, despite the air-con, unlike the deep freeze conditions on the thai trains! however one thing it had in common with thai trains was that it was over 3 hours late arriving at its final destination....

I stayed in KL 2 nights, at the same hotel, The Cadogan, as i stayed in in March. I looked around for an alternative, but couldnt find a better all round deal for either location, comfort or price. i couldnt face going to any bars filled with chain smoking patrons, so didnt go out in KL. it also rained torrentially and continually nearly all day, as KL, and most of South East Asia, was caught up in the extensive atmospheric circulation of tropical storm Kumari.

smoking in bars is so last century. what is it with Malaysian men? they nearly all seem to have a very bad chain smoking problem, though they are generally not as bad as the otherwise generally good looking Indonesians, judging from my experiences there in 2004. Even when there is a smoking ban in place, in places such as shopping malls, public transport and internet cafes, it is normally ignored, and nobody seems to care less!! (apart from me!!) is really life that bad and self esteem so low, not caring about the damage they are doing to themselves and others in their path, that people smoke. also, why is it ok to through their used butts on the ground, who do you think will pick it up, the pixies? (ok rant over!!)

so i took a train to singapore, i went first class (6 quid as apposed to 3quid!), but 1st class wasn't really worth the extra, as the carriage was half empty, which meant that most of the crew of the overstaffed train used it as their mess room...

i had somewhat forgotten how expensive Singapore is, it maybe clean and the people polite, but those things, it seems, come at a high price. most things, from eating out, sleeping and going out are all over 3 times as much in price as Bangkok, but not three times as good! still i enjoyed my stay there, as everyone speaks perfect English and all the signs are in English.. and the car, taxi and bus drivers actually adhere to red lights and pedestrian crossings!!! the city has yet a different type of electical socket, ie two small round holes, as opposed to Thailand's two narrow slits, and Malaysia, which has the same as the UK's 3 rectangular holes...vive la difference...

i went out to some Singapore gay bars on 2 nights, namely Tantric bar and Taboo club near my hotel , The Tropical, in chinatown. London drinks prices, but good music and friendly clientele, and also, like bangkok, no smoking inside!! (though the pavements outside were choking with fag smoke...). the drag cabaret was pretty dire, like something you would see in a back street bar in Chiang Mai, nothing like the professionalism you can see in Samui, Patong or Bangkok! also the weekend i was there it was SINGAPORE NATIONAL DAY, the anniversary of the cities independance in 1965, which meant a lot of people out in the streets. the festivities were fine, if slightly overblown and predictable. what struck me is the subserviant nature of Singapore people, especially when in a large crowd... i also went to the asian hopping mecca of Orchard Road, though in some respects Bangkok has surpassed it, something i think they are now addressing, with no less than 3 large malls under contruction along the strip.... i also paid a visit to the Raffles Hotel, looks great, but is rather hemmed in by tower blocks and busy highways...

i would have liked to stay longer in Singapore, but my finances don't allow, so after 4 nights i left Singapore for KL again. the Malaysian currency, the Ringitt is at about 2.6 to 1 singapore dollar. however at singapore train station, which is run by Malaysian railways, they sell a one way ticket to KL for 34 Singapore dollars. that is opposed to the 34 Malaysian Ringitt it costs to buy from the other direction at KL train station, ie nearly 3 times as much for the same journey!! the staff didn't seem to think there is anything wrong with that. apparently i should have bought a return ticket from KL, but at exactly twice the price of a single there, i didnt bother. the kind staff at KL failed to mention the fact that to come back would be so much more expensive. so instead of starting my journey at Singapore station, i took a local bus into malaysia and then took the same train from the 1st station there, Johor Bharu, for 33 ringitt. it was a bit of a faff though...

back in KL, i braved the main gay club there, namely Blueboy. i met some nice people there who worked at a five star hotel in the city. still a lot of smoke though, and only sold very expensive, poor quality, very weak alcoholic drinks. spent a couple of days in KL before taking a bus north up to the port of Lemut. it took about 5 hours, from there it is a 40 minute boat trip out to Pangkor Island, somewhere new for me. it is covered in dense tropcal rain forest, and ringed by nice beaches. the day i arrived it was peaceful with just a smattering of other tourists. however the next day was the start of the Malaysian school holidays, so was a different story, with everywhere crawling with families and groups of teenagers from the cities. nearly everyone swims in all their clothes, due to muslim malsaysian modesty, even the men! trust me, some of the men dont seem to have a reason to be modest... lots of people swimming fully clothed means lots of wet clothes hanging everywhere you look, and signs up at all the restaurants saying, "no wet clothes to be worn here"...

i stayed at a small bungalow resort, as with most Malaysian places, it had more the feeling of an institution and lacked character, and was badly maintained, but cheap enough. the bathroom was particularly poorly designed, with the shower placed half over the sink, so you couldn't get fully under the water....
saw some strange looking birds, i guess they were jungle dwellers which had come down for some tourist scraps. the locals referred to them as seagulls, but they certainly were not! i also went for a walk north along the coast from the beach i was staying at, 'Teluk Nipah'. i came across a young german couple frolicking naked in the surf, much to their embarressment! soon after i passed them for the 2nd time on my return, they both came chasing after me, (with swimwear ON this time). someone had apparently stolen their backpack which they had left on the rocks while they enjoyed their lovers clinch. it apparently had all their money and passports in, so they were quite frantic, i hope they found it, maybe some jungle monkeys took it, who knows? i think by the way they chased me they initially thought i had taken it! anyway, Pangkor was nice, but i have been spoilt by too many Thai tropical islands, and Thai's seem to do that whole scene a lot better....

So after a couple of days on Pangkor a made my way back to the mainland and hence to the 3rd largest city in Malaysia, Ipoh. i had 3 hours to kill here, as the buses for my next destination, the Cameron Highlands, now only leave every 3 or 4 hours, and i had just missed one, so i took a look around. my advice is, don't bother, it a bit of a dump from what i saw, with derelict english colonial relics, boarded up shops and very bad smells....(think piles of rotting rubbish). however i tracked down a good supermarket, that sold PORK!!! it was the usual Malaysian faff about actually puchasing it though, as no one working in the supermarket will even touch it, bar one chinese woman assistant in the covert "pork room". however she was on her lunch, so had grab a pre vacuum packed hunk of pork ham, and then scan it myself at the checkout and place it in a separate bag.... then i made my way back to the bus station and sat and made a sandwich with the ham (i am tired of getting scrappy sandwiches made by people who evidently have never eaten one in their lives!), which meant hacking at it with a blunt knife in full view of headscarf wearing local muslim women. culturally insensitive, moi?

the bus journey from Ipoh to the town of Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands was a winding route up into the mountains and clouds. very dramatic road. arrived in the (COLD) pouring rain (which hardly stopped for the duration of my stay), at Tanah Rata, at about 1850 metres above sea level. For the 1st time since leaving beijing last october i was in a cool climate, ie about 23 degrees by day and as low as 13 degrees at night, bliss. still i was ok in just a t shirt, but i saw a lot of malaysian and other tourists in down jackets! the Cameron Highlands were established by the British colonialists in victorian times as a cool place of respite, and they have grown into a major region for fruit growing and tea plantations. it also has loads of cafes selling locally picked tea, freshly picked strawberries (my main reason for visiting, as i have missed them since leaving Dundee), and home made scones.... i enjoyed my 1st night in nearly a year without the need of air-con or a fan in the room. it is also a popular location for Malay honeymooners, due to the cool night temperatures (work that out for yourself...), as well as other malays, as a holiday break from the hot and steamy lowlands.

don't expect sweeping vistas of tea plantations and rolling hills there though, it is covered with intensve market gardens and tourist developments, and lots of jungle, but the air was great. i instinctively took some large deep breaths when i arrived. the insect bite marks i have been wearing since Koh Jum, miraculously started to heal in a couple of days! (nothing heals quickly in the tropics, something to do with being in a state of contant sweat?).

so after the Cameron Highlands, i took the bus back down to lovely Ipoh (not), and then the midnight sleeper train back to Hat Yai, where i am now. i am glad to be back in Thailand, and looking forward to pigging out at the local SIZZLER restaurant here later today! its the best one i've been to (esp. the all you can eat salad bar). tommorrow i am taking a rather long bus ride to Phuket, where i'll stay for a few days, having a final fling around the gay bars of patong beach, before heading up to Bangkok next week..where it will be decision time.......

P.S. - thanks for the comments and e-mails i get about this blog, from both friends and total strangers!! glad to know that people find it interesting and/or informative. Travelblog admin tells me how many hits each blog page gets and when. I am surprised which are the most popular, one of my old blogs still gets over 80 hits every month, though the average is about 45... (ie about 1.5 people per day)

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Photos

RAFFLES HOTEL
SINGAPORE

MERLION
SYMBOL OF SINGAPORE, ESPECIALLY POPULAR PLACE ON SINGAPORE NATIONAL DAY...

BOAT QUAY
SINGAPORE HARBOUR

STRANGE LOOKING SEAGULLS
TELUK NIPAH BEACH, PANGKOR ISLAND

A QUIET BEACH
PANGKOR ISLAND, MALAYSIA

PANGKOR ISLAND
NEAR THE SCENE OF THE DISAPPEARING BAG....

NOT SO QUIET BEACH
FIRST DAY OF MALAYSIAN SCHOOL HOLIDAYS, PANGKOR

LAZY DAYS
MUSLIM LADY IN A HAMMOCK. PANGKOR ISALND

A STRAWBERRY FARM
CAMERON HIGHLANDS

HILLVIEW INN, TANAH RATA
WHERE I STAYED IN THE CAMERON HIGHLANDS. VERY COSY AND NEW.

MALAYSIAN/THAI BORDER
WAITING FOR THE SHUNTING AND FAFFING TO FINISH, SO WE CAN CONTINUE ONTO HAT YAI. (ABOUT 2 HOURS WAIT...)

BACK IN HAT YAI
THE MAIN NIGHT-TIME DRAG, OUTSIDE THE LEE GARDENS HOTEL. (I STAYED AT THE KINGS HOTEL, ONLY 450B PER NIGHT...)