PENANG
And The CAMERON HIGHLANDS on the way to KL
We arrive in Penang to a bit more drizzle and a lovely traditional hotel in the Georgetown area, built in 1850 and perfectly located right in the middle of a low rise, old style district with thousands of little shops and stalls everywhere. Find amazing restaurants with people all over the shop - the curse of Chinese New Year is finally over. As the evening wears on it even stops raining, which feels quite unnerving for a while.
Penang is busy and interesting but glad we only allowed two nights as it is limited in sights and activities, so we visit a Speakeasy bar and drink a cocktail infused with burning cinnamon sticks, which tastes just like it sounds. Other than that we walk for miles and miles, as always.
CHANGE OF PLAN - OFF TO THE PHILIPPINES
We also do all the admin associated with our latest massive change of plan, I use the term OUR loosely. Mrs H has done her research and apparently we should really be in The Philippines at this time of year, not a 1,000 miles further south in Java. And anyway once we hit Manila (4.5 hours flight) there is this adorable little island paradise called Cebu, or Baracay, or Palawan just an hour and a bit further away that we absolutely MUST visit. Guaranteed sun!!! With the amount I have invested in rain gear this a bit disappointing, although I am reassured when Sara tells me it will definitely be chucking it down in Bali, if not all day, then at least in the late afternoons. So I gamely sit at a laptop for a while and check us through a further four flights and two overnights so that we can put our feet up in the glory of the winning island, Palawan, and El Nito town to be precise.
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Then we confirm the car hire for the 500 mile run through the Cameron Highlands in central Malaysia on the way down to the capital Kuala Lumpor. On the road again.......
Before we depart we nearly kill an elderly Tri-shaw driver who struggled with the combined tonnage of two well proportioned and revoltingly healthy Brits (muscle being heavier than fat you know). I swear that at one point he demanded one of us get off and push. To say we were slow off the mark at traffic lights is an understatement.
So after an enjoyable 2 days in Penang we picked up our hire car (a very reasonable £167 for 4 days) and politely refused the £400 extra for full CDW Car hire £167, insurance just a snip at £400 more!!!! I say politely, I did have to brandish my printed copy of our travel insurance which includes £55,000 of hire car cover, and point out to our hire car man that his own paperwork states we can refuse his. Not a happy bunny – him not me. Me, I am overjoyed that I took the trouble to print it out and highlight the relevant passages in marker pen. They don’t call me ‘anally-retentive Henslow’ for nothing you know. That bit of hire car jiggery-pokery over we walk straight into the next issue, how to get a ‘Touch’n’Go card for the motorway tolls. All Malaysian tolls are now cashless, they ONLY take their special TnG cards. . Answer, you buy them at a petrol station, real answer – they don’t bloody exist for new buyers due to an RFID chip shortage!!! Six petrol stations later we admit defeat. Options are 3.5 hours by motorway or 5.5 by cart track side road. Other option, drive to within 50 yards of the massive array of toll booths, pull over, get out, walk to toll booth to explain predicament, NEW-NAW, NEW-NAW! get pulled by the police within literally 10 seconds. All good though. Like 100% of Malaysians we have met the cops were friendly, calm, helpful and sorted it in seconds by simply ordering the toll booth operator to cooperate. 3.5 hours very pleasant motoring up into the mountains via the windiest road on the planet.
We are heading for the famous Cameron Highlands, a plateau at 5,500 feet up in the cloud forests. Hotel lovely, The Lakehouse (£130/night), a truly English gem built by Colonel Foster back in the late 60’s when this place was a tea growing backwater. We book in for the weirdest dinner, basically in a clone of The Roffen Suite, all dark beams and antiques. The food was an eye opener too, straight out of English cooking circa 1950. Chicken curry was a large bowl of water with curry powder, boiled potatoes and chicken bits. Served with boiled carrots, boiled cauliflower and boiled broccoli, all tepid and overcooked. We were the only European tourists, everyone else was Malaysians, god alone what they thought of this bowdlerisation of their normally fabulous cuisine???
One of the advantages of staying at The Roffen Club (Malaysia Branch) is that is mega relaxing and comfy, big armchairs, excellent service, beer on tap in the ‘pub’. It is also delightfully cool for a nice change from 30 plus degrees and humid. So, after catching up with the Sunday Times it is off to the Tea Plantations which were really beautiful.
Then to the Strawberry farms, then the Cactus shop, both true, this area has thousands and thousands of massive poly-tunnels suspended on stilts all over the plateau. They must produce half the words strawberries hydroponically.
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They also major in growing cactus plants - go figure! No idea why but they are everywhere. We decide to drive to the other local attraction the MOSSY FOREST. Signs everywhere, mentioned in all the guides, 6,600 feet up in the air, seems like a plan.
So we set off in our 1 litre hire car to basically drive up a single lane, rutted, almost vertical track for flipping miles and miles, with no passing places or turning places to reach said Mossy Forest. Whoever first suggested this as an attraction is as mad as a box of Frenchmen. It really shoulkd have come with a health warning, what a white knuckle drive it was. The car ahead of us plunged into a massive hole in a culvert and had to be jacked back out.
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Above is a picture of the Mossy Forest, as you can see it features moss. At 6,600 feet up in a cloud forest a bit of moss is to be expected surely? Below is a picture of the type of view we just kept seeing. It is hard to do justice to the beauty of the landscape in the Highlands.
