Anchored off Besar Island, Malaysia

4pm

Hi All,

  It was a lovely cruising day and we made great time averaging close to 7 knots.  And amazingly as we were cruising along again we heard, “DoraMac” on the VHF radio.  This time it was our friends from Four Star on their way north towards Rebak Island.  We had met them on the West Malaysia Rally ( I think it was that rally) and had last seen them in Kota Kinabalu on Borneo.  Here they were again.  Cruising friends from Milliways were also on Four Star returning to their own boat berthed in Rebak Island.  Yesterday it was Amir and today Four Star.  Wonder who we’ll see tomorrow?

  So GM Theo told the Sox, Win Or Else!  So they won.  I also wore my different Sox hat.  Hopefully they didn’t use up all of the runs they’ll get in the series with the Angeles today:  17 runs and they needed 9 of them to win the game. 

This is the final email about Cameron Highlands.  We really did enjoy it there and recommend it if you want a lovely vacation half way around the world.

Ru

DoraMac

Tanah Rata and Robinson Falls

Tanah Rata is the small town where Randal and I (and most tourists) stayed in the Cameron Highlands. You could walk from one end to the other in no time. It seemed to be mostly eating places, tour desks, an internet café, ATM machines, money changers and souvenir shops. There was a lovely small botanical park and a huge school as well as hospital. Along with agriculture, Agro-tourism is the main industry. And though we came for the cool weather, many people told us that once upon a time they could remember the highlands as being much cooler than they are now. Hmmm.

“Cameron Highlands is made up of 3 main townships at different elevations. The first town you’ll see coming from the south is Ringlet followed by Tanah Rata and Brinchang. Tanah Rata is the administrative hub of Cameron Highlands where most of the government offices are located”

The park was very well maintained and we saw several workers each time we passed through during the day.

There was a play area, colorful shrubs, lots of flowers and a clock tower.

The main street of town with a covered walkway probably because it rains quite a bit and restaurant seating is outside.

One of the souvenir shops selling pink strawberry related items.

Robinson Falls

Randal didn’t want to do the hike past the falls to the Jalan Boh Estate but I did. We were both right. When we started out the hike we were just going to the Falls which were about a mile out of town. But when we got there Randal changed his mind so off we went..with drinking water but no snacks. You could take path 9 which involved some bushwhacking or 9A which was just a walk through the woods. We took path 9A. At first it was a lovely well maintained path like you would find on the Blue Ridge Parkway or many trails along the Appalachian Trail It was slick though and we wanted to move along to avoid the afternoon rain. I have no photos because by the end of the “walk” I needed both hands to hold onto whatever I could grab to keep me from sliding down the side of the mountain. Something Randal grabbed had thorns and I also kept thinking of all of the bugs we’d seen the day before. The lovely path had just about disappeared and was muck from the prior day’s rain and there were several huge downed trees blocking the path. At one point I truly was scared to go on for fear of really sliding off the mountain but Randal had noticed the darkening sky and pointed out that as bad as it was, the coming rain would make it much worse. That got me going. That and the fact that the end was in sight. The hike had taken an hour and 45 minutes but seemed longer and shorter since we had started about 11 am and were finished with our hike before 1pm. But we weren’t done yet.

Here is where we were; wet and dirty.

The road to the right goes up to the tea station. We came from behind the truck on the left down a path from the mountain along the tree line. The road straight ahead went to a farm. The road to the left took us back to the main road where we could catch a bus to town. We were pretty dirty and one of us was a bit disgruntled at this point. But oddly, we weren’t hungry. We’d had a large western breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon and beans back at the Fathers Guest House Café. Beans and toast is a big thing where the British have been and western tourist congregate. I asked the man working at the truck on the left where we were and how to get back to town. Walk was the only obvious answer… There was a taxi parked there too but no one around who seemed to drive it. Later the man at the truck passed us driving the taxi but when I tried to flag him down, he waved and seemed to indicate he had to go somewhere. Oh well.

So we started walking and made it about as far as those white farm sheds when it started to rain. We sat under the cover and waited it out.

Actually it was green and lush and lovely and would have been great for biking and looked like some of the back roads near Lexington or Catawba. At the main road there was a bus stop where you could catch the bus going to town. But in just a few minutes a taxi came by and we flagged him down and he drove us back to Tanah Rata for a total of 8 ringgits. That might have been the best taxi ride in Malaysia.

After a hot shower in our big expensive room at the Century Pines Resort, we went off for lunch. All in all, a good day. It made me sorry we had to leave the next day since there was so much more to see. And we could do another hike!

The safe, pleasant bus ride back to George Town

Our van trip up to Cameron Highlands took over an hour less time than the bus trip back. The bus driver went around these curves slowly. Our van driver sped around them and passed cars even with the double white lines. Randal and I sat in the front seat with the view. The seats were comfortable, we had AC and we made the promised scheduled stop in Ipoh half way back. The bus stopped in Butterworth, the town across the bridge from George Town. We left the bus and caught the ferry back because that would take us to the ferry terminal next to the marina and the bus would have taken us to the bus terminal where we would have had to take a taxi or a local bus back to the marina.

The ferry from Butterworth to George Town; the same ferry that makes for rolling conditions in the marina since it is just next door and generates large waves.

These boys had wind toys and were standing at the front rail with their dad.

Two arms full!

The dad had picked up the smaller boy in his right arm and the older son felt left out so asked to be picked up. The dad didn’t tell him he was too big, but just hoisted him up too. Great memories for the brothers!

Randal and I left the ferry and walked back to the marina instantly being reminded that we had left the cool Cameron Highland far behind. We spent about 5 more days in George Town. I wonder when in our travels we’ll be longing for the hot weather of coastal Malaysia?

Ru

DoraMac