Hi All,

I’m having a hard time getting used to the heat again and miss the cool weather of the highlands.  I can’t imagine what the people in Tanah Rata thought of my Red Sox "hoodie" but it was cool enough to wear it.  Hoodie weather is perfect weather and I wish it would drift down from the mountains to us here at sea level.

We stopped at the Rose Centre, a strawberry farm, and a tea plantation illustrative of the wonderful fertility of the highlands.  The wet markets had the most beautiful fruit and vegetables.  Randal and I shared a snack of tempura vegetables from a market stall and later strawberries and cream at the strawberry farm.  Here are the photos from the Rose Centre.

Ru

DoraMac

Cameron Highlands Rose Centre Kea Farms

Our half day tour began about 2 pm and ended about 6:30. We made 6 stop so it was a bit of a rush. I wish we had spent more time at the Rose Centre and less time other stops. There was only time to rush about taking photos and not really enough time to just stand and really look at the flowers. I think it was one of the loveliest botanical gardens I have seen with everything really well cared for and in bloom.

The roses were lovely and actually had fragrance.

Randal loves roses and planted them at all of his collision repair shops. He also planted 16 climbing rose bushes along our fence at Bridle Lane. Lots of work! I sort of prefer wild flowers.

Randal, Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs.

There were hundreds of different types of flowers and plants

You felt out in the middle of the country; but we were just up above the town.

Everything goes up and there’s lots of terrace agriculture.

I took lots of photos in a very short time.

Walking back down to the shelter of the Centre before it rained.

More fairytale imagery. The red is a very “frightened” looking dragon.

He is pretty silly and tacky but kind of lovable.

A sign for the Rose Centre.

This completed puzzle was hanging on the wall of the small gift shop.

Hi All

  We’re back from a really enjoyable visit to the Cameron Highlands.  I already miss the 70 degree weather even with its rain.

Here’s the story, part 1.

Ru

DoraMac

Tanah Rata and The Cameron Highlands April 19^th – April 21, 2010 Our mostly good time!

The Rose Center where we raced up to the highest garden for photos and then raced down before it stormed!

A favorite photo from the Rose Center.

The Boh Tea Plantation

It really was this beautiful .

The Story

Our cruising friends Claude and Danielle went off to the Cameron Highlands and came back with reports of cool weather and beautiful scenery. They recommended a local George Town tour company that offered transport to the highlands and a half-day tour, and a popular guest house in Tanah Rata where they had stayed. Well, we certainly agree that the weather was wonderfully cool and the scenery beautiful; but we opted for the regular bus to come home and switched accommodations for our second night.

The George Town tour company told us we’d be picked up at 6 am, the trip up to Tanah Rata would be about 4 and a half hours, and we would make a stop mid way for coffee. In reality, the van was 20 minutes late and already full so Randal had to sit in the far back seat and hold his backpack. I sat mid-van with my pack stuffed at my feet. We held our packs because the cargo area was already full with luggage belonging to the eight other passengers. About 30 minutes we stopped for gas and a pit stop for the driver. That was our only stop. The trip took 2 hours and 55 minutes because the driver drove like a maniac. He drove too fast, too close, and passed traffic going around curves with double solid white lines. No one complained; we just held on. Twenty minutes before we arrived at our guest house I thought I would be sick. Randal had felt sick much of the way and was still sick when we stopped. Apparently this insane driving is fairly common and our friends Patrick and Elizabeth theorize that the van drivers normally drive motorcycles. Motorcycles have no rules and most of them speed. Actually women do drive motorcycles sensibly so they should be hired as the van drivers!

I though the Fathers Guest House was sort of charming, but Randal was instantly put off by the fact that you have to take off your shoes to enter the office or small lounge. Removing shoes isn’t uncommon in many places, but here it was a bit unexpected. I guess too many hikers with muddy shoes had made too many messes in the past. He asked to see the room. I thought it very basic, but good enough. We would have our own bathroom and shower. We were shown the “demo” room on the front of the building, but were told we’d be in back. It passed the, “no second choice test” so I took off my shoes and went in to register for one night. We planned to stay in Tanah Rata for two nights but Randal had hopes of finding someplace else. Along with needing to see our passports, she asked for our ages and email. When I asked why our ages were needed, the staff person told me the government asked for it. Seemed to me a reasonable statistic needed for tourism. Our email was needed in case we left something behind. When I signed the register I did notice that we were 20 to 30 years older than most of the other guests. It was that kind of place where young Europeans or Aussies stayed while they traveled around SE Asia on tight budgets. It was $30 US which sounds like very little but usually gets you more. In Ubud on Bali we’d paid the same amount for a truly wonderful guest compound. Since our room wasn’t ready, we left our packs and headed to town for brunch. Breakfast had been at 5 am back on the boat. We found a “German – Swiss” restaurant with pictures of Geneva on the wall and a menu that included schnitzel and cheese so we ate lots of cheese, chunks or ham, and salad. I asked for some bread and we were given warm strawberry bread and butter. The man who lead us up to the second floor restaurant , unlocked the door, and did the cooking seemed very far removed from anything even remotely European. But he was very accommodating and it was all good. During our tour of the small town center of Tanah Rata we found two other possible places to stay.

We returned to the guest house and found that we had to stay in the demo room because other guests decided to stay longer so rooms in the back area weren’t available. The “demo room” had a few issues such as a pane of clear glass in the bathroom window facing the walkway and no curtain and a fitted sheet that fit a smaller bed. I finally took the “I Love NB” pin from my hat and pinned my corner of the sheet to the mattress. By morning, the rest had come undone and most of it was in the center of the bed. But the room was cool and quiet and we both slept well under two wool blankets. The guesthouse café served wonderful western eggs and toast with bacon and beans or fruit and yogurt all for a very reasonable price.

The large guest building. Ours is the middle door just behind Randal.

It was a lovely setting on the hill behind the town.

Our room was the 3^rd set of doors and though the walls were thin, we heard no noise at all during the night. The couple next to us had a small boy and another couple had two children, but most guests were young backpackers in flip flops.

The back path down the hill to town. It was just a 10 minute walk

http://fathers.cameronhighlands.com/ is the website. I sort of liked it. If we had stayed a second night I would have asked them for better sheets and something to block the missing privacy pane on the bathroom window. It was clean and all of the other young guests were very pleasant and friendly. Dare I say we’re too used to our space and comfort to live like backpackers? When we travel, we don’t stay in fancy places by any means. We just don’t like to have to put our stuff on the floor because there’s no place to set anything down. And I guess we need to feel that there’s more between us and the world than glass French doors. But to be fair, it was clean, quiet and you felt your belongings were safe while you were away from the room. If I were 20 something, I’d want to stay there and meet the other travelers.

Next email our half-day tour of the Rose Center, Tea Plantation, Strawberry Farm and a few other stops too.

Hi All,

  Tomorrow Randal and I are going off for 3 or 4 nights to the Cameron Highlands where it will be a cool 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit.)  Normal daytime temperature in George Town is between 88 and 91.  Too hot!   The Cameron Highlands are a 4 hour van drive south east of George Town in the very north west corner of Pahang province.  We signed up with a local tour company for transport to the highlands and then a half-day tour of the area.  We’ll meet our van at 6 am at the marina entrance so will arrive about 10:30 am.  Our tour will be the same afternoon we arrive.  We’re planning to stay at Fathers Guest House which we were told housed religious "fathers" at one time.  Not really sure if that’s true.  We’re not booking ahead, but this is slow season so hopefully it will all work out. 

"The Highlands were named after William Cameron, a British colonial government surveyor who discovered the plateau during a mapping expedition in 1885. The fame of Cameron Highlands then grew during the colonial era when British planters realized the potential of its fertile mountain slopes for growing tea, then a prized commodity. Cameron Highlands is still home to many tea plantations, being Malaysia’s largest tea-producing region. With its many farms the area is also known as a major supplier of legumes and vegetables to both Malaysia and Singapore, and is one of Malaysia’s prime tourist destinations.
Apart from the cool weather, key attractions in Cameron Highlands include a butterfly farm, strawberry farms, rose gardens and vegetable gardens. There are also the Brinchang Hindu Temples and the Sam Poh Chinese Mahayana Buddhist Temple. Other features include Cactus Point, Cactus Valley and the BOH Tea Plantation."

Our half-day tour takes us to just about all of those places. 

We’re not taking our computer and not sure what email services we’ll find there.  (It will definitely be good to get away from the agony of following the Red Sox. The season is still very young.)  But I’m sure I’ll have lots of photos to share when we get back.

Ru

DoraMac

April 15th, Tax day

Hi All,

  We signed, scanned, and returned our tax forms yesterday.  Thank goodness for electronic filing.  Hopefully some of our tax money will go to the Roanoke County Public Library and libraries in general. 

  On the 13th Elizabeth and I went off to the "Water Festival" and got wet.  That was fun.  Yesterday E came with me to get my hair cut which needs an email of its own (so you can imagine) and then we took the rickety old 203 bus to Tesco.  We finished shopping at 4 pm and waited until 4:40 for the bus.  It came but its brakes weren’t working.  At our own risk we could ride it back to the bus terminal next to the marina.  We said yes.  But the driver didn’t want to drive a bus with bad brakes so waited for the other 203 bus to come, maybe to switch drivers….it was a bit hard to follow.  We had a kind young architecture student as an intermediary but even he didn’t really know what was what.  The next bus came, the original old rickety one we’d taken to get to Tesco, and we got into that one for the hour or so ride home.  (The Tesco route only has old rickety buses and it has a hill on the route.  On our trip home, the driver needed 3 tries to make it to the top.) Luckily it wasn’t crowded so we could have a seat for our bags and one for ourselves.  Sometimes we do a huge shopping and take a taxi.  But this was a two bag only shopping trip so we were determined to take the bus and leave the taxi with its too high rate sitting empty.  Next time I’ll bring a snack.  I was hungry, hot, and tired (and cranky) by the time the kind bus driver dropped us off in front of the marina rather than a half block away at the bus terminal.  Elizabeth good kindly put up with my bit of whining.  That "British stiff upper lip" line is true.  They don’t whine!  Cold, cold and wet, tired, and hungry all make me whine.  Luckily it doesn’t happen often.  Luckily all of the other bus routes have quite new, comfortable buses with brakes!

Ru

DoraMac

Songkran: Thai New Year Water Festival

“Songkran is the Thai word for change, and on this day the position of the sun in the Zodiac will be changed. The New Year is celebrated in style using bucket loads of water. The Thai community believes that water when mixed with fragrant herbs can be used to wash bad luck away. Those who are attending the event should be prepared to get drenched as this is the day whit it is perfectly acceptable for anybody to pour a pail of ice cold water over another person! You have been warned.” iN PENANG

A water splashing festival was exactly what it was.

Elizabeth talked me into going off to the “water splashing festival” with the happy thought that in the afternoon heat getting soaked might be rather nice. She didn’t have to twist my arm so very hard and we certainly had a good time. It was interesting thinking what clothes to wear that wouldn’t look so odd going home on the bus afterwards wearing wet clothing. At the same time, I had the ridiculous idea that the locals wouldn’t really soak two western “little old ladies.” Hah! You were there, you got wet!

Taking photos was a bit difficult because I didn’t want to get my camera all wet. We tried to sneak by these guys with the hose, but no luck.

They went easy on us and it was more of a “wetting” than a thorough soaking.

Then we had to get past the guys with the water bottles and the blue buckets.

Those big bottles of water being sold weren’t for drinking. They were for pouring down the back of our necks and that’s exactly what happened. The first “pourer” asked permission, but after that Elizabeth and I were fair game like everyone else. A few were “Ice cold!” That is the Wat Chalyamangkla Buddhist Temple behind the men.

The photo is fuzzy but you can see Elizabeth having water poured down her neck. That was the original way it was done, gently, as a New Year cleansing. Now it’s hoses and buckets and giant water guns. We both had backpacks so it was a bit of a challenge to pour it down our necks. And it was always done from the back.

Elizabeth and I visited the Temple to see the Reclining Buddha and also to hide out away from the water throwers.

Wat Chaiyamangkalaram, also written Wat Chaiya Mangkalaram, is the largest Thai Buddhist temple in Penang. It is often called the Temple of the Reclining Buddha of Penang, on account of the magnificent reclining Buddha image house in the vihara. The image of Phra Chaiya Mongkol measures 33 meters (108 ft) from end to end. However, the statue was only built in 1958, in conjunction with the 2500th anniversary of the birth of Buddha, at a cost of M$100,000.

http://www.penang-traveltips.com/wat-chaiyamangkalaram.htm

Elizabeth is standing near the head.

She was smart enough to have a rain cover for her backpack. I had all of my things in plastic bags. The temple was quite a fantastic place.

Thai, English and Chinese.

I was noticing the other day how expensive it is to make signs here because you need to say the same thing in so many languages. We’re lucky George Town, like Singapore was formerly a British colony so English is the western language chosen. I guess the French and German tourists just have to tough it out.

Elizabeth was knowledgeable enough to find the list of donors quite interesting. I’m not sure if the

$ indicates US dollars or ringgits. Usually the Ringgit is RM$ or M$.

I was born in the year of the Tiger, 1950.

Behind the Buddha statues you can see squares. Each square holds an urn and the photo of the person is taped there too.

Randal was born in the year of the rat though here they call it a mouse, 1948.

We went back outside where this fellow was using a blue bucket to ladle water from a tank and tossing it at everyone. The man on the far left with dark hair is about to get a bucketful on his head.

These kids got us too.

I put my camera into a plastic bag, but that just made it harder to take photos so I gave up.

There was a second temple across the street but the rock music and the threat of thrown beer convinced us that we’d seen enough. We walked back to the bus stop and joined the crowd waiting for the 101 bus. It came but was already too full so we walked further back the way we’d come until we finally found a bus stop with just a few people waiting. This walking along did a fairly good job drying our clothes. Finally two 101 buses came along and we took the one less crowded and even managed to get seat half way along.

All in all it was quite fun. The local folks were kind enough to include us and we didn’t disappoint ourselves by not going and missing the experience. Adventures are more fun with a friend! Thanks for wanting to go Elizabeth.

Hi All,

  We walked down to the end of the town for the community festival.  It was mostly exhibits to teach about the local wildlife and how to take care of the environment for the future.  The event was located at the Taman Negara National Park HQ.  We visited the small museum and talked about maybe coming back to do some of the hikes. 

The small fair was more an ecology lesson disguised as a fair. But that’s good because the kids seemed to enjoy it.

Jane and Elizabeth look at one of the displays. 

A mural of “old George Town.” The boats in the painting have been replaced by the Tanjong City Marina and the water buffalo by too much traffic and way too many motorcycles.

“This island was named after the local pinang trees or the Betel Nut, which was once believed to be easily seen along the coastlines.” The leaves and parts of the nuts were turned into a concoction the local men and women chewed and still chew. (We were offered some at the Long House in Kumai though we politely declined.)

The caption on this photo reads, “a popular recreation site for local people.”

We all agreed that this fellow looked about as local as the three of us.  He looks more like everyone we all knew back in the states in the 70s. And his shoes would be flip flops if he were truly local.

Sponge Bob Square Pants!

Outside the park building there were vendors and nature exhibits.

Mickey Mouse and Spiderman have made it around the world too. I really like the soap bubble gun.

Exhibits showed native animals and sea creatures. That wrapped up thing is snake skin. A very huge snake’s skin!

Jane dressed for the sun.

Long sleeves, sunglasses and an umbrella for shade. This is how you dress to deal with the heat and sun. I still can’t do it. I can’t stand anything with sleeves though I do wear shorts to my knees or longer as dictated by local sensibilities. But sleeves, even loose ones just make me too hot. Both Randal and I have started to slather our arms as well as faces with suntan lotion. Randal visited the dermatologist all of the Aussie cruisers see and he was examined from head to toe and all places in between. His arms had to be attended to though nothing that needed a follow up. So now Randal uses suntan lotion and the arm coverings worn by the Muslim ladies wear with their short sleeved blouses when he works outside on the boat.

So that was today….

Ru

DoraMac

Next we visited the library, which we hadn’t planned; but then we hadn’t planned for the batik factory to have burned down either. 

We went to the library which was quite small and devoted mostly to children. Elizabeth is visible standing by the shelves checking out the English collection of classics. Elizabeth taught English in Malaysia for many years.

All of the children had something to read even while they watched the TV in the front of the room.

They really had great places for kids to sit with a book.

The Children’s Librarian.

She and I talked for a bit and I gave her a card with our email. I hope she does write to me.  It was a very cheerful place and the collection had titles in English as well as Bahasa.

Sir John Lubbock, Lord Avebury 1834-1913

I particularly noticed this poster on the library wall because I have a paperweight given to me by my friend Joesephine which says, “A room without a book is like a body without a soul.” Cicero.

Cicero died in 43 B.C. Maybe Lubbock hadn’t read Cicero and couldn’t look it up on the Internet to find out. Though if he were so well read, he would have read Cicero. I thought it was interesting. Maybe the real point is that it was true thousands of years ago and it will be true thousands of years from now. National Library Week begins April 11^th. Go thank your librarian!

Shoes are removed before you enter the library.

have one more email. We walked to the end of the town where they were having a community festival.  It was being at the headquarters of the Taman Negara National Park. 

Ru

DoraMac

Hi All,

  I haven’t been writing much but I have been off exploring.  Sometimes I just don’t know how to narrow down all of my photos to pick ones to send.  So I get stuck.  I’ve also been reading and painting and there’s only so much time in a day when you have to walk to the wet market for vegetables and chicken or off with Randal to collect the small fan motor for our dehumidifier.  All that walking in the heat makes me need a nap!   But Elizabeth and Jane and I have done some exploring while Jane’s school is on vacation.  And though we always enjoy our time together, sometimes the adventure doesn’t quite go as expected.  Like who knew the batik factory had burned down?  It was still on the map.  But it was a fun day and here’s the story. 

Ru

Doramac

Elizabeth, Jane and I Have and Adventure

First things this morning Randal and I met Elizabeth and Patrick and we walked yet a new way through George Town to meet Jane and Roger for chicken rice. It’s Saturday morning so it’s chicken rice. That’s the Saturday morning ritual. Brian and Terry from SV Cherokee joined us this morning too. Brian and Terry were some of the very first cruisers we met in 2008 on the Indonesia Rally and we toured Rinca Island, home of the komodo dragons with them. We have not seen them since the rally ended. After breakfast Jane, E and I caught the 101 bus to Teluk Bahang on the northern part of the island to visit some batik facilities. The road went along the coast and the traffic was light so it was quite nice. Randal and I had thought to possibly bike this road but when two buses met on a curve on this single lane curvy road, ours always slowed down because the road is quite narrow with no shoulder. We did see bikers riding the opposite direction which was the downhill direction but it doesn’t look appealing to me. Our bikes are at a local shop being over hauled so we will ride some, but mostly around town. The bus ride took about 35 minutes and cost 3.40 ringgits, about $1 U.S. A taxi probably would have cost at least $20.

We planned to visit the batik showroom and then walk just a bit down the road to the batik factory shown on the map. Photos were allowed in the demonstration area but not in the showrooms.

I rarely see women dressed in these heavy black robes with the small slits for their eyes so I do find them fascinating.

A hotel had ordered these pieces which were to be made into uniforms. The image is hand drawn and then outlined with wax which keeps the paint dye where it belongs on the fabric.

His mom is the batik worker and he wanted his photo taken too.

The different stages of the process: Elizabeth takes a photo and Jane looks on.

Even the dark background is painted mostly with a large brush but a smaller one is used for the close work.

We left what called itself the Craft Complex and headed over to the Batik Factory.

A huge sculpture of pitcher plants filled this rotary.

We saw lots of these plants in Sebana Cove. They would trap insects in the water and then eat them. At least I think that’s the story. In the distance you can see the mountain of the national park.

This funny guy was across from the rotary.

You can see the sign for the Penang Batik Factory. The pink building across the road is the library which we did visit. We visited a library in George Town on Thursday. It was pink also.

A marching drum band.

We had asked for directions to the Batik Factory from women selling cold drinks near the rotary. They told us it was 5 meters down the road. We walked way further than that so asked directions from the teacher. She sent us back the way we came. When we got back to the library (I can now recognize the Bahasa word for library) we asked directions again. Finally someone knew the answer. It had burned down so most of the work had moved into the craft complex we had already visited. So we went to the library instead and that will be the next email.

or Georgetown in Pinang because the former is British and the latter is the Malaysian spelling

Hi All,

   We’re about to have our late afternoon/early evening drenching but we’re on the boat so that’s ok.  Jane, our boat neighbor tells the story about one cruising wife who refused to do laundry on the days Jane did because then it would always rain.  During the raining season, it rains about every day at some point so it can’t possibly be Jane’s fault.  We really like Jane who you will get to meet in this email.  She used to have a job right out of the script of West Wing but is here in Penang teaching math at a private school and taking on lots of administrative duties because she’s just good at those kinds of things.  Her husband Roger teaches too.  He is from Concord, MA originally but somehow isn’t emotionally tied to the Red Sox.  How that happened I don’t know.  More peace of mind that way, that’s for sure.  Randal and I both went to the dentist for cleanings and Randal went to the dermatologist for a skin cancer screening.  You show up at the hospital and register and then it’s first come first serve.  We got there at 8 am and he went in to see the doctor about 12:40.  She burnt many spots off his arms but said he was in better shape than lots of others and now we both wear sunscreen on our arms too and not just our faces.  We felt confident with both dentist and doctor, but no one cleans your teeth like an American dental hygienist!

Happy Passover and Happy Easter to those who celebrate.

Ru

DoraMac

Chicken Rice and Cappuccino and a Reality Check on George Town Perfection

I used to not like chicken rice. It always seemed so bland: white rice topped by boiled chicken. My friend Sheila called boiled chicken “condemned chicken,” a variation of the Yiddish word that I have no clue how to spell but sounds like condemned. Boiled chicken on boiled rice = blah. And I haven’t really been a fan of dim sum. Too many things I didn’t like and way too starchy. So when Elizabeth asked us if we wanted to walk to dim sum last Saturday, we went for the company and not for the food. Jane and Roger, our boat neighbors would be there too, though they’d take their motorcycle. Jane and Roger are from various places in the US but are currently teaching here in George Town in a private school and we yet to meet them because of their long teaching days. We were to meet at 8 am so Randal and I skipped our usual toast and peanut butter breakfast. I was pretty hungry and figured any food would be good. But this food was great! Chicken rice like I’d never had it. I’m not sure where the chicken was except maybe in the flavoring that made the rice taste wonderful. There was pork and mushroom and something else that was probably chicken. Who cares, it was good and we went back today to have it again.

Chicken rice

(Or your brain on drugs…aren’t I awful!)

The rice is all stuck together and the mushroom, slice of pork, and probably slice of chicken are stuck on top. The really dark food is the mushroom and the red/brown piece is pork so I think the light colored food in front must be chicken. Because the rice was sticky I could eat every last bit of rice with those hard to use plastic chopsticks. The first trip I ate part of a sweet sesame round filled with maybe brown sugar or bean paste. This time I tried part of the small egg custard tarts that are so wonderful everywhere but this one was even better. We got hooked on them when we first visited China. Lots of dishes gets ordered and cut with scissors into small pieces to be shared. But everyone ate an order of chicken rice. Jane and Roger have been there lots of times and the waitresses treat them like old friends. Tai Tong Restoran is on Cintra Street just near the street fruit, vegetable and meat vendors. It’s also just around the block from the used book store on Chowrasta. We ate chicken rice and then Jane, Elizabeth, Randal and I went off to buy books, vegetables, chicken and pork.

One of the “favorite” waitresses dishing out food behind Roger’s shoulder.

http://www.wikistreetfood.com/Penang:Tai_Tong_Restaurant is a website about the restaurant.

Roger, Jane, Patrick and Elizabeth.

Jane and Roger met Zydeco dancing. “Zydeco finds its Creole-French roots in the black communities of early 19th-century southwestern Louisiana. This spirited dance music often includes improvised instrumentation of washboards and spoons, with piano, accordion, guitar and drums offering support.”

http://www.buckwheatzydeco.com/ is the website for Buckwheat Zydeco who just won a Grammy for Lay Your Burden Down.

Roger adjusting his helmet; the blue plastic box carries their cargo on their motorcycle.

Cappuccino

Last Thursday while Patrick and Elizabeth were on a 4 day wonderful train but awful bus trip to and back from a visa run to Bangkok, Randal and I walked off to meet Jane and Roger across town at the Bicycle Pit-Stop Café www.sitigun.com It took us about an hour but that included a return visit to the Jewish Cemetery to show Randal, and to make another donation for its upkeep.* We got to the café just about the same time as Jane who had race-walked over because Randal always sets a Marine drill pace for us. We love the café. The cappuccino and cinnamon roll were really good, the place “just like down on the Market in Roanoke” and the owners very cool with the most adorable one year old baby boy.

Cafe sign outside on a street with lots of colorful shop house businesses.

Jane, Tigun Wibisana and his son Zen, and Randal.

Tigun has lived and biked all around the world. He was born in Indonesia and his wife is Malay Chinese. Their son Zen “is his own person” they say though they had to declare him Chinese, Malay, or Indian when he was born, the three possible choices.  Because that information is “private” in the US I won’t tell his answer. But it was quite interesting and reminded one of some of the still lingering ethnic issues here.

Zen is just adorable!

Our table was across from the lovely tapestry-quilt and the bike parking stand.

Our kind of place. We will have a very hard time leaving George Town a few weeks from now which is a few weeks longer than we had planned to stay. We obviously enjoy our marina neighbors, the convenience and diversity of George Town, the helpfulness of most shop keepers and the relatively low marina fees. Plus the marina in Lumut our next possible stop still can’t provide power or water to the berths. So rather than go there, we’ll stay here longer.

Randal vs. the Taxi Drivers

Randal has gone to war with the taxi drivers. They refuse to turn on their meters so it’s whatever they want to charge is the fare. I have no clue what is reasonable, but those who do:  travel websites, Malay congressmen, newspaper reporters, Jane, say the fare is at least one third more than what it should be. When Elizabeth, Tammy and I went to the Botanical Garden we paid an unmetered taxi 31 ringgits to get there but paid 21 ringgits to the one metered taxi in George Town to get home. The return trip took less time too, which was a good thing because the driver kept up a running monologue that was just too much for the 3 tired women in his taxi.

* Sadly, many of the people buried in the cemetery came from countries that really didn’t want them and are now buried in a place they helped to build but now doesn’t really want them. I visit and donate because, somebody has to care about them. The Indian caretaking family that has lived there for generations does care about it and that’s nice to see. And this visit there were lots of stones at the graves indicating many visitors. I asked the caretaker and he said that lots of tourist had come in December and January on holiday. He said they were people of all religions. That’s good. The fact that importing anything from Israel is against the law, not good.  Does Israel import from Malaysia?  I wouldn’t even have thought of it but Randal read in on one of the tourist brochures of prohibited activities.  Ironically, the fact that TESCO a big Wal-mart like chain in Malaysia is named for Tessie Cohen, the founders’ wife, priceless.  And the Nanny is on TV from 5pm to 6pm with back to back episodes.  Most of the time we can and do ignore local issues, politics and political issues.  Sometimes they are just to unfair like the taxi fares.  And sometimes they are just too personal like Jewish not being an option to mark on the birth certificate.  But I could live here the same way I could live in China because most daily life doesn’t apply to me.  If there are mostly good people around, book stores, art museums, etc. I could live in a place for a long time though its policies are prejudice by law.  Oddly, in the US prejudice is personal but not legal where here it is legal but not seemingly not personal. 

Next week Elizabeth, Jane and I are going to see the new contemporary exhibit at the art museum and then going to find the public library.  Tomorrow off to Tessie Cohen’s.

Hi All,

Randal’s niece Tammy from Salem, VA is here visiting us for a week and we’re having a wonderful time.  She took instantly to sea travel and can even read in the front cabin while the boat rolls.  Today we shopped till we dropped and then Tammy took us to a wonderful restaurant here next door to the marina where we watched the ferries come and go and the lights come on the cruise ships.”  Our visit with Tammy began in Singapore so that’s where this email takes place.  From Singapore we flew to Langkawi and then we did a 2 day cruise to George Town. We anchoredat night during the passage and had dinner on Labarque, the sail boat of our friends Patrick and Elizabeth who were also cruising from Langkawi to George Town.  Patrick even put down their dinghy and was our taxi service.   Sadly, Tammy leaves us the day after tomorrow.  Randal and I will stay in George Town for a bit.  Happily our friends Patrick and Elizabeth from Labarque will stay here too.  Elizabeth was tour guide for Tammy and me this morning before she had to leave for her own chores.  Tomorrow is our last day so we’ll have to cram lots into it.  You’ll eventually see the photos.

Ru

Our Salem, Virginia niece Tammy arrived in Singapore March 17^th at 11 pm after 25 hours of travel.  She came to spend a week with us.  So there was no time to rest at all!  The very next morning we left our hotel at 8:30am to meet a walking tour group at 9:30 at exit B of the Bugis MRT!   The 3 and a half hour tour of the Malay-Islamic Quarter was with The Original Singapore Walks Company.  Our tour guide was quite good and very knowledgeable.  But we weren’t allowed to take notes; only photos so it was hard to remember all of the stories…..

This is the tour description.

Sultans of Spice™

A Kampong Glam (Malay-Islamic Quarter) Walk

Winner of Singapore Tourism Awards for Best Sightseeing/Leisure/Educational Programme 2005

Tour Synopsis

How was Singapore sold to the British for 60,000 Spanish Dollars? Find out about the man who did it, and the man who forced him to. No one remembers the sultans that used to rule, except us. The old Royal Palace, the Sultan Mosque, the Tombs of the Malayan Princes: they all carry an air of royalty snatched away too quickly. Uncover a curious blend of Malay folk traditions and Islam in the legends of the mysterious keris (dagger), exotic perfumes, jamu remedies to every conceivable ailment and the story of the faith that is so often misunderstood. Don’t miss this hidden cultural enclave where Singapore’s indigenous culture still thrives!  (The perfumes have no alcohol because they are sold in the Islamic area by Muslims.)

http://www.journeys.com.sg/singaporewalks/tours_sultans.asp

Several cultures arrived and thrived in Singapore.  The “Peranakan” are the result of Chinese, Indians, Arabs and others who came to Singapore and Penang and intermarried with local Malay people.  The Chinese Peranakan women are called Nyonya and the men are Baba.

Peranakan

Peranakan and Baba-Nyonya (Chinese: 峇峇娘惹; pinyin: Bābā Niángrě; Hokkien: Bā-bā Niû-liá) are terms used for the descendants of late 15th and 16th century Chinese immigrants to the Nusantara region during the Colonial era. It applies especially to the ethnic Chinese populations of the British Straits Settlements of Malaya and the Dutch-controlled island of Java and other locations, who have adopted partially or in full Nusantara customs to be somewhat assimilated into the local communities.

“While the term Peranakan is most commonly used among the ethnic Chinese for those of Chinese descent also known as Straits Chinese (土生华人; named after the Straits Settlements), there are also other, comparatively small Peranakan communities, such as Indian Hindu Peranakans (Chitty), Indian Muslim Peranakans (Jawi Pekan) (Jawi being the Javanised Arabic script., Pekan a colloquial contraction of Peranakan) and Eurasian Peranakans (Kristang (Kirstang= Christians).  It also parallel to Cambodian Hokkien who are descendents of Hoklo Chinese. They maintained their culture partially despite their native language gradually disappear after the few generation settlement.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peranakan

Tammy learned how to wrap a sarong skirt and dress as a Nyonya.  Our guide asked for a volunteer and I said, “Go Tammy.”  I’d done this kind of thing on the rally with the sari wrapping lesson.

Step into the circle of cloth.

Gather the sides

Twist and twist and twist into a donut knot and tuck in the end

Voila!

Or you can fold and fold and have the panel in the front…

Our guide was the only one tiny enough to model the chiffon jacket the Nyonya’s wore with their sarong skirt.

Tammy at Boat Quay

“Boat Quay is an historical quay in Singapore which is situated upstream from the mouth of the Singapore River on its southern bank.

It was the busiest part of the old Port of Singapore, handling three quarters of all shipping business during the 1860s. Because the south bank of the river here resembles the belly of a carp, which according to Chinese belief is where wealth and prosperity lay, many shophouses were built, crowded into the area.

Though serving aquatic trade is no longer Boat Quay’s primary role, the shophouses on it have been carefully conserved and now house various bars, pubs and restaurants. Therefore Boat Quay’s social-economic role in the city has shifted away from that of trade and maritime commerce, and now leans towards more of a role accommodated for tourism and aesthetics for the commercial zone of which encloses the Singapore River. It is the soft front to the cosmopolitan banking and financial sectors lying immediately behind it.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat_Quay

(Boat Quay is just along the river from Clarke Quay where Garden Salads include maraschino cherries!)

Tammy and Randal and the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles the founder of Singapore.

“The office towers at Raffles Place on the south bank of the Singapore River serve as a backdrop against Sir Stamford Raffles’ statue located at Raffles’ Landing Site on the river’s opposite bank.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffles’_Landing_Site

“Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of the modern Singapore, Lieutenant-Governor of Java and Bencoolen, first landed in Singapore on 29 January 1819.   He believed that Singapore was a great place for the British to start a trading settlement.   He was responsible of the Raffles Plan of Singapore, dividing Singapore into different ethnic functional sub divisions which were segregated into four trading areas and the city was on its way to become the largest trading port in the world. Although, this concept was abandoned, the effect of the plan such as the layout of the streets and each of the districts still has present day effects.   Located at the north bank of the Singapore River, this is the Singapore’s second of Sir Stamford Raffles. The first was cast in bronze and was located originally in front of the Victoria Theatre.”

Tammy and the Merlion

“The Merlion is a beautiful hybrid of a lion and a fish. Strong and lithe, its lion head alludes to the fabled beast that once roamed the ancient island state, while its fish body symbolizes Singapore’s origin as a prosperous seaport.”

“First built as an eight metre tall sculpture in 1972, the Merlion was located at the mouth of the Singapore River. In 1996, this prominent icon of Singapore was reproduced, on a much larger scale, on Sentosa island.”  http://themerlion.com.sg/

You can see the dark sky in the background.  We just made it to the staff entrance of the Fullerton Hotel when it started to pour.  And that’s where we sat with about 20 other tourists until the rain stopped.  The staff wouldn’t allow any of us to use the staff areas to get to the front of the hotel to get close enough to maybe run to the MRT.  But we would have gotten soaked because it was really a downpour.

After a very long day we returned to our hotel in Little India.  That night we had another really terrible meal. YUCK.  But cheap.  The awful lunch meal was actually quite expensive.

The next day we were to fly to Langkawi, Malaysia.  But we still had the morning to cram in a trip to China Town for some shopping and then back to Kampong Glam for more shopping and hopefully some good food.  And finally, taking our walking tour guide’s advice we ate at the local Muslim restaurant she had recommended.   Very cheap and very good!  Finally!!!

Finally a good meal.

We took Tammy to some really awful “just down the street” restaurants in Little India where in the past we’d eaten good meals.  But Randal and I were tired of the same old “good” place so went off to find something new. Bad idea…go with what you know!    And lunch at the yuppie dining spot of Singapore, Boat Quay?  Have you ever had a garden salad that included maraschino cherries but no tomatoes?  Tammy’s comment:  “I don’t even like maraschino cherries in my alcohol!”

But aside from food…

Look at the golden dome of the mosque.  The black ring below the dome is made of soya sauce bottles!  Why?  “Our tour guide told us a variation of this story.  “In the olden days, to build the mosque, the rich Muslims would donate some of the money that they had and the poorer Muslims would donate soya sauce glass bottles which were worth a little value.  However, the architect did not sell the bottles.   He used the black bottles as a part of the decoration.  The tour guide said that all the bottoms of the bottles were facing out because if they do it the other way around things will grow and live in these bottles.”

(We weren’t allowed to take notes on our walking tour so this story is gathered piecemeal from the web.  But our guide did tell us about the bottles and their connection with the poor.”

We flew from Singapore to Langkawi and that’s the next story…

Ru

Doramac