My first destination in Malaysia was the historic port of Malacca. Its historical strategic importance can be illustrated by the fact that it has been controlled at one time or another by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British as well as the Malays. This has resulted in several ruins and artefacts, showing their respective cultural heritages, dotted around the town.
Guess which nation's heritage is being celebrated in this photo. The river is the one we had the tour on.
The final colonial power [us] decided that Singapore was a more strategic regional centre so Malacca has rather had its heydey as a port and local centre. However, one would never guess this from the extraordinarily enthusiastic bloke who gave the talk on the tourist cruise that I took along the river that runs through town. He might not have quite had the optimistic exaggeration of the sorely-missed Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf [that Monty Python-esque Iraqi Information Minister] but he made up for it with sheer exhuberance.
He gushed forth about everyone and everything from the wondrously benevolent local government [they may indeed have spent fortunes on various developments but a few bob on the sewerage wouldn't go amiss] to the exact reasons why he'd named many of the lizards sunning themselves on the banks after Hollywood stars [something to do with a Bond film, I think]. His piece de resistance was left for the end when he decided to bid us farewell in at least 100 different languages, including laudable efforts at some of the myriad regional accents in the English-speaking world.
Sadly, I was unable to afford the time to have a second chance to practise the Swahili for "See Ya" and was merely left to bid a basic "Bye Bye". I now headed on up north towards the capital, Kuala Lumpur - normally known simply as KL - on the excellent Malaysian road network.
KL is a big, bustling city and, like several other cities in the south east asia region, came into a lot of wealth in the booms of the mid-eighties and mid-nineties. Indeed it is clear that Malaysia has done very well economically in recent(ish!) years. In keeping with time-honoured tradition, much of this wealth has been re-invested in lots of shiny skyscrapers including the king of the castles that is the Petronas Towers. Having been up the CN Tower in Toronto and the Sears Tower in Chicago, I wasn't going to turn down the hat-trick opportunity so this became my first port of call. The Malaysians certainly haven't held back with this one, as it consists of two colossal slightly-tapered cylinders which at 452m (1483 feet) count as the tallest building in the world. [The CN Tower is actually taller, but for reasons compreshensible solely to skyscraper-spotters, is defined as a structure rather than a building. Interestingly, the Sears Tower's top occupied floor is some 200 feet higher than the ones here, but the gigantic "spires" on top of the Petronas Tower are allowed to count, whereas the "antenna" on top of the Chicago edifice is not. Answers on a postcard.]
Shiny Happy Buildings...
The two towers are clad in reflective stainless steel and are linked on the 41st level by a vertiginous glass bridge. Pleasingly, I discovered that entry to the towers is free. Displeasingly, though, the humble tourist is only entitled to go up to the sky bridge (not even halfway up) so the third goal in my hat-trick has a distinct "deflected shot that was originally going for a throw-in" feel to it. However, a goal's a goal and there can't be many people who have been up all three so I shall not complain any further. The view from the bridge at nearly 200m (which would still be above all bar a couple of London's finest efforts) is also pretty cool.
Looking up at the towers. Bear in mind that Canary Wharf only just gets above that bridge. Wouldn't that be a cool place to bungy off?
A lot of the colonial architecture is what the Victorians dubbed 'east meets west'
Similarly to Singapore, KL is a bit of a shopper's paradise but this is clearly not what I left London for so I got on a bus to take me inland to the Cameron Highlands. These originally sprung to prominence in the colonial days because their altitude ensures a much milder climate. This was popular amongst all the ex-pats finding the heat and humidity somewhat alien for one brought up in England (or, worse, Scotland/Wales).
It was strangely wonderful to emerge from the bus in the evening in Tanah Rata (alt. 1,400m) and immediately start rummaging for my jumper - unused since New Zealand some 3 months prior. I checked into a hostel that had been recommended to me by a friend in Australia and joined my fellow guests sipping a cold beer and chatting around a fire that the hostel manager had cooked up. Periodically, when the fire started to die down, he would disappear down the road and re-emerge carrying a large wooden door or something similar. This would then be hacked up and used to keep the fire going. Where he got these from was a mystery to all of us and it honestly wouldn't surprise me if there is now a bemused family or two wondering where their front door went.
The following day I had earmarked for some serious trekking and I was pleased to get up and find it cool but sunny - perfect conditions. A hand drawn map was purchased as I was informed that these were more reliable than the professional looking tourist ones. [Certainly, few maps back home contain such useful sentences as "turn left about 200 feet after the big tree where it gets muddy"]. There are a number of half-day hikes in the region but as I only had twice that period I was not going to have time to do them all. Wrong. I devised an approximate figure-of-eight route that took in all the major trails and crested 4 of the best summits in the region then set off with lots of water and peanuts to see how far round I could get before it got dark. I find I can get totally lost in myself just trekking up and down, especially if the terrain is interesting as it was here. I went up to 2,000m, down to 1,300m and back up several slightly smaller peaks. I wandered through some enormous tea plantations. I even found a strawberry farm which provided my afternoon snack.
This nicely sihouetted fern is typical of the flora in the region.
The tea plantations are everywhere. I bet they were glad when the hedge-trimmer was invented.
Things were going well and when I reached the three quarter point with still 3 hours of daylight left I realised that my plan was going to work excellently. Wrong again.
One of the paths literally came to an abrupt end most of the way up the last peak. My brief elation about feeling like a proper Livingstone stuck alone in the jungle, cut off from civilisation lasted about 2 minutes until my mobile phone beeped for a text message. Yes, Malaysia is truly in the modern world and even when lost in a jungle one is still connected to the world. I find this rather sad on reflection. However, armed with the confidence that if everything did go pear-shaped I could call for help, I set off through the thicker forest simply following a compass bearing that ought to get me back onto the path. And shortly later it did.
Doesn't look very tropical, does it? This is typical of the non-plantation terrain. The peak with the antennae was no. 3 of the 4. This photo was taken on the way up to peak 4 which is where the path died out.
I got back just before dusk, just in time to benefit from another portal meeting a fiery end and to rest my legs. I had been walking non-stop for over 8 hours on jungle paths, covering approximately 35km including 1,800 vertical metres. And this from someone who used to throw a tantrum when my parents took me on a 30 min stroll in the country as a kid. Must have been withdrawal symptoms from all the jumping around in Oz.
Anyway, a rather fantastic benefit of such exertion is that one can eat for Britain afterwards and the food around here is as cheap and plentiful as it is delicious. The local speciality was a "steamboat", which is rather like a fondue, except you cook both meat and veg/salad items in a couple of vats of what is basically soup. The improvement on a fondue is that you can also have the soup on its own. I joined a couple of Canadians and we ordered three of the full works option. I think I nearly finished my own portion. I was already impressed and licking my lips after the waiter had brought out large plates of chicken, beef, pork, veg and various noodles. On top of this came a tray of dumplings and then prawns, cuttlefish, and interestingly, jellyfish. Sadly, I can't really recommend the jellyfish - it totally living up to expectations and being a bit rubbery and flavourless - but everything else was fabulous. The bill? About 2 pounds each.
I was still many km from Thailand and being less than enamoured at the thought of spending an entire day on various buses, decided to break the journey with a stop in Penang, perhaps the most famous of the Malaysian resorts. I was only there for less than 24 hours but this popularity seemed unfounded to me. There was a massive and interesting Buddhist temple on the edge of the main town and several lively, if rather seedy, bars. However, the fact that speaks loudest about my impressions of the place was that I was willing to catch a 5:30am bus the following morning to get to Thailand.
Looking up at the massive temple. Unfortunately I wasn't there in the morning when the sun would have been better positioned.
Continue to Thailand.
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