It was time to say goodbye to cool mountain air and return to the land of the heat. We had half a day and one night to spend in the northern city of Ipoh, Malaysia's 3rd-largest. Once we finish there, we will head to Pulau Pangkor via ferry for a relaxing end to our vacation. Along the way, we spot jungle honey, durians, monkeys, crabs, ants, millipedes, a flying squirrel, and Wyatt gets over his fear of boats.
When we climbed the mountain to the Highlands, the road was small and winding and packed with roadside durian stands. On this side, the road is a fast four-lane highway with fewer stands selling something other than durians. It looked like home-made soda? We weren't sure so Ted stopped to investigate.
Those hanging bottles are not home-made juice but rather "jungle honey." Ted bought some of that for us to try (earthy) and some of those beanpod things. He couldn't figure out their use beyond learning that they were supposed to be hung up to dry out so now they are hanging on our apartment wall getting blacker and blacker. Not sure why.
There was a ton of mining going on in this valley. So many sides of mountains destroyed in order to make concrete. Every little village had its own mining operation.
We were also looking in these mountains for temples. Yes, temples IN the mountains. This area is well-known for elaborate cave temples. We were hoping to check some of them out. This was our first glimpse at something like that.
Straight outta Avatar.
Finally, we found our way to Sam Poh Tong, the largest cave temple in Malaysia. From the entrance, it didn't look like much.
Once we stepped inside the gate though, a whole world of color and decoration greeted us.
And all of this was just the entrance! We hadn't even gotten to the cave temple part yet! Here is the gate for that along with Grandma Barbie, Ted, and the kids.
Here we step into the cave.
Inside there are several shrine areas. This one is the first.
This is another one.
After we checked out the shrines, we headed through the tunnel into the back area.
So once we walked through the cave with the shrines, we found ourselves in a big courtyard behind the mountain. It is surrounded by mountainside and is totally peaceful. On one side is a temple and place where the monks live.
There is also a big turtle pond where locals bring turtles to drop off in order to balance their karma. The 12-year-old boy in me took this shot of some turtles balancing their own karma.
We found out we could feed the turtles for a quarter or something ridiculous. So the kids did that.
I had wondered how things inside the cave part stayed so nice. I mean, how did they keep out the dampness of a cave? Here's one way how. This big dish was way, way up at the top of the cave collecting the water that would then follow the tubes into a big tub that reminded me of holy water containers in Catholic churches.
Back inside the cave, we walked up several winding staircases to explore more shrines and to look at the stunning views. Then we saw monkeys! Dozens of them! We even saw a mother macaque nursing her babies.
After talking with the monkeys for a long time, we headed back down and out of the cave. We explored the grounds and looked for a public toilet, which we eventually found.
There were tons of stray dogs here. It was a little overwhelming actually. But the girls fell in love with these tiny temple puppies.
Some of the stray dogs decided to hang out in the cool shade under our car.
We left the cave temples and tried to find our way to the hotel Ted had found the day before in our guidebook. We couldn't locate it and they weren't answering their phone. Not a good sign. As we were driving around though we came across a very nice looking hotel. Ted decided to run in and ask for directions to our hotel. Once inside, he thought "Why not?" and asked how much this nicer place was. Why, it was $60! Sold! Eventually, we were able to reach the other hotel to cancel. We were very excited to stay here though. It was very nice, although not too fancy for 3 loud children.
Somewhere I have pictures of this stuff but I can't find them. If I ever do, I'll add them, but for now I'll simply narrate.
We were the only Westerners there but they had a big Christmas tree in the lobby and a piano player playing Christmas tunes until about 11 PM. The art work depicted English hunting scenes. There was soft music playing in the hallways but there was only one song playing continuously and appropriately that song was "Time After Time." One thing we discovered about hotels in predominantly-Muslim areas is that there are signs in the rooms pointing toward Mecca to aid in prayer. Also, most gas stations have separate-gender mosques. Ya don't see that every day.
After we checked in, we headed into the city where we were still pretty much the only Westerners. We were definitely a spectacle. In the middle of the city, we found a large playground surrounded by a hawker center or food stalls. We figured the kids could play and we would eat there but I have to say that Barbara and I felt pretty uncomfortable. We were attracting much more attention that we had expected and were a little intimidated. Also, we couldn't understand what the stalls were selling foodwise. It also looked pretty filthy and we were not ready to take that risk. No food poisoning on this vacation, thank you. So we left. We walked into the Chinese part of the city and eventually found a place with decent vegetarian options. As we walked back to the car, the streets were being closed off and people were setting up a night market. It was kind of cool to see, but we had other plans for the night: hot springs!
After dinner, we drove to this place called The Lost World of Tambun to check out the hot springs. Okay, I expected something sort of natural and this place was more Disney-fied than I had expected but it was also very nice. Having been so cold for the last few days, it was nice to hot and in a bathing suit outside in hot water. There were several pools here with varying temperatures. Some had spray features, some had waterfalls, most had fancy lights. One pool was dedicated to reflexology so we could walk in laps around it with the smooth rocks on the bottom massaging our tired feet. The steam sauna cave here was so hot that we could only spend seconds in it. We also kept hitting up the cold showers next to the biggest pool and then jumping into the hot water. It felt very luxurious.
The kids were almost asleep when we made it back to the rooms so we got them in bed pretty quickly. Then, Ted, Barbara and I sat outside the rooms on a couch and listened to "Time After Time" about 20 times. For Christmas, just a few days prior, Santa had brought Ted these Muslim style pajamas and he was wearing them here. It was funny because every family who got out of the elevators and walked to their rooms had to walk by us. As they did, they would glance first and keep walking, maybe a quick nod of the head or something. But then, they would notice Ted in those pajamas and they would smile every time and say "Hello."
In the morning, we had the most elaborate breakfast buffet ever. I'm pretty sure every Western, Chinese, and Malay dish was represented in the large eating area. We filled up trying just about everything and then started our longish drive to the coast to catch a ferry to the beach island.
Here is one of those fruits the nice family in Tanah Rata had given us. This is what happens when you eat one.
We eventually made it to the seaside town of Lumut, found a large carpark and hauled our bags in the general direction of ferries. Then, we found our particular boat and sailed off.
Ted was impressed by this shipyard.
Eleanor read some Magic School Bus books to Zoe and a new friend.
Wyatt watched first at the back of the boat as they pulled up the anchor, pulled the ropes in, and started the motors. He usually is terrified when we get on a boat. Of course, the boats he has been on have been speedboats and the ride is quite different, but he loved this trip. Eventually he and Grandma Barbi made their way to the front and watched the whole trip, including docking on the island.
What would a trip be without some friendly strangers asking to take their pictures with our children?
There it is, Pulau Pangkor, which means Beautiful Island. This is supposed to be an area where mostly locals go, not many Westerners. It's a vacation spot mostly for people from Malaysia. We are invading it to get away from the big resorts.
Once we dock, we grab all our luggage and head to the taxi queue. Before we knew it, we were speeding recklessly along the winding island roads heading for our hotel, Vikri Beach.
This is our beach. Although we successfully avoided the big resorts, the hotel we found was across the street from this big beach filled with toys. Ah well, we'll make the best of it. Do you see that big green slide? Yeah, I went down that. And I would like to add that I did it with poise and grace and did not flail or look silly at all, rather glamorous actually.
They welcomed us to the Vikri Beach hotel with a cocktail--that had no alcohol. Why call it a cocktail? Anyway, the place was very cute. It was made up of about 20 or so cabins each with 2 separate rooms and porches. It was run by some Indian Malays who also prepared all the meals, which were fantastic. We felt very pampered and entertained. Barbara made many friends, especially the Indian Lutherans from Ipoh. The kids did too.
We found lots of intact sand dollars.
The first night Zoe fell asleep on Ella's bum. It was on this first night that our friends in the US, both in Ohio and Somerville, were getting hit with a snowstorm. We checked out the pictures on Facebook and from emails using the wifi in the common areas. The other guests were thrilled to look at pictures of snow. It was a pretty cool first night--even though we found a whole river of ants in one room that we needed to take care of. We may have left Singapore but we can't get away from the ants! We heard some interesting music from a neighboring place. Ted thought it sounded like a mix between call-to-prayer and Bon Jovi, but later revised it to a mix between call-to-prayer and Black Sabbath with that singer after Ozzy. Yeah, not great.
This was my most common view. I lounged on our beach blanket in the shade of this glorious tree while the children ran and dug and swam.
On the second day, we decided to take a boat tour.
Goodbye, crabby friend.
Wyatt loves boats now--even speedboats!
First, our guide thought Ted had two wives. Nope. Then, he took us on a little tour as he met with some fishermen to arrange a purchase for their restaurant. The fishermen had their catch all laid out on the beach and the guide negotiated with them, working out a deal for what would become our dinner. That's pretty fresh! It was funny though as we pulled into this spot, our guide had said, "Welcome to Paradise!" Zoe took one look around at the fish, men, and cars and said, "This isn't Paradise." That's coming next, Zoe.
Then, he took us to what he called a "private beach" but I think he really just meant there were no roads to it. There were some of those tiny crabs here that roll the sand into balls when they dig, making cool sand art.
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This beach was amazing. The sand here really was like powder, like ash. It was secluded and gorgeous. But there was a lot of trash, unfortunately. Ted said he saw some of the fishing boats just dumping their garbage right into the water at the docks. It washes up somewhere eventually. Yuck. But that was on land, at the edge of the beach and trees. In the water, it seemed much nicer.
Ted did discover that this is an area where Outward Bound takes kids for survival camps. There were some tents and some teenagers at the other end of the beach.
After about an hour, our boat came back to show us around the islands. First, he took us by the fancy place, Pangkor Laut Resort. This is a private island with an exclusive resort where the simplest rooms go for around $400 a night. They also have whole chalets for much, much more. And you wouldn't take a ferry here, instead arriving by helicopter.
Here is one of the cheap rooms.
Here we saw a monitor lizard sunning himself.
In this picture, you can sort of see Zoe who is in Barbara's lap because she was cold and a little scared. She told her grandma that it was because she wanted to keep her safe. Zoe is protecting her grandma, how sweet!
Many of the rock formations are known for their shapes. The guide likes this one on the bottom right because it looks like a big turtle.
We made our way to a snorkeling area and decided to give it a shot because Barbara and I have never tried it before. Our guide warned us that it was crowded and the water wasn't very clear today. We went anyway and it was mobbed and littered with trash. We saw some zebra fish and swam with some schools but there was no reef here or anything. Could have skipped it.
A rock formation that looks like a big crocodile's head.
Because we are so close to the equator, sunsets are not that dramatic here. But the first night, Ted and I saw a nice one. Unfortunately, we had scheduled our dinner for the same time, 7 I think it was. We missed a lot of it. We were the only ones eating that early too. This next night, we scheduled dinner for 8 and checked out another, much less dramatic sunset. But the breeze was wonderful. This was also the night that Ted saw a flying squirrel in our trees and we all saw footlong millipede vacuuming up a row of ants right outside our cabin. During the day, we saw many eagles and hornbills too. Also, there are small monkeys everywhere on this island, one beach was chock-full of them. We missed the wild boar feeding at our hotel, though. Apparently, this happens every night before dinner. The wild pigs come running to the edge of the property where they are greeted with leftovers. Oh, and they have lots of chickens roaming the property, too, which is very nice except at sunrise.
When we woke up, it was time to go for a morning swim, pack up, grab a quick traditional Malay breakfast, and hop onto a taxi driving us back to the ferry.
Our return ferry is quite different from the one we rode here.
Goodbye, Pulau Pangkor!
We left the ferry and found our car quickly, getting back on the road for our 8-hour journey home. Oh yeah, and it's New Year's Eve day so we better hurry!
So much of the countryside along the roads is plantation. Most of them in this part of Malaysia are owned by this company.
A car brand I had never heard of but that is ubiquitous in Malaysia is the Proton. Practically all the cars were Protons. We passed at least a few factories making them and now I see them in Singapore too.
Suddenly, I smelled something. Just as I asked, "Where are the durians?" we pulled up behind this big truck hauling them.
Here's a Proton.
Interesting aside: No one could get away with a company by this name on the side of the bus in the US. Yikes.
And this gas station had a "new age" section of juices. Interesting.
We made it back just a few hours before the ball dropped so we all decided to stay up to celebrate. It was a fantastic and memorable night. Some photos and videos were posted on Facebook with that stuff.
This concludes our big post-holiday trip. I'm ready to stay put for a while. I feel like we just got back from Thailand and headed right out for this trip. I think I'll stick to Singapore for now. Anyway, we arrived back here on the 31st and Eleanor and Wyatt started school on the 2nd. Big changes in the Bach household. I think I'll post back-to-school pictures for the next blog. See ya then!
But first, I found those other pictures from my phone so I'll add them here. They are mostly from the city Ipoh, the playground in the middle of the hawker center and then walking around the streets as they were setting up the night market, and some from our hotel. The last picture is our cabin on Pulau Pangkor. Quality note: these phone pictures were taken with my new case covering the phone. I hadn't yet realized that some of the corners are blurred because of problems with the fit. Lesson learned.
