We’re leaving on a jet plane…….

4 February 2007

The morning of Chris’s 29th birthday begun with the sweet sound (erhemm!) of me singing happy birthday to him followed by a mad dash to the bus station to catch the first bus to The Cameron Highlands.

After a bumpy four hours, during which Chris was as quiet as a mouse reading a copy of ‘four four two’ he had managed to get his hands on (memo to self – next year all I need to do is buy him ‘four four two’!), we reached our destination – Tanah Rata. Tanah Rata which means ‘flat ground’ is the main township nestled in the Cameron Highlands and is one of Malaysia’s most popular get-a-way destinations due to the cooler climate (approx 25 degrees during the day).

The Highlands are named after William Cameron, a British colonial government surveyor who discovered the plateau during a mapping expedition in 1885. The Cameron Highlands then grew during the colonial era when British planters realised the potential of its fertile mountain slopes for growing tea, then a prized commodity and today it is home to Malaysia’s biggest tea plantation – The BOH Tea Plantation.

Wanting to make the most of Chris’s birthday (not simply marking it with a bumpy bus journey and a copy of ‘four four two’) we dropped our bags off and boarded a local bus where we then sat for the best part of half an hour while the bus conductor shouted at the local school children making some children get off the bus to board an alternative bus. The poor children were then immediately shouted at by the driver of the other bus and sent back to the one we were sitting on – this continued with the children never really making it back to either bus before they were turned around again. Eventually some sort of agreement was reached and the dizzy children were back on our bus and we were off on our days adventure.

We were heading for Malaysia’s biggest Tea Plantation. The Lonely Planet helpfully noted we had to disembark when the bus reached a vegetable stall (we were hoping the vegetable stall owner had not found a better patch since the time the book went to the publishers) and then head off on foot up the intersecting road….so this was exactly what we did. What the Lonely Planet did not mention is that we had to head up the intersecting road for 40 minutes before we got to the factory and tea rooms. However this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we walked through the plantation and were able to take in the beautiful rolling hills covered in tea plants.

On reaching the ‘BOH’ factory we learned why BOH has ‘Ummph!’ and all about the process behind a good cup of tea. We then enjoyed Chris’s official birthday drink – a pot of gold blend BOH – with a scone overlooking the plantation. It was all really quite civilised (a first time for everything eh!).

On returning to Tanah Rata we found a Chinese restaurant and enjoyed a nice evening meal. Following the meal Chris decided he wanted to sample another locally produce – strawberries, so he ordered desert of strawberries and ice-cream. He got to his last mouthful and spat out (fortunately!) a large shard of glass that had been in the ice-cream! Chris, still in shock at his narrow miss of having his insides ripped to shreds, sat still while I marched the glass up to the management to complain (although even I have to admit it did look suspicious that the ice-cream had been devoured in its entirety!) the outcome being that the ice-cream was on the house!

That brings me to today. This morning we had the most wonderful Indian pancakes ‘Roti Canai’ with bananas for breakfast and then headed of into the Jungle for a 5km Jungle Walk taking us past waterfalls and landslides.

Tonight we leave on an overnight bus into Thailand. Sadly our time in Malaysia has been far too short but in order to extend our stay here we would have to compromise our other plans for Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam; which we have decided is not something we want to do at this time. Unfortunately we simply can’t see everything!

2nd February 2007

After 3 days gentle introduction to life in South East Asia, courtesy of the clean, safe, orderly, and surprisingly good (if lacking a little ‘je ne sais quois’) Singapore, we headed north by train Kuala Lumpur, capital city of Malaysia.

For once our timing was spot on, we had arrived in town just in time for the Thaipusam festival. Thaipusam is a Hindu festival celebrated on the full moon of the Tamil month of Thai (a.k.a. 1st Feb this year!).

On the day of the festival, devotees shave their heads and undertake a pilgrimage along a set route while engaging in various acts of devotion. At its simplest (and least painful!) this may entail carrying a pot of milk, but the hard core Hindus get into acts of self mutilation, by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with skewers (ouch!). The most spectacular practice is the ‘vel kavadi’, essentially a portable altar up to two meters tall, decorated with peacock feathers and attached to the devotee through 100 hooks pierced into the skin on the chest and back! It is said that the devotees are able to enter a trance, feel no pain, do not bleed from their wounds and have no scars left behind (reah right!).

It so happens that the largest celebration of this festival takes place in Kuala Lumpur, with the pilgrimage following the 14km route from the city centre to the spectacular Batu Caves. The festival attracts up to 1m worshipers (and a fair handful of tourists!).

We set out early in the morning by bus to the caves, our devotion clearly not strong enough to walk the 14kms! When we arrived the festival was in full swing, with hundreds of thousands of people making their way up the 272 steps to the caves, past the 43m high gold statue of Lord Murugan (the Hindu version of the angel of the north, but a little less rusty!).

It was a spectacular sight (check out some of the photos, arghh!) and we spent the whole morning soaking up the atmosphere. We made one attempt to join the worshipers going up to the caves but beat a hasty retreat as the crowds became over bearing. It was full on enough just watching the goings on, the devotion of the worshipers to walk all the way from town, in the heat of the day, either carrying heavy pots or impersonating kebabs is unbelievable (I’m glad that celebrating Christian festivals involves nothing more painful than eating too much chocolate!).

After the fun and games at the festival, we headed to the other side of the city to visit another sacred site…..the Bukit Jalil national sports stadium….the venue for the 1998 commonwealth games!

Charlotte competed at the games 8 years ago, so we went up to have a look around the venues for old times sake! We managed to get into the swimming pool complex to have a look around, although Charlotte declined my challenge of doggy paddle a race! It was great to see the place where Charlotte had raced, having previously only seen it on the TV!

The next day we headed up to the Petronas twin towers, in the heart of the business district of the city. We joined in with the other tourists and went up to the viewing bridge between the towers at level 42! The buildings are incredible, once the tallest skyscrapers in the world at 452m, they now hold the slightly less glamorous title of the tallest twin towers in the world. With a taste for tall buildings we then headed over to the sky tower, for another aerial view of the city (I have to thank Charlotte for indulging my weird obsession with tall buildings…but it was the eve of my birthday!).

On our final evening in KL, we headed out for a celebratory meal, stumbling across a great little restaurant for our first decent curry since leaving Leeds (the things you miss about home eh!). We both enjoyed our brief visit to Kuala Lumpur, the experience of the Thaipusam festival being one of the highlights of our trip so far!