Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

November 18th - 22nd 2011

We left Penang by bus and made our way to the Cameron Highlands. The further along the journey we went the more twisted the roads were getting and the blue skies turned more misty and overcast like we were heading up into the clouds. We got to our final destination which was Tanah Rata one of the main towns in the Highlands. We looked around the town and tried to find some cheap accommodation but everywhere seemed a bit pricey. One hotel owner was lovely and pointed us in the direction of a really cheap place to stay so we headed there and booked a tiny attic room with shared bathroom facilities for 20 ringgit a night, one of the cheapest places we have stayed so far!It consists of a mattress on the floor and just enough space to put our big rucksacks, and that's it!

We went out and explored and found two cheap Indian restaurants next to each other competing for business so we ate in one of them. We also discovered that as Tanah Rata is so high up it actually gets pretty cold so for the first time in a long time I was back in my jeans the only trousers I have bought with me on the trip. We booked a morning tour of the surrounding area for the following day and settled into our tiny room for the night.

One of Craig's Indian dinners

We got up for our morning tour and met the guide and his 4X4. We picked up the other passengers and made our way up the hills to a 'BOH' tea plantation. The landscape was picture perfect and the guide explained to us the hard life that the tea pickers have. Most come from India for 5 years in order to support their families. They work 8 hours a day for 6 days a week and have to pick so much tea to make it worthwhile. We took some photo's of the landscape, tea plants rippling over the hills for acres and acres before moving on to the entrance to the mossy forest. The guide took a handful of common moss and tossed it in the air to show how light it is and then squeezed it tight to allow all of the water inside to gush out, it was unbelievable just how much water the moss holds and explains why it is so important in the ecosystem of the forest.

Tea plantations

The guide then led us into the forest and warned us about the mud and deep boggy patches, a British guy on the tour was wearing brand new white trainers and you could hear him moaning and cursing every time he got a speck of mud on it, bad choice of footwear! In some parts the mud was so deep and at one point I got caught out and my entire left converse got covered in dark composty mud, fortunately they've seen a lot worse on this trip so I wasn't fussed. We eventually came to the mossy forest part of the trip where the floor is bouncy due to the moss and it's growing on everything, the guide refers to the area as that of the world in the film Avatar.We climbed further and reached the highest peak and took in the views over the forest below.

Views over the forest

We then went to the BOH tea plantation headquarters and watched how the tea is turned from green leaf to drinkable tea leaves and sampled some cake from the on site cafe in the modern glass cube it is housed in with views out to the rows of tea plants. The last stop of the day was a butterfly farm. The butterflies were a little few and far between but it hardly cost anything to get in and we also saw turtles, snakes and insects. As we left the heavens opened and we dashed back to the car for a bumpy ride back to Tanah Rata.

Butterfly

Mossy forest

The following day we went to MARDI which houses plants, flowers, vegetables and strawberries one of the highlands most famous exports. We tried strawberry juice and ice cream and wondered around the farm taking in the beautiful orchids and roses on display.

On our last day we went for a walk and stopped at a nice cafe to sample the cream tea. The tea, scones and jam were nice but the cream was from can so we were disappointed having been used to traditional clotted cream at home! Dinner was at the Indian, the portions of naan breads are so big that I had been living off of them as they come with three dipping sauces, a lentil dahl, a minty sauce and something else which was a bit too spicy for me so I left well alone! We enjoyed our time in the highlands and it was lovely being somewhere a bit chilly for a change as we've had months of sun and humidity. The following day we were off to Kuala Lumpur.

Cream tea in Tanah Rata

Penang, Malaysia

November 12th - 17th 2011


We made the journey from Langkawi to Penang by ferry, once in Penang we got conned a little by a taxi driver who made out that our guesthouse was 20 minutes away when it turned out to be within walking distance so that was slightly annoying. The taxi driver's were all so lovely and reliable in Langkawi that we weren't expecting to be overcharged! Tim the manager at our Love Lane hotel/guesthouse was great and suggested a walking route to familiarise ourselves with the city of Georgetown which is the main hub of Penang. On our walk we saw the City Hall and Town Hall which due to the influence of the British and Europeans in this part of Malaysia were very familiar looking. We walked along the Esplanade and past Fort Corwallis and the Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower. After the grand architecture of one part of Georgetown we moved on to Little India  for dinner and to experience the sights and sounds of the bustling area.

For our first full day in Penang we ventured to the Botanical Garden's which was a bus ride away. The gardens were lovely and we enjoyed fresh pineapple on the lawn and watched the locals chasing the monkeys. After the gardens we caught the bus to 'The World's Largest Toy Museum'. It was actually a fairly small space but absolutely packed to the rafters with toys of all sorts from Barbie to Disney to horror movie memorabelia. Craig absolutely loved it and it definately entertained a few hours.

 

Toy Museum

The next day we went to the local art gallery and saw a retrospective on local artist Eric Quah. His work consisted mostly of painting and collage and reflected his life of travelling and connections to Penang and his family. After the exhibition we took the bus to the beautiful Kek Lok Si Temple. We climbed to the top through the dozens of souvenir shops and past the sacred turtles and finally reached the quiet and peaceful atmosphere of the temple. We climbed up some stairs and found candles quietly burning and incense sticks filling the air with fragrance. There was a colourful wishing tree where you can donate money to put a 'wish' on the tree which is a piece of coloured ribbon with messages on it like World Peace or Health or Success.
 

Candles burning in the Temple

 We paid to take the lift to the top of the hill where there was a huge golden statue of Buddha and a beautiful outlook over the surrounding area and town below. There were statues of the Chinese Zodiac which were interesting and a pond filled with Carp fish. We took the lift back down and visited the Kek Lok Si Pagoda which we climbed to the top of. At the bottom of the Pagoda there was a beautiful garden filled with every colour of flower imaginable. A class seemed to be taking place in the bottom room of the tower but we couldn't understand what was being taught, no doubt something on the teachings of Buddha. The White Pagoda is noted as one of Penang's 'most beautiful architectural wonders' and features a Chinese octagonal base, a Thai middle tier and a Burmese crown.


The White Pagoda



Wishing Tree ribbon

 We made another bus journey, this time to the North West side of the island where we went to the National Park followed by the Penang Butterfly Farm. The park was lovely, we used ropes to climb over some parts of the muddy path and other bits were an easy walk over wooden walkways. We saw a very long line of ants walk from the top of one tree along the floor and onto a concrete wall, it was like something from Attenborough! We walked to Monkey Beach so named because of the wild monkeys that live there! We sat peacefully on a rock watching the waves crash down below and turned round to see the monkeys all around us, Craig had visions that they were working on pushing us into the water but they slowly wandered off. We had lunch at a street stall and walked to the Penang Butterfly Farm which was lovely athough the turantula's that they also had on display were not. 


Monkey's in the National Park

On our last day in Penang we organised our travel to the Cameron Highlands the next stop on our trip and went to the Penang State Museum which was cheap to get into and was very informative although the fee was worth the air conditioning alone as it was an incredibly hot day.

All in all we loved Penang and everything it had to offer. We were able to travel easily all over the island and saw lots of sights and met great Malaysian people too. The only draw back for me was the food as there was a lack of vegetarian choice so I lived off big portions of fries with ketchup and mayonaise and buttered corn on the cob all week, not healthy but actually delicious!