Malaysia

Written: Apr 12, 2003
Location: Perhentian Islands and Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Hi All,

I only had ten days in Malaysia but it was well worth going. I started out in the Perhentian Islands off the North Eastern coast then visited the Cameron Highlands in the West of the country.

Crossing the Thai Malaysia border I travelled to Kota Bharu. My first visit to a Muslim country the changes were immediately obvious. At the bus stop were what seemed like hundreds of women wearing scarves covering their heads, no veils though? I took a taxi for the one hour journey to the ferry terminal. The driver was a devout Muslim and tried to convert me on the way.

At the ferry port met two French guys that were cycling around the world for charity. They had taken six months to reach Malaysia from France and would be going for another year. They were collecting drawings from schoolchildren in the different countries and sending them home to be incorporated in a large design. I have the website address somewhere. If anyone wants it let me know.

The fast boat to Kecil Island was good fun. The driver advised us to sit near the back. 'Boat Jumping' he said. I soon realised what he meant. There were large waves and the boat would smash into them flying over the troughs before crashing down again. We were smashed down into our seats many times, like going over a rollercoaster.

We were dropped at Coral beach but wanted to stay on Long Beach the biggest beach on the island. It was a ten minute walk through the forest. There are no roads on Kecil Island. There is big surf on the beach which is clean, not many people. I stayed at moonlight resort and had the last room right up the hill in the forest. This had the disadvantage though of having lots of ants and mosquitoes. Very big Geckos too but I don't mind them. The room was pretty bad to be honest but it was cheap at 15 Malaysian Ringett, about three pounds.

There were monitor lizards in the forest. I saw quite a few about a foot and a half long. Someone said they had seen a really big one. The first day I found a really quiet small beach near coral beach. I went snorkelling and the water was really clear, a lot of coral too.

Diving is quite big in the Perhentian Islands. It’s supposed to be one of the best spots in Malaysia for it. I took a snorkelling tour around the Island. The boat stopped at five of the best places. Saw a lot of really colourful fish. The highlight was undoubtedly the turtles. We went to a sandy bay and the boat circled in water about seven metres deep. We all scanned the murky depths looking for signs of a turtle on the bottom. The boat driver was an expert and soon spotted one. We were soon in the water floating on the surface waiting for the turtle to come up. After a short while it did and was followed by a large tour group from Korea paddling furiously to keep up. We had been told not to touch or interfere with the turtles. We found a second turtle and this time my luck was better. I was swimming close to the turtle with one other person. They stopped however and I kept going swimming only a few feet away from the turtle. It was a great experience. It came to the surface took a deep breath and went back down to the bottom again, disappearing into the depths.

For me the trip was a total success after that but there was more. We visited Shark Point and one swam past me without my noticing it. Another swimmer pointed the shark out to me. In profile about a metre and a half long it was perhaps twenty metres from me. Quite rashly we both swam towards it but it disappeared among the rocks.

My next stop in Malaysia was the Cameron Highlands. Situated at 1200-1500 metres above sea level the highlands are cool and wet. The only place in Malaysia where tea is grown, the area is also used for the cultivation of vegetables. There are a dozen jungle walks to do as well as a tour of the tee plantations and gardens.

The highlands were a welcome relief from the scorching heat I had experienced on the east coast. On the way back from the Perhentians I had contracted a fever due to the heat. Luckily it only lasted one day and was not Malaria or some other tropical disease as I had feared.

Malaysia can truly be called tropical. The weather is hot and humid. The insects are very big, the flowers and trees are very big. In fact everything in the natural world is bigger than in cooler climes. There is a lot of colour as well, for example the butterflies and flowers. It is a very photogenic country.

My first day in the Cameron Highlands I took a half day Country Tour as they call it. This involved a visit to a Rose Garden, a Tea Plantation, a strawberry farm, a honey farm, a butterfly farm and a Chinese Buddhist temple. First up the Buddhist temple, was very colourful and had many golden statues of various deities. It was interesting to see the different styles of the statues compared to Thai temples.

We drove in a large bus further up the highlands. There was only myself, the tour guide and two girls from Slovenia on the bus. The bus stopped at the tea plantation and we got out to take some pictures. The tea plants, only a few feet high made a patchwork pattern over the surrounding hills which looked very picturesque.

We drove on to the Boh tea factory and had a short tour. The machinery looked quite old but it was interesting to see how the tea was processed. Boh was founded by a Scottish family near the beginning of the last century. They only produce tea for the Malaysian market. I had some in the tea shop afterwards sitting outside with a view over the hills.

Now if someone said to me you’re going to visit a rose garden I must admit I'd probably groan but it was actually very good, or am I getting old! I did really like the large collection of cacti they had though. They also had one of the only varieties of green rose. It looked like a weed.

The strawberry farm wasn't up to much. After all we have a lot of them at home. They were grown differently to ours. The plants were grown out of bags suspended on planks off the ground. The fruit did not seem to be any bigger or better for this however.

The honey farm was set in nice gardens. The bee hives were surrounded by lots of flowers for the bees to collect the nectar.

I liked the butterfly farm. Not a large number of different varieties. I only remember the large black ones with a green fluorescent pattern on their wings. Here there were also various creepy crawlies and reptiles kept in cages. The leaf insects and leaf frogs were very hard to spot because of the camouflage. The chameleons didn't move much and the scorpions were very large. However I remember the huge black beetles the most. From their heads protruded three large claws. They looked like some war machine from a Sci-Fi movie.

In the shop one could buy butterflies and insects framed to hang on your wall. I was assured they were not killed deliberately for this trade however.

I stayed resting in the highland for four days, enjoying the cool mountain air and partaking of the many good Indian restaurants in the town. It was nice to relax with a large pot of the 'local' tea for 2.5 RM, which is about 40 pence.

I did several of the Jungle walks in the area. On the first one, I went with a local guide and a Finnish couple. I took a guide as I had heard the story about Jim Thompson, the Thai silk businessman that had gone jogging in the highlands and disappeared in the sixties. It was quite safe however. We went on quite a stiff climb. I think I must have been out of condition. The view was not great from the top however being overgrown with trees. The jungle was very noisy with the sound of Cicadas. They make their high pitched call by inflating the stomach.

I got better views of the surrounding hills on a second walk I did with Kizzie a girl from Bristol and Martin from Cologne. We got a lift back down into town from a Malaysian family which was quite helpful as it was further than we expected.

On my last walk I visited Robinson falls. It had quite a big drop. I fancied I could see the face of an old man peering out, made by the water pouring over the rocks. I managed to see a Cicada on this walk. Quite luckily as they are very hard to spot, being brown and usually high up in trees. This one took flight which is why I noticed it. I also saw a large centipede or millipede not sure which, crawling across the trail.

For a break from the nature I watched the Man. Utd Vs Liverpool game in the Ranch Pub.

And that was Malaysia pretty much. I would have liked to stay longer and maybe visit the Taman Negara national park and Borneo, maybe next time. The bus ride down from the highlands to the nearest town was incredible. Passing hills covered in rainforest. It poured down.