Genting Highlands

December 15, 2014December 15, 2014Leave a comment

The company’s annual dinner was held at a resort in the Genting Highlands, 35 kms from KL, last Saturday night. We had a very pleasant evening, with a delicious dinner and lots of good company and laughter. The next morning we decided to drive further up the hill to the highest point, where there is “an integrated resort, with a casino, hotels and a theme park” to quote one tourist website. In my view it is the Malaysian 21st century version of Dante’s Inferno. The picture above is of just one of the high-rise hotels that scar the landscape. With 6000 budget rooms, the First World Hotel is by far the ugliest, its brightly coloured paint job now marred by huge patches of mould. Everywhere you look, there is more construction and the whole area is full of earth-moving equipment, piles of construction materials and dumping sites filled with detritus. You have to turn your back to the buildings and the noise and look out at the green, densely vegetated hills to get some idea of the beauty there once was on these highlands. I saw a lonely hawk circling some distance away and then landing on a discarded piece of machinery – it seemed a symbol of what this area could have been and what is has now unfortunately become.

The view from my window

December 7, 2014March 10, 2015Leave a comment

I have spent a lot of time at my desk in the last week because I am editing a couple of PhDs. This requires long periods of intense concentration, which is good for my old brain! Every now and then I take a break and look at what you can see in the photo above. I have written about my room in the Writing section of this site but it is worth repeating that I feel very lucky to have such a lovely environment in which to work. To look out at the river, rest my eyes on the lush green trees and watch the occasional bird or monkey or lizard going about the business of finding food provides a wonderful break from the computer screen. Now if I could just get the Lost World theme park to shut up, if not completely then just to reduce the noise level, things would be perfect!

Christmas in Malaysia

December 1, 2014December 1, 20142 Comments

Because Malaysia is a Muslim country, I thought Christmas would go by without much fuss. I was wrong! We spent the weekend at KLCC and there are Christmas decorations everywhere, including a huge tree inside the Suria shopping centre (see pic). The shops are all playing Christmas music – “let it snow, let it snow, let it snow” seems even more absurd in Malaysia than it does in New Zealand’s summer. One of the more unusual sights was a women veiled from head to toe in black posing in front of the tree for her husband (in shorts, t-shirt and jandals) to take a photograph. He motioned to her to move so he could be sure to get in the Santa and the pile of presents. I guess that is what it’s all about – another retail opportunity for the shop-owners. Judging by the number of people in the centre, they’re onto something!

Las Vegas in KL

November 24, 2014January 13, 2015Leave a comment

Last week we stayed in KL for a couple of days and I caught the hotel shuttle to Sunway Pyramid (see pic). This is a “resort” in KL, which comprises a huge shopping centre, complete with ice rink, hotel and theme park. Sunway is the property development company that built and maintains the area we live in in Ipoh (Sunway City) and also the ghastly Lost World of Tambun theme park, which is the bane of our lives because of the noise it generates. So tasteful development is not Sunway’s strong suit but the pyramid and sphinx is where this lack of taste reaches it apogee! Nevertheless I had a good coffee, a delicious lunch and a successful quest for food items unavailable in Ipoh before going to wait under the sphinx for the shuttle back to our much more subdued hotel. I was entertained during my wait by a large number of people standing under the sphinx taking selfies!

Tropical fruit

November 17, 2014November 18, 20144 Comments

Living in Malaysia we have access to a mouth-watering array of fruit. Papaya, mangoes, a huge variety of melon. My usual breakfast is a large bowl of fruit topped with natural yoghurt and muesli. Yum! We can also buy fruit imported from New Zealand and we do – apples, kiwifruit and, now appearing in the stores, large red juicy strawberries. However, we have not yet acquired the taste for durian, called the king of fruits here. The smell puts us off! When it is high durian season, you can smell it as you walk into the shopping centre, long before you even get to the supermarket. Most hotels have “No durians” signs outside their doors and often in a lift you will see a sign of a durian cancelled with a large red cross. Not sure if we’ll ever get past the smell of the durian to experience the taste.

A murder of crows

November 11, 2014Leave a comment

I have always wanted to use this collective noun and this photo has given me the perfect opportunity! Jim took it on a recent weekend in Penang. There is a lovely walkway along the Penang waterfront, which is lined with these beautiful light poles. The afternoon we were there most of the poles were inhabited by noisy, busy crows. Though crows are not my favourite birds (are they anybody’s?), I enjoy watching birds here in Malaysia. Most days I see kingfishers and herons that frequent the river in front our house but occasionally, while out walking, I’ve caught a glimpse of the elusive greater coucal, a large lumbering bird with luxuriant black and brown plumage. When I do it feels like a special treat!

I don’t understand

November 4, 2014January 13, 2015Leave a comment

This has become my favourite expression since moving to Malaysia. There are many things I don’t understand – why large swathes of grass are cut with strimmers not mowers, why motorcyclists turn into an intersection without so much as a glance to check if there is oncoming traffic, why motorists strap themselves in but leave their children unrestrained even when in the front of the car, why “music” blares from speakers in parking lots and outside stores at a volume sure to deafen the people who work there if not the customers. I could go on. But what I really don’t understand is the persistent littering. Yesterday I drove from our house through a country area on the edge of Ipoh to the swimming pool. I usually enjoy this drive because it takes me past market gardens, small farms and even the national stud. But yesterday I didn’t enjoy it at all. I was caught for a few kilometres behind a truck (it can be difficult to pass on these narrow country roads) and I kept my distance because there were piles of crates, used for transporting fruit and vegetables, on the back that were not tied down. I was terrified that one would bounce into my windscreen. Every so often a piece of paper would fly off the truck and join the rubbish lying along both sides of the road. I don’t understand why people who make their living from the land would pollute it in this way. The photo above is of the charming Pavilion Square Tower in Kuala Kangsar. Built in 1930, it was used by the sultan’s family and British colonials to watch polo matches on the adjacent field. Not visible in the photo is the rubbish that lies all over the floors inside.

Free range chicken

October 29, 20143 Comments

One of my New Zealand friends who grew up in Ipoh has been over here visiting her parents. She and her mother took me to their local market early yesterday morning. I had expressed a wish to buy free-range chicken so they took me to the appropriate stall. There was my chook running around with several others in a cage beside the chopping block. Having ascertained what I wanted, the stall vendor grabbed it and expertly despatched it. With typical meat-eating hypocrisy, I felt really sorry for the chook. We wandered around the market, looking at the inviting piles of fresh vegetables and fruit on offer. When we got back to the chicken stall, the beautiful brown chicken, which had been alive just minutes before, was in two bags – one of filleted, skinned chicken pieces and the other of bones, which I will use to make stock. Will the experience make me a vegetarian? I doubt it. But I console myself with the thought that this was a kampung (village) chicken and it got to experience some fresh air before being served up for dinner in my house.

Oasis

October 23, 2014January 13, 2015Leave a comment

In a previous posts I have described our day trips to the Cameron Highlands. They’ve been a little disappointing – too much traffic on roads that are not well maintained, horrid towns with hundreds of stalls selling cheap souvenirs, strawberries and other fruit and vegetables grown in ugly plastic tunnels and rubbish lying everywhere. The tea houses on the Boh estates are the exception but they too are very busy and the access roads are hair-raising. But this week we spent a night and a day at the Lakehouse (see pic) and it felt like an oasis in the bustle that is the Cameron Highlands. Terrible but true that to get a relaxing break we needed to find an expensive retreat in a house that was built in colonial times. We enjoyed our well-appointed room and bathroom, a delicious dinner and breakfast and the beautiful grounds. More that all that though we enjoyed the guided walk through the jungle behind the hotel. Our pleasant Malay guide pointed out plants of interest along the way (wild mushrooms, delicate jungle orchids and bright red poisonous berries) and made sure we didn’t walk into the lethally spiky branches that sometimes grow across the path. It was wonderful to stand among the tall trees and dense foliage, listening to the sounds of crickets and frogs and hearing bird song, without the roar of traffic or the smell of garbage. It was a real privilege and one we hope to repeat from time to time.

Kuala Kangsar

October 20, 2014October 20, 2014Leave a comment

Yesterday we explored Kuala Kangsar, which has been the royal capital of the Sultans of Perak for the past 200 years. The royal mosque (Masjid Ubudiah) is on one hill and the palace (Istana Iskandariah) on another. Both have gold, onion-shaped domes and are built in the Moorish style. As non-Muslims we were able to enter the grounds of the mosque but could not go inside and nobody can get near the palace. It is surrounded by a high fence and extensive grounds. We were able to go into the Istana Hulu (see pic above), which is a former palace (built in 1903 for Sultan Idris) and is now the Galeri Sultan Azlan Shah – a museum that houses the extensive collection of personal belongings (like large numbers of watches and sunglasses) and royal gifts that were presented to Sultan Azlan Shah who died earlier this year. It is a magnificent building with cool marble floors and domed, decorated ceilings. One wonders why it was abandoned as a palace. By far the most interesting building we saw was the Istana (you will have worked out that ‘istana’ is ‘palace’ in Malay) Kenangan (see pic below), which was built in 1931 to house the sultan while the Istana Iskandariah was being constructed. It is built in the traditional Malay style, entirely of wood, without steel or nails, and is decorated with patterned bamboo panels and friezes. Sultan Azlan Shah who lived in the splendid Istana Iskandariah and accumulated the valuable collection displayed in the Galeri is now interred in the mausoleum adjacent to the mosque.

Travels from New Zealand

Two olds explore the world