October 28th – 30th 2008
I take it Penang doesn't want people staying there as there is a free and frequent ferry service from the island to Butterworth on peninsular Malaysia. After four nights in Georgetown, we got on it, pleased with the free transport deal, and once in Butterworth continued the journey by bus to the Cameron Highlands. On the way, we had to change in Ipoh; a town I still know little about other than its bus station smells of sweet corn as that is what's sold there in polystyrene cups. Tanah Rata, our chosen base in the highlands, is only about 80 km from Ipoh but it took our rickety bus a good three hours to get there, chug as it did up the mountain roads almost coming to a complete standstill at times.
Despite a sign above its entrance instructing everyone who crossed its threshold to “F**k the Lonely Planet”, we opted to stay at the Kang Travellers Lodge as our edition of the travelling bible actually gives it a decent enough review and refers to it as one of the cheapest places in the area. On appearance, the rows of beds in the dorm attic were quite sweet and reminded me of staying in an Austrian hut up the mountains. The smells of the lodge were, however, very unwelcoming. Whilst watching “The Trumen Show” that night on the communal TV, I caught wafts of fish sauce, rubbish and vomit and Robbie commented that he smelt scabby dogs on the saggy sofa we were sat on. It seemed that we were back to the true joys of backpacking after our days on idyllic islands. We struggled to obey the unwritten but obligatory "quiet rule" when we got into our beds on our first night, both of us desperately failing to fight off a fit of giggles stemming from Robbie commenting on the number of noisy plastic bags I seem to be accumulating on this trip. The change of temperature and climate must have had a funny affect on us.
Tanah Rata turned out to be practically one road, filled with Indian restaurants, convenience stores, a few banks, a convent school and a bus station. Luckily the town wasn't the reason for enduring the twisty roads there. The place is also the gateway to exploring Malaysia's jungle-like highlands. Deciding to save some money, or at least not spend some unnecessarily, we avoided signing up for the organised tours from our hostel and planned our own walk to a nearby waterfall. I had been quite cold in bed during the first night so the sound of rain when our alarm sounded in the morning didn't really fill me with joy. Whilst we tucked into breakfast at an Indian restaurant, however, (discovering that naan bread with banana and honey makes a tasty and filling breakfast), the weather luckily picked up and we had a lovely walk through a wild, over-grown forest to Robinson Falls. When we came out of the jungle at the other side, we were on a farm. The workers called out at us across the fields asking where we were from, a friendly reception given that we were stumbling through their rows of fruit and vegetables. As it happened, we seemed to be in the heart of a farming community with a bee farm, a strawberry farm and an orchid farm providing a pretty landscape and explaining the strawberry commercial madness we had seen on arriving in Tanah Rata (strawberry soft toys, strawberry t-shorts, strawberry cups etc.).
The sign on the road we had now joined told us that Tanah Rata was 9km away. As we plodded on, my concern became whether Robbie would ever go on a walk with me again as there was only one direction the road went and that was upwards, one twist after another. It was a joy to see a sign for a tearoom overlooking a huge tea plantation about half way along our route. We staggered in and were amazed to find scones with fresh cream and jam on the menu. I guess the British left at least one good thing from their colonial occupation of Malaysia. Despite my mouth watering with thoughts of my mum's homemade fresh scones, we felt that we couldn't really justify spending a third of our day's budget on them, so settled for sharing a bag of shortbread and some cookies which were half the price and a good second. Dinner at a Chinese in town that evening filled the rest of the space in our stomachs.
All in all, it had been refreshing to breathe some mountain air before facing Malaysia's capital. To be honest though, two days of sleeping with my socks on and pungent hostel smells were enough for me. Kuala Lumpur, with its exciting architecture and hotter climate, was beckoning us and we were ready for a bit of city glam, despite not feeling very glamorous ourselves.
