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!
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!
Could the locals tell you were English speakig just by looking at you? What language is spoken there?
ReplyDeleteThe languages most commonly spoken around here (as far as I can tell) are Malay and Mandarin Chinese. However, most people use English as their go-to lingua franca - when they know you're not Malaysian, they will speak English because they assume you probably speak some English even if it's not your first language.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad a bus picked you up and you didn't just get "the headshake..."
ReplyDelete