Cameron Highlands, Perenthian Islands and Penang- The Last of Malaysia

 We were taken by minibus to the slightly touristy town of Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands, where the altitude provided us with cooler and more pleasant weather. It dropped us directly outside a hostel where we booked a dorm room, which consisted of beds laid out in the attic of the building. We chose to do a RM25, half day tour of the area, which we booked through the hostel come travel agent. The next day the morning tour took us to the BOH’s tea plantations, still owned by a Scottish family, and worked on by Bangladeshis earning RM1000 (~£200) a month. These were impressive, a healthy green tinge contoured the hilly landscape. We then went to a tea factory where we saw the production of tea, the leaves being withered, ground, heated and rolled, the stained orange faced umpa lumpa like workers beavered away. Even without the umpa lumpas, the factory looked like willy wonkas- all big machines spinning, churning, converyor belts chugging along- not a sign of the 21st century in sight. During the afternoon the bus also took us to nearby buddist temple, butterfly, strawberry and bee farms as well as a reptile zoo, all of which were nice- considering the whole tour cost £5 it was always going to be difficult to be disappointed. Our return to the hostel coincided with the arrival of grey clouds, and for the afternoon it poured down, so we just sat about using the internet and reading, we also booked our trip to the Perenthian Islands. That evening we ate in the same restaurant we had eaten in the night before, an Indian which served amazing noodles and tasty tandoori chicken with mint and naan bread.

'Umpa Lumpas' beavering away

 

The Perenthain islands consists of two islands off Malaysia’s east coast. Some tourists go there for the pleasant but not stunning beaches, though many go for the snorkeling and diving which according to Lonely planet is some of the best in the world. We accessed them by an open top speed boat, landing literally on the beach. On the boat we met two Dutch backpackers(who weren’t traveling together), Bart and Marleen who joined us finding a hostel. The walk along Long beach was taxing, the high equatorial sun, so powerful, made us sweat buckets. Hence we settled on the first hostel with space, staying in a dorm room at the far end of the beach. That afternoon, after some excellent seafood we all just lounged on the beach, swimming in the warmest sea I’ve ever been in. In the evening, after taking advantage of the now on electricity and using the internet(there was no power station so everywhere runs on their own private generators which in our hostel only ran overnight, allowing aircon to cool the rooms), the four of us sat outside a makeshift bar on the beach( I say makeshift because it consisted of a wooden table put up on the sand in the evening, with cool boxes containing drinks- mats were  handed out to patrons who sat by small wooden tables). Here we drank beers and monkey juice with sprite- a local favourite, it’s a really sweet spirit almost liquor like in taste. The next day we intended to go snorkeling, and so walked the 10 minutes to the other side of the island where we found we had missed all boats for the day(they all left at 10:30). However we  talked to people in one of the many huts that offered such trips, and offered to pay an extra £1(paying a total of £8 rather than £7). For this little bit extra they gave us our own private day trip!

We were given snorkeling gear and taken by a guide round five scenic spots, stopping first at turtle bay where we saw one giant turtle swimming six metres below us, at shark bay we swam with numerous meter long black sharks (there were heaps of them here and sometimes you got a feeling they were circling you), we also saw nemo (literally seeing the fish many times) as well as stingrays and heaps of fish. Because there were just three of us we moved on when we felt ready rather than as the trip demanded and so we got to spend the right amout of time everywhere. We all ended up pretty burned after the five or so hours we were out but the trip was fantastic, the underwater scenery better than Australia.

 That evening we had another nice meal on the beach with Bart and Marleen and returned to the same restaurant on the sand we went the night before, though this time it was much busier, a lot of Malaysians were about(it was there holiday so accommodation was booked up).

 It may have been nice to stay longer but sharp time constraints on the trip and, more importantly, a lack of cash (there were no ATMs on the island and Robert ran out of Ringgits) meant we had to depart for the mainland. 

 Our final point of call in Malaysia was the island of Penang, the traditional and modern trading hub of Malaysia. This was very similar to Melaka, old Chinese districts and temples, little Indian and colonial buildings all mushed together in the small city of Georgetown. The highlight of this trip was defiantly the food. Upon arriving we stumbled across a hostel which had just opened that night. There was no space, but they were having free food and drink to celebrate the opening. The owner said we could come along and eat. We booked in at the hostel over the road (paying only £2.50 each per

night for a twin room) and then enthusiastically returning for free dinner. The food was buffet style, chefs cooking different bits in tents outside the hostel and it was really great, satay chicken, salad, Indian FFFFroti and chicken schnitzel. We ate all the above plus little cakes for desert, washing it down with free tiger beer. In return we gave them a ‘like’ on facebook using Ipads which they laid out for this purpose and tried to sound as interested as possible to the Dutch guy who owned the place when he came over and talked to us(and of course saying we would defiantly go on a night out with him and a few others-no chance!). We felt slightly guilty, but then again the cameraman who covered the opening took a lot of photos of us, two of the few westerners who were present(the majority there were Chinese and I think being western helped us get an invite).

Later that evening we strolled off to watch the football in a bar in town. The next evening we watched the football again, after having another spectacular meal- awesome tandori chicken in little India. I have defiantly put on weight since getting to asia.

A 12 hour bus and boat journey, starting at 5am took us to Kho Phi Phi where I write this- a tourist heavy Thai island.