Wednesday, April 23, 2003

 

taman negara national park is home to some of the worlds oldest jungle, app. 130 million years old! it's primary forest which means that there had never taken place any cultivation or logging by men. there are many ways to trek, some of them can be explored by oneself, others require a guide. it's an awesome place with mountains to see. eventhough there are snakes, tigers and wild elephants living within the park, the only "dangerous" animal are leeches. these nasty little things stik out their nose as soon as there has been some rain. as a matter of fact they don't do you any harm at all, it just looks frightening if one of those is attached to your skin and sucks out the blood until it got filled - and then it get's messy once the little bastard had let go because the blood flows out for some minutes and soaks the clothes. however, it's always a good subject to woffle on about, isn't it? at the end of the day we didn't get biten once - we were always fast enough to take them away in time!

the other thing one has the be aware about trekking in taman negara: it's quite hot and the air is dump. therefore the sweat starts flowing just after a couple of steps. and by writing flowing i mean flowing. you understand...;-) so, these are the two things everyone who has travelled to the area will tell you about and after having done it i can assure you, it's a beautiful place worthwile all the effort. so, don't worry, be happy & enjoy!

the most famous treck in the park might be the canopy walk. suspended 25m above the ground between massive trees, it allows closer inspection of the higher reaches of the forest. it's interesting to look down on the smaller trees and ground-plants for a change, eventhough we didn't see any wildlife up there at all - the guides are telling you it's because they are really wild animals and therefore get out of human ways long before they got a chance to spot them.
we also went on a three-days-two-nights jungle-trekking to experience the real leeches & sweat adventure;-) unfortunately our guide was more a runner than a trekker and except of dense impressive forest we didn't see anything exciting. sorry, i almost forgot the night-walk during which we discovered many insects such as spiders, grasshoppers or bugs. it was interesting and some looked really strange. we spent the second night of the trekking-tour at an orang asli village (aborigines people). the village is visited during the day by many tourists who come here to blow the blowpipe and watch the tribesmen making fire. in the evening the place gets really quiet. it was a strange feeling to stay here; the orang asli are very shy and hid in their huts most of the time. the next day we finished our trek by floating down the river in a rubber-tube. it was good fun and one of the more relaxing parts of this adventure.
after that we went wildlife spotting by ourselves and - what a surprise - were quite successful. thanks to moving slowly and quietly we spotted some lizzards, ground birds, squirrels and heaps of groovy looking insects. ok, we neither managed to catch an eyesight of some real big stuff, but at least we saw some of these animals, who are always around in this awesome environment - and are unfortunately mostly bypassed without notice by stressed-out guides!

from the middle of peninsular malaysia we catched the slow moving train to kota bharu in the north at the east coast. the line is also called jungle railway for it runs right through the countries jungle-clad interrior passing by several spectacular limestone formations. kota bharu is a bastion of malay culture. we enjoyed sampling some food at the busy night market, checked out the immense variety of fruit, vegetables, fish and other goods at the colourful central market and had a great afternoon at gelanggang seni (cultural centre), where we were introduced to some culture of the region and could try them ourselves. we played bamboo-drums, kicked the rattan-ball, tried pencak silat (a dance-like martial art) and spinning. it was excellent fun, very different to the usual way cultural heritage is presented to you.

posted by christoph 13:03

Monday, April 14, 2003

 

georgetowns main attraction is the city-center itself: chinatown and little india. being here feels really different. eventhough it's a very busy area, it gives you a relaxed and calm impression. we visited most of the main attractions. the very impressive cheong fatt tze mansion was built in 1870 according to feng shui. however, cheong fatt tze, a well-known businessman in the east and west, gave the building an unique touch by involving western elements. the mansion was completely renovated in recent years and presents itself to the visitor as a stunning example of that period. another masterpiece is khoo kongsi. this chinese clanhouse has some magnificent murals and carvings. the roof decorations are just striking. it's an elaborate piece of art.

there are also many colonial buildings in georgetown - it was the first british settlement in the area - and it was pleasant to walk in the around high court, city hall or fort cornwallis.

we also went on top of penang hill. it's a beautiful ride with a swiss (real quality;-)) funicular railway system. from the top are fine views over the city and across to the mainland (the longest bridge in asia included). in the nearby jungle is a canopy walk. it's excellent fun to walk just under the top of the trees and to look down on all these plants.

close to georgetown is kek lok si temple, the biggest buddhist one in malaysia. it's beautifully situated on the slope of a hill. we were lucky to get there just before nine o'clock in the morning, for most of the souvenir-shops were still closed and we could enjoy the sight almost undisturbed. the main attractions are a big pagoda and a huge statue of kuan yin, goddess of mercy.

during a visit at a tropical fruit farm we got to know many new plants and their fruit. so many things i haven't seen before. most of them are very tasty, although they look quite strange. at the end we got a huge fruit-platter which was very refreshing in the well-known malaysian heat;-)

from georgetown we headed to kuala kangsar, the royal city of the sultan of perak. the royal-district is a refreshing area with lot's of parks and trees. as we caught sight of masjid ubudiah, we were taken aback. the small mosque is so beautiful, we hardly could believe our eyes. amazing! the palace of the sultan, istana iskandariah, seems as well as just have come out of a fairytale. we got even lucky and saw the sultan himself; he drove by in a big black mercedes accompagnied by a convoy of police-cars and -motorbikes.

after a short stop at the cave temple of perak tong, close to the city of ipoh, we arrived at the cameron highlands. tanah rata, the main resort, is on a height of 1400m, therefore the climate is very refreshing. it's almost european for it rains nearly everyday for a short time. the scenery is dominated by jungle, but there are also some tea estates and many farms (producing vegetables, strawberries, flowers, honey etc.). we liked it up here and stayed for four days. we went jungle-trekking on steep but awesome paths, visited boh's sungai palas tea estate and a butterfly garden, rented a motorbike to cruise the hill-roads... there was always something to do and in the evening many delcious restaurants were waiting for us:-)

tomorrow we are leaving for taman negara, malaysias biggest national park containing some of the world's oldest jungle.

posted by christoph 09:50

Saturday, April 05, 2003

 

selamat datang means welcome to malaysia. we travelled by train from thailand to malaysia which was absolutely no problem and didn't involve any hassels. everything went smooth and nicely. our first destination is georgetown on pulau penang, north-east of the peninsula.

malaysias society is an interesting mixture of malay, chinese, indian and some tribal people. the main religion is islam. it's very interesting to stroll along the streets and watch indian women in traditional clothes go by, followed by covered moslem ones and chinese businessmen. this is a promising beginning and i'm looking forward to our travels in this country.

posted by christoph 12:49

Friday, April 04, 2003

 

we spent the last week at ko tao, a small island in the gulf of thailand. it's a divers paradise and we therefore went diving. after four dives we had finished our padi open water dive-course at big bubble. it was good fun, eventhough the visibility under water was quite bad for this eldorado. all we have to do now is to find a nice dive-site where we can explore the beauty of the submarine world;-)

ko tao is the perfect place to relax and watch the days go bye... that's exactly what we did! besides diving we spent our days at the restaurant or in the hammock. we had some great days.

then we moved on to ao phang-nga national park. it's an amazing place on the andaman coast with islands rising almost vertically out of the sea. the most famous attraction is "james bond island" (background to the man with the golden gun, 1973). we had a beautiful day, cruising through the islands discovering mindblowing views again and again.
we also spent one night at a muslim fishing village. all houses are built on stilts and the village is situated at the base of a sheltering rock. it was really great!

further in the south is krabi a good base to explore some of the most famous islands. unfortunately famous does also include crowdes and highly touristy. we experiencet that during our stay at ko phi-phi. after the remote beauty of ko tao, this was shocking: upper-class resorts, extremely overprized bungalows, french bakeries, pizzerias, some unfriendly thais and loads of two-week-package-sunseekers... the only good thing about so many bad things concentrated at one place is, that other places are saved from these influences!

however, we went there to do some dives in the andaman sea. this time the visibility was better (but still not very good) and we saw many fish and awesome corals. the highlight were two leopard sharks - the first bigger fish we saw. very exciting!

posted by christoph 16:12