Road Trip ... Elephants, Butterflies, and Getting Lost

We had decided to sit around for our holiday, first little holiday we have had for a while and we both fancied vegging out - especially in view of the horrific traffic on Malaysian roads during holidays.

And then one of us (well, I admit, it was Peter) said, "Let's go somewhere! How about ... um ... Penang?" And the other one of us (well, me) said, "Uhh, yeah! OK then." And so we did.

You have to understand that the middle of the Malaysian peninsular is very lumpy, you can't just drive all over. So we chose the northern route - up the East Coast to Kuala Besut, across the north near the Thai border through the north end of the Cameron Highlands, a little bit south towards Butterworth (now there's a lovely Malaysian name!) and across the big bridge to Penang Island and Georgetown (another lovely Malaysian name).

The signs here are nice and large, but never in English - our main language learning has been in the area of road signs. We kept seeing this huge sign with lots of words, the last of which was "Liar!" And then finally I managed to catch the last two words as we went past ..."Gajah liar!".

We suddenly remembered that 'liar' (that's lee-ar) means 'wild', and 'gajah' is elephant.

We saw some fast-moving picture signs warning about the elephants, and we saw a fallen tree which may have been knocked down by the elephants.

I thought I saw one disappearing into the jungle ... but it was the back end of a water-buffalo. (Haha).

The trip was fairly uneventful, and we safely reached the causeway across to the island.

We paid our RM7 toll to cross the bridge, and entered the log-jam of one-way streets that is Georgetown city.

We had booked into one of the dozens of high-rise hotels on the waterfront, but we had a room with a view over the city and mountains rather than the sea.

The number one tourist must-see is the highest hill. Years ago it was accessed by cable-car, but nowadays there is a very efficient funicular railway. I didn't take any pictures - you can see one of those in Prague, or Katoomba. (haha)

The hill is very steep and high - and the top was enshrouded in mist.

 And it was starting to rain.

 We headed into the eatery area with the swarms of Chinese (mostly ) tourists, where the view from the hilltop window was  ...

... and then gradually as the rain got harder we could see a little.

 We went back outside to the viewing platform, and caught a glimpse of the wonderful view through a hole in the clouds.

Birds

There was also a bird park with brightly-coloured birds. Some of them looked familiar to us Australians, but the signs assured us they were from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, most were from South America.

Butterflies! Butterflies!

Then we went to see the butterfly farm. It was pretty much what you might expect!

 Various baby forms - eggs and caterpillars - hanging on plants.

 All sorts of butterflies feeding on pineapple slices laid out especially for them,

 and hibiscus flowers on trays.

 Some other gorgeous flowers were attracting various butterflies,

 and some of the large spectacular ones almost blended in with their background.

 This large black and white one rarely sat still for long.

 Then there were the pupae hanging in rows on special frames.

 There were one or two butterflies that thought I was the sweetest thing around - that proboscis sure tickled on my hands.

There were also cages with various large (ugly) lizards, turtles, catfish and even a cage of monstrous millipedes.

We had had enough, and headed for what was signed as the 'exit'. But it took us through room after room after room of display cases, and gift shops.

Lost in the Middle of Malaysia

 Friends at work had been discussing whether it's best to go north or south when driving across to the west coast. So having arrived via the north route, we decided to go back by the south ... except I don't think the route we took was the one they were talking about.

Not having GPS, and relying on Mr Google and his maps, we set off first south to Ipoh, and then headed east across the Cameron Highlands (rather than around the south end of the mountain range as I think our friends intended).

That was ok. The mountains are beautiful, the weather was cool and cloudy, there was not a lot of traffic, and the road was well-built and well-maintained with substantial guards against rock-falls and other hazards.

 The area is so cool and moist that there is a massive fruit and vege growing area up there in the highlands - strawberries, for example.

 The shade-clothed growing sheds stretched for miles and miles, up and down the hills.

 Obviously this is a thriving industry, with new farms being constructed and planted on the hill-sides.

We came to a north-south road on the east side of the Cameron range, with heavy traffic choosing the inland route from Kota Bahru in the north to KL in the south-west. Google maps had shown us a road off to the east a little way along this road ... and, sure enough, there it was, sign-posted to Kuala Berang - a little town near Kuala Terengganu. (Strange how it didn't signpost KT, but maybe that's because we were still in the state of Kelantan which is constantly at rivalry with Terengganu.)

We set off happily, commenting on what a beautiful road it was, and with so little traffic.

And then (without warning) ... it just ended. There was a straight line where the bitumen just became dust and stones.

It would be hundreds of kilometres to turn back, we trundled on, and eventually rediscovered what had probably been the remnants of our road. We bumped and thumped around and through potholes and puddles, and the bitumen sections of road came and went a few times.

Then we came to a barrier across the road, with a couple of young policemen sitting in a little hut guarding it. One of them stood and walked across to us, and we wound down the window ... and he lifted the barrier and waved us through. (The prospect of a conversation in English was presumably just too much for him!)

So we continued on, there was no habitation, no other traffic, no more signs ... just jungle and areas that looked like they were being prepared for palm oil planting. Once we saw a desultory group of chaps attacking a section of road with shovels - it was hard to know why, or what they hoped to achieve with the whole road in such disrepair. One particularly bad sinkhole was surround by large plastic barriers ... except that the hole had then expanded and the edge of one of the plastic barriers could just be seen poking out of the hole.

We came to a T-junction - no signs, eeny, meeny, miny, mo - and went right. Soon we saw a few village houses, and then there were a couple of young chaps on a motorbike bouncing along in front of us. Civilisation, of sorts!

Over a couple of hours the road improved as we went. The mile-posts to Kuala Berang resumed  ... and then we saw a big road-sign informing us that there was a crossroad ahead, and straight through would get us to Kuala Terengganu. So excited! But when we got there it was a T-junction with a barrier keeping us away from the not-yet built road to KT. We had to decide again, and turned right again (- left would have been better, we realised later).

The next time we saw a sign to Kuala Terengganu, we were in that place, Kuala Berang. And the traffic was chockers and there were traffic lights every few minutes. (One thing about Malaysian traffic lights - they are very very slow, and if you are facing a red light, it can be a long long time ...) It's only thirty-something kilometres from KT, but it took another two hours.

Home again, Home again. Yeah, nice to be off the road!

The Fellowship

Flying to Kuala Lumpur was not terribly adventurous ... Malaysian Airlines are very particular about weight allowance, at least on the surface, they even weigh everyone's carry-on baggage.

But it was a case of

"go over there, take some things out, come back and have it weighed again."

And then? Well, you go back over there and put it all back in I suppose ... well, that's what I understood, and it seemed to work just fine.

So the trip was "pleasantly uneventful" - except that there was just enough turbulence for them to cancel all hot drinks, just when I could have really done with a coffee after eight hours of semi-sleep.

Kuala Lumpur International Airport

We had received an email telling us we would be picked up at the airport ... we were quite excited about that because in all our travels it never seems to happen, at least not when it is supposed to. Of course, this time turned out to be no exception.

After an hour and a half waiting we managed to ring someone in our new organisation, and find that another email had been sent (after we left!) telling us we would not be picked up and giving instructions about catching a taxi.

Catching a taxi at the airport involves buying a ticket at a booth first, and handing this to a taxi driver - takes all the hassle (and the fun!) out of the usual haggling!

So, we would be staying at the Klana resort, quite a ways south of Kuala Lumpur.

Lovely spot, beautiful pool etc - but we spent most of our time locked away in meetings.

Onward and Upward

We noticed the carpark was full of identical cars - for us 'fellows' and the 'mentors' with the organisation.

We were offered a car each, but decided to accept just the one. So with our other fellow team member, a convoy of two cars, we set off across Malaysia to our new location.

The first bit, north through KL was the main problem. Despite purchasing a local 3G SIM for my iPad so that I could use it as a GPS, we missed the vital turn ... and the GPS promptly went on the blink leaving us floundering around in heavy city traffic.

Several tolls later we found where we were on the west side of the city and retraced our steps (paying all the tolls all over again) and finally, thankfully, escaped onto the East-West road.

We stopped and negotiated the intricasies of buying petrol - it's not quite the same as we are used to, you have to talk to the man in the booth and tell him what you want first. Here are Peter and Lloyd filling both cars.

Reaching the East coast, we again missed a vital turn (it just wasn't there!) and ended up taking the scenic route along the coast through dozens of tiny villages with slow traffic lights. Interesting, though.

Kuala Terengganu

So here we are in the city where we will work.

The view from our hotel window ... interesting for so many reasons when we are sitting here watching.

And yesterday we took a bit of a drive around to some of the other beaches.

Looks like it's our kind of place!!

Work

Work?!

We are about to visit our first workplace for the first time. So ... more later.