Jungle Hike in the Highlands

Yesterday, I decided to set out on a trek on one of the many trails in the Cameron Highlands - there are several well marked trails around the area, so I figured I would brave the rain and set out. It is a rule here at the guest house that you always let someone know where you are going. They mark down which trails people are taking on a white board, and then erase your name when you get home and check back in. My guidebook also suggested taking some emergency supplies, so I packed a big bottle of water, a knife, and an extra shirt. The guide book recommended a lighter - I'm not sure what I was going to light on fire in a rainforest in the middle of a rain storm, so I didn't bother with that. (Later I realized it's probably for leech removal, but don't worry, that's NOT foreshadowing, I did NOT have any leech incidents - I didn't want anyone reading this whole thing waiting for the leeches to appear.)

I have been fine, temperature-wise, in my sweatshirt, but I would need some better rain gear if I didn't want to repeat my Land's End Incident. I needed a rain jacket big enough to cover my backpack, as well, so I went to the store to find a big rain coat. The store I went to had a whole stack of packaged rain coats surrounded by signs in about eight languages saying not to open the packages, so I opted for an "XL", idiotically forgetting about Asian sizing - to wear it over my backpack, I should have looked for XXXL. I purchased the coat and left the shop, walking the rest of the way down the street under covered awnings.

When I finally opened the coat and shook it out, something fell to the ground. Ah yes. Of course. It was my RAIN HAT. The coat did not have a hood, but instead, came with a worthless little cap. 

Me in my rain get-up:

You might notice that I appear to be tipping my hat. This is because, if I did not hold the brim up, it simply laid flat against my face, successfully channeling any water that fell on my head straight down my nose and into my mouth. PERFECT! However, the coat kept me mostly dry and since it was more sprinkling than pouring, I set out for my hike. On my way out of town, I passed through a beautiful park:

The jungle hike almost didn't happen, because once I got out of town, I couldn't find the entrance to the path. Also, to be honest, I couldn't really find my way out of town.

NOT a jungle path:

Ahhh, that's more like it:

I finally found the start of the path and set out. Parts of the path were paved with brick, other parts had random bricks scattered around, and some parts were just mud.

The other side of the bridge looks particularly dark and foreboding in this picture:

The path I chose took me mostly along the river, crossing back and forth a couple times. The river was swollen from the rain, which made is less picturesque than it probably is otherwise:

Embankments with lots of roots are much easier to climb than just mud!! However, I kept being paranoid that one of the roots would turn out to be a SNAKE!!! This is what would happen in the movies; however, all the roots I stepped on were just roots. I checked each one before stepping on it.

Some of the bridges were very pretty:

Looking at the map, I planned to hike the few kilometers out to a forestry station, and then decide whether to take the same path back to town, or exit the forestry station via the access road and then walk along the road back to Tanah Rata.

At one point, I hiked through a very pretty section of pine trees:

Despite my paranoia about leeches, spiders, snakes, and possibly carnivorous plants, my hike was uneventful. The only animals I saw were birds, and I soon got used to scrambling up and down embankments in the rain.

I will be submitting this photo to the Oxford English Dictionary in case they need a picture to go with "lush".

After hiking and hiking (the distance was not far, but the trail went up and down and up and down as it zigzagged back and forth across the river), I reached... TROPICAL NARNIA??

Actually, it was just the exit from the trail to the forestry station. I decided to take the access road out and then walk back along the road to Tanah Rata. The access road was your run-of-the-mill dirt road, and then I crossed a footbridge into the small town of Taman Sedia.

I learned that the name of the town means, "The Garden Which Is Already There". According to local legend, when the founders came across this particular piece of land, it was already populated by such an abundance of birds and flowers that they gave it the current name. The actual folklore says that the garden was planted and tended by fairies. It is a remarkably peaceful and friendly little town - one of the first Malay settlements in the area, rather than towns founded by the colonial rulers. The road I walked down led through several small strawberry farms, and at each one, people called out "Hello!" or waved. Leaving Taman Sedia, I walked the short distance down the paved road to Tanah Rata and back to my guest house, where my name was duly erased from the white board of trekkers.

Though I planned to stay here longer, I went out to dinner last night with a group who convinced me to join them for some further travels, so I will be departing here tomorrow, but I would be quite surprised if I didn't return - I like it here. Today was an exciting day because I got ALL my laundry done! There is a laundry here which will wash, dry, and fold, and since the damp air meant that none of my hand washing was drying, I packed in all my clothes (save one shirt and a sarong) and got it all washed in their big industrial washers. Very exciting!

I have been thinking of Trevor and Kirsten a lot because tomorrow I go to... Georgetown! The city of Georgetown is the colonial capital of the island of Penang, and the second largest city in Malaysia. I have to say goodbye (again) to cool weather and brace myself for 85 - 90 degree temperatures - hopefully I fare better this time!!

Departure from KL

I was really enjoying KL, but figured it was time to move on. The heat, as I mentioned in my last entry, was sweltering. In spite of my SPF 60 sunscreen, the sun managed to burn my legs (which, to be fair, have not seen sunlight in approximately 18 months), so I tried to wear jeans but then just wound up with a mild heat rash on my calves. Clearly, I am not cut out for the tropics.

So, like generations of pathetic, pale-skinned folks before me, I decided to retreat to a hill station. A hill station is a term popularized by colonial rulers, especially in India, as high altitude getaways which are much cooler than the surrounding lowlands. There are LOTS of these in India but a few elsewhere, as well. The largest and most popular one in Malaysia is the Cameron Highlands, and I decided this would be my next destination.

Before I left, I attempted to go to the viewing walkway between the Petronas Towers. Sadly, when I arrived, they had signs up saying that the walkway was closed for maintenance, although the guy at the desk at my hostel said that the towers usually get closed to visitors for a day or two following terrorist attacks anywhere in the world, and this was the day after the Moscow airport bombing. So instead, I went to the mall which is the first five levels of the towers.

It's a fairly high-end mall so I didn't do a lot of shopping, but I did swing through the food court to get lunch, which was a good rice and chicken meal.

Here's the view from the bottom of the towers, looking up:

After lunch, I decided to go to the bus station to get a bus ticket for the next day. I made a reservation at a guest house in the Highlands and they agreed to pick me up from the bus station - but I had to know which bus I would be taking. I knew the bus station was only a couple blocks from my hostel in KL, so I figured this would be a quick errand. HA.

As it turns out, the bus station that serves most buses going North from KL is currently under construction. Luckily, I found this out before leaving the hostel. Instead, I had to walk the couple blocks to where the bus station was (closed), and catch a bus to the temporary bus station, located elsewhere. This was easy enough - I found the correct bus, paid my fare, and we drove to the very outskirts of the city, where a temporary bus station had been constructed in the spare parking lot of the city stadium. This took the form of a tent city, with one giant tent as the "ticket counter":

There were probably about a hundred ticket vendors inside the tent, set up at folding tables with banners proclaiming where their buses would go. I did a lap, scanning for either "Cameron Highlands" or "Tanah Rata" - the main town in the Highlands - but found neither. Finally, I asked a random woman at a ticket company, and she told me that I could get a bus at either 9 AM or 1 PM, and it would be 35 ringgits (about $11). I told her I was going to ask around a little more, and she shrugged indifferently. I asked a few more random vendors and got the same answer from all of them - same times, same price. I had sort of been hoping for a bus around 10 or 11 AM, but once I realized that I wasn't going to get that, I said, "OK" to a random vendor, who took my payment and wrote me a receipt but then dragged me over to another vendor to get my ticket. I really have no idea how these companies work.

The next morning, I checked out of my hostel and bought provisions for the bus ride, which would be about 4 hours.

Mmmm, delicious Cheezels...

(They are Malaysian Cheetos).

I thought that the bus would maybe not be very nice, but it actually turned out to be one of the more luxurious buses I have ever been on, aside from the ugly upholstery. The seats were big and comfy like recliners, and we got to watch a Jackie Chan movie!! Here is the interior of the bus:

The bus ride was about four hours long. We drove on a highway for the first two hours, then turned off and took a break. From there, we climbed up, up, up on a very winding mountain road. Everything was very lush and green - despite my plan to avoid the jungle, we are definitely in a highland jungle. I think this could be called a cloud forest.

Our trip ended rather abruptly in that the bus driver stopped on the outskirts of a small town and announced, "LAST STOP!" So, we all got off the bus and gathered our bags. I found another American guy and a German guy who were also staying at the same guest house as me, and a Dutch girl who didn't have any accommodation booked, so we all decided to band together and find the bus station where we were supposed to be picked up. The Dutch girl tried to ask the bus driver why we were being dropped off at the side of the road rather than the bus station but all we could get were assurances that the bus station we needed was just down the road.

We walked through the town, occasionally asking random people where the bus station was, and they all kept waving us on, until we finally found a bus depot. We had been told a white van would pick us up, and after a few false alarms, it finally appeared. The van took us to the guest house, which turned about to be about 100 yards from where the bus dropped us off in the first place. (They did have space for the Dutch girl, so she stayed.)

The guest house here is just lovely. They have an extensive garden, and when one of the gardeners saw me taking pictures of flowers this morning, he promised me a full tour of the garden later. So, brace yourselves for lots of pictures of flowers!! Here are a few to get you warmed up!!

There are about 50 of these hanging just outside my door, expertly tended by a pair of hummingbirds:

I have named this plant, "Flowers Within a Flower":

The garden has many, many different colors of hibiscus:

A white flower with mossy wall in the background:

Pretty orange flowers:

Last night, after we arrived and got settled in, I went into town with the other American, the German guy, and the Dutch girl, and we got some dinner, which was good. After dinner, we went to Starbucks, because of course a small hill town in Malaysia has a Starbucks, and found that Starbucks is also a popular hangout spot for local Buddhist monks. We debated at length just HOW rude it would be to snap a photo of the robed monks sipping from Starbucks mugs, and eventually decided that we probably shouldn't.

We also learned that we had JUST missed the Tour de Langkawi - Asia's version of the Tour De France. The bike race had come right through Tanah Rata as part of one of the most difficult days of the Tour. Sadly, we arrived too late to even see the last place riders, and instead watched them take down the banners and barricades.

This morning, I walked down into the little town and skipped the Starbucks but got some cheese naan instead. (Flatbread filled with cheese.) Everyone around here is incredibly friendly, and more than one person shouted "Hello good morning!" to me as I walked past. I have become jaded enough that although I returned their hellos, I braced myself for an entreaty to come to their carpet shop or restaurant, but it turns out that these people are actually just being nice. Wow!

I will probably stay here for several days at least. There is lots of exploration to be done and some good hikes around the Highlands. First order of business is to procure a raincoat, so I think that will be my task for this afternoon!

In Which a Snake Helps Me Make a Decision

First off, I think that whoever is naming things for McDonalds' Asian division needs to be transferred to the United States. Prosperity Burger with Satisfaction Sauce?! In the States, we would just call that "McBurger" or something.

The Prosperity Burger (which I haven't tried... YET) is a limited time burger for the Lunar (Chinese) New Year. A lot of the shops are currently selling New Year's decorations, which are usually red or pink, and oversized.

I started out my morning by walking down to the Central Market. Here, vendors sell traditional crafts such as kites and batik, along with a generic variety of junk and cheap clothes. I mostly went so that I could get some idea of prices, if I decide to go to one of the outdoor markets later - the Central Market has set prices, which I'm guessing are fairly high, but a good reference point if I need to haggle. Here is a kite store:

I ate lunch at the Central (or, as the Malaysians spell it, "Sentral") Market and then continued walking along the river/canal. I have already noticed a problem I am going to have in Asia. I have been keeping a list of my favorite foods from each destination, and plan to learn how to make as many as possible when I get home. However, I have NO IDEA what I'm eating around here - mostly I either point to a picture on the menu or a dish that someone else in the restaurant is eating, and say, "I'll have that." I suppose I could just ask, but I would probably get a quasi-incomprehensible answer that I'd have to weirdly chant to myself for the rest of the day in order to remember. Maybe I should see if I can have someone write it down - this seems like the best bet, as long as they don't write in characters. Also, many places DO have their menus in English, but the dishes are so broadly described ("chicken curry with rice") that I don't know how I would begin learning how to replicate it.

Anyway, here's a picture from my walk. Pretty representative of KL (like LA, KL goes by its initials most of the time). Skyscrapers? Check. Jungle? Check. Sweltering heat? You can't see it but it's there.

I was aiming my walk towards Jamek Mosque, a beautiful open air mosque in the middle of the city. Here is the view as I approached:

I had to don a headscarf and full length robe in order to tour, and wasn't allowed to enter the prayer areas, but walking around the grounds was very pretty. The mosque is the oldest one in KL. I liked this sign which shows Islamic Goofus and Gallant:

From Jamek Mosque, I crossed the river and walked back along the opposite bank, toward the National Mosque. I couldn't go in the National Mosque because it was closed for prayers between 12:00-3:00, but I did admire its latticework and minaret from outside.

Next, I decided to walk down to the National Planetarium. It was quite hot out and I was looking forward to wandering around an air-conditioned museum in dim lighting. Maybe they would even have one of those light shows where you sit in big chairs and look at a domed ceiling while a deep voice talks about STARS. I got a little lost on my way, but doubled back and eventually found the entrance - up a hillside with several flights of stairs. I had my 1RM entrance fee clutched in my sweaty hand as I climbed the stairs. I reached the top, only to find...

GAH CLOSED ON MONDAYS!!  Thanks a lot, GUIDEBOOK!! (I have a picture of my guidebook in which you can clearly see that it specifies the opening times as "daily", but for some reason it won't upload.)

The Planetarium is on the edge of a complex of parks, containing a Bird Park, Orchid Garden, Hibiscus Garden, Deer Park, Butterfly Garden, and Lake Garden. I decided to explore these gardens even though it was 10,000 degrees outside - more appropriate weather for walking a Cowskull trail or taking a tour of Mount Vernon.

Here is a view of the Menara KL Tower in front of the Petronas Twin Towers. The picture is deceptive - the Twin Towers are taller than the KL Tower, and were the tallest buildings in the world between 1996 and 2003.

I saw this sign but didn't see any monkeys:

I bet he was actually trying to go to the planetarium, as well:

At the bird park, I got a bottle of water and sat at a table for a while, listening to the birds and rehydrating. During my break, I took out my guidebook to try to plan out where I would go in Malaysia. I read about a lot of different towns but vacillated back and forth about whether or not to include a stop in the jungle. A big chunk of Malaysia is a national park and my guidebook talked about trekking in the jungle quite a bit. While I was quasi-interested in doing this, I don't have the appropriate attire - such as hiking boots - nor do I want to buy some and then figure out a way to carry around a pair of muddy, wet boots. The guide rhapsodized about waterfalls and canopy walkways, but also had an entire section on leeches. I don't like creepy crawlies, heat, or humidity - which leads me to believe I would be unhappy in a jungle. Overall, I'm not that keen to go but figure I have never been so close to a jungle before so I should at least go for a night or two.

As I left the bird park, I walked down the road about ten feet ahead of a British family: a mother and father, and their three teenage/pre-teenage sons. They were in the midst of trying to convince their mother that it was not necessary to see BOTH the orchid and hibiscus gardens when we came upon three guys looking at something on one side of the road, and two women in headscarves watching them from the other side of the road. Seeing our curious glances, one of the women explained in broken English, "It is not happy to look at... It is snake eat..." She paused to try to think of the English word for what the snake was eating, but this was unnecessary. I was nearly knocked over in the stampede of the British guys (father and sons) sprinting across the road - apparently "snake eat" was the most exciting thing they'd seen all day, regardless of what the snake was actually eating. (It turned out to be a frog.)

I stayed on the other side of the road, concerned that the snake was merely using his "eating a frog" song and dance as a way to lure in larger prey, such as ME. When I realized that the snake in question was no thicker than my thumb, I ventured across the road for a closer look. The snake had caught the frog by one hind leg, and then lifted it way up off the ground so the frog could do nothing but struggle helplessly. Nervous about the spectators, the snake then decided to retreat into the undergrowth, and it inexorably pulled the frog into the brush. I watched the frog grabbing ineffectively at grass and sticks with its little frog hands for the last few moments before it vanished altogether, and I decided not to go to the jungle, after all.

I didn't photograph the frog's last few minutes of life but here's a pretty flower:

I eventually made my way out of the park complex and headed back to the hostel. I have decided not to change hostels - the sketchiest of my roommates have departed, leaving only one guy who describes himself as, "a photographer, sort of", who has been in KL for "I dunno, too long," and is waiting for a visa so he can go to Burma - which is being held up because he thinks the "dudes" at the embassy didn't like his dreadlocks. Also, I switched beds and two British girls have arrived, so things are a little better here.

I saw this sign on the way back to the hostel:

The most wicked curry mee this side of Ipoh?! I'll have to taste that to believe it.

Kuala Lumpur - First Impressions

I landed in Kuala Lumpur at around 7:00 this morning. I was actually kind of sad on my flight - we were flying over parts of the world that I've never been over before but I was not near a window AND it was night, so I didn't get to see anything. Our pilot had to engage in some evasive maneuvers over Iraq but everything else went smoothly. (JUST KIDDING - we were not attacked over Iraq, although we did fly over it.)

KLIA, Kuala Lumpur International Airport, is a wonderful facility and apparently has a reputation as one of the world's nicest. It had free wi-fi, so after passing through immigration and customs, I internetted for a while and had a chat with Shelley. It was also still early enough that I figured I wouldn't be able to check in to my hostel.

I took an express train from the airport into the central train station, and then light rail to my hostel. My hostel is in the Chinatown area, which is all decorated and getting geared up for Chinese New Year, which is February 3, when we will ring in the Year of the Rabbit. (Note to self: find accommodation soon for that weekend.)

Overall, my first impressions of the city have been incredibly positive. It's generally pretty clean, and my two experiences with public transportation have been easy - I took the monorail to the restaurant/shopping district where I'm now sitting, waiting for my meal. My hostel is OK but not ideal - seems to be populated mostly by skinny barefoot dudes with dreadlocks. It seems safe enough and I've already paid for tonight, but I may look for somewhere new tomorrow. My original plan was to not stay in the city long, but I think I may have to revise that and spend some time exploring here. I feel a little guilty - my preconceived idea was that this city would be crowded, dirty, and full of touts, but so far everything has been quite pleasant. Technically, it is the "rainy season" here, but my experience today seems to indicate that this means "rain in short bursts which can be waited out under an awning" rather than "constant torrential rain". The rainstorms are actually somewhat helpful in that they help reduce the humidity slightly, for a little while. Right now it's about 85 degrees, with 89 percent humidity, according to Weather Underground.

My dinner has arrived - I ordered a fairly safe seeming chicken curry but little did I know that it would be seasoned with Guatemalan insanity peppers - my mouth is ON FIRE.

Tomorrow I will continue to explore the city and probably go up in the Petronas towers to have a look around. I am now 14 hours ahead of CST, so hopefully I can chat and catch up with some people that I haven't been able to coordinate with recently!

Upcoming Plans

I am wrapping up my time in Europe over the next couple days and preparing for the next portion of my journey.  My original plan was to spend the next portion of my trip in India, but this plan has not come together - I should have secured an Indian visa prior to leaving the United States, as it becomes more challenging when abroad. (To make a long story short: the Indian government has outsourced American visas to a private company called Travisa. This complicates matters significantly if you're trying to get a visa while abroad. Yes, it's possible but given time/budgetary constraints, I think that the amount of time I'd have to stay in one place waiting for a visa isn't feasible. Also, I think the Indian government is snickering about making the lives of Americans more complicated through outsourcing services. The student has become the master.) Sadly, I have come to the realization that I will have to abandon my India plans for the time being. This was an upsetting realization, but I guess I'll just have to add India to the list of places to see in the future.

What this means is that I will have to take a huge jump from Turkey - if you look at a map (or if you have a good knowledge of world geography), you can see that going east/south from Turkey means first Iran, and then a series of unfriendly "-istans", then India... so I've got to skip over all of that. I've got a flight booked to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Saturday, the 22nd, arriving on the 23rd. I had originally thought to fly to Bangkok but found a direct flight on Malaysian Airlines which was significantly cheaper, so Kuala Lumpur it is!

I plan to then spend the next couple months traveling in South East Asia. I'm planning to slow my travel down even more, and I'll probably wind up staying a week or more at most places - or perhaps just finding a beach hut and never leaving. :) So, that's the plan!!

The Day I Met a Turkish Pop Star

The past few days in Istanbul have been really fun. On Sunday, it rained all day, so I actually did not leave the hostel but instead slept in and spent the day playing various games with some Australians who are also here. (Note: two of these Australians are actually from Norfolk Island, a small self-governed island about 2000 miles off the coast of Australia with a population of just under 2,000 people!!) I refreshed my memory of how to play Hearts, learned how to play backgammon, and also learned some new fun card games: Yannif, and Five Hundred. I was quite good at Yannif and quite poor at Five Hundred. We did have to leave the hostel occasionally, but only to run across the street to the mini-mart to get snacks. It was a good day.

Yesterday, I did some standard Istanbul tourism: went to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, as well as the Basilica Cistern. Unfortunately, I brought my camera but forgot my memory card, so enjoy the pictures taken by professionals that I have linked to. The cistern was incredibly cool - an underground pool, complete with fish, to wander about on raised walkways. I realized that I am getting a bit travel weary when I went to the Grand Bazaar, took one look at the shops spilling into the street, thought, "Meh, I'm tired," and went home for the day. I guess these days what I need is a bizarre bazaar. (Jenni, I'm sorry you had to read that pun twice but I can't help myself.)

Today, I joined up with the Australians to take a trip out of town. We hopped on the Bosphorus Ferry and traveled up from Istanbul to the Black Sea. For anyone who needs a geography refresher, Istanbul is located between the Sea of Marmara (which eventually connects to the Mediterranean) and the Black Sea. The Bosphorus is a naturally occurring channel which connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, and is also a dividing line between Europe and Asia. The Bosphorus is one of the narrowest and shallowest bodies of water used for international shipping!

Here is a view of Istanbul from while we were waiting to board the ferry:

This is the Galata Bridge. All those guys standing on the bridge fishing are catching fish which will be served tonight in the restaurants underneath them. (In case you can't tell from the picture, nearly every person standing on the bridge has a big fishing pole.) In the mornings, they catch strings of small fish which they keep alive in buckets of water, and then use as bait to catch bigger fish in the afternoons. Not really an ideal day for the small fish.

The ferry ride took us North along the Bosphorus, stopping at a few places along the way. Most stops looked pretty much like this, with nice looking houses lining the water front:

When we reached our final destination, a small port town at the entrance to the Black Sea, we had three hours before we had to take the ferry back. We could see the ruins of a castle as we approached on the ferry, and found this map directing us where to go:

Basically, we just had to walk uphill. Mom and Trevor will remember a similar experience in Florence - each part seemed steep until we saw the NEXT portion of the journey.

Up, up, up we climbed, until we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the Black Sea. I was a little disappointed because it's actually just blue.

We reached the castle, only to find a sign announcing that the inside of the castle was closed for archeological work. This is the outside/top of the castle. You can still see Istanbul's skyline in the distance.

However, on the other side of the castle, we discovered some sort of production happening!!

That man in black is the director of a Turkish music video that they were filming!

Once the dancers were ready, the singer himself came out:

He sang through his song a few times while the camera zoomed around with some sweeping panoramas of the sea and the singer. He was very much into making expressive hand gestures. He also changed shirts and backgrounds a couple times so they could get a variety of shots. At one point, he came around and said hello to the small crowd of random tourists (including me!) who had come to see the castle and were now milling about, watching the video taping. Maybe some of them were diehard fans of his but mostly it seemed to be people who were on the ferry with us.

After watching the music video magic for a while, we began the descent back down to the port.

I cannot think of WHAT type of food would be translated as "pie of cigaratte". (Look right above the word DRINKS). Let's not eat here.

Here are some of the houses overlooking the water:

The town is also populated by very friendly stray dogs. We got some kebabs from a shop and sat on a bench to eat them, and immediately had dining companions waiting for something to fall. Please note the pleading eyes on the brown and white one closest to the camera. He's been practicing that stare for a while!

We boarded the ferry to come home, and arrived back in Istanbul just as the sun went down. We took the tram back to the area that our hostel is in. We walked past the Blue Mosque on our way home, which was lit up for the night:

(Picnicking couple under siege by stray cat who has leapt into their food supply.)

Not sure what tomorrow will bring! I had planned to explore Turkey a bit but it's HUGE and going to any other city requires a minimum of 9-10 hours on bus or train and I just can't seem to get myself in gear to do that. I'll probably be here in Istanbul for a few more days before heading to Asia. If I don't write in the blog, it's because I'm just sitting around playing cards. :)