October 2016 - Malaysia - Page 2

7 October 2016   Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
I walked to the car hire office to pick up a car at eight o’clock, but the office was closed.  I rang the company and got through to a help desk guy in Kuala Lumpur, who told me that the office didn’t open until nine o’clock.  I calmly told him that I’d arranged to pick up the car at eight o’clock and that I was very, very angry.  Ten minutes later, a sleepy looking guy turned up and I soon had the car.  I still can’t believe that they told me eight o’clock when the office doesn’t open until nine, but that’s South-East Asia for you…

By the time, that we’d loaded our luggage into the car, it was well after nine o’clock, which was a bit of a nuisance because we had arranged to call in at the factory manufacturing our new propeller at 12:00 and that was 300 kilometres away.  However, the journey was ok, there’s a toll road that passes to the west of Kuala Lumpur, which is very fast.

We arrived at Finnscrew one hour late, but they were waiting for us and soon measured our old propeller.  They reckoned that the propeller is 19 inches and has a pitch of 16 inches.  Hallberg Rassy have told me that the propeller on our model of boat should be 19” diameter by 17” pitch, so after a bit of discussion, we’ve decided to make the new one 17” pitch - we might go a bit faster.

After a tasty Indian curry in a roti shop, we had a nice drive up to the Cameron Highlands, climbing a very winding road up to 1600 metres above sea level - very alpine.  Unfortunately, the scenery deteriorated as we approached the main village of Brinchang because the farming activity increased and they extensively use huge poly-tunnels, which look horrible.  In addition, Brinchang looks like a European ski resort without the snow – there are very tall 20-story blocks of apartments and the lower levels are full of restaurants.  My first impressions weren’t good, then it started to rain.

We’re staying in the Hotel Titiwangsa, which is a slightly rundown, 2 star hotel offering half board for two people for only £38/night.  The name of the hotel sounds like some deviant sex act, but is actually named after the mountain range that stretches up the centre of the Malaysian peninsula.  The hotel is Halal, so there’s no bar or alcohol allowed in the restaurant, so we nipped out to the supermarket and smuggled in a six pack of beer.

Our evening meal was included in the hotel price, so we went to the restaurant which specialises in the Steamboat Dinner. This is extremely popular in the Cameron Highlands.  They bring you a large pan of stock, which is placed on small burner in the middle of the table.  Plates of raw sea food, chicken, tofu, fish balls, noodles and vegetables are brought to you and the idea is to cook the food yourself in the stock.  It’s good fun and very tasty, however, being an impatient chap, I now have a burnt mouth.

8 October 2016   Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
After a mediocre Halal breakfast (no bacon), we walked through town and up Jungle Trail Number 1, which was very interesting – 3.5 kilometres initially through farmland and then up a steep muddy path through verdant rain forest. I can see why the Cameron Highlands is a farming area – every scrap of soil is covered with plants.

The path ends at the top of the second highest mountain in Malaysia called Gunung Brinchang (2032 meters).  We were not alone, there’s a tarmac road up to the mountain peak and it’s a popular tourist destination.  After a quick rest and a sandwich, we walked down the road, stopping briefly at the Mossy Forest, which is the number 1 tourist attraction in the area.  It’s a board walk through (errr) a mossy forest.  Having just spent an hour slogging our way up a trail in a mossy forest, we didn’t stay long. 

The road continued down through farmland with the inevitable poly tunnels, then opened up into terraced slopes covered in tea plants – very photogenic.  Another kilometre of walking down a private road brought us down to the Boh Tea Plantation, where we indulged in a pot of tea and a couple of strawberry cakes.  It wasn’t a very colonial experience, instead we had our nibbles in a high tech café with about 400 other tourists.

Having already walked 8 kilometres, we didn’t fancy the 6 kilometre walk back to the hotel, so we decided to hitch a lift.  To our amazement, the very first car that we stuck a thumb out to stopped and dropped us back in the centre of Brinchang - a nice young couple from Kuala Lumpur, who spoke very good English.  

We chilled out for the rest of the afternoon and then went out for a very tasty Chinese meal in town – Pork Spare Ribs, which is a real treat in a predominantly Muslim country.

9 October 2016   Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
After breakfast, we drove down to the Century Pines Hotel in Tanah Rata, which is only £12 per night more than the Titiwangsa Hotel, but a thousand times better.  We left our car in their car park and went for a hike up Jungle Trail 7.  It was a real mission to find the start of the trail.  We had to walk to the MARDI centre; skirt around the main gate to the left; walk down the private drive of the Camelia Apartment block where we found a yellow sign for the trail hidden behind some bamboo next to a gap in the hedge at the side of the carpark. 

Once we’d found the trail, it was well marked, but the first 500 metres was very overgrown.  The rest of the trail was very pleasant, going up through rain forest heading for the summit of Gunung Beremban.  Just near the summit, the trail split into two – a very obvious path going right and down to a waterfall and a fainter path going left to the summit.

It took us 1½ hours to get to the summit, but it was covered in trees, so there was no nice view.  After a quick sandwich, we headed down the upper section of Path 3, which was a mission being very steep – nobody has told the Malaysians about zigzagging a path up a steep slope, they go straight up.

After an hour, we joined path 6, which was much more pleasant, walking down a ridge at a more acceptable gradient.  We were excited to see a small troop of Silver Leaf Monkeys, which we observed for five minutes before they headed off into the rainforest.

Three and a half hours after we started, we arrived at the Parit Waterfall, which is ½ mile from town and in my humble opinion, very boring.  By half past one, we were checked into the hotel and relaxing in our luxury room.  The room even had a decent sized bath, so I indulged and soaked my tired limbs for half an hour – I haven’t had a bath for years.

In the evening, we stepped out and had a very good Indian curry at one of the local restaurants - £10 for both of us including £5 for the beer.

10 October 2016   Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
After two days of hiking, we had a quiet tourist day, first visiting a strawberry farm (which is the number 2 attraction in the area).  It was a tourist trap selling souvenirs, cream teas and charging a fortune for people to pick their own strawberries, so we didn’t stay long.

While we were still in Brinchang, we called in at the Sam Poh Temple, which was a surprisingly large Chinese Buddhist temple.  It was interesting to look around and compare the differences to the many Buddhist temples that we’ve seen in the past.  There are extensive buildings behind the temples, presumably housing a number of nuns and monks.  We spent a peaceful ten minutes listening to the nuns and monks chanting somewhere away from the public eye.

Of course, no visit to the Cameron Highlands would be complete without a visit to a tea plantation, so we indulged in a pot of tea and a cake at the Cameron Bharat Tea Estate overlooking their very photogenic plantation.

Having seen the highlights of the area and feeling tired from our two days hiking, we had a quiet afternoon in our luxury hotel.  In the evening, we had another Indian curry - we like it here.

11 October 2016   Admiral Marina, Malaysia
It took us four hours to drive back to Port Dickson, where we took advantage of the car and did some serious provisioning at Tesco, replenishing our stocks of canned food and drinks.  We called in at YP Marine, a small boat builder about five miles to the north of town, who have a small chandler shop and are able to do stainless fabrication. 

After we unloaded the car, I returned it, walked back and the day was gone.

12 October 2016   Admiral Marina, Malaysia

We had a quiet day.  I’ve come down with a mediocre case of Man-Flu, so I pottered about doing some admin and research on crossing the Indian Ocean next year.  Glenys did a few chores in the morning and then spent the afternoon doing research on our next land trip, which is to North West Thailand and Cambodia.  We leave in four days - it’s a hard life sometimes.  

13 October 2016   Admiral Marina, Malaysia
We had another quiet day.  Glenys did some washing in the morning and then spent the afternoon on the Internet checking out things to do on our land trip.  I edited the photographs that I’ve taken over the past two weeks and then resumed my research on our Indian Ocean Crossing.

We’ve been following the blogs of some of the boats who are crossing this year and gleaning useful information about the best times to be in certain places.  It looks like our timetable should be:

We’ll be sailing about 7,000 miles in 12 months, so it’s going to be an interesting year.

14 October 2016   Admiral Marina, Malaysia
I changed the oil on the engine and the generator.  It’s a messy job, but it mostly went ok.  I checked the exhaust elbow on the generator and noticed some salt crystals on the flange, so I scraped them away and found three small holes in the aluminium casting.  This is a bit annoying because I replaced this part five years ago for exactly the same problem.

It took me an hour to clean up the area surrounding the holes, hanging upside down, lying across the engine and the generator (which I’d heated up to do the oil change).  The area was so inaccessible that I had to use a small mirror to do most of the work which is why it took so long – nasty job.  Once the metal of the casting was cleaned up, I slapped on some Marine-tex epoxy, which should seal the holes well enough until I get a replacement elbow.