The Super Mario flower and jungle friends

We decided to spend one extra day in the Cameron Highlands and I'm really glad we did. We woke up early in the morning to trek into the jungle in search of the elusive Raffleisa. Well it's not too elusive since there 52 know sites near the Highlands where they grow, but since they only stay in bloom for 5 to 7 days it is still pretty cool to see one in person.

The trek was a relatively easy 2 hours through the jungle to get to the flower site, with a couple of stream crossings and a number of critters along the way. The payoff was great. A three day old Raffleisa that was over 80cm across. It really was quite a site. It seriously looked like something out of Super Mario Brothers.

The cherry on top of the day was shooting blow pipe (the non-poisoned darts of course) after a quick demonstration. Naturally I got a bulls eye, well close enough.

Keeping it cool in Cameron Highlands

It has been hot in Indonesia and Malaysia. Pretty much I've been sweating for two months straight, which is great for your pores. My skin has never looked better. But it was nice to finally find some relief from the constant swelter. After leaving Kula Lumpur we decided to take a break from the boat and headed overland via bus to the Cameron Highlands.

The Highlands are a "hill station" developed by the British early in the 1930s and has become and agro-mecca for tea and strawberry lovers. The cool weather has some pretty great appeal too.

We spent a few nights here escaping the heat, treking through a very wet jungle to the top of Mount Brinchang (the highest mountain in the region at a whopping 6,663 ft above sea level), explored a butterfly farm, a mossy forest and the beautiful hills of the BOH Tea Plantation.

All in all it was a great retreat that at times felt more like we were in Britain than Malaysia.

But I think I'm ready to sweat again.

 
       

                        

The Kuala Lumpur kaleidoscope

Like much of western Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur has a unique history of varied ruling empires and trading civilizations that each seem to have left remnants of their unique culture melted over the city in layers throughout time. It can be seen in the contrast of modern skyscrapers against the back drop of century’s old architecture in Malaysian, Indian, Dutch and Chinese neighborhoods. We spent a couple of days in KL, exploring museums, mosques, parks and alleyways.

We also headed to the northern suburbs of the city to Batu Caves and climbed the stairs into the Hindu temples housed in the caves themselves. There also just so happened to be really good rock climbing on the north side of the mountain so we took advantage and climbed a couple of days

Batu Caves:

Taking risks on Tioman

TIoman Island is located off the east coast of Malaysia. Brought to notoriety in the 1950s by the movie South Pacific, you know scene, the one where a couple rolls around on the beach making out, it has been a tourist destination ever since. Sail Malaysia is heading up the west coast of Malaysia, so Tioman was not on our lists of stops, but after reading about Tioman in Lonley Planet I was really keen on checking it out, the only problem was that it is the beginning of monsoon season in Tioman and really not tourist season at all. Omar and Allison decided it wasn't worth the weather risk and decided not to go but Rhiannon was hoping monsoon season might bring surf-able waves and was actually looking to sell her surfboard as well. Clemont had already headed that direction and was planning on meeting us there.

Rhiannon and I hopped a bus in Singapore and headed back to the boat in Danga Bay to grab her surfboard and we were off. We were able to catch a bus to Mersing that night, a nice little town where the ferry to Tioman launched from, and at noon the next day we were on the quick ferry to Tioman. Clemont met us on the jetty and took us to the resort where he had negotiated renting a tent and sleeping on the resort’s lawn.

The next five days were bliss.

Tioman it appeared had settled in for an off season nap. A lot of the resorts had already closed their doors for monsoon season and those that were still open had a skeleton crew and minimal guests. The perfect white sand beaches were ours.

We spent time in four of the villages on Tioman; in Genting where we arrived by ferry we watched the local school girls play a game of net ball. In Paya we made an unscheduled stop on our trek to Juara because the beaches were so beautiful and so quiet. We spent the day swimming and reading under palm trees. That night we camped on a small island just off the coast, not taking into account just how high high-tide would be. Next we completed our trek across the island, some 9 kilometers, the first 5 of which were straight up, to arrive in Juara where I think I could spend the rest of my life. It was a perfect half moon bay hardly a mile long with white sand and the bluest of water. I’m not sure if this is where that famous South Pacific scene was filmed but I have to imagine it was. Juara is also where we found a surf school and band of surfing pirates, well not real pirates. And Rhiannon was able to sell her surf board as well, which was good because no one wanted to carry it back through the jungle. Finally we spent the night in Tekek, sleeping on the beach under trees full of bats (I would not recommend this to anyone) before jumping back on the ferry and making our way back to the Tropicbird.

Something about Tioman drew me in, maybe the beauty, maybe the simple sleepiness, maybe the wholesome way of life. Whatever it is I really hope to make it back there soon.

And the weather was perfect the whole time.

Genting beach at sunset.

Paya beach.

A view of Juara from the jetty.

Juara beach huts and surfer pirate friends.

 Jungle treking to Tekek.