On our third full day in the park we decided to go for a longer hike; 17k (11mi) roundtrip excursion into the rain forest. We got up early and headed out just as the sun was coming up. We were able to see some interesting looking birds. I’m not sure the species, but almost peacock-esque? We saw different tracks for many animals, and some monkeys, way up high in the trees, and some huge flowers. This hike involved a waist deep river crossing to a final point where there were some small falls and rapids. We had packed a delightful lunch of pb&j and enjoyed it on the rocky shore; and afterwards took a mini nap while listening to the water rush by. After we had enough rest, we turned around and went back. We wanted to make sure to be back to our place for the afternoon rain, which we were able to do. When we got back to the main entrance area, we toured the park’s information center. Apparently Taman Negara, is home to many species of animals, including the Asian Elephant and even Tigers. (While it would’ve been pretty sweet to spot one of those animals, to be honest I’m glad we never did…as I’m not sure I’d want to try to figure out what my next move would be in that scenario, besides the obvious grab for the camera (which I’m sure is what I would’ve done), but then what, ya know?
But yes, after we made it back, we went to our bungalow, grabbed a shower, caught an early dinner and crashed pretty hard after our full days hike.
The following morning we caught an early breakfast and hopped on one of the long wooden motor-powered canoe-like boats for a 3 hour ride back through the rainforest to the jetty. It’s always a nice change of pace to travel by boat. It gives you a different outlook on the scenery. It was nice to see the park from the water, not to mention we were able to spot some wild cow along the shore. We made it back just in time to catch the next bus to a small town called Jerentut, which is where we wanted to hop on the 12:30 train to Singapore.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
interjection: small things continued
So there was this mini mart, very small of a grocery store in Kuala Tehan, the entry town to Taman Negara National Rainforest. And the two times we went in there, there were grade-school aged kids manning the front counter.
The first time we went into pay for something, Will and I had just finished a pretty big hike, and we were both pretty sweaty & smelly (Will particularly). Anyway, we went to pay for the large water that we wanted to buy, and this kid, maybe a 5th grade-aged boy rang it up for us. He told us the price, then when Will handed him some Ringgit (the Malay note) the boy took the money slowly & kind of slyly,… and I watched him as he brought it slowly under his nose and sniffed it. It really was quite bizarre,…. but it made me laugh out loud. After he smelled it, he put it into the cash register and said ‘Thanks’.
The second time we went into the shop it was to buy some snacks. It was one of the only places open as many were fasting for Ramadan, which is from dawn till dusk. So we decided to grab some extra food to hold us over until dinner time. This time, we went to the front counter and a girl, probably his sister, a few years older anyways was sitting there. We also happened to notice the 36” or so flat screen that was also on the front counter. From the moment we walked in the shop, picked up the goods and stood at the counter, the girls eyes had not left the tv screen. She was completely glued to it. I’m not joking we stood right in front of her, about 2.5 feet away, even did a small wave or two and she didn’t notice we were there until a minute or so after. Once she finally did break her stare, she jumped with a startle and said “sorry! I didn’t see you” and then rang up our purchase and told us to “come again” with a smile.
That too made us walk away with a chuckle.
The first time we went into pay for something, Will and I had just finished a pretty big hike, and we were both pretty sweaty & smelly (Will particularly). Anyway, we went to pay for the large water that we wanted to buy, and this kid, maybe a 5th grade-aged boy rang it up for us. He told us the price, then when Will handed him some Ringgit (the Malay note) the boy took the money slowly & kind of slyly,… and I watched him as he brought it slowly under his nose and sniffed it. It really was quite bizarre,…. but it made me laugh out loud. After he smelled it, he put it into the cash register and said ‘Thanks’.
The second time we went into the shop it was to buy some snacks. It was one of the only places open as many were fasting for Ramadan, which is from dawn till dusk. So we decided to grab some extra food to hold us over until dinner time. This time, we went to the front counter and a girl, probably his sister, a few years older anyways was sitting there. We also happened to notice the 36” or so flat screen that was also on the front counter. From the moment we walked in the shop, picked up the goods and stood at the counter, the girls eyes had not left the tv screen. She was completely glued to it. I’m not joking we stood right in front of her, about 2.5 feet away, even did a small wave or two and she didn’t notice we were there until a minute or so after. Once she finally did break her stare, she jumped with a startle and said “sorry! I didn’t see you” and then rang up our purchase and told us to “come again” with a smile.
That too made us walk away with a chuckle.
Taman Negara National Forest
Taman Negara National Forest is one of the oldest rainforests in the entire world. Untouched by natural disasters and left alone by the ice age, this is one of the most intact, well conserved rainforests on the globe. To say the least it was everything I had ever imagined a rain forest to be. It made me feel like I was stepping right into the movie ‘Ferngully’ – if I can even count that as a reference. But I remember watching that movie as a child and thinking it would be so amazing to go to a place like that. And finally this trip to Malaysia and to Taman Negara did bring me to a place like that.
We liked it quite a bit there, as we stayed for four nights exploring the many trails that this well preserved park had to offer. We found some local family run lodging tucked back down a small hill called the Durian (while one may feel a little hesitant by the name), it actually was decent, it had clean bamboo bungalows with nice gardens and landscaping around it. I might have to say that this might’ve been the smallest space of a room I’ve ever stayed in, yet maybe the nicest small place I’ve ever stayed. It did have a bathroom connected, a little porch and mosquito nets draped over real mattresses all for $7/night. Things like that are bonuses when you’re traveling on the cheap… and really, they way they had it all set up was really quite cute and quaint.
The first day we got in, we went for a hike around some of the closer trails. It was nice to finally get out on a hike. I don’t think either of us realized how much we missed going on hikes til we actually got to go on one. It had been a while. And, when I say jungle, I mean thick, lush, green, shady, huge leaves, many vines, tall trees, mosquito flyin, monkey climbin, tropical bird perchin, leeches on the ground floor, canopy covered jungle of a rain forest. Lots of green.
But MAN. The size of some of these trees was just unreal. The buttresses were even just as impressive; and the way the roots jetted out a ways, and you looked up and up and up until you could see the tree tops – it was like you were in a wonderland of its own. That afternoon we took a hike up to one of the hilltops (which that day too, I don’t think we realized how ‘out of hiking shape’ we were til we climbed to the top of a scenic look out.) We sure were gasping for air, holding onto vines on the climb up. But drenched in sweat, we made it to the top for a pretty fantastic panoramic view of nothing but hills of rain forest greenery for miles.
After that, we followed a few signs to the park’s famous Canopy Walk Bridge. It claims to be the world’s longest canopy walk, with a 400m long, 40m high rope-drawn-plank bridge that walks you along the canopy of the forest. It was up there for sure, and I’m not going to lie, my subtle ‘fear of heights’ wasn’t going to stop me from walking across it; yet ‘my subtle fear of heights’ also didn’t cease to remind me that I do have, well… a subtle fear of heights. But yea; we were up there. Even as high as it was, the trees still towered above us, while we towered above everything below us. We even were lucky enough to spot a tropical great horned bill bird from the bridge. It was quite the canopy walk.
After that we started our way back. It was just nice to be hiking around in the forest, as we used to do a bit of it back home.
We went back, had some dinner on one of the floating restaurants on the river that separated the park from the small town; went back to our bungalow, showered and crashed. A full day it was.
The second day we went for a smaller hike…to a small bat cave. On the way we accidentally walked to the edge of a village of native people who live off the land in the rain forest (which the tour guides were charging $30USD to take you there, but we managed to find accidentally on our own). We decided not to draw attention to ourselves and just kept on with our hike. We also stumbled across tons of HUGE ants and termites crawling all over the forest floor. NOT to mention the many, many, Many, tiny leeches. You couldn’t feel the little buggers until it was too late. They’d fill up on blood from your feet or your legs (or somehow my stomach) far before you even knew what happened. Many of them were small enough to weasel through your socks straight to the skin; and then when we’d take off our shoes only to find blood dripping down our feet. To say the least; they were NOT the favorite part of my rain forest experience!??!! However I was able to keep distracted enough by the surrounding scenery which trumped the fact that in a very paranoid fashion I was constantly checking my legs and feet every 7 minutes or so for leeches. (Seriously). Anyway, we hiked on until we found the cave, which was a bit smaller than we had expected. After a few steps in and seeing the bats which lined the ceiling of the cave, I decided that a small look was sufficient enough for me and that I’d wait for Will to scope it out a little further to decide whether it was worth it or not to go any farther. He went in; grabbed a few snapshots, came out and said that I probably wouldn’t like it and at that point I trusted his judgment. He said mostly it was just alotta bats hanging upside down, a rather large toad (bigger than his hand) – some murky pools of water below and a lot of dampness. With that we turned around, hiked our way out, grabbed some lunch and spent the afternoon on a “shoot the rapids” boat trip in a super long motor powered canoe.
small things
So that night-train got us to Jerentut, which is where we could hop a bus to the rain forest the following morning. We had received advice from some ladies who worked for Tourism in Kuala Terengganu that there would be a place for us to rest at the train station, as we’d be arriving rather early. We thought it’d be a great idea to take the night train to save money on a motel, and be able to travel over a large part of the country simultaneously…. so we decided to do that. Well. We arrived at the train station at just around 2 in the morning… looked around to see nothing other than a food stall, some benches, under a pretty much open air waiting area for the trains….. and then we did see in one of the windows near the ticket office a room with some couches and cots. We went and asked if those rooms were for rent or something. Turned out that, no, they were not for rent or something…. they were for staff only.
SoOOOoo… too tired to try and venture out into the city, not to mention we were on too much of a budget to want to pay for a room for 4 hours (our bus left at 6am)…. we decided to grab some bench space a little farther from the office and plopped down there.
I guess, let me say that, that experience has made me forever grateful that I’ve been lucky enough to have different types of employment throughout my life, and have always been able to always have a shelter over my head when I sleep. Let’s keep in mind this was a bit different from sleeping under the stars on a camping trip. We were on the edge of town, sleeping on metal bleacher style benches under a covered section of the waiting area for trains, with some fluorescent street lamps down the way shining through the night. Needless to say, I hardly got any sleep. At one point in the night, I told Will we’d have to keep this in mind (the whole sleeping on a bench outside) as a form of discipline for our kids someday, should they ever want to drop out of school. He said, “yea… Maybe.”
Anyhow, we made it through the night…and at the first hint of dawn, grabbed our bags and went to the first open restaurant (a Chinese place, with nobody speaking English)…the lady brought us a bunch of items on a tray, and we pointed to what we were brave enough to try at that hour…and were able to get some breakfast in. After that we were on our way to the bus station.
SoOOOoo… too tired to try and venture out into the city, not to mention we were on too much of a budget to want to pay for a room for 4 hours (our bus left at 6am)…. we decided to grab some bench space a little farther from the office and plopped down there.
I guess, let me say that, that experience has made me forever grateful that I’ve been lucky enough to have different types of employment throughout my life, and have always been able to always have a shelter over my head when I sleep. Let’s keep in mind this was a bit different from sleeping under the stars on a camping trip. We were on the edge of town, sleeping on metal bleacher style benches under a covered section of the waiting area for trains, with some fluorescent street lamps down the way shining through the night. Needless to say, I hardly got any sleep. At one point in the night, I told Will we’d have to keep this in mind (the whole sleeping on a bench outside) as a form of discipline for our kids someday, should they ever want to drop out of school. He said, “yea… Maybe.”
Anyhow, we made it through the night…and at the first hint of dawn, grabbed our bags and went to the first open restaurant (a Chinese place, with nobody speaking English)…the lady brought us a bunch of items on a tray, and we pointed to what we were brave enough to try at that hour…and were able to get some breakfast in. After that we were on our way to the bus station.
To Perhentian Kecil Island
Early morning we were on the 1 and a half hour bus ride to Kuala Besut Jetty. We got there in time to catch the 10 o’clock ferry to the island. Those were some fast motor boats that get ya there, over some really beautifully clear blue water I tell ya.
There were several different places to stay around the island, but we chose to go to Long Beach. On this side there were lots of choices of chalets and bungalows to stay at, not to mention a nice long stretch of a white sandy beach. We chose to stay at the rock garden, which happened to have some very newly constructed chalets propped up on the hill which had a spectacular view from the sliding glass doors that lined the wall facing the ocean. It was truly a great view, and there was nothing like layin in bed and looking to your left through the big picture window and seeing the crystal clear waters and an island off in the distance first thing when you woke up in the morning.
We took a day long snorkeling trip which was really pretty great. There were some amazing corals in the middle of the ocean and all sorts of beautifully colored fish. There’s nothing quite like the sensation of snorkeling, especially in clear tropical waters like this. It truly feels like you’re flying and floating in a completely new colorful world. So many interesting plants and shapes of the corals under the water, and there were tons of truly beautifully colored fish of many sizes. It was unreal. Usually I’d be a bit squeamish to be swimming around with that many fish, but they were so beautiful to look at it didn’t bother me at all to be a part of their world for a bit. Our guide took us to a few different spots throughout the day. One spot we chased after small reef sharks. To be honest, at first I was a bit nervous about chasing after sharks, but apparently these are small and harmless. Sure enough we were able to spot a few. Then later we were taken to a spot where sea turtles swim and we saw three different ones that we were able to swim along with which was really pretty cool …just this big ol turtle swimming along goin’ about his way. The last place they took us wasn’t a snorkel spot, but it was a small stretch of beach with the whitest sand and bluest aquamarine water you’d ever seen. You needed sunglasses to look out onto it, but it was the perfect little spot to end our day of snorkeling with a little swimming and relaxing on the beach.
After we got back we walked around and checked out the different menus that the restaurants had to offer. We were walking up this one path and I heard Will say, “Whoa! Did you see that?” I looked up and just saw the tail of a rather large looking reptile cross the path about 30m in front of us. I asked “ehhh… so are there Alligators on this island?” I guess… we both didn’t see why there wouldn’t be, and neither of us really knew the answer to that question. But still – a bit unnerving seeing the tail of that size waddle across the pathway (and not in a fence or anything). Later on we did find out that it was just a monitor lizard. Which are rather large lizards…that live in the area. (I don’t know if I was supposed to feel better about that or not…but I guess it made me feel a little bit better.) You know.. you’re supposed to feel better when locals say, “Oh- don’t worry, it’s just a monitor lizard.” ……………….. ha. Just.
That night, we went to a place called Bingtang View restaurant (which was on the same path that we saw the monitor lizard). It had a nice atmosphere and pretty good view of the bay and some decent music playing. I ordered a pasta dish and Will ordered Tom Yam soup. The Tom Yam soup (a Thai dish) was absolutely delicious. It had a wide variety of seafood in it with some nice spices and lemongrass and we both thought that was the best meal of the entire trip. We finished off with a banana bread desert that was covered in custard; which was a very nice way to end the meal.
I’m so very glad I thought to bring our head lamps for our walk back to our chalet. (This was the same walk that we saw the monitor lizard on earlier that day, and I was feeling a bit leery of walking that path in the complete dark.) Anyway, half-way back to the beach, I was shining my light down on the ground keeping a keen eye on things, and then all of a sudden I caught a glimpse of Will stepping on something that sort of looked like a stick. It was very dark, maybe an inch in diameter, but it clicked in my brain that it was a little shiny, or at least my light caught a slight reflection off it. About a millisecond later as my light shined closer, I noticed the yellow stripes on it and immediately jumped three feet in the air and yelled “SNAKE!” and in the next millisecond, no kidding sprinted about 50m away, road-runner-cartoon-character style with nothing but a cloud of dust behind me!! I think I could’ve won nationals in the presidential fitness awards had someone been timing me. Seriously!
Apparently it started wrapping up Will’s leg, and I yelled at him, “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR…GET THE [insert really loud swear word here] OUTTA THERE!!!” Then he yelled, “My flip flops, I can’t find my other flip flop!!” -- (While these red-flip flops were a steal at 6000r (USD $1.50), and they were the first pair of shoes he had found in Cambodia to fit his size 13 feet) -- I yelled, “REALLY!??! FLIP FLOPS!? REALLY!!? Are you crazy?!? Ditch the flops and GIT over here NOW …. and we can come back and look for them tomorrow!!!! Are you NUTS!?”
Will being Will, was able to find his other flip flop, and then ran over to where I was at. We continued running until we reached the beach where there was a little more light to inspect his leg, and (after our adrenalin settled down) we were able to look closely and find out that luckily the snake didn’t strike. He said to me, “Man, you got outta there fast!”
I said, “I know!”
He said, “It’s nice to know you’d stay and take care of me if I really was bitten.”
I said, “I guess I just don’t really like snakes! It was my body’s instinctive move … I didn’t even think of what I was doing - I just ran. I’m sorry!” He laughed.
Then I said, “But don’t worry, if I saw you go down, I would’ve gone back. I promise.”
He said, “Well that’s comforting to know.”
We have yet to look it up to see if it was poisonous or anything, luckily it didn’t matter… but I guess you should treat any snake like it would be. I am glad to report we didn’t see any other creepy creatures on the island. And that night as I lay in bed, I wondered if I could’ve been a sprinter track star if they unleashed a bunch of fast snakes at the starting line every time the gun went off. Hrrrm. It’s something to ponder I guess.
. . .
Our last day on the island started out with a morning swim in the clear blue waters below our chalet. Then we went for some breakfast and after that, Will went on a small hike up to where they had some wind-power generators, and I laid on the beach to soak up a little bit of sun and the scenery. 4 o’clock that afternoon we were back on a fast ferry to the jetty to catch a taxi to a small town about an hour away to take the night train down to Jerentut which is where we could take a bus to one of the entrances of Teman Negara National Rainforest.
Malaysia
We managed to take just about every mode of transportation on this vacation. Aeroplanes, taxis, buses, cars, trains, boats, ferries, monorails, subways, elevators AND yes even escalators. The following posts tell a little bit about the REST of our travels after departing Kuala Lumpur. I hope you enjoy.
. . .
I’ll always have a place in my heart for Cambodia. While I really do enjoy it here, despite the hardships I’ve had, and the things we deal with on a daily basis; ... I must say that we most definitely live in the wild, wild, west of SE Asia. Not that’ I’ve seen all there is to see in SE Asia, but I’ve now been to Vietnam, Malaysia & Singapore (and the Thailand Airport, but I know that doesn’t really count) but still, after travelling in and around a few of these other countries, I do feel as though we currently live in the wild, wild west. On this trip we didn’t see a whole lot of motos with 40 chickens hanging upside down, tied onto the back travelling down the road, or huge squealing pigs on the back of a moto, nor tractors carrying a semi-truck load of bamboo shelves tied together cruising slowly down the road, nor people honking their horns as a means of general traffic safety. There just wasn’t a whole lot of that going on.
After a few days in Kuala Lumpur (which like I mentioned in an earlier post, was a city with a bit of some culture shock for us…with all the buildings, transportation, modern amenities etc.)… we headed on a bus to go to the North Eastern part of the country. After a few days in the city it was nice to get into the countryside and see what some of that was like. Some of it was quite rural and somewhat comparable to the Cambodian countryside; although I do have to mention we did see a lot more air conditioning units in some of these smaller houses. (It’s amazing what a little oil off the coast of your country can do for it, ya know?) Also, in much of the countryside there were MANY, many palm oil plantations. They may be one of the top exporting countries of palm oil in the world? Anyways—lots and lots of rows of palm oil trees lined the majority of the countryside that we saw. (There is a bit of controversy on all the palm oil plantations as they have cut down many, many rainforests to make these plantations….so keep that in mind when you enjoy your next bite of Nutella, or use your next product containing palm oil. Nonetheless, it’s a major crop and palm oil is used in many products that are consumed daily by millions of people.) And this is where a lot of it comes from. Anyway….on our bus, we headed up to a bigger town called Kuala Terengganu on the North East coast.
Wait, wait, wait…. let me rewind and go back to our BUS ride. This too was a bit of culture shock. Here we were on this double-decker bus, seemed really quite new and nice; spotlessly clean, air-conditioned with even a garbage can on board. The ride was an 8 hour bus ride; but it was completely quiet; almost everyone slept and there was no annoying karaoke music the entire ride. NOR did the bus driver honk his blaring horn once; not even Once! I do suppose that’s partly because Malaysia has actual traffic rules, and there’s no need to really honk on a divided highway when everyone’s following traffic rules.
Anyhow, it was probably one of the nicest bus rides we had been on in a long time. Quite the contrast from the usual trip in a bus cross country in Cambodia.
We went to one rest stop; (this was before we had figured out that a lot of the people were fasting for Ramadan during the day) and wondered why no one was eating. We wondered if we could eat on the bus (b/c no one else was) – but we did and didn’t get in trouble. Anyway, we got off the bus and I went to find the bathroom. I saw a sign with a woman wearing a headscarf; and figured that’s the way I should go. I walked into this room; that most definitely was not a bathroom. I saw places that you could shower, or wash up and then a large square sort of stage, platform – or maybe altar is the best word. It took me a few moments to realize that I was in a Muslim prayer room. Embarrassed, (luckily no one was in there) I walked out and later found the actual bathroom.
We made it to Kuala Terengganu after about 8 hours. Walked around. It was a pretty decent sized small city. It even had a KFC, McDonalds and Pizza Hut. It had a small strip of a China town, which was the only place you could get a beer (Muslims don’t drink alcohol). It definitely didn’t have many tourists and those that did stop through were mostly on their way to some waterfalls, or to the islands. In the eastern part of the country you’ll find a lot more predominately Muslim communities, and this one lived up to that fact.
The first night, after we found a place to stay, we were able to catch the dusk Ramadan feast that the city had. Food tents were set up everywhere and they had quite the array of things to eat at a really good price. We sampled all kinds of things. They had lots of chicken dishes, some things paired with rice; lots of different types of pastries, and meats and sandwiches with many different types of sauces. A lot of them had a bit more of a sweet quality than we’re used to, but for the most part everything was pretty good. We picked up a few items that they bagged up for us to take over to the park and enjoy. We chose a bench by a tree and ate up and enjoyed. It was interesting to observe this type of a community gathering. At least compared to what we’re used to in the states; if there’s a gathering with food tents in the park… I guess we’re used to some sort of entertainment, or music or something going on…but here everyone just had their food – and sat quietly and ate it in the park. There was little to no commotion, just everyone enjoying their dinner on a peaceful evening.
I guess that night was the most that I had felt out of place on the entire trip… being it was a predominantly Muslim town; nearly ALL the women were wearing head scarves, and I also noticed that they all their limbs were covered with long pants and long sleeves. While I felt as though I was dressed pretty conservatively (at least it’s good enough for in Cambodia) I had capri’s on and my knees were covered, and my shoulders were covered as well;…but I did feel different having my neck and collar bone showing, my hair, and even the small part of my leg that was exposed. It was such a different feeling and it did make me feel a bit self conscious. Later that night I read in our tour guide book, that in some of the north eastern parts of the country, women should take note of what the locals are wearing, and dress conservatively and when appropriate have all limbs covered. It was such a different feeling, and I guess was the first time I had been in a place or situation that made me feel like that.
On that note, despite the very conservative dress that women wear; it Also was interesting to observe their fashions and trends. Even though they’re very much covered up in cloth, it doesn’t mean that they don’t get to make their outfits look pretty. I noticed many different patterns and colors of headscarves and robes that they wore, and in the local pharmacy shops they sold many of the same brands of makeup you could find back home. There were LOTS of different shoe stores with tons of different fashionable shoes available. So despite the very traditional ways of dress they had, it was interesting to see that the women still had many ways of expressing themselves in what they wear.
We spent two nights in Kuala Terengganu. The city had a trolly-sort of tour bus that’d take you to points of interest in the town for free. We went to the National Museum which had quite a display of things in regards to country’s history, as well as a very nice garden and landscape area and a maritime section dedicated to traditional boats on display. The next stop was the Masjid Kristal (Crystal Mosque) but actually, that was around lunch time and I think that the bus driver had just stopped there only to pray. Regardless, it was an interesting structure made of steel and glass, near the river. After that we just strolled around. We went to China town for dinner the 2nd night and then just relaxed in our hotel room as the next day we were off to the Kuala Besut Jetty by bus to catch a ferry to Perhentian Kecil Island.
On a side note….one of the reasons we left Cambodia during this time period was because Pchum Ben, a 15 day religious festival was taking place at that time. Not that we have anything against the religious festivals in Cambodia (or anywhere really); but it just so happens that our house is 50m from a Pagoda; and during any sort of festival they tend to blast music out of about 14 loudspeakers stacked on top of each other starting at 4am until late into the night. Anyhow- in an effort to avoid that and get some extra sleep we thought it’d be great to schedule our vacation over that time.
Well, turns out that in the Muslim religion in Malaysia, during Ramadan, it is also customary to broadcast over loudspeakers chants and songs in the early morning and late in the evening. While we thought we were escaping such customs, it turns out it was quite similar in Malaysia. (Except for the fact that they had better quality loudspeakers, so the sound was a little more crisp. Again, it’s amazing what a little oil of the coast of your country will do for it.) Oh well. For the most part we were staying in places that were fairly well enclosed, so the volume of it all wasn’t too much of a bother.
. . .
I’ll always have a place in my heart for Cambodia. While I really do enjoy it here, despite the hardships I’ve had, and the things we deal with on a daily basis; ... I must say that we most definitely live in the wild, wild, west of SE Asia. Not that’ I’ve seen all there is to see in SE Asia, but I’ve now been to Vietnam, Malaysia & Singapore (and the Thailand Airport, but I know that doesn’t really count) but still, after travelling in and around a few of these other countries, I do feel as though we currently live in the wild, wild west. On this trip we didn’t see a whole lot of motos with 40 chickens hanging upside down, tied onto the back travelling down the road, or huge squealing pigs on the back of a moto, nor tractors carrying a semi-truck load of bamboo shelves tied together cruising slowly down the road, nor people honking their horns as a means of general traffic safety. There just wasn’t a whole lot of that going on.
After a few days in Kuala Lumpur (which like I mentioned in an earlier post, was a city with a bit of some culture shock for us…with all the buildings, transportation, modern amenities etc.)… we headed on a bus to go to the North Eastern part of the country. After a few days in the city it was nice to get into the countryside and see what some of that was like. Some of it was quite rural and somewhat comparable to the Cambodian countryside; although I do have to mention we did see a lot more air conditioning units in some of these smaller houses. (It’s amazing what a little oil off the coast of your country can do for it, ya know?) Also, in much of the countryside there were MANY, many palm oil plantations. They may be one of the top exporting countries of palm oil in the world? Anyways—lots and lots of rows of palm oil trees lined the majority of the countryside that we saw. (There is a bit of controversy on all the palm oil plantations as they have cut down many, many rainforests to make these plantations….so keep that in mind when you enjoy your next bite of Nutella, or use your next product containing palm oil. Nonetheless, it’s a major crop and palm oil is used in many products that are consumed daily by millions of people.) And this is where a lot of it comes from. Anyway….on our bus, we headed up to a bigger town called Kuala Terengganu on the North East coast.
Wait, wait, wait…. let me rewind and go back to our BUS ride. This too was a bit of culture shock. Here we were on this double-decker bus, seemed really quite new and nice; spotlessly clean, air-conditioned with even a garbage can on board. The ride was an 8 hour bus ride; but it was completely quiet; almost everyone slept and there was no annoying karaoke music the entire ride. NOR did the bus driver honk his blaring horn once; not even Once! I do suppose that’s partly because Malaysia has actual traffic rules, and there’s no need to really honk on a divided highway when everyone’s following traffic rules.
Anyhow, it was probably one of the nicest bus rides we had been on in a long time. Quite the contrast from the usual trip in a bus cross country in Cambodia.
We went to one rest stop; (this was before we had figured out that a lot of the people were fasting for Ramadan during the day) and wondered why no one was eating. We wondered if we could eat on the bus (b/c no one else was) – but we did and didn’t get in trouble. Anyway, we got off the bus and I went to find the bathroom. I saw a sign with a woman wearing a headscarf; and figured that’s the way I should go. I walked into this room; that most definitely was not a bathroom. I saw places that you could shower, or wash up and then a large square sort of stage, platform – or maybe altar is the best word. It took me a few moments to realize that I was in a Muslim prayer room. Embarrassed, (luckily no one was in there) I walked out and later found the actual bathroom.
We made it to Kuala Terengganu after about 8 hours. Walked around. It was a pretty decent sized small city. It even had a KFC, McDonalds and Pizza Hut. It had a small strip of a China town, which was the only place you could get a beer (Muslims don’t drink alcohol). It definitely didn’t have many tourists and those that did stop through were mostly on their way to some waterfalls, or to the islands. In the eastern part of the country you’ll find a lot more predominately Muslim communities, and this one lived up to that fact.
The first night, after we found a place to stay, we were able to catch the dusk Ramadan feast that the city had. Food tents were set up everywhere and they had quite the array of things to eat at a really good price. We sampled all kinds of things. They had lots of chicken dishes, some things paired with rice; lots of different types of pastries, and meats and sandwiches with many different types of sauces. A lot of them had a bit more of a sweet quality than we’re used to, but for the most part everything was pretty good. We picked up a few items that they bagged up for us to take over to the park and enjoy. We chose a bench by a tree and ate up and enjoyed. It was interesting to observe this type of a community gathering. At least compared to what we’re used to in the states; if there’s a gathering with food tents in the park… I guess we’re used to some sort of entertainment, or music or something going on…but here everyone just had their food – and sat quietly and ate it in the park. There was little to no commotion, just everyone enjoying their dinner on a peaceful evening.
I guess that night was the most that I had felt out of place on the entire trip… being it was a predominantly Muslim town; nearly ALL the women were wearing head scarves, and I also noticed that they all their limbs were covered with long pants and long sleeves. While I felt as though I was dressed pretty conservatively (at least it’s good enough for in Cambodia) I had capri’s on and my knees were covered, and my shoulders were covered as well;…but I did feel different having my neck and collar bone showing, my hair, and even the small part of my leg that was exposed. It was such a different feeling and it did make me feel a bit self conscious. Later that night I read in our tour guide book, that in some of the north eastern parts of the country, women should take note of what the locals are wearing, and dress conservatively and when appropriate have all limbs covered. It was such a different feeling, and I guess was the first time I had been in a place or situation that made me feel like that.
On that note, despite the very conservative dress that women wear; it Also was interesting to observe their fashions and trends. Even though they’re very much covered up in cloth, it doesn’t mean that they don’t get to make their outfits look pretty. I noticed many different patterns and colors of headscarves and robes that they wore, and in the local pharmacy shops they sold many of the same brands of makeup you could find back home. There were LOTS of different shoe stores with tons of different fashionable shoes available. So despite the very traditional ways of dress they had, it was interesting to see that the women still had many ways of expressing themselves in what they wear.
We spent two nights in Kuala Terengganu. The city had a trolly-sort of tour bus that’d take you to points of interest in the town for free. We went to the National Museum which had quite a display of things in regards to country’s history, as well as a very nice garden and landscape area and a maritime section dedicated to traditional boats on display. The next stop was the Masjid Kristal (Crystal Mosque) but actually, that was around lunch time and I think that the bus driver had just stopped there only to pray. Regardless, it was an interesting structure made of steel and glass, near the river. After that we just strolled around. We went to China town for dinner the 2nd night and then just relaxed in our hotel room as the next day we were off to the Kuala Besut Jetty by bus to catch a ferry to Perhentian Kecil Island.
On a side note….one of the reasons we left Cambodia during this time period was because Pchum Ben, a 15 day religious festival was taking place at that time. Not that we have anything against the religious festivals in Cambodia (or anywhere really); but it just so happens that our house is 50m from a Pagoda; and during any sort of festival they tend to blast music out of about 14 loudspeakers stacked on top of each other starting at 4am until late into the night. Anyhow- in an effort to avoid that and get some extra sleep we thought it’d be great to schedule our vacation over that time.
Well, turns out that in the Muslim religion in Malaysia, during Ramadan, it is also customary to broadcast over loudspeakers chants and songs in the early morning and late in the evening. While we thought we were escaping such customs, it turns out it was quite similar in Malaysia. (Except for the fact that they had better quality loudspeakers, so the sound was a little more crisp. Again, it’s amazing what a little oil of the coast of your country will do for it.) Oh well. For the most part we were staying in places that were fairly well enclosed, so the volume of it all wasn’t too much of a bother.
Hormel Chili
Sunday, September 27, 2009
So we just had some mashed potatoes, corn and a can of Hormel chili for dinner. The chili was part of a gift basket I received and we had yet to eat it. Who knew just how much that would hit the spot. We discussed if it was the fact that we hadn’t had that combination of flavors in so long was the reason that made it taste so good OR if Hormel Chili is just that good. Hmmmmm. Ya sort of wonder if it’s like when you’re on long camping or backpacking trip; and you’ve hiked hard all day…and then you have the just add water pasta w/ some tuna mixed into it for dinner and it tastes like the best thing ever. I wonder if that’s what this can of Hormel chili was like for me tonight. Or maybe it really Is that good.
Regardless, we were both quite satisfied with dinner tonight.
So we just had some mashed potatoes, corn and a can of Hormel chili for dinner. The chili was part of a gift basket I received and we had yet to eat it. Who knew just how much that would hit the spot. We discussed if it was the fact that we hadn’t had that combination of flavors in so long was the reason that made it taste so good OR if Hormel Chili is just that good. Hmmmmm. Ya sort of wonder if it’s like when you’re on long camping or backpacking trip; and you’ve hiked hard all day…and then you have the just add water pasta w/ some tuna mixed into it for dinner and it tastes like the best thing ever. I wonder if that’s what this can of Hormel chili was like for me tonight. Or maybe it really Is that good.
Regardless, we were both quite satisfied with dinner tonight.
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