We had the first 4 days in KL. The Zon Suites, our suite hotel, were a 10 minute walk from the Petronas Towers and the adjacent shopping mall/food courts. Eating out was interesting, because although the menus were in English we had to go by the photos as to what was about to be served. Some mistakes were made, but they tended to be tasty mistakes.
The Petronas Twin Towers are the tallest twin towers in the world, and they lay claim to being the world's tallest high rise of the 20th century.
Here we are at the base of the Petronas Towers having a mid morning coffee.
The Petronas Towers are a spectacular sight at night.
This is the highest flag pole (100 metres) in the world. It is in Dataran Merdaka (Independence Square). This is where many cultural events and parades take place.
A view towards the Menara Tower and the city skyline from Dataran Merdaka.
Petaling Street Chinatown.
Boh Plantations today is a leading grower and seller of tea in Malaysia and the South-East Asian region.
It owns four tea gardens - Boh, Sungei Palas, Fairlie and Bukit Cheeding, three of which are located in the Cameron Highlands around 5000 ft above sea level. Together the gardens cover 1200 hectares.
With a production capacity approaching 3000 kilogrammes per hectare, Boh produces 4,000,000 kilogrammes of tea a year, or approximately 5.5 million cups of tea per day!
Today, Malaysians drink more Boh tea than any other tea.
Carol's birthday so we just had to have some birthday cake and a cup of Boh tea. Note the tea plantation in the background.
A view up the valley and the plantation workers accommodation.
We had a visit to a butterfly farm close to the Boh estate. One of the keepers took it upon himself to show us around the reptile section and insisted that we get 'up close'. Here we have a Long Nosed Horned Frog (Megophrys nasuta) sitting on Carol's (Carolus Wordimus) shoulder. It did make a bid for freedom, but luckily survived.
Here we have a praying mantis (Mantodea) the hairy bit is my arm. I am pleased to say that when we approached the vipers cage the keeper was not willing to get it out - phew!!
After the Cameron Highlands we moved to Ipoh which is 5000ft lower down and considerably hotter. Ipoh at one time was the centre of the tin trade and so was a rich city. Our stay here was at the Majestic Hotel aka Railway Station Hotel. At one time this would have been a very sumptuous, but of late it is looking tired, but it is full of character which we enjoyed.
The Sam Poh Tong cave temple is still occupied by monks and nuns who dedicate their lives to Buddha. The present temple façade dates back to the 1950s and a climb of 246 steps leads to an open cave with an altar hall and splendid panoramic views of Ipoh and its surroundings.
En route to Penang we visited the magnificent Ubadiah Mosque, built by 28th ruler of Perak, Sultan Idris Mursyidul Azam Shah I to fulfil a vow, the mosque was completed in 1917 with its majestic golden dome and 4 minarets.
Below is a typical shophouse, found in chinatown, Georgetown, Penang. It is by definition a terraced house that combines the functions of a shop and house. However, in Penang, terraced houses are generically called ‘shophouses’, even if they were designed chiefly for residential use.
This is a view from our room at the Naza Hotel on the outskirts of Georgetown. Notice all the high rise building that is going on.
In the evenings we usually had aperitifs at the cafe/restaurant next to the hotel overlooking the beach. We then moved to the hawker stalls where we chose our meal from all sorts of outlets. When you ordered you gave them the table number so all four meals could come from four different outlets. Then another person arrives to take your order for drinks. It all worked very well and the food is very tasty. The biggest plus is that it doesn't cost very much.
There is a lot of history in Georgetown so we decided to do the Heritage Trail. Here you see Carol and David purchasing some joss sticks from the Lee Beng Chuan, who is 78, and one of the last handmade joss stick makers. After our visit he featured in a one page spread in The Star!
Thaipusam (Tamil: தைப்பூசம்) is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai (Jan/Feb). Pusam refers to a star that is at its highest point during the festival.
Devotees prepare for the celebration by cleansing themselves through prayer and fasting. On the day of the festival, devotees will shave their heads undertake a pilgrimage along a set route while engaging in various acts of devotion, notably carrying various types of kavadi (burdens). At its simplest this may entail carrying a pot of milk, but mortification of the flesh by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with vel skewers is also common.
The area around the temple where the celebrations were taking place was well and truly blocked off to traffic so we took a taxi and walked the rest of the way. It was fascinating to walk around to see this festival close up. At one point Carol was interviewed by a reporter from The Star and we all had our photos taken in front of the temple.
The interview made it to the Star, but not our photo, shame.
Interview extract - "Briton Carol Wordsworth, 63, said she arrived in Penang the day before and was glad to have chanced upon the festival.
“I came here for a holiday with my husband and two friends. We heard about Thaipusam but didn’t really know much about it. We wanted to catch the silver chariot procession the day before but unfortunately, we missed it.
“It is great to see people from all walks of life and races celebrating together. Back in England where I live, we don't really have a mixed community. This festival is so colourful and interesting,” she said.
This Thai temple was built in 1845 by a Buddhist monk, who came from Thailand. The five acres of land was donated by Queen Victoria to the Thai community. The legend about the monk tells us, that he was very fond of the local speciality of Penang, which is called "laksa".
Inside is a 33-meter gold-plated reclining Buddha. It's said to be third largest in the world, but that is not true. Actually it is the 14th largest in the world.
We have now moved on from Penang across country to the NE coast of Peninsula Malaysia. Our base is Pasir Belanda at Kota Bahru. We expected the weather to be rather rainy here as it is the end of the monsoon season, but it was not to be. Here we are on the beach with a collection of coconuts - I can't think of a clever caption, Can you? Put it in the comments section.
Behind the resort were the local Kampungs where the locals live and work. although this area looks quite idyllic there tends to be a lot of rubbish around and it is also burnt which is rather smelly, because they burn anything and everything.
Close to our accommodation we spotted some men with monkeys collecting coconuts. The monkeys are trained to climb the trees (I don't think they have to be trained in that bit) select the ripe coconuts and then drop them to the ground. The monkey is on a chain and string so it doesn't do a runner. The one you see in the photo was having a bad day and refused occassionally to go up the palm. It is advisable not to stand under the palms when 'work is in progress'.
Here we are at the Pasar Besar, Central Market in Kota Bahru. This is all very fascinating because many of fruit and vegetables we have never seen before and wouldn't know what to do with them. The market was full of all sorts fragrancies (smells) especially in the spices section. On the higher floors you could buy just about everything.
This is our chalet at Pasar Belanda. The Dutch couple running the place have used local craftsmen to build the chalets. Breakfast was taken on a veranda overlooking the local river where you could watch the local wildlife, monitor lizards included.
The breakfast included freshly baked wholemeal bread, Dutch style, which was very welcome after all the white bread we had eaten during the holiday.
We are now at Kuala Terengganu, down the coast from Kota Bahru. Here's Sue photographed next to some 'chick blinds'. The blinds block out the sun and gives some shade for the shop behind. They also act as advertising hoardings.
This is the entrance to Chinatown in Kuala Terengganu. We had a beer here at a Chinese run emporium, we were seated right by the smelly drains - memorable!
The striking whitewashed Moorish-inspired house of worship set on the
estuary of the Terengganu River seemingly floats on water, hence its nickname, “the Floating Mosque".
Fishing boat on the east coast.
Drying fish - note the rays wings also drying.
From the east coast we moved across country to Port Dickson. We were due to go to Tioman Island, but due to 4.5 metre waves in the South China Sea it seemed prudent to rearrange our itinery. This is a view from our bedroom window in the evening.
The founding of Melaka is between 1376 and 1400 by a Sumatran prince, named Parameswara. A popular account puts the Prince out hunting one day and while resting under a tree, one of his dogs cornered a mouse-deer or 'pelandok'.
The mouse-deer in its defence attacked the dog and even forced it into the river-water. Parameswara was so taken up by the courage of the mouse-deer that he decided on the spot to found a city on the ground he was sitting on. Thus, Melaka or Malacca was born. Many claimed that the prince took this name from the 'Melaka' tree that was shading him.
This photo shows the Oldest Protestant Church in Malaysia.
This is the old Heeren Strasse (Dutch) now called Jalan Tan Cheng Lock, this is the heart of the old Melaka.
David found in his guide book a comment about a hotel having the worst chandeliers ever. Anyway we went to the hotel and the chandeliers weren't that bad, but we had to have and afternoon tea.
Back in Kuala Lumpur we still had things to do on our list. The first day without the car and it was pouring with rain so that stopped us going up the Menara Tower, because we couldn't see the top. The day after, Chinese New Year, we were treated to a Lion Dance in the hotel which was super. Better still it was blue sky and sunshine so we headed for the tower, the 4th highest in the world. In the photo you can see the Petronas Towers. Afterwards we headed for the 'Eye on Malaysia' a mini version of the Eye. As it was Sunday and Chinese New Year it was very busy so we had a coffee and watched it go around. After that we returned to the hotel to put in some last minute sunbathing before our return to UK.
