Malaysia: Tea and Scones

When my phone alarm went off at 5.45am, we were already awake, woken by the torrential rain which was loud enough to drown out the sound of the bedroom air-com in our guesthouse on Pangkor Island.  Sometimes the ceiling fan was enough for sleep but more often, we turned on the aircon at some stage during the night, when the nighttime temperatures hovered around 27C.  In the pre-dawn darkness, the rain was literally like turning a bucket upside down. We finished our packing, hoping it would ease but it only intensified. Caoimhin ran around the corner to get one of the island pink taxis, which then drove to the front door of our guesthouse to collect me and our bags before driving us to the small port to get the ferry. Caoimhin was the proverbial drowned rat.

The 6,30am ferry, the first ferry to leave Pangkor island for Lumut, the town on the mainland, was busy with workers, families and people on the move with enormous suitcases. The sky was just starting to get bright by the time we docked in Lumut after the thirty-five minutes crossing.

We were on our way to the Cameron Highlands which required us to get two connecting buses after the ferry. Our first experience of travelling by bus in Malaysia the previous week was contradictory. On one hand, the bus was very comfortable with loads of legroom and huge seats (The seating was arranged in 2 by 1, instead of the usual 2 by 2) but on the other hand, the bus was extremely late, the scheduled four-hour journey taking over seven hours and the timetable seemed more aspirational than actual. Bus travel in Malaysia was incredibly cheap by our standards, a 2-hour journey in an extremely comfortable bus may cost as little as €4.

The bus station in Lumut was in darkness with shuttered ticket offices and a few potential passengers hanging around and checking their watches. We were sweating in the muggy heat but at least the rain had stopped.  One bus had its engine running but the driver was nowhere to be seen, all the other buses were silent. We hoped to get the 7.20am bus to be sure of making a connecting bus without too much hanging around, another bus was scheduled to leave for Ipoh at 7.30am but it took much longer (at least according to the timetables.) A driver appeared just before 7,30am and when I asked him whether his bus was the 7.20 or 7.30am, he said that it was both. Anyway the traffic was light and we arrived in Ipoh ahead of schedule, with plenty of time to have a breakfast of fried noodles and fried eggs before getting another bus to the Cameron Highlands.

Leaving Ipoh, we begin climbing until there was a wall of green ferns and trees on either side of the road. There were colourful flowers and stalls selling wicker baskets. After a couple of hours, there were views of vibrant green hills planted with low tea bushes, signs for strawberry farms and garden centres and acres of vegetables growing under plastic.  It was incredibly scenic (apart from the plastic- shrouded veg) and completely traffic clogged. It was the Saturday of a public holiday weekend and the highlands, which were very popular at weekends as an escape from the lowland heat and the big cities were heaving with visitors.

Finally we crawled into the bus station in Tanah Rata, the main town in the Cameron Highlands, and inhaled the cool mountain air. There was a bank of cloud overhead and we were thinking of pulling jumpers from our bags…items that we didn’t think we would get to wear. Our accommodation was just a 10-minute uphill walk from the bus terminal, a co-living apartment with three bedrooms, a shared kitchen and living room with terrace, which we were sharing the first night with two young French guys.

When we were unpacking, Caoimhin made a grim discovery, the zipper of his backpack was half open and his laptop which was in the back pouch was missing. We were shocked, as Malaysia had seemed a very safe, non-edgy country.  Back we go to the bus station where the bus company official kept asking ‘Why you put your laptop in a bag in the hold? Why so stupid?’ (She was Chinese Malay, very direct), then went to the police station, where a lovely police officer told us that theft was always happening, especially tourists’ phones, tablets and laptops. He filled out a report but couldn’t give us a receipt which apparently we needed for insurance purposes until the following day because they had used up their quota for the month, it was Jan 31^st.

The Cameron Highlands are famous for tea and for hiking. There were several trails that started from Tanah Rata so we set off the following morning to do the most famous one, Trail 10 outbound and Trail 6 inbound which were not very well marked or maintained. The start was steep, the path narrow and obstructed by the gnarled roots of trees. The day was quite warm (about 25C) but it wasn’t the energy sapping tropical heat of the islands or Kuala Lumpur and it felt good to be walking. The trail was dry and dusty(there hadn’t been any rain in the highlands) but in different conditions, it would have been extremely treacherous, like climbing/sliding down a muddy waterfall But the plant life was gorgeous, banks of busy lizzies, orchids and ethereal fairy grasses.

After three or four hours, we arrived at the Cameron Valley teahouse for a well-deserved cuppa. While most of the foreign visitors were out exhausting themselves on the trails, the Malaysian tourists were in the teahouse, scoffing cream teas, (a popular legacy from the Brits),  after taking a leisurely tour in one of the large buggies which looped around the tea plantation. The scones and strawberry jam were delicious, the  jam being made from the local strawberries. The tea was also exceptionally refreshing  or maybe it was because we were drinking it while admiring the view of the tea bushes.

We called into the police station on the way home but they told us to come back the next day to get the insurance receipt. We were grumbling about police inefficiency and the need for three visits to get an insurance receipt when we made an amazing discovery, Caoimhin was putting his backpack on a high shelf when his ‘stolen’ laptop slid out of the back of his pack. This was all the more astounding because his backpack was so small. Excellent news. Miracles do happen!!!!!!

The following day we did another hike which was much more difficult, through thick jungle with overgrown paths, some blocked by fallen trees.  About three quarters of the way to the highest point, we discovered that the large signs in Malay which we thought were place names, actually said No Entry and Keep Out, with the help of Google Translate. Our descent by a more established path was easier.  

We also did a jeep tour of the highlands with a visit to a bee farm and a strawberry farm which was entertaining mainly because of the lovely young people in our group, Belgian sisters, a British guy, a German, a Norwegian and a French girl. We were tossed around the back of the jeep by our extremely reckless driver who gave us very little info about anything and when he spoke, it was almost impossible to understand his English even for native English speakers.

Our next stop was Penang, an island in the north east of Malaysia and a very popular tourist destination. The bus leaving the Highlands was full of foreigners, we got the last 2 seats on the 9am bus which we booked the day before, but the four and a half hour journey was smooth and both departed and arrived on time.

The heat was a solid wall when we got off the bus in Butterworth, a town on the mainland but with views of Penang island, obviously we didn’t put any laptops into the bus hold this time.  The bus station was very conveniently connected to the ferry terminal to get a ferry to George Town, the main town on the island of Penang. Admittance to the ferry terminal was by swiping bank card or phone wallet (no cash accepted) at a cost of about €0.40 for the crossing. There was no ticket issued, or no checking of tickets…..if you got in, it was presumed that you had paid.

Penang felt like a different country. I cant quite figure out why. It had a very Chinese feel but there were also plenty of mosques, Hindu temples, Anglican churches and restaurants of every type. Maybe it was the Chinese lanterns everywhere, stretching across streets, outside houses and in temple courtyards with more being put up all the time by men on ladders. There were trishaws, festooned with flowers and lights on many street corners, adding a bit of colour and exoticism. There were also the street art and many tourists condensed into a relatively small area in the UNESCO Heritage old centre. Or maybe it was the abundance of bars advertising cocktails and ‘happy hour’ on Chulia Road and Love Lane. Malaysia is mainly a Muslim country so in the more non-touristy areas, alcohol wasn’t widely available. But we were delighted to avail of happy hour with a margarita or two. We stayed in Magazine Boutique Hotel, just on the edge of the tourist area for €24 a night for a room with private bathroom.

Penang food was delicious but the biggest surprise was the pastry shops – we ate the crumbliest almond croissants that I had ever eaten. There was a cake shop here with the unlikely name of China House with the largest selection of cakes and dessert …every sort of cheesecake, chocolate and fruit cake that you could imagine. Yummy but with prices for Western wallets – tea and a slice of cake here cost us three times the price of our lunch of fried rice and beans and vegetables.

The transport system on the island was very efficient with buses going to all parts of the island plus a free bus that started at the ferry terminal and made its way around Georgetown.  Tired of walking in the heat and sleepy from overindulging in cake, so we opted for a free bus tour of the city. Our timing could not have been worse – it co-incited with school finishing time and the bus was crammed with school kids. But what  a good initiative to have a free and frequent bus serving the main areas in the city for both locals and visitors.

Penang has been described as one of the easiest cities in Asia to walk around but whoever said that certainly wasn’t walking the same streets that we were on. The pavements were difficult to negotiate, blocked by cars, motorbikes, shops that spilled their wares onto the footpaths, lots of broken steps and slopes. Most of the time we had no option but to walk on the road which was nerve-racking with scooters whizzing by and there was a lack of pedestrian crossings. But we loved the energy, the history, the food and of course, the margaritas.

We plan to explore a bit more of Penang island, away from Georgetown, before making our way to Thailand.

Thanks for reading….

Cheers to Penang

😮