Melaka

Its taken me sometime to write on the blog. Internet access was pretty limited for the remainder of our time away. However at long last i'm completing this log of events for the children to look back at in years to come. We found a comfortable hostel here in Melaka, the owners and managers made us really feel welcome and even bough the children a chess board to play with. We visited the cinema and watched "Bedtime Stories" which Jay even admitted was a pretty good story although somewhat "predictable".The maritime museum was a good excursion with a replica Portugese vessel with history boards and exhibition inside giving information about Melakas past importance geographically with trading goods with the rest of the world. At one point there was something like 80 languages/ dialects spoken in the area. The City itself seemed to have a magic formula that other places we'd visited didn't possess. It had preseved old buildings and there was a pleasant feeling about the place. We spent hours and a number of changes and walking to get to a themed water park on day. It was thankfully a sucessful day albeit rather dear and again an opportunity to cool off from the heat. We were invited to go with "Stephen" the manager of the hostel to a nearby island. The island was a important place as it had members of one of the 13 royal families' lineage buried here. The mosque was a shrine and visitors flocked there particulary on holidays and weekends to camp on the beach and pray in the mosque. We had been booked in for lunch but didn't realise he had included us in the celabrations attached to the mosque. We enjoyed a Mutton Curry in the open air eaten with our fingers , much to Erins delight.

Transportation

Well we thought we'd done well arranging transport around Asia for the last three months without any hitches. We spoke too soon. The intended journey from Kuala Selangor to Port Dickson should only have taken 4 hours but circumstances prevailed that it took 12.

Drivers told us it was possible to go to Port Dickson without heading back into Kuala Lumpur itself. We started out very well catching buses with little waiting time. On arriving at a brand new bus station in Klang and told we had a two hour wait we decided to stop for a bite to eat and taste the local delicacies. I was the only one to brave the soup with peanuts in it. We strolled around to the waiting room at a time 30 minutes before our departure has buses have a tendency to turn up very early. The board read that the bus had not arrived yet so we settled into some seats. After sometime i asked security when our bus was expected. Immediately i sensed something was wrong. He then told us the bus had gone and when i glanced at his watch it read one hour later than Jays. Oh dear!! The board doesn't update like other stations when buses arrive and depart and unforunately we hadn't known Jays watch was working in a different time zone, and had been for the last few weeks. The clocks in the station hadn't been put up and we hadn't realised our bus had been and gone as all the announcements we're in Malay. The staff were extremely apologetic and in the meantime the architect even came over for a chat and asked what we thought of the layout. We were quick to point out the operations error that the board didn't function correctly and a lack of a clock in the building. Long and short of it we had to purchase a new ticket with another provider as they were fully booked on later buses.Fortunately it didn't break the bank at 6 pounds for the four of us.

Erins Poem

My jungle poem

Jungle vines in a tangled mess,
Uneven ground and slippery mud,
Nothing is easy except breaking a sweat,
Going is slow and really hard work,
Level ground is not often seen,
Everything' busy and shiny and green.

By Erin

Kuala Lumpura and Kuala Selangor

We went up the KL Menara, the tallest tower in Malaysia and 4th in the world.
The lift took 15 seconds to reach the top.
Ieuan and i went in the paddling pool at the back of the Petronas Towers.A little boy cut his chin and we had to do first aid on him, a police lady called a cab to take them to the hospital.

love Erin

We have seen the Petronas towers,the worlds biggest twin towers.We also went to Batu caves which has a hindu shrine. They have a festival every year where selected pilgrims put hooks through their skin on their backs and pull a chariot on ropes 13 km from China town, Kuala Lumpur to Batu caves.That afternoon we visited the craft complex Erin and I did a batik paniting of a gekko. It was great fun, mum thinks it will be good activity for the regatta. Yesterday after arriving in Kuala Selangor we went on a boat to see the fireflies.They were fascinating, they all flash together the male flashes once a second and the females 3 times a second. It was better on the water because we could see them against the darkness of the forest.

Ieuan

Hello All,

Just a quick note to say i've picked up a virus on the memory card so will not be able to upload anymore photos for the time being.We've arrived at a nice nature reserve with plenty of walks.This morning we went to two museums one was about childrens traditional games and the other about the history of the region. We are staying in primitive huts, again plenty of mosquitos around. Erin and I seem to be attacked on a daily basis. If its not them its horrible bed bugs!!!!

Cameron Highlands to Taman Negara

We had an unplanned day of walking the day before we left Tanah Rata. Having decided to catch a bus and visit a butterfly farm and then walk to the main tea plantation in the area we were unfotuntely abandoned somewhat short of our destination. rather than having a wasted day we stuck with it and started our walk, not quite sure of the distance as all the tourist maps aren't to scale.Some 4km later we arrived at our first point of call - the butterfly farm. We were informed that the buses shouldn't be relied upon and we thought we'd continue uphill to the tea plantation knowing that being a popular destination a ride back home would be easy to obtain as we'd seen many cabs on their way there. We were very much mistaken there were no cabs in sight and for our efforts of hitching a ride, all the locals thought we were being friendly and just waved back.Thankfully Erin kept high spirits and walked all the way back to the main road and completed a round trip of at least 11km - her biggest walk yet. The only tears seen that day was when she was "attacked" by a butterfly.

We are now departing Taman Negara. This is one of Malaysias largest National parks and the size of Luxembourg. We arrived at the main gateway village after 2 1/2 hours. The kids spotted a wild boar drinking from ther river. There is a strong flow and all the longtails here are kitted out with the very latest outboards. Definately not using the advised kill cords if they even have them and certainly not abiding by R.Y.A guidelines of wearing life jackets etc. The village is in great preparation for the forthcoming season which starts from Chinese New year onwards. We came here to do the largest Canopy walkway in the world, which was not a disapointment. The kids raced on while Jay took great enjoyment wobbling the bridge and making me nervous. I wasn't very trusting of the construction having seen health and safety practices in this part of the world, i eyed up their "cow hitches" with great scrutiny thinking i would have chosen a better know to do the job!!! After new year there will be queues of up to 2 hours to get on the rope bridges which take 30 minutes if you take a gentle pace!!!

We met a guide recommended in the Lonely planet book who does tours and decided to doa night Jungle walk last night. Ieuan had already collared him all afternoon picking his brains and we felt rather oblidged to give him some work after all he'd been teaching the children. Ieuan has learnt alot but for example he is able to identify plants which honey can be extracted from and also create your own natural tattoos using fern leaves!! He'll be disapointed to leave although i think the man will be pleased to have some quiet time. The night walk was just as rewarding with finds of caterpillars that turn into fireflies, scorpions, stick insects, moon snails etc and tracks of elephant and barking deer.

Today we took another trail and saw the orang asli (native people) and went to a cave where there we hundreds maybe thousands of bats. Its extremely hot and humid here and after the three hour walk our clothes needed wringing out and we actually appreciated our "cold river" shower. We leave for KL tomorrow another long day and a couple of changes. Hope it all makes sense, haven't had chance to read through, tierd.

Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Ieuan and Jay are in their element. Landrovers everywhere!!! Apparently the Cameron Highlands have the greatest concentration of Landrovers outside a British garrison. History - The Cameron highlands where first surveyed by a Brit named Willliam Cameron, hence the name in 1885. There is a English influence here which can be seen in the older buildings. Many mimic the Tudor period and also the Victorian era when the British developed the area as a place for growing Tea. Much of the area is suffering abuse by the locals, mass agricultural development without a good infrastructure has meant many landslips. We took a long walk today, much to Erins displeasure which took us up the valley through jungle. We visited a Bee farm and Jay got stung! We hope to go for afternoon tea at a local hotal for tea and scones. The weight that we lost in China is gradually piling on with all the banana fritters we're consuming. We ahve also been to a strawberry farm and had delightful strawberry.

Erin is writing a poem about the jungle and wants to write a sentence

Hi class, I have been on a jungle walk today.

I'll try and get her to write more later as shes keen on exercising her creativity with words and drawings. maybe i'll post the finished product for you all to be AMAZED at the talent!!!!

Ipoh

We went to the Lost World of Tambun it was great fun it was a big pool and it had lots of slides. Half way down dad and I fell of the inflatable ring that you sat in to go down it.The park was themed like the Aztec world and made to look like a old tribes city.It was set in a limestone region and there was a stack which was 400 million years old.The notices said no clothes but every one did as they were Muslim and the women don't show their bodies. Mum got some looks with her bikini!!! Even funnier was the fact it rained all day but it was fairly warm so it was fine. Ieuann