We’re leaving on a jet plane…….

23 March 2007

After a twelve hour night train fom Hue to Hanoi we checked into our hotel in Hanoi’s Old Quarter and caught up with some much needed sleep. We spent our first day doing what we usually do when we arrve in a new city – walking aroud and getting our bearings.

Street Food – Hanoi Style

At the end of a long day walking around the various roads and lanes which each seem to sell a different type of product, ie. the washing powder street, the sunglasses street etc etc, stopping for beer and smoothie breaks and generally watching the world go by, we ended up at Hoan Kiem Lake which is where the nightly water puppets shows are held.

Chris by the lake

Moto Mayhem

Family of five on Moto

We were not really that bothered about seeing the water puppets, but as it is an ancient Vietnamese Art which dates bck to the 10th Century and seeing as we were in the area we joined the queue. We eventually made it to the front to find the tickets were sold out but a tout came to our rescue and sold us two tickets at face value …where was the catch? Well it became evident when we took our seats; me in row B and Chris is row E, that they were the last tickets of the day.

The water puppetry is performed in a pool of water with the water surface being the stage. The puppeteers, who train for approximately 3 years, stand behind a screen and control the puppets using long bamboo rods and string mechanism hidden beneath the water surface. The puppets are carved out of wood and often weigh up to 15 kg. A traditional Vietnamese orchestra provides background music accompaniment. Singers of Cheo (a form of opera) sing songs which tell the story being acted out by the puppets.

The puppeteers

The show was entertaining, even if we could not understand the commentary, moving fast enough to hold our limited attention spans. Each scene was a short skit which covered farming, fishing, swimming and a number of other activities. I think we both ended up surprised by how much we enjoyed the hour show and felt we had well and truly ‘got our moneys worth’.

Also on our agenda whilst staying in Hanoi was a visit to see Ho Chi Minh at the Mausoleum. We dressed appropriately the next morning (no shorts and no sandals) and headed out on the walk across the city to the Mausoleum only to find we had well and truly mis-timed our visit and the place was shut for the day (strangeley the place shuts at 11am on the days when it is actually open). Disapointed our trek had been in vain and we didn’t get to see the preserved body of the former Communist dictator we commandeered a cyclo to take us back to our hotel.

On our way back we were slowly chugging along (speed is not something that can be expected when some poor Vietnamese guy who could only be weighing in at 10 stones max is having to power himself and us two heavy weights along) when we noticed a small crowd of people staring at something on the road. As we passed by we found out they were staring at the body of a young man (maybe in his thirties) lying in the road. Our cyclo driver said he was sleeping but having seen the man’s grey face and no signs of breathing we questioned this only for the driver to reply ‘Mafia’ ….’Opium’. Disturbed by the sight we continued back to our hotel having been disapointed not to see the dead man we had set out to see and disturbed to see another.

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!

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