Tanah Rata to Taiping

20th May 2023

Today we descended from the cool of the Cameron Highlands to the normal Malaysian heat.

After a hearty breakfast we started the journey down from the highlands and were very fortunate to travel most of the way without anyone in front or behind us so we made good time.

Arrived at Kuala Kangsar where we had intended to visit a few interesting places. It took ages to get to the first stop because a bridge had collapsed (ironic) so had to find a way through a residential area on roads designed for a bicycle – so narrow.

Finally arrived at the Victoria Bridge, a relic of British rule, it is an old single track bridge very much reminded me of the bridge near Oatley in Sydney.

Construction took three years and was completed in 1900, it was blown up in WWII but repaired by the Japanese. It was replaced by an adjacent concrete bridge in 2002.

Nearby was a snack bar type of place so we had a Durian Chendol each.

Next we drove to the Galeri Sultan Azlan Shah only to find it was closed for major renovations so was only able to take a few picture outside its walls.

We also knew from its website that Muzium Diraja was also temporarily closed so decided to push on to Taiping and our hotel. We arrived about 3pm which was actually perfect for checking in.

In the evening went to the food court next door to the hotel for some food. To be honest I was not particularly impressed by the local food, it wasn’t very spicy and it was all like Chinese soup – I am not fond of soup of any kind.

Tanah Rata

19th May 2023

A day to write off. On the way to breakfast came across a massive moth or butterfly in the hallway, upon our return someone had trodden on it.

Had intended to visit a couple of waterfalls but for various reasons the roads to them were blocked off!

Ended up spending some time in the local park and walking round the local soccer field.

Later some shopping for some clothes to save on washing and had lunch at a place in a relatively new shopping centre which for years had been a concrete skeleton after the Asian Financial Crisis. The meal was quite nice and fairly cheap in a newly opened restaurant near the Old Town Coffee shop, it was basically a Nasi Lemak with calamari and shrimp crackers but OK none the less.

In the evening had a Paper Thosai at the usual Indian restaurant with Teh Tarik the cost was RM18 for the two of us ($6)

Have to pack tonight as we are on the move tomorrow.

Tea and Butterflies

18th May 2023

After breakfast decided to visit the Cameron Valley Tea rooms a few km north on the way to Ringlet. Have been a few times before but it has changed and is probably now twice the size since our last visit.

The view over the valley is lovely as it is all the tea plantation.

There was a misunderstanding with the girl when I ordered my tea which was entirely my fault, Mary wanted Durian Teh Tarik whereas I wanted ordinary tea, the Indian girl said, “Black tea?” I said, “No, with milk” and ended up with Teh Tarik. Oh well… The scones were nice though.

Drove back through Tanah Rata past Brinchang to the Butterfly Gardens, it too has expanded since our last visit with far more plants and animals. The animals were not to my interest – rabbits, guinea pigs, sheep and goats but some of the plants were very colourful.

That evening we went back to our favourite Indian Restaurant, this time I had Roti Canai with egg and onion while Mary had the Indian Banana Leaf Rice (far too much vegetable for my taste)

Cameron Highland’s Flora Park

17th May 2023

Breakfast at the Heritage Hotel is pretty good. Plenty of hot food for those who like a cooked breakfast as well as cereal and coffee for those who don’t. I had corn flakes, French Toast, Bread and Butter pudding and coffee! I might try an omelette tomorrow.

After breakfast we decided to go to the new Flora Park near Brinchang about a 20 minute drive away. There was no sign posting near by so it took us a couple of goes to find the right turn off. There was no parking at the Flora Park, you park about a km away then take their shuttle to the park. I say shuttle, it is a Dmax ute with seats in the back, there is also a charge for the car park, it cost us RM10 for about three hours parking.

The Flora Park is on the side of quite a steep hill so there are a lot of steps but none of them are very steep as they meander their way up (except those to a lookout), every time you think you have reached the end it opens out into another section, it was very large. There are also several places selling food, drinks, ice cream etc.

I know very little about flowers so I just enjoyed the many colours throughout the park.

After a pleasant few hours spent at the park we drove back to Tanah Rata and stopped in town for a lunch of Paper Thosai and Teh Tarik before returning to the hotel.

In the evening drove into the town centre for a Tandori Chicken and Masala Tea.

Ipoh to Cameron Highlands

16th May 2013

We both had a breakfast of Nasi Lemak before packing for our trip to Cameron Highlands. Checked out of the hotel at about 9.15am to visit the Qing Xin Ling Culture Village.

Drove there using my Tom Tom Satnav, I have to say that the South East Asia map “points of interest” database is very poor compared to the Oceania and European equivalents on this device. More times than not you have to look up the place on Google then enter the address in the satnav just to get close to where you want to go, it does, however, make a valiant effort at pronouncing the street names.

Anyway, on arrival discovered that they had a different entry fee for Malaysians (RM12) and Foreigners (RM20), naturally I was outraged. Winking smile

After a couple of hours at the Culture Village we set off for the Cameron Highlands, it was a fairly slow journey as we kept getting stuck behind trucks but were still able to arrive in Tanah Rata before 2pm. As it was far too early to check in we stopped in the town centre for a Teh Tarik and Roti Canai as a snack for lunch. By then it was after 2pm so we made our way to the hotel for check in.

In the evening just as we were going to drive to town for an evening meal it absolutely belted down with rain. We decided to give the hotel restaurant a try. It turns out to be a buffet for RM30 per person. The food was Malay and not really much choice, basically rice, a fish dish, a chicken dish, bean curd plus some not very exciting salad, for dessert there was watermelon, cantaloupe and tiny pieces of fruit cake. Certainly not good value in my opinion.

BTW when I first got down to the restaurant I had to quickly return to the room to get my jacket, I was cold.

Concubine Lane, Ipoh

15th May 2023

Had a really sound sleep last night, we had an American Breakfast and a Nasi Lemak this morning as part of the hotel rate, it was very nice. This hotel is only rated two star but I think it is excellent, I have stayed in much worse three star hotels.

In the hotel foyer there was a set of pictures of important Malaysian figures carefully arranged according to their relative importance.

In the centre is the King and Queen of the country , they serve for 5 years then another Sultan takes over. Flanking them is the Perak State Sultan and his wife, then on the far right is the State’s Chief Minister and on the left is the Malaysian PM.

This morning we were better prepared directionwise and set off following Google maps – our journey took us across the river to a colonial part of town.

It wasn’t a long walk but crossing roads was difficult at times, there are few pedestrian crossing points. I am sure if you are familiar with the town then it is easy but we had to go three sides of a very large square just to get safely from one side to the other on a few occasions.

We made a detour to have a look at the clock tower built in 1909 and came across an Indian (though probably Pakistani) food court, one thing I have developed a taste for over the years is their tea made with condensed milk (Teh Tarik). We also had a snack of Apom with curry – sort of a pancake done in a wok so it is thicker in the middle.

After eating we strolled to Concubine Lane (actually called Lorong Panglima or Panglima Alley). According to Malaysia Life there are two stories as to how the lane got it’s name:

There are two different explanations of where the name ‘Concubine Lane’ came from. One theory is that the street became known as Concubine Lane because this was the place where rich local business man Yao Tet Shin gave his mistress a house to live in. There is also ‘Wife Street’ in Ipoh which, so the story goes, is so called because this is where Yau Tet Shin gave his first wife a house to live in. The other theory is that Lorong Panglima became known as Concubine Lane because this was where rich local men and the British colonial administrators kept their mistresses. The common theme to both stories is that Concubine Lane is somewhere local men came to get up to things that they would rather their families didn’t know about.

Now it is a thriving, crowded tourist attraction full of small shops selling everything from jewellery to ice cream.

Afterwards we wandered the town looking at the sights and the old buildings.

All this walking was thirsty work, called into a coffee house for a Caramel Latte and to enjoy the air con before continuing on.

Slowly made our way back to the hotel for a rest from the heat (which was pretty exhausting) before venturing out again for dinner in the early evening. It was hard to choose whether to return to the place we went last night or try a new spot, in the end it was Ipoh’s famous Chicken Rice that won out. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the Fishball soup that went with it, but personally I prefer the Chicken Rice elsewhere where the chicken is fried not boiled, I am not a fan of boiled meat like this (or steamboat).

Then it was back to the hotel after checking on the car – tomorrow we leave.

Drive to Ipoh

14th May 2023

Spend a bit of time yesterday evening packing for today’s trip to Ipoh, not that there was that much to do other than repack some laundry.

Set off about 8am with Mary driving, it actually rained quite a bit while she was driving, we stopped for toilet breaks, food and petrol on the way, I took over driving about half way. Except for the very last few kms it was all Tollway driving and pretty easy.

We passed Ipoh as the hotel was on the south side of town so it was easier to drive past and come back to it rather than drive in the town traffic.

We were far too early to check in to the hotel anyway so had planned a side trip to Gua Kek Lok Tong. Gua means “cave” in Bahasa Malaysia. It appeared to be a very popular destination with both Muslims and Buddhists alike.

After the visit to the cave I drove to the hotel in Ipoh, To be honest I have tried to avoid driving on local or town roads because their style of driving is quite different to what I am used to but it turned out OK and we found the hotel quite easily and were able to check in straight away.

That evening we walked to Tong Sui Kai for a evening meal, after getting lost many times and ending up exhausting ourselves we finally found the place and enjoyed a really good meal. It was actually quite close to the hotel but we saw a lot of Ipoh night life as we wandered aimlessly around.

Notice the fork stuck in the bowl, it’s as if they didn’t think I couldn’t use chop sticks.

It was a really good meal but too much for us we should have ordered one bowl between us. We wandered back to the hotel very full and tired.

Wat Sukkhavutthalai

12th May 2023

Not a busy day, spend most of it recovering from yesterday’s journey.

Lunch was a pork rice and sausages from a local store. Actually not bad.

By the late afternoon had recovered enough to go for drive to a nearby newly renovated temple. We thought there might also be food available.

The temple was founded by Dato Chem, who is the only Malaysian to receive Buddhist relics from King Rama IX of Thailand.

For dinner it was one of my favourites – Char Kuey Teow – it turned out that the temple only had steamboat which was far too much for our appetite so we stopped on the way home for a takeaway.

Three Weeks in Malaysia

10th May 2023

A night flight so I caught the train from Wollongong after 5pm for the airport. I was surprised how full the train was, I suppose it was mostly people going home after work but there were a few with suitcases like me.

Changed trains for the airport at Wolli Creek with no hassle, only waited a few minutes for a train to take me the one stop to the International Terminal.

The counters for Malaysian Airlines were already open and operating when I arrived so I just joined the inevitable queue. When I finally arrived at the check in the girl put my suitcase through to Alor Setar and issued a boarding pass for the domestic flight so I didn’t have to worry about it at KL.

Went straight into Security and Passport Control where I was told to go into the queue for those needing assistance (??) That made everything pretty easy so then it was just a matter of waiting for the flight to be called.

All went well and the flight left a little late but not outrageously so. The flight was half empty so I moved to an empty pair of seats for a reasonably comfortable journey – not as lucky as some, they got all four of the seats in the centre.

The evening meal was just a sandwich and a beer (more than enough at that time of night).

11th May 2023

Slept sporadically until the lights came on at about 5am (Sydney time) and a meal was served – more than just a breakfast, Prawn Nasi Goreng, yogurt, fruit salad, roll and a drink.

The plane landed in KL about half an hour early. The little train that used to shuttle passengers between terminal C and the main building wasn’t working so passengers were transferred in busses. I think one of the advantages of these smaller planes they use now is that there just aren’t the swarms of people trying to get anywhere.

Because I didn’t have a bag to collect I soon got through customs and immigration however I wasn’t in a rush because there was nearly 12 hours to wait for my domestic flight.

Killed time in the airport arrivals hall before making my way to level 5 for the domestic departure hall. While I was in the arrivals hall changed $100 into Malaysian ringgit – naturally the exchange rate was a rip off in the way only airports can manage – 2.67 Ringgit to the Aussie dollar.

As soon as I was in the domestic departure lounge found a quiet corner with lots of vacant chairs where I spread myself out and slept for a few hours until lunch time.

After a fairly good sleep I was hungry but there was plenty of choice for lunch but eventually went with a Nasi Lemak and a cappuccino at the Noooodles Restaurant – Rm36 but can’t complain really, it is an airport – they all do it.

After lunch wandered about, went to the observation lounge, watched them setting up for some impressive looking promotion later in the evening and even bought a coffee which costa more than it costa in Sydney.

This was followed by more sleeping, it was a very long day!

Finally!

The flight to Alor Setar did eventually get called, it left half an hour late “due to service difficulties” but it is only an hour flight and you get a packet of peanuts to tide you over. This plane was full!

Possibly because it was so late, at the Alor Setar airport we had to use the stairs from the plane and walk across the tarmac, it is a surprisingly long walk to the arrival/baggage hall but after collecting my bag I, and a couple of others, had to go through a customs check, no complaints, they were very nice about it but I have never had to do that before.

Anyway at last I had arrived, it had been a very long day, I was glad to get out of the airport and the drive to Jitra.

Back Home

Date: 27th December 2022

Arrival

Set my alarm for 5,30am to watch as we entered Sydney Harbour and make our way to the White Bay Terminal.

After we docked I went for my breakfast, no exercise walk this morning.

Disembarking

There was plenty of time after breakfast to collect my bag from the cabin before 7.30am and make my way to Deck 7 to wait for my disembarkation time. Many comfortable chairs available as people left so I just read or watched the goings on around me as I waited. The time passed relatively quickly and soon there was a call for the “Orange 4” group to make their way to the gangway.

Thank goodness getting off the ship was not the hassle that getting on had been – had to find my luggage then queue to get through immigration, this was not well organised but at least the line moved steadily. P&O definitely need to improve their embarkation and disembarkation procedures.

Once outside found my way to the queue for the bus to Central Station, there was only a short wait, I was lucky to get on a bus pretty quickly and was soon going into Central Sydney. The only downside was that my train was on Platform 25 down in the bowels of the earth, many lifts and levels down

I caught the 10.30am train to Wollongong, unfortunately, being a public holiday, it stopped at every northern suburbs station but can’t complain about that too much, it just took about 20 minutes longer than normal to reach home.

Conclusion

As on my one and only previous cruse I enjoyed it more than I thought I would but again I would be surprised if I ever went on another cruise. Yet here we are! My previous cruise was with Carnival who also own P&O but it was like a different company.

Embarkation was absolute hell, it was horrible, a complete farce that was totally disorganised and ridiculous, I hope they improve on that – they certainly would have trouble doing any worse.

The one real disappointment on this cruise was the entertainment, it was at best very ordinary, I am talking about the theatre productions, the bar bands were much the same as before, pub bands of varying abilities but good enough. The Christmas Eve and Boxing Day shows were a big improvement but frankly they were the only good shows on the whole cruise, it should have been so much better.

The rest of the “free” shows, as I say, were very ordinary, less than an hour of one performer on stage, sometimes with a recorded backing track, if you wanted a “variety show” it was an extra fee which I thought was a bit over the top and a very poor way to go. I noticed other events that required an extra fee though they were (I think) mainly aimed at the younger passengers but I think it is a bad sign that these cruise lines are going to indulge in drip pricing, where there are a number of add on fees to the original cost of the cruise.

A minor irritation (because this annoys me on land too) – the only “ordinary” beer they stocked was VB in 375ml cans for $9 each, all the other beer was in 330ml stubbies and cost at least $9.50. I think the Adventure Hotel was the only bar with draught beer (that might be incorrect). Personally I don’t like drinking from cans but they were always willing to give me a (sometimes) chilled glass to pour it into however I really object to 330ml bottles they are an absolute rip off.

Will I ever go on a cruise again? Who knows?