Heading for the Islands - Malaysia

When you head into a rain forest, you should always think very carefully about how to get out! It wasn't easy - but it was very interesting! First you take a long boat down the river for two hours, it felt very strange as there was nothing else around except monkeys, birds and the odd reptile swimming in the water (not quite sure what that was - but it was big!).




After the boat you get on a bus for a few miles and then onto the 'Jungle Express' train for 7 hours!




Here we are on the Jungle Express (don't know who the guy is in the background like!)

This is us in 'first class'. The scenery in places was amazing - big cliffs rising vertically out of the ground and big skies and green fields - however, if that is not your 'cup of tea' there was the 'Bourne Ultimatum' film on flat screen TV. Jungle travel apparently has advanced lately!

The kitchen was another story though. This was a 'Food warning outbreak alert' waiting to happen. The big chap in the distance is the chef, cleaner and washer-upper. He had a rag hanging from his pants that he used to wipe his hands, sink, cups, dirty plates, floor and probably his nether regions. We opted for a cup of tea only(from a plastic cup) - no food!

This is two lovely Austrian girls we met in the Cameron Highlands, Isle (on the left) and Angie. We met up again with them at the train station and spent the night in Kota Bharu (the stop off point to the Perhentian Islands) - but that's for another blog.

Although we were looking out of the windows at the scenery, I'll give a free cup of tea to the first person to tell us what Jason Bourne's real name is!!!

Finally, we'd like to wish all our family and friends - HAPPY EASTER and don't be eating too many of those Easter eggs - we would, but they don't have them here!!! John and Diane - hope you enjoy Thailand.

Taman Negara - Rain forest - Malaysia

At the moment we're in Thailand but this was from 27th Feb to 1st March.

Next stop Teman Negara, a national park with what is estimated to be some of the oldest rain forest in the world, apparently over 130 million years old. The journey from the Cameron Highlands would be easy if it weren't for the fact that the roads are all winding around mountains, so it takes quite a few hours. When you get there you actually stay on the opposite side of the river at Kuala Tahan and to get amongst the forest you take the boat over the river. That's us on the boat on our way over, notice the colour of the water! When we arrived it rained for 24 hours solid and the water in the river almost doubled in size - all of the restaurants are 'floating barges' so as the river rises - so do the restaurants. It's odd to see the bars and cafes getting higher up each day. Anyway - the rain stopped on this day so over we went!




This is a giant bamboo plant - this variety can grow an amazing 3 feet in a single day if the conditions are right.

This is the creaky 'canopy walk'. A serious of rope bridges that stretch across the forest canopy. Elvis may be smiling but believe me there were some real 'touching cloth' moments when the bridge started swinging, bending and twisting - especially when you get into the middle. Elvis doesn't like heights so she was particularly brave, which is just as well because once you start you can't go back or get off!

Some of the trails were quite steep and a spot of semi rope climbing was required.

With all those vines hanging about what's a man to do but swing on one and make that 'Argggghhhh OoooAghhh, 'Lord of the Jungle' cry.

Sometimes on the trail there were 'natural' stair cases provided by the roots of the trees.

This is the scene from the top of the hill lookout, Bukit Teresik. What you can't appreciate by this picture is the noise of the jungle - it was amazing just sitting listening to the birds, monkeys, insects and lizards having a right carry on! When we got back after this walk we discovered we'd been 'had' by leeches again - even though our trousers were tucked into our socks with sticky tape wrapped around (we looked like right nuggets)! Only one each this time though.




The next day we took a boat ride up the river into the dense jungle and visited a settlement of Orang Asli (Original People), which was amazing. The people are nomads, and move (usually along the river) to different settlements when the local hunting becomes too difficult. This guy is demonstrating how to start a fire with a piece of rattan and a bamboo.

The young 'un takes over and blows the hot ash into flames.





These people are famous for their blow pipes, you've probably seen nature programs or documentaries about their hunting techniques. They make blow pipes from bamboo, they make the darts using another wood and the flight from a type of balsa wood all glued together with resin. But the ingenious part is they've discovered a poison from the sap of a tree that they dip the darts in. They hunt monkey's in the trees. When the dart hits, the monkey takes off through the trees and they follow on the ground. After about twenty minutes the monkey can't move and usually drops out of the tree to the ground - where the pot awaits!

This is chief Hodge having a go of the bler pipe. I was ok but the chief of the village was amazingly accurate. They hung a 4 inch stuffed penguin from a tree and from 15 meters away he hit the penguin right between the eyes. When I saw that I deduced that the monkey's don't have a chance.

This is Elvis having a bler - and me risking 'monkey paralysis' to get a picture!

This is the settlement by the river.

Back at base camp Kuala Tahan, these are the floating restaurants that we frequented each night. Each day as the river was rising the restaurants got closer to us, saved our aching legs I suppose!

I'm not going to tell you what this creature is - but if you can tell me,

Then I'm sure it will be,

A free cup of tea.

This is looking over the river, Sungai Tembling, which separates the base camp from the national park.

Anybody know what's being 'farmed' here? A bonus cup of tea question I think! Anybody who thinks it's carnation milk loses all previous cups of tea!

This is the school at the base camp - notice all the girls have to wear traditional Muslim dress code. Later in the afternoon, after school the kids were playing a most intricate and skilled game, no, not a 'Gameboy' in sight! This game was called 'Knock down the flip flop tower'. A game involving accuracy and dexterity, a leaning 'tower' of flip flops, who will be the first to knock them over with... yes you've guessed it, another flip flop. It was a joy to see!

After a few days in the jungle, which was mainly hot, wet and humid it was time to go for some relaxing beaches and getting there is the subject of the next blog - it wasn't easy we can tell you!!

Well done with the last cup of tea question about flesh eating plants -alas none of you get a free cuppa, as you all missed the main one, the Triffid! Geee have none of you seen the film for pete's sake already?

Erm Sissy Ginny, getting your drawers all in a knot about MacDonalds - rest assured we eat local produce all the time - even when we don't know what we're eating! But, every now and then a 15 pence ice cream cone all helps with the budget!

Cameron Highlands - Malaysia

24 - 27th Feb

Anybody know what the Cameron Highlands are famous for - YES - TEA - lots of it, fields of it in fact! The temperature and climate in the highlands is ideal for growing tea and, as the Malaysians are mad about their tea (on average they drink 25 cups a day) they just about grow enough for themselves - no exporting here!

As you can see this place is a cool picturesque retreat, ideal for the knackered backpacker to take a well earned rest! I did however manage to persuade Elvis to don the walking sandals and take a jungle stroll with me through the beautiful undeveloped forest. (As usual we 'got lost' and she wasn't best pleased when instead of a gentle stroll back to the guest house we were forced to scale a 'near vertical' face of the jungle after a night of heavy rainfall!) This is obviously a smiling 'before' shot!

The landscape is just covered in lush green tea plantations, they date back to the English Colonial days apparently.

The tea pickers wade between the rows snipping the green tips by hand and throwing them into a basket on their back. There is also a machine that can do this although it is not as 'choosy'!

There's an abundance of fruit and veg grown her too, cabbages, strawberries, chillies to name but a few! Homemade strawberry ice cream is a bit of a speciality here, yes of course we tried it...it would be rude not to!

We also did a guided forest trip finished off with a visit to a tea plantation and of course.... the obligatory cup of tea....leaves not a tea bag please! It looks like the land is wearing a giant pair of chords!

The guide explained that the new leaves from the 'green tips' provide the best tea. There's also a huge amount of 'hand sorting' goes on and then all the left over bits and rubbish etc. well....that's what goes into your tea bags!!





This is one of the few 'flesh eating' plants in the world, it temps insects into the bucket with sweet smelling nectar, when the little creepies get close to the nectar they realise, too late, that they're not on solid footing! The waxy inside makes them slip into the bucket where a cocktail of digestive juices is waiting for them! It's called a pitcher plant.

Elvis and I enjoying a spot of breakfast, what a view eh!

More beautiful tea plantations.

Now then, who wants to win a cup of the cameron highland gold tips select tea - you can't buy it in the shops cos they don't make enough to export it. Just tell us the names of other flesh eating plants and the finest brew known to man could be steaming in your pot!

One of the oldest rain forests in the world next: Taman Negara - that's the next blog!

Cup of tea goes to Sister Ginny, who not only correctly translated  Medeka to 'Independence' she also corrected me on the date - you can have a scone with your tea (jam and clotted cream of course) for that. We want to wish Sissy Poll and Shaz a great time in Malaysia, they'll be in Kuala Lumpur very soon. Hope you enjoy it and if you visit the towers - watch out for the brain washing video!!! Just do what I did and repeat "Jack and Jill went up the hill, repeatedly  - I think it worked, however Petronas does make some pretty outstanding petroleum based products!

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia

HELLO AGAIN!! Did you think the tigers got us? We've been living in the jungle followed by a 'Robinson Crusoe' island for a while - but now we're in Bangkok and we're back in civilisation - and then some!! So we've got some blogs to write to get things up to date - so here we go...

20th Feb.
Kuala Lumpur - for the 'Geographobics' KL is the capital of Malaysia - not, what someone suggested, a place where the 'umpur lumpurs' come from, if it were, it certainly would have been given a miss. KL is just a small 5 hour bus ride from Singapore. The two cities are quite similar really, except Singapore is solid gold and KL is gold plated, which is good really because when you go behind the main streets in KL you see some interesting stuff going on! And the smell levels increase too!

This first picture is us having a McDonald's, not a burger or anything - oh no, that would be far too extravagant on our budget. This is an ice cream cone which is renowned in the backpacker world for its rock bottom price. These little beauties only cost 1 Ringgit each (that about 15 pence). Ask for one next time you're in Macs.

Pictures from the 'big' streets, day and night. This is known as the 'Bintang Walk'







This picture is from the inside of the largest twin towers in the world, the Petronas Towers.

...and these are the mighty towers, the 2nd highest building in the world, they used to be the tallest until they were 'out trumped' by the Taipei 101 building in 2004. We went up the towers to the sky bridge section (you can see the bridge in the picture that connects the two towers). The tour was free, however, we were required (compulsory) to watch a 10 minute video before the tour, which we thought would be all about the towers; how they were built, how many floors, how much it cost etc. So there we sat with our 3D gegs on and then this ridiculous film started on how the 'Petronas' Company is the best petroleum company in the world - the towers were hardly mentioned. We left the video room feeling brainwashed! In fact I think the 3D gegs were really 'brain washing transmitters'. While we were in the queue, I (Keith) became quite the movie star - all the locals wanted to have their picture taken with me because basically, I was twice the size of them!

This is the view of KL from the the sky bridge joining the Petronas towers, which, by the way, were built by the makers of the finest petroleum known to man.



The people of Malaysia are mostly Muslim, so there's lots of these beautiful mosques amongst the sky scrapers and shopping malls.

Three interesting buildings here, in the foreground is the Sultan Abdul Samad, which looks over Merdeka square, where in 1957 the Union Jack was lowered and Malaysia became independent (then the trouble started!). The next building (the tallest) is the KL tower, which is a tourist/telecommunications tower and in the background is the Petronas Towers - synonymous with quality petroleum products.

If you need to buy a coffin, just be sure not to ask for the shop by mentioning the owners name first - the taxi driver may blacken your eyes.

Try crossing this street at rush hour! There's very little emphasis given to the pedestrian in Malaysia.

Although there's lots of big buildings in KL it's unusual as it's built in the middle of a forest area - so there's chances to get out the way of the noise if you look for them. This is us having a break on a nature walk (what do you mean - posers!!)

This is the Saturday night Indian market and that's us risking our kites eating Indian street food - no not really, there's loads of people eating and it was delicious and extremely cheap. You are supposed to eat with your hands, Elvis did, but I'm far too civilised for that.

This is the KL tower all lit up on a night.

This is the Indian market. This street was insane - there was food, clothes and singing and dancing acts all on a street about six feet wide. This picture is of the massive pans of sauces they have bubbling, we were going to have some but just as I was about to order I could have sworn I saw a pair of underpants come to the surface.

The last picture has to be the star of the show - the Petronas Towers, built by the best petroleum company the world has or will ever see!

Thanks to Sister Ginny for keeping the comments updated with our whereabouts and thanks (I think) to Paul Beaney for ALL your comments, Mrs H will be wanting a word with you regarding the 'shaven apes' joke! I'll not say anything, I'll just kick your arse in this years cycling trip!!

For a quite tricky cup of tea question, I mentioned Merdeka Square was where the Union Jack was lowered in 1957 - tell me what 'Merdeka' translates to and a cup of the Cameron Highlands (next blog) finest tea leaves could be brewing in your mug before you know it.