27 Jan - 28 Jan 2010 Taiping

Southeast Asia
Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia
Perak Darul Ridzuan
Taiping
Jalan Idris 2
Peking Hotel +6058072975
Adequate twin room with air-con and wifi for MYR 55.- or US$ 16.- per night.


Click below for an interactive road map of the Peking Hotel in Taiping and for directions:
N 04° 50.94' E 100° 44.33'










Exploring the lively, down-at-heel and predominantly Chinese-Malaysian city of Taiping, misleadingly nick-named as “Town of Everlasting Peace”, which takes a pride in her interesting 19th-century CE history of bitter and bloody feuds between many rival Chinese secret societies aka triads.

 Listening all day to the artificially generated, ear-piercing and never-ending fake-twitter of nest-producing swiftlets, electronically transmitted and amplified with powerful loudspeakers made in China, in order to attract both salivating white-nest swiftlets (Aerodramus fuciphagus) and black-nest swiftlets (Aerodramus maximus) into those penthouse-like, ramshackle nesting barns, purpose-built on the leaking roofs of Taiping's many old Chinese shop houses, and learning that Chinese men are addicted to the allegedly aphrodisiac power of bird's nest soup.
"Three and a half hours' drive north of Kuala Lumpur, the small town of Taiping nestles in the foothills of Bukit Larut. It was once the administrative centre for the British Empire's tin-mining operations in the state of Perak. In the nineteenth century, transplanted English society strolled in its orderly streets, shopped at department stores, sipped papaya sodas at the soda fountain, played cricket on the padang, dressed up to go to the races. But the tin ran out, as it was always bound to, and the whites moved on. They left behind their colonial buildings - the town's museum, its district offices, its Anglican church - and the most beautiful public gardens in the country..."


Going up the 1,035-m high Maxwell Hill aka Bukit Larut, the oldest hill station in Malaysia, by chauffeur-driven Land Rover Defender (MYR 6.- or US$ 1.75 per person), enjoying in cheerful spirits the fine views over (i) the jungle canopy, (ii) the city of Taiping and (iii) the well-kept Lake Gardens, built in 1880 CE on the site of an abandoned tin mine, and, in the end, hiking downhill at a reasonable pace with the jungle on either side, singing with cicadas and humming with birds and insects, along the steep road with its many hairpin bends and cascading streams, and, to top it all, having a great impromptu pit-stop at pondok no. 3; many thanks, Raymond, for your heart-warming hospitality and for the excellent Chinese tea.

"Get in, sit down, shut up ... and hold on!"

"...some miles off the new highway, Taiping is overlooked, these days, by those rushing between Kuala Lumpur and Penang and is yet undiscovered by tourists. It is like an old relative that has been forgotten by the young. Content in its own home, it carries on in the quiet meditative way of the very old and very wise."

 Click below for more blog posts about relaxed hillwalking
26 Sep - 04 Oct 2013 Sintang
05 Sep - 06 Sep 2012 Hua Shan
12 Feb - 14 Feb 2011 Adam's Peak
20 Jul - 24 Jul 2009 Gunung Gading
03 Feb - 06 Feb 2009 Cameron Highlands
Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res photos
Konni & Matt Travel Photos 


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Destination:

26 Jan - 27 Jan 2010 Kuala Kangsar

Southeast Asia
Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia
Perak Darul Ridzuan
Kuala Kangsar
Jalan Kangsar 74
Double Lion Hotel +6057761010
Adequate double room for MYR 35.- or US$ 10.20 per night.


Click below for an interactive road map of the Double Lion Hotel in Kuala Kangsar and for directions:
N 04° 46.32' E 100° 56.52'










Passing many well-maintained rubber estates on our way from Gerik to Kuala Kangsar, visiting a rugged Felda palm-oil mill, well hidden in the middle of a vast plantation, and learning about the industrial processing of oil-palm fruits via pulp into a reddish crude oil which contains a high amount of healthy beta-carotene; many thanks, Vijai, for the extensive grand tour through the departments and the underbelly of your Dickensian plant.
 


Exploring Kuala Kangsar (population 40,000), the royal town of Perak, located at the downstream of the Kangsar River, where it flows into the Perak River, admiring (i) her distinctive royal palaces (most peculiar: the 1926 CE Remembrance Palace aka Istana Kenangan, made entirely of wood and woven bamboo and constructed without the use of nails) and (ii) her atmospheric mosques (most striking: the Ubudiah Mosque aka Masjid Ubudiah which appears as if viewed through a distorting mirror, since its minarets are squeezed up tightly against the golden onion-dome) and, lastly, plucking a leaf from Malaysia’s oldest rubber tree which was planted by the British Resident Sir Hugh Low in the late 1870s CE from seed stock smuggled out of Brazil into Kew Gardens in England.


“The worst thing about being a tourist
is having other tourists recognize you as a tourist.” 




“You have to find out for yourself.
Take the leap. Go as far as you can.
Become a stranger in a strange land.
Acquire humility.
Learn the language.
Listen to what people are saying.” 


2010 Map Konni & Map

Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos
Konni & Matt Travel Photos


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Destination:

25 Jan - 26 Jan 2010 Gerik

Southeast Asia
Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia
Perak Darul Ridzuan
Gerik
Jalan Toh Shah Bandar 21
Gerik Hotel +60192274676
Clean and spacious double room with air-con for MYR 50.- or US$ 14.60 per night.
Indifferent Malaysian Chinese owner - money matters.


Click below for an interactive road map of the Gerik Hotel in Gerik, which we would recommend, and for directions:
N 05° 25.86' E 101° 07.80'










Driving leisurely along Peninsular Malaysia's scenic Lebuhraya aka East-West Expressway through a varied scenery of new palm-oil estates, old rubber plantations and timeless jungles (now in danger of heavy illegal logging), stopping in a number of traditional Malaysian Malay kampungs and relaxed Malaysian Chinese country towns, such as Lenggong, famous for its farmed XXXL-size ikan belida aka giant grey featherback, and making time for some delicious pescetarian and vegetarian local food: (i) buying life patin fish aka ikan patin (MYR 12.- per kg) from a fish farmer and having it cooked to perfection in Liau's delicious temboyak sauce (blending durian, turmeric, chilli, shallots, garlic and salt) at a friendly road-side warung, (ii) learning to add infamous petai (Parkia speciosa), a kind of green, edible beans in a long, flat and beaded pod with bright green seeds the size and shape of plump almonds which have a rather peculiar smell, and sambal ikan bilis to our steamed white rice aka nasi putih and (iii) pigging out on an undisclosed number of sweet and juicy, handball-sized pomelos which were just in season.



“Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” 
“The journey not the arrival matters.”
 (T. S. Eliot)



Visiting the Rainforest Research Centre +60377107066 on Banding Island in the middle of the artificial 15,200-ha Lake Temenggor, learning about the last 500 wild Malayan tigers (Panthera tigris jacksoni), the national animal, in the jungle of West Malaysia and about the ambitious "National Tiger Action Plan" which aims at doubling the number of wild tigers in Peninsular Malaysia to 1,000 by the year 2020 CE; many thanks, Hamiazrim and Faread for all your detailed explanations and interesting stories.



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Destination:
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