Gerry Hat-Trick

After yesterday’s exhaustions we returned – brave little troopers we – for a nightwalk in the jungle. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, lots of other people had the same idea. With the jovial conversations and kids’ squalling echoing through the trees, any self-respecting beasties had not surprisingly vacated the area, leaving us with a motley […]

After yesterday’s exertions we decided to take it easy today. Hah! Well, you can’t do nothing, and there’s nothing to do in town, so we’d already decided we’d take the ferry (1 RM) over the river to the national park, and do a bit of freelance wandering around. There’s quite a bit that’s off limits

I was promised monkeys! *sniff* Oh well, there was lots more to like. First, the cleaners’ carts at the resort in the Taman Negara National Park. (Itself something of a tautology, or whatever it’s called, given that ‘taman negara’ means national park in Malaysian.)  Apparently the monkeys like to come down and fling everything everywhere;

Up early again, ready for the pickup to take us down, down, down out of the Cameron Highlands on a four hour ride to the three hour boat trip to Taman Negara national park, ready for our trek into the jungle tomorrow. Not a great deal to report in truth. Other than my first ever

That was tough!  I mean, we weren’t anticipating a gentle stroll, but the track up into the hills above Tanah Rata proved to be a steep, ragged, slippery, root-strewn struggle that didn’t let up for the better part of an hour, before easing into a more or less level ragged, slippery, root-strewn struggle. Which continued

Up at the crack for our 8 o’ clock pickup, joining a Land Rover full of young backpackers for the ride up to the highest of the highlands, to visit the second largest plantation of Malaysia’s largest tea company, now kingdom of the third generation of the Scottish family who established it between the wars.

Jonker Walk was interesting but nothing special when we visited on Thursday evening, but on Friday night, as advertised, it really sprang to life. Crowded with tourists and locals, the street was lined with stalls selling everything from head massagers to handbags, the majority featuring foods of every description, many poetically mysterious: hand punch lemon

An hour or so to kill in Kuala Lumpur Central Bus Station, as we wait for our bus to the Cameron Highlands, seems as good a time as any for a few thoughts after a week and change in Malaysia. Caveated by the fact that we’ve really only seen two cities – hardly representative of

Started the day by returning to The Saturday Ice Cafe, where we had a delicious breakfast yesterday, after negotiating with the lovely smiley old woman who at first refused our order for two bowls – “You try first! You might not like!” (we did) – and this morning greeted our repeat order with “Why you

I was getting baffled: is it an a or an e? Google of course knows the answer: the more familiar Malacca dates back to colonial times; nowadays, Melaka is the more acceptable form. Though everyone still pronounces it Malacca. Clear? Splendid! Clearer anyway than the tourist map with which we attempted a walking tour of