More Travels

Systems at Malaysian immigration are STILL down, so I am still without job, income and anything to do.  Better explore Malaysia a bit more.

Cameron Highlands

Sepideh and I took a coach up the worlds windiest road to reach the rather chilly Cameron Highlands, an area of tea plantations and strawberry farms.  Located about 1500m above sea level the Camerons can get pretty chilly (by Malaysian standards), and can drop to 16 ˚C or lower (British summer).

The food in Cameron Highlands is great.  Lots of Indian.  We have overdosed on Teriyaki chicken and Naan.  Sepideh and I had the best meal I have had since I arrived in Malaysia; a South Indian steamboat.  The soup dish is cooked at the table.  Half the pot contains Tom Yam, one of the spiciest foods here (we ordered strictly non-spicy), and the other half is a vegetable broth.  The boiling pot is delivered with a tray of greens, meat, seafood, egg & noodles which you cook yourself in the soup.

Sepideh and the steamboat.

Slightly confused by the steamboat concept I asked the waiter for clarification please. 

Was told in reply: 'Sorry miss, we're fresh out of clarification'

Haha.

Public transport in the area is patchy, so Sepideh and I signed up to a tour.  We were in a group with 3 girls & 3 lads from Kent.  strangely I had already met the lads in Taman Negara, and one had graduated from Cardiff with me this year and was in halls with Colston.  Small world.  The tour began with a 3 hour jungle trek.  Unfortunately I had forgotten my trainers and lent my only rucksack to Sophie for the weekend, so off I trotted with a leather handbad and flip flops.  Absolute tool!

Sepideh & me at a Rafflesia, the worlds largest breed of flower. 

After the jungle trek we visited an aborigine tribe, who still hunt animals by shooting darts dipped in a poisonous homemade Ipoh solution from blow pipes.  The poison can take an elephant down in 4 seconds!  Health & safety is yet to be introduced here, so we all had a go at target practice with the blowpipes.  After practice we were able to buy a blowpipe for 25 ringgit (£5).  The boys bought 3.

On the way back to the van we passed the villages pet monkey, chained up ready to eat.  Bizarrely we were also told the aborigine tribe had just received support from the government for living, and then walked past a row of concrete houses with satellite.  At least after a hard days hunting with darts the aborigines can unwind with an episode of The Simpsons. 

The tour also involved a visit to a strawberry farm, reptile sanctuary & tea plantation.  I was in heaven at Boh Tea plantation, and bought 2 cups!  It's refreshing to be served tea properly.  The previous day I had ordered a tea in Starbucks only to be given an Earl Grey - as if that's the default.  I asked them politely to please change it for English Breakfast with a splash of milk, only to then receive such a tea with condensed milk.  & that was at Starbucks!!!!

View from the cafe at Boh Tea Plantation.  Me with my tea, & Sepideh.

After the tour we went for dinner and back to the hostel bar for drinks.  Randomly bumped into Miriam Jones, a girl from the flat above me in halls.  We stayed at Jungle Bar, the slightly less dead of the 2 bars in town.  We introduced Sepideh to English drinking, with a round of arrogance.  Basic concept: Pour any amount of your drink into a glass, the more confident you feel the more you poor.  Flip a coin.  If you lose drink, if you win pass the glass to the next player to add to. Hayden, one of the lads, was overly arrogant and overly un-lucky and ended up drinking the better part of a bottle of rum.  After a few rounds the game escalated and saw the boys get their tribal blowpipes out.  They spent a good 15 minutes blowing darts at each other from point blank range whilst the girls hid. 

 Recreating a David Attenborough documentary; one animal, one shooter, and one commentator.

Fair to say Sepideh was somewhat surprised by English parties.  She said it's really nice that we all spend time talking to each other at a get together.  Perhaps less nice that we shoot each other though.  I assured her this wasn't common.

Iranian Party

The night we got back from Cameron Highlands I was invited to a surprise birthday party for Parimah's boyfriend, Reza, with all Sepideh's Iranian friends.  The party was lovely and so polite.  As soon as we arrived Sepideh was dancing with her friends in a huge group, clapping and cheering each other.  They were teaching me the distinctive hip swing in the dancing of people from North Iran, and shoulder shimmy of southerners.  True to my roots I moved my shoulders.  Every time you sit down for breath some one drags you up again.

After 3 hours dancing it was time for cake and presents. We watched and clapped as Reza opened his presents.  The cake was massive and the candle blow out climaxed from a count down of TWENTY-FIVE!!! Parimah then delivered Reza the knife to cut the cake with a fancy dance.  This is a traditional Iranian act, mainly at weddings, where the bride dances the knife to the groom.  Sepideh told me that all the guests had chipped in 30 ringgit for the cake and gifts.  In England the only chip in is some of drink for a dirty pint, and if you're unlucky something gross like washing up liquid (Colesy!). 

The party finished about 1am.  Before leaving each guest shakes hands with everyone in the room to say goodbye. So SO polite, and so much more civilised than a good old British stumble home to an afterparty or a round of blowpipe shooting!! Culture really is such a weird thing.  How we come to expect a party to be.

Perhentians

This weekend was a bank holiday, so Sophie and her French friend Anne sampled the delights of the Perhentians.  Randomly Sophie met the 3 lads there just before they came to the Cameron Highlands.  The small world gets smaller! Unfortunately Soph had another 250 ringgit (£50) stolen from out of her bag, when she left it behind hotel reception.  So bad that you can't even trust the staff.  When we were on Tioman Island one of our friends had 300 ringgit stolen from his wallet during a snorkeling trip, where the only guy on the boat with his stuff was the driver!!

Domestic Bliss

Back to KL now, and trying to stay put as I am rapidly running out of travel funds.  It's so frustrating sitting around in KL with nothing to do though.  I just want this bloody visa to hurry up!  Soph and I are going on a hot date tonight; dinner and a food shop.  Romance is not dead.  Probably hitting Bukitbintang (bar district) on Saturday too with Portugese Vitor, Malaysian Dennis and Romanian Iulia.

Sadly Sepideh has bought her ticket to go back to Iran.  She leaves on October 12th.  Means Soph and I will get our own rooms, but I'm really going to miss Sepideh.  She's been so kind and welcoming to us.