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Cameron Highlands

Friday, May 30th, 2008

The bus to the cameron highlands takes about 4 hours which compared to places like india and the philippines is a vertible spin just around the corner. There are many corners because as the name suggests the area sits at an ear popping altitude. Like the hill stations in india (dalhousie, ooty) it was set up by the english as a much more like home retreat away from the steamy lower lying lands. The road snakes and it makes it quite difficult to nod off to sleep especially seeing as had had no sleep at all when I arrived into the main town in the highlands I cut a pretty drowsy figure. Before setting off for somewhere to stay I figured I would gather my thoughts at one of the restaurants on the main strip, read the guidebook, get some food then find a bed to spend the rest of the day in.

The main strip is lined on either side with many many restaurants, the town itself is about the same size as ballyjamesduff at home. I picked one as the indian food looked nice, the indians back in the day were brought over by the british as a form of cheap (read slave) labour. They did this around the world, in south africa and the carribean especially there are large indian communities. None bigger than the one that they planted in malaysia. The form a sizeable minority in the country and you get the feeling that despite the passing of time they have not acquired a level social status with the indigenous malays. The indians that did come over all came from the very south, Tamil Nadu a place that I have spent 3 weeks previously in my trip. I figured my knowledge of the area might win me some friends. I didn’t count on the first staff member being an expat of nepal though. He introduced himself and asked me my name and my country before he gave me a menu he says ‘Conas ata tu?’ ‘Ta me go maith’, twas mad. I guess that book doesn’t need writing after all.

I made my way up around the corner to daniels place, more than anything else I was eager to check it out to see why it got such an awful review in the lonely planet guide book. Now I have been critical of the lp before, esp the south east asia one. But here, right here at this house they got it shockingly wrong. They described the place as a ghetto (think back to ghetto in ballyjd??), that the place was sparse and empty. The place was hopping, the beds were clean and the showers had great hot water. It has a free book exchange and the most hilarious collection of movies I have ever seen ‘Titanic 2’ anyone?? It also has an internet room and a bar out the side where they light a campfire every night and you can sit around and chat to whoever arrived off the bus that day. Alot of the chat was about what the hell are the lp on about.

Eddie the guy that runs the place, sporting a ho chi min beard let us know that the lp journalist for malaysia was a bit of a dirty scamp, asking for money for good reviews etc etc which is poor form, you are talking about a persons livelyhood here. It sparked a conversation with an new zealand dude who was there, chris. Who informed us that the lonely planet for south america, brazil specifically was written by a guy who never travelled the country, just spent his allowance on hookers and drugs in rio de janerio and made up all the travel guide stuff and got away with it until people started travelling to towns that didn’t exist etc etc – kinda funny but what a bastard!!!

I had a great time in the cameron highlands, there are tea plantations, forests, jungles, golf courses, butterfly and strawberry farms to walk around and explore. Its quite chilly and it rains most of the day its just like home. The weather meant I was confined to the guesthouse with the others for many hours on end either reading books or coming up with new ways to play jenga – the set I bought in chiang mai is earning me plent of friends 🙂 Not that I need the help of a bunch of tiny wooden bricks – people love my, and I quote ‘Flag waving accent’, its just that they don’t have a notion what I am saying half the time. I stayed for 6 nights, the time flew. I met so many cool people that it will be some bother keeping in contact with them all. I had to leave and to panang I left on a promise from one of the guys in the hostel, a malay with my own name that I would have a place to stay in panang when I got that far. Sounded too good to be true and in many ways it was but turned out to be in itself really worthwhile. I’ll go into that in more detail in my next post.

All the best,

Phil

Exit Philippines

Sunday, May 25th, 2008

We left donsol on the sunday afternoon to plenty more ‘hello joe’s. Our target for the night was the city of naga which is about 4 hours up the road on the long bumpy road back to manilla. We decided to take the trip during the day as you see more off the country that way and you also get to avoid the horrible practice of sleep depravation that goes hand in hand with night time travelling on a bus. We stopped over in naga which apart from a lively market sqaure didn’t have too much to convince us to stay longer than was strictly necessary. We jumped on a bus the following day going back towards manila. Being a bus in the philippines it only left the station as soon as every seat was filled up, we were the first ones on so we had to sit in the bus station in our seats for 3 full hours before the last person boarded up. This screwed up our plans royally for the day as instead of arriving at our destination at the intended, decent hour of 8 we didn;t get there till well past 11. We got a place to stay and went into the videokee bar next door for a few drinks to help us sleep over the loud street noise coming through the paper thin windows.

There is a volcano about 2 hours south of manila which we interested in seeing, getting there was a pain as it involved several jeepney changes in some god awful weather, the wet season had well and truely kicked off. We got to the pier where the boats leave for the volcano, took one look at the sky and another at the size of the volcano and one last one at the sandels, shorts and damp t-shirts we were both sporting and decided that we really weren’t that bothered about climbing it so we decided to head onto the next town before knocking on up to manila the following day.

Getting to the next town was impossible though, the taxi drivers wanted us to part with limbs to pay for the fare, we didn’t budge so were left on the side of the road. Manila seemed better idea with each passing minute, before we jumped back into a jeepney to retrace our steps we heard an almighty roar come from up the road. Our curiosity perked we wandered down to investigate. Cock fighting!! Its a horrible practice, really really disgusting but watching the men place their bets was fascinating, the announcer dude in the middle of the ring spotted us right away and stopped proceedings to inform the 400 or so people stuffed into this cattle shed of the appearance of the 2 white boys, or americanos as we were called. We didn’t stay long here, down the road and on up to the bus station where we picked up the first bus back to manila.

Manila is manila, is bloody massive. We stayed away from the nightlife this time – several of the people we met first time around were still in the hostel so we hung around with them, took some time to visit the 3rd largest shopping mall in the world where we caught the new indiana jones movie (which is complete garbage) and then flew out of manila to malaysia once more after 2 nights. The sly feckers at the airport charge you 750 pesos services tax after you have checked in n all, its very sly. The airport is the worst I have ever seen, there isn’t even a seat to sit down befor eyou check in, checking in takes hours, there are a ridiculous number of security checks – all in all its very exhausting. To top it all off the food is shocking aswell, but thats the country in a nutshell.

Its a strange place the philippines, there is so much to love about the place. I had an absolutely amazing time there, the people are complete dotes and they are immensely beautiful. Myself and bobby agree that they are prob the best looking race in the world (well off the ones I have come across), the first thing you experience of the country is the peoples accent, they all speak with a hispanic tone which took me completely by surprise – you’d swear you were in south or central america with the accent sometimes. Its dark side is also very prevalent, when the security guards at the local shop on the corner can justify holding a pump action shotgun you know its a country with some serious social issues that need sorting out. Once while waiting for a bus (something you end up doing alot in the country) two guys sat either side of me, both of them had massive assault rifles with attached grenade launchers casually strung over their shoulders, its not a country you’d want to start a fight in. I’ve already alluded to the sex industry which is rampant here, I don’t think I need to say anymore – it puts me in a bad mood even thinking about it. The worst aspect of the country is definitely its food – not once in 3 weeks could I say that I had a meal that I enjoyed. Its almost entirely meat based, really poor fatty meat. They salt everything up, dammit even their chocolate sucks, they cannot make tea nor coffee. I ended up subsisting on pot noodles for alot of my time there. American cheeseburgers can be bought on every corner, american tv in every room, american basketball players are the heroes for the little kids dribbling on the streets. If the food is this bad in america I think I will have to give it a miss. Shocking, they have all the basic ingredients that the likes of thai and india has so I don’t  understand how it can all be so consistently and emphatically horrible. Shocker!!!

But apart from those grumblings I had a blast. We flew back into kualar lumpur the other night after watching john terry fall on his arse in moscow, myself and bobby went our seperate ways in the airport. He is off to cambodia while my malaysian adventure is to start again with a trip up to the Cameron Highlands 4 hours north of Kualar Lumpur. I had an amazing time with the bob and I was very sad for us to go our seperate ways but we will meet again back in dublin, limerick cavan or whereever. I have promised to take him on my next trip to india so it looks like I am stuck with him….

Made it to the cameron highlands in one piece but thats another story for another day.

Ciao Ciao,

Phil

Photos from Chiang Mai, Kuala Lumpur and the Philippines

Friday, May 23rd, 2008
good times.

Donsol – whale sharks, fireflies, dancing elderly ladies and some pretty lousy luck

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
The lonely planet guide for South East Asia sucks, its sucks really bad. Its poorly written and contains really sketchy and vague information that has left us stuck in the middle of nowhere for hours on end on more than ... [Continue reading this entry]

Mindoro – White Beach

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
Back onto the jeepney to leave Sabang, I wasn't too upset about leaving the place behind. We had squeezed every good drop out of the place and were exposed to the odd nasty one aswell. White beach isn't too far ... [Continue reading this entry]

Mindoro – Sabang

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
And so we made our way down to mindoro. It is the island immediately south of luzon which is the main philippino island. The best way to get there is to take a direct bus all the way down to ... [Continue reading this entry]

Manila

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
And so to Manila, the capital of the philippines. The flight over was horrible, it was delayed by 2 hours so didn't leave till 3 in the morning. Sleeping on the jumbo was a non starter so myself and the ... [Continue reading this entry]

This is a bit about Kualar Lumpur, but is mostly about my woes with trying to write a novel travel novel

Monday, May 5th, 2008
One morning in Chiang mai I woke up with the grandest of intentions and ambitions. I want to write a book about my trip around the world, or at least the first half of it. Travel books are a dime ... [Continue reading this entry]

Chiang Mai.

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
I am sat here with a cold bottle of san miguel beer in the heart of manila, the capital of the philippines. When I landed in chiang mai about 10 days ago I had neither thought nor intention of visiting ... [Continue reading this entry]