1/31 - The Benefits of Higher Elevations
Shockingly, I'm in Southeast Asia and I'm not sweating. This is, of course, because I'm several thousand feet above sea level, though I'm not sure exactly how many, in Tanah Ratah, the main town in the Cameron Highlands. The cooler air is great. Last night it was actually too cold, but it was still enjoyable as a contrast from what we've been used to. Sadly though, this place is far from paradisical. (Again I'm using a word which I'm not sure exists, but which sounds right to me.) I had it in my head before we came here that we'd be escaping the horrible urban nightmares that we've been spending time in throughout this trip (with the exception of Singapore, which was great.) Possibly because of that, I pictured that Tanah Ratah, which is where all the budget places to stay are, would consist of a few buildings linked by dirt roads, and surrounded by lush jungle. Well, it is surrounded by jungle, but the roads are most definitely paved and the buildings, of which there are quite a few, are all fairly monstrous. Mostly of the concrete-stained-by-years-of-rain variety, with some British-manor-type places thrown in. The strange thing is that there's construction going on everywhere, especially on the road up, for miles and miles, but also in town, so the whole town feels kind of industrial/functional, and not like the mountain town that I imagined.
The most hideous feature of the town though, is the thing that was marked very plainly in our guidebook map as a "Derelict Construction Site." I'd pictured a lot, perhaps with some concrete slabs in it, that was cleared but then abandoned. In reality, the thing is massive--an entire block of concrete skeleton, built up to about two and a half floors and then abandoned, complete with hundred of pieces of REBAR (that's those reinforcing steel beams that go inside concrete to make it stronger) jutting out of the top. It literally seems to have been abandoned as if during one lunch break everyone was told to take off. The worst part about it, and actually the most interesting (we've taken a number of photos of it) is the giant billboard still standing in front of the place, illustrating what it will look like when finished. It was to be some sort of shopping center, complete with clean-looking cars driving around the outside and pretty brown shingles on the roof (here I'm making up some of the details, but the point remains that the billboard is optimistic.)
The D.C.S. is directly across the street from our hotel, the Hillview Inn. We ended up staying there, for 50 Ringgit a night (about $13) after we decided that we couldn't stand the place down the road, Daniel's Lodge, which at 35 Ringgit offered windowless box rooms. The windowless box room concept actually seems to be very popular wherever there's Chinese influence. Now, I'm not suggesting that there's necessarily a connection, mind you, and I'm sure the Chinese could come up with better if they wanted to, but in Hong Kong and Singapore there was a plentiful supply, and now, here in Malaysia, where there's a surprising amount of Chinese influence (they're said to basically control the economy here) we've found the same sort of thing. Which brings me to our arrival in Kuala Lumpur two days ago, about which I'd like to mention a few things.
A Few Things About Kuala Lumpur:
We read of more "passable" rooms right across from the bus station where we would be getting in from Singapore, which was perfect for us because we were merely stopping over in KL, and catching a bus to the Highlands the following morning. So we went to the most recommended one in the guide, the Pudu Hostel. Inside, the hallways smelled like sour milk and looked like they'd never been swept, and the rooms were--you guessed it--windowless and tiny. The mattresses, on top of everything, were basically just metal springs with a thin veneer of fabric over them. Even I, who can usually sleep anywhere, rejected the thought of a night on one of those. So we were back on to the hot and chaotic street, and let me just say here that if you ever have an opportunity to spend time around the Puduraya bus station, don't. Luckily, there was a place a few doors down that we saw the sign of--the Anuja Hostel--which we skeptically went in to check out. It charged the same amount, about $10, and was run by South Indians and much better overall. It was still a shitty place in the most basic sense, but at least the guys at the desk were genuinely nice, and the room was painted in such vibrant colors (pink and green) that you could forgive it its imperfections. It did have a window, though it was covered over seemingly unnecessarily by large slats on the outside of the building that blocked out 90% of the sunlight. In the end, the air conditioner worked, so we stayed there.
Also, the Puduraya Bus Station itself was pretty incredible. It's set up so that the ground level is where all the buses pull in, and the people wait, buy tickets, etc. on the level above that. There are walkways going down to the buses from there, and all the buses sit there idling, so the effect is that you have a thick haze of bus exhaust throughout the waiting area at all times. And yet, no one else seemed to notice this. They waited on benches with their children, calmly, without the slightest hint of discomfort.
The air in KL wasn't much better actually, and I was actually really disappointed by the place in general, mostly I think because I'd always loved the name, and the idea of going there was always lodged in my mind as a great, exotic thing. So when it was much like some of the nastier Indonesian cities we visited, it called into question all of my potentially romanticized notions about the places we've yet to visit. Admittedly, though, the Petronas Towers, which I think are now the second tallest in the world next to the new one in Taipei, did look quite nice in the distance. When we pass back through there (it may only be one night again, we're not exactly sure) I want to go to that area and see if its any more like what I had in my imagination.
Meanwhile, here in the Cameron Highlands, despite the town being a little more depressingly semi-urban than I expected, the air is cool and clean, and there's none of that chaos that we've become so used to throughout the trip. Tomorrow I think we'll try to do some treks in the jungle. They say you should hire a guide because you can get lost, but I'm wary of the whole "guide" concept. I just want to walk around in a place where I can't see a goddamn car or a building. In that sense I think our Indonesia and Malaysia experiences have been a good lesson. In Thailand and Laos I think we'll know to make much more of an effort to get away from the cities and out into the country. The thing is, the further from the "centers" you go, the less information you have about how and where, so in a lot of cases that means risking certain things, such as comfort, security, etc. Of course, that risk is usually the best part about travelling, but it can be difficult to convince youself of that fact sometimes.
Finally, I'd just like to make it known that the bus coming up here (which took about 4.5 hours, the last 1.5 on an endless, winding mountain road) was infested with cockroaches. To be fair, we only saw a few, but they looked young, and I could say with some confidence that they had been born and were being raised right there on that bus, which suggests at least some sort of small-scale community establishment, does it not? But really, I'd never heard of cockroaches on a bus. There were also some caterpillars, but that's strange enough that I didn't feel the need to complain about it. What I really minded was that the seat in front of me was broken and leaning back so far that when I sat there I was essentially trapped (the legroom made me long for the worst airline seat.) So Aubrie moved to another seat which had a broken seatback but where she could lan against the wall, and I took her aisle seat, but after two hours of a man constantly staring at Aubrie in her seat (literally, without taking his eyes off of her) we switched again. Basically it was discomfort all around, but I'll be grateful at least that the driver again wasn't a maniac.
More should be coming soon (yes I know these are sometimes empty promises) on our stay in Singapore, extended by one day because we liked it so much, and on our Indonesian rail experiences.
The most hideous feature of the town though, is the thing that was marked very plainly in our guidebook map as a "Derelict Construction Site." I'd pictured a lot, perhaps with some concrete slabs in it, that was cleared but then abandoned. In reality, the thing is massive--an entire block of concrete skeleton, built up to about two and a half floors and then abandoned, complete with hundred of pieces of REBAR (that's those reinforcing steel beams that go inside concrete to make it stronger) jutting out of the top. It literally seems to have been abandoned as if during one lunch break everyone was told to take off. The worst part about it, and actually the most interesting (we've taken a number of photos of it) is the giant billboard still standing in front of the place, illustrating what it will look like when finished. It was to be some sort of shopping center, complete with clean-looking cars driving around the outside and pretty brown shingles on the roof (here I'm making up some of the details, but the point remains that the billboard is optimistic.)
The D.C.S. is directly across the street from our hotel, the Hillview Inn. We ended up staying there, for 50 Ringgit a night (about $13) after we decided that we couldn't stand the place down the road, Daniel's Lodge, which at 35 Ringgit offered windowless box rooms. The windowless box room concept actually seems to be very popular wherever there's Chinese influence. Now, I'm not suggesting that there's necessarily a connection, mind you, and I'm sure the Chinese could come up with better if they wanted to, but in Hong Kong and Singapore there was a plentiful supply, and now, here in Malaysia, where there's a surprising amount of Chinese influence (they're said to basically control the economy here) we've found the same sort of thing. Which brings me to our arrival in Kuala Lumpur two days ago, about which I'd like to mention a few things.
A Few Things About Kuala Lumpur:
We read of more "passable" rooms right across from the bus station where we would be getting in from Singapore, which was perfect for us because we were merely stopping over in KL, and catching a bus to the Highlands the following morning. So we went to the most recommended one in the guide, the Pudu Hostel. Inside, the hallways smelled like sour milk and looked like they'd never been swept, and the rooms were--you guessed it--windowless and tiny. The mattresses, on top of everything, were basically just metal springs with a thin veneer of fabric over them. Even I, who can usually sleep anywhere, rejected the thought of a night on one of those. So we were back on to the hot and chaotic street, and let me just say here that if you ever have an opportunity to spend time around the Puduraya bus station, don't. Luckily, there was a place a few doors down that we saw the sign of--the Anuja Hostel--which we skeptically went in to check out. It charged the same amount, about $10, and was run by South Indians and much better overall. It was still a shitty place in the most basic sense, but at least the guys at the desk were genuinely nice, and the room was painted in such vibrant colors (pink and green) that you could forgive it its imperfections. It did have a window, though it was covered over seemingly unnecessarily by large slats on the outside of the building that blocked out 90% of the sunlight. In the end, the air conditioner worked, so we stayed there.
Also, the Puduraya Bus Station itself was pretty incredible. It's set up so that the ground level is where all the buses pull in, and the people wait, buy tickets, etc. on the level above that. There are walkways going down to the buses from there, and all the buses sit there idling, so the effect is that you have a thick haze of bus exhaust throughout the waiting area at all times. And yet, no one else seemed to notice this. They waited on benches with their children, calmly, without the slightest hint of discomfort.
The air in KL wasn't much better actually, and I was actually really disappointed by the place in general, mostly I think because I'd always loved the name, and the idea of going there was always lodged in my mind as a great, exotic thing. So when it was much like some of the nastier Indonesian cities we visited, it called into question all of my potentially romanticized notions about the places we've yet to visit. Admittedly, though, the Petronas Towers, which I think are now the second tallest in the world next to the new one in Taipei, did look quite nice in the distance. When we pass back through there (it may only be one night again, we're not exactly sure) I want to go to that area and see if its any more like what I had in my imagination.
Meanwhile, here in the Cameron Highlands, despite the town being a little more depressingly semi-urban than I expected, the air is cool and clean, and there's none of that chaos that we've become so used to throughout the trip. Tomorrow I think we'll try to do some treks in the jungle. They say you should hire a guide because you can get lost, but I'm wary of the whole "guide" concept. I just want to walk around in a place where I can't see a goddamn car or a building. In that sense I think our Indonesia and Malaysia experiences have been a good lesson. In Thailand and Laos I think we'll know to make much more of an effort to get away from the cities and out into the country. The thing is, the further from the "centers" you go, the less information you have about how and where, so in a lot of cases that means risking certain things, such as comfort, security, etc. Of course, that risk is usually the best part about travelling, but it can be difficult to convince youself of that fact sometimes.
Finally, I'd just like to make it known that the bus coming up here (which took about 4.5 hours, the last 1.5 on an endless, winding mountain road) was infested with cockroaches. To be fair, we only saw a few, but they looked young, and I could say with some confidence that they had been born and were being raised right there on that bus, which suggests at least some sort of small-scale community establishment, does it not? But really, I'd never heard of cockroaches on a bus. There were also some caterpillars, but that's strange enough that I didn't feel the need to complain about it. What I really minded was that the seat in front of me was broken and leaning back so far that when I sat there I was essentially trapped (the legroom made me long for the worst airline seat.) So Aubrie moved to another seat which had a broken seatback but where she could lan against the wall, and I took her aisle seat, but after two hours of a man constantly staring at Aubrie in her seat (literally, without taking his eyes off of her) we switched again. Basically it was discomfort all around, but I'll be grateful at least that the driver again wasn't a maniac.
More should be coming soon (yes I know these are sometimes empty promises) on our stay in Singapore, extended by one day because we liked it so much, and on our Indonesian rail experiences.
posted by Gabriel Leigh at 7:14 PM
2 Comments:
Dear G & A,
Breathe deep the clean, cool air of the higher elevation--a palpable relief, no doubt.
I favor the straightforward spelling of 'paradisical' you used, even if it's the third choice listed by The Concise Oxford Dictionary (preceded by 'paradisiacal' and 'paradisaical').
As for guides, hearsay has it you really ought to hire one, as much in the way of supporting their local economy as of not getting lost in the jungle. Do a careful gut check of anyone offering their services and let your intuition guide you in the end.
Happy Trails,
John E.
I think it's safe to assume that the Chinese are, in fact, behind the windowless hotel room concept. The rationale being that if you can't look out the window, you can't plot the overthrow of the government. As Mao put it, "Fewer windows, greater control." I also suspect that the bus cockroaches are of Chinese origin. China's unnaturally undervalued currency enables Chinese cockraoch manufacturers to profitably export the bugs to even the most impoverished countries.
By the way, John E's suggestion that you should reply on your intuition is as sound as it is ironic.
To quote Shakespeare, " Let not thrill of dangerous adventures outweigh the good sense to avoid them."
love.......
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