Penang to Singapore

Penang to Singapore (3 - 9 Nov)

Having a car changed things enormously, despite its age and the difficulties it had reaching the speed limits before they changed. Our aim was to explore Peninsular Malaysia a little. But we spotted our favourite site just as we were leaving Penang – Tescos. We now understand why Tescos has such a huge Value range – it is to capture the vast Asian market. We allowed ourselves a short retail opportunity.

From Penang we crossed the 13 km bridge back to the mainland and headed south on the motorway. This is a good road that stretches the whole length of the country and it is an easy journey down to the turn off for the Cameron Highlands. This is a region at about 5000ft up in the range of hills that runs down the spine of the country. The climate here is still pretty warm by English standards but there is a lot of rain and the air is much fresher than at sea level. It was “hill station” country of old. It is famous for it tea plantations but we were amazed by the variety of other crops that we saw, 'pick-your-own strawberries', cauliflowers, beans, tomatoes, etc. There are enormous numbers of polytunnels and what appear to be hydroponics farms.

As we entered our hotel Jeff 's comment about a passing through a worm hole in the space-time continuum was somewhat upstaged by Meg's “Its bloody Brigadoon!”. The hotel was a 'Mock Tudor' building furnished like a 1950's Scottish country house but run by Indians who seem to still be working under the Raj. “We do have a dress code for dinner Sir” (eying our somewhat casual attire). We ate out. The maids wore little white lace caps and had broderie anglais aprons; we slept in a four poster bed with mosquito nets.

However, I suspect that now having ditched the Empire and gained air-conditioning, the good citizens of Singapore prefer jacuzzis to Olde English nostalgia.

There are lots of jungle treks which are no more than narrow tracks through the rain forest. We found one that went up to the top of one of the hills, Gunung Jasar, at 1650m and set off early in the morning. The map is what we now describe as 'flexible' – i.e. almost useless - and the track is difficult to follow, but since this was a tough climb, it was quite helpful to have some problem-solving tasks on the way. Like trying to work out how to get over the landslip. The view from the top was quite spectacular and well worth the effort, and we saw some huge butterflies. There were also some wonderful orchids, but when we lost the path we did reflect that a group of British solders got lost in the Malaysian jungle about five years ago.

We also went to see a tea plantation. These are utterly beautiful. Seen from afar it appears as if the hills have been draped with a soft emerald green chenille table cloth. The bushes fold gently round all of the contours of the hill, and because they are all about 3 feet high (imperial measures) they generate this wonderful site.

This shows a tea plantation - the picture hardly does it justice.

The tea is still picked by workers passing individually around the bushes, choosing tips which are 15 days old. We visited the factory – a shed which took up less space than two school gymnasiums. It is amazing that such low tech operations can produce such quantity of material. And we enjoyed the local food speciality – scones with strawberry jam and a pot of tea.

Working our way down the country was fascinating. Most of our route was covered by enormous plantations of Oil Palms which have replaced the original tropical rain forest. We by-passed Kuala Lumpur and eventually ended up in Melaka (Malacca from colonial times) where we had arranged a stay with a family.

This city has a lot of history and we spent time wandering around the old town.

The view of Melaka from the observation tower by the port

There is a vibrant night market and some old dutch churches. Having just been awarded World Heritage status there is a lot of work going on to 'tidy up' the tourist areas. We thought Melaka was more worthy of its World Heritage status than Penang. This has given us an idea for future careers – we intend to apply to become the people who decide what should be World Heritage sites. Apparently the UN gives out jobs such as these.

We saw several huge iguanas on our city river tour (this one was about 1.5m long and was in the heart of the city)

The stay with the family was a highlight – we were charmed by their daughters and enjoyed learning about schools and general family life.

Where we stayed ...

We ate the local specialties for breakfast and learnt a bit about Nyonya/Baba culture which is the local culture of the Malaccan straits Chinese. On the Saturday night we were taken out for a local speciality – a sort of fondue where the group sits around a table with a boiling pot of spicy stock and dips skewers of food in to cook. This was followed by a trip to a bar; here the management decided to make us feel at home by playing “God Save the Queen” - we stood up,it was expected. The remainder of the evening was spent in happy company, with the locals occasionally joining the stage to sing a Malay version of karaoke. Great fun.

Our friends in Melaka ...

The Malay population is a real melange of races and religions. The native Malays (about 60%) are Muslim, the Chinese (about 30% are Buddhist) and the Indians (about 10%) are Hindu. There are

some Christians in each of these groups but we could not work out what proportion these are. The religious sites of each of the groups are wonderfully different. The Buddhists flame in red and yellow, the Hindu temples are intricately crafted in sugar candy blues and pinks, the mosques are plain and unadorned in mainly white and blue. On a previous visit to Malaysia we were impressed at how integrated and accepting these groups were of each other and what an example of racial harmony they presented. This time things seem slightly different. We may be picking up the wrong signals but there are signs of some tension arising; a leading Muslim cleric has called for a fatwa on yoga; the law has now determined that if a parent converts to Islam that the children can

also be converted against the wish of the other parent or of the children themselves; the Chinese were expressing concern about the emerging talk of Muslim supremacy. We shall see – but now on to Singapore.