Backpacking

plants that harm & plants that heal....
The Cameron Highlands are so cool and airy!! When we travel to the Perhentian Islands tomorrow I'm sure we'll have a shock when the heat hits us again, we've got quite used to wearing jumpers and trousers in the cool evenings! We met other people who lost their bags whilst travelling with the kurnia bistari bus company, some fell out like ours, and others had simply disappeared from the bus when it arrived in C.H. So the hostels here are asking guests to use another company wherever possible.
Yesterday we went on an amazing tour. Our guide Kumar made us and the other 4 people on the tour laugh the moment we got in the jeep, with his ingenious method of passing a vehicle emmissions test the police had set up. He has a friend who is a police man who told him they would be there, and has previously shown him how to put a small piece of rolled up newspaper in the engine to significantly reduce the emmissions, and therefore pass the test!! He was a really good guide, pointing out lots of different places and always cracking jokes. We travelled up the mountains in a 4x4 to Mount Brinchang, the highest point on peninsular Malaysia at 6666 ft. The sun was shining and the views were fantastic, if a little hazy in the distance. On the way back down the winding road, Kumar stopped the jeep and we walked down the track. He pointed out various plants, and explained their uses, which varied from medicinal to poison! Bamboo contains water that is safe to drink, but the outer shell contains fibres which irritate the skin and if ingested can kill you, and blind you if they get in your eyes. He spotted a black millepied with red legs which was about 6 inches long he picked it up on a stick and it curled around it. He explained that the bite is so painful that, although it is not lethal, people have committed suicide because the pain is so bad. When he was younger he was amazed by the idea of a pain that would cause someone to take their own life, so went out searching for one of the insects and picked it up and it bit him. He wouldnt recommend it! Kumar showed us many more plants which can heal and harm, and then stopped by a very small gap in the trees of a near vertical slope, which looked as if it had been made by rain water flowing down the mountain. "Now we start the jungle trek" He announced, and there were gasps from a couple behind us. Kumar started to climb and scramble up the slope, which had tree roots & branches to act as steps and handholds above the crumbling earth. Rob followed straight behind, I could sense his excitement, and I followed, equally curious about the trail we were about to take. We climbed under and over fallen branches, and Kumar frequently stopped to explain which plants are used as medicines, and which are vital for jungle survival. We ate cinnamon leaves, and identified the Ti tree, the natural antiseptic (Among so many other plants) we saw the insect eating carnivorous 'monkey cups', and a species of orchid endemic to the cameron highlands. The walk was fantastic, and we didnt want it to end!!
Tomorrow we are heading to the perhentian islands, which are more remote than Tioman, but developing very quickly, maily due to the fact that they are featured in the highlights of Malaysia in the Lonely Planet guide, which we feel is rather irresponsible of LP, as visitors are flocking to the previously pristine island. Well, we shall see when we get there...
They only have electricity for 12 hours a day, and i'm predicting the internet will be painfully slow, so, I'm not sure when I'll next be able to write here, but you can be sure we'll be having a fantastic time lazing around in paradise!!

posted by Rach at Saturday, July 08, 2006

Arrived in Singapore after flight via Doha, which is a sweaty and sticky kinda place. Singapore is only 13 degrees north of the equator and the air is so humid, it feels difficult to breathe, like taking in a noxious gas and exhaling some sort of whizz glue type phantom. Singapore itself is an amazing place: walk from chinatown to little india and you will see the amazing difference between the two areas, like walking between two countries, and after having a delicious indian meal served on banana leaf we head to chinatown which is full of hawker centres and bustling market stalls, spices and all sorts of incredible but useless tat. Hindu shrines and Chinese tao/buddist temples are dotted all over the city as well as a few mosques down where i am staying on Baghdad Street. The Hawker centres are amazing you can get fish head curry or even eminent frogs legs which is my personal fave, staying clear of green turtle soup, because i don't like the idea of digesting something so putrid in design.. and which belongs on the beach, crying dolorous tears for all of its lost hatchlings kidnapped mercilessly by the beading eyes of predator birds.......... Today we arrived in Malaysia, and we are now in Mersing, which is a little fishing port. Tomorrow(wed) we catch the longboat to pulau tioman in the South China Sea, where we will snorkel and jungle trek.... i tink its where south pacific the movie was filmed, but if its too overcrodwed we will explore the seribut archipegalo and surrounding isles, by boat.... People very friendly.... food excellent... bout 90 p for a three course indian dinner... hostel is 2 pound a night... and malaysia is suppost to be expensive in south east asian terms.............................!!!!!!!