The Malaysian Peninsula: KL, Cameron Highlands, Taman Negara

Though we write this to you from Borneo, we've gotten just a little bit behind on updating our website, so the purpose of this entry is to fill you in, dear reader, on the joys of peninsular Malaysia (west Malaysia). After bidding farewell to the Strang family, we flew to Kuala Lumpur from Jakarta August 7th, just before (we are told) a relatively major earthquake rattled the capital.

Farewell, Strang family (minus Rob):

Per usual, Air Asia decided to delay our flight 6 hours, so we had the unprecedented experience of passing through Indonesian customs on our single-entry visa, twice- once to go to the gate the first time, and the second time because we had to go back to the Air Asia counter to convince them to put us on am earlier flight.

Arriving in KL after midnight, we were exhausted. We realized as we were leaving the airport that we were at an entirely different terminal- a different airport, in fact- than we had thought we were. Execellent! So far, Malaysia-1, us-0. We caught a 12:30 AM bus to Chinatown, got in around 2:30 AM, and after roaming the empty, darkened streets for twenty minutes or so, packs in tow, grouchy as all hell, located our rather barracks-like hotel, "Hotel Chinatown Two" and tuckered into our windowless cell (airconditioned, though!) for some much-needed shut-eye.

Despite the misleading, desolate impression that the midnight hour on Jalan Petaling- Chinatown's main artery- may have given us during our stroll the night prior, the street market scene outside our hotel was nothing short of fake-Louis Vuitton-hawker-stall mayhem the next morning. We began to wilt after setting out on foot in the humidity and fumes, but made it over to the Petronas towers to take in their dizzying heights in person from the gardens in front. After that we discovered a fantastic Malaysian tourism office (again, airconditioned- high-fives all around), with FREE INTERNET. Since we didn't even have a guidebook for Malaysia, yet, we had to figure out what the heck there was to see in this country- and then set about organizing our excursions to the typical penninsula highlights- Cameron Highlands, and of course, Taman Negara, Malaysia's oldest and most popular national park. In fact, "Taman Negara" literally translates to "National Park" in Bahasa Malay. Due to all of this planning, we missed out on a lot of KL's offerings, but figured we'd hit it again more properly on our swing back through before Borneo in a week and a half.

The next day we took a rattling bus up into the Cameron Highlands, about four hours north of KL. The Cameron Highlands- quite English in character- form Malaysia's most extensive hill station, and is a popular retreat for Malaysians and travellers alike, with the unique combination of cool, misty air and tropical flora. As our guidebook (we finally got one in KL), states, "the 'ye olde english' atmosphere really does feel contrived at times, but there is no denying that the locals get a quick out of it." This is quite true. It's a bizarre combination of Malay, Chinese and Indian fare and shops against a backdrop of faux-Tudor architecture and green, misty hills.

Unfortuntunately, Megan caught some sort of flu in the CH, so much of our time there was spent vegging out at our digs, Father's Guesthouse, a wonderful guesthouse with rooms out of an old stone farmhouse, secluded on a high hill on the outskirts of Tanah Rata. Our days passed watching pirated American movies (sorry, OPDAT, that's all they had) in the TV lounge, drinking strawberry juice (a CH specialty) and taking leisurely strolls on the many walking trails through tea plantations. The highlight of the visit was a guided tour we took through tea plantations, with some minor jungle trekking. Our guide taught us all about the medicinal value of many of the plants that dot the Highlands' tropical forests, including a yellow flower that has anesthetic properties (we all were forced to let it sit on our tongues for a few minute, noting the spreading, numbing sensation), natural cinnamon, and several leaves which combat flus and illness when chewed and sucked. We took a visit to an Orang Asli house, too- the Orang Asli are the original native peope of the region, and live in bamboo and thatch homes that border the windy road that cuts through the jungle and hills. We were taken into the jungle with one Orang Asli hunter, who showed us how to use a blowdart gun to catch prey (Catt especially excelled at this) and then let us play with Orang Asli musical instruments while he sang us some traditional songs. Ever the musicologist, Megan played the bamboo drums. The resulting pictures, I'd like to think, only have minimal blackmail value.

Pictures from trekking in the Cameron Highlands and the Tea Plantations:

pitcher plant- digests insects in the soupy enzymes that fill the "pitcher" part of the plant... they're everywhere!

...at Father's Guesthouse, our home for a few days...

Pictures of the Orang Asli home and family:

After our time in the Cameron Highlands, we headed over to Taman Negara to do some trekking, check out the longest jungle canopy walkway in the world, and explore the limestone caves. We met up with a great French couple we met on the bus, (hello, Christine and Louie!) and enjoyed lazy dinners with them in the evening at the floating restaurants anchored across from the park at Kuala Tahan, the town where we, and most budgt-minded travellers, stayed. The canopy walkway was pretty amazing- we didn't really see any wildlife because we were concentrating so intently on not falling off (not like it was possible, but your knees do get a little bit weak looking down all that way). We trekked on various jungle trails each day, and also went caving. This was a first for Megan (as adventurous Catt had been before, in Charlottesville). Unlike in the US, Canada, or Europe, where you'd be required to sign your life over first, AND wear a helmet, there was none of that. I think I half-expected the experience to entail a casual walk through a cave (if such a thing is even possible), but we had to climb, crawl and scramble through tight crevices, scale small walls, and duck-walk, sometimes shimmying on our bellies through squishy, smelly puddles of bat guano. There were thousands of fruitbats hanging upside down from the low ceiling, too- I captured some pictures:

Here are other pictures from Taman Negara:

Catt headed up to the Canopy Walkway...

the "schoolbus" home for local children

the floating restaurants

a liana vine

The only bad thing about Taman Negara was the location of our accomodation, "Ekotan Chalets." When travelling in a predominantly Muslim country, always take note of your accomodation's proximity to the local mosque if you value your sleep at all. Each morning- 4:00 AM- we got a personal call to prayer via a loudspeaker blaring directly into our chalet. Just as we managed to fall back asleep, the nearby school would start up with their infernal chanting of their ABCs, or whatever, in murderously cheerful small voices lead by a school marm-cum-military commander on a bullhorn. We are both decidedly NOT morning people (that rare breed of individual that I think will forever remain a mystery of the universe to me), so you can imagine the agony we suffered. It was almost like in the movie "My Cousin Vinny" where every morning they're woken by some different, intolerably loud noise- train whistle, hog call, etc. Apart from that, though, T.N. was all quite lovely.

We're in Borneo until September 6th, and then on to Singapore!