Adventure Babies

After farewell at Changi... Rach departs for Perth; and today i am in the lobby waiting for my flight to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.. for some Wats and nightmarkets. Meeting Graham and Marelle tomorrow.. Think that we are going to explore the North by North East circuit of Thailand... The Golden Triangle... Don Ithanon ( tallest mountain in Thailand) and the delicious cliff perched temples that are in abundance in this part of the world.
The plan is to head into Laos to visit the awe inspiring city of Luang Prabang.. and boat down the mighty mekong.. one of the bloodlines of South East Asia.. At this point we will be within the triangle of China just to the North.. Myanmar ( Burma) to the northwest and Thailand South and West. Laos has the unfortunate tag of being the most bombed country in the world; Due to the United States Kissinger sponsered bombings on the communist insurgents over from Vietnam. Yet the peope make foundations for their housing, spoons, forks, trailers and equipment from these shells; should be beautiful to see. Really looking forward to some mountain air and spectacular scenary.

Considering extending my staying, in fact trying definately to change my flight if the airline will let me so i can travel for longer, up till the end of August. Will update soon

Get well soon Gran x

Sultanate of Malacca Malacca was founded by Parameswara, a Srivijayan prince who left Sumatra in 1396 in order to further his enmity with the Majapahit Empire. According to a popular legend, Parameswara was resting under a tree near a river while hunting, when one of his dogs cornered a mouse deer. In self-defence, the mouse deer pushed the dog into the river. Impressed by the courage of the deer, and taking it as a propitious omen of the weak overcoming the powerful, Parameswara decided on the spot to found an empire on the very place that he was sitting. He named it "Melaka" after the tree under which he had taken shelter.

Parameswara converted to Islam in 1414 and changed his name to "Sultan Iskandar Shah". What started as a fishing village then grew into the most important port in the region, attracting traders from Java, India, Arabia and China, and served as a stopping point for China-India trade during the two monsoon periods. Mass settlement of Chinese, mostly from the imperial and merchant fleet occurred during the reign of Parameswara, occurred in the vicinity of the Bukit China ("Chinese Hill") area, which had among the best Feng Shui (geomancy) in Malacca then. Sultan Iskandar Shah died in 1424, and was succeeded by his son, Sri Maharaja.

Unfortunately, the prosperity of Malacca attracted the invasion of the Siamese. Attempts in 1446 and 1456, however, were warded off by Tun Perak, the then Chief Minister. The development of relations between Malacca and China was at that time a strategic decision to ward off further Siamese attacks.

Because of its strategic location, Malacca was an important outpost for Zheng He's spectacular exploration fleet. To enhance relations, Hang Li Po, allegedly a princess of the Ming Emperor of China, arrived in Malacca, accompanied by 500 attendants, to marry Sultan Mansur Shah who reigned from 1456 until 1477. Her attendants married the locals and settled mostly in Bukit China.

A cultural result of the vibrant trade was the expansion of the Peranakan people, who spread to other major settlements in the region.

During its heyday Malacca was a powerful Sultanate which extended its rule over the southern Malay Peninsula and much of Sumatra. Its rise help to hold off the Thai's southwards encroachment and arguably hasten the decline of the rival Majapahit Empire of Java. Malacca was also central in the spread of Islam in the Malay Archipelago.

Malacca was conquered on August 24, 1511 by the Portuguese viceroy of India, Afonso de Albuquerque and it became a strategic base for Portuguese expansion in the East Indies. Sultan Mahmud Shah, the last Sultan of Malacca took refuge in the hinterland, and made intermittent raids both by land and sea, causing considerable hardship for the Portuguese. Finally in 1526, a large force of Portuguese ships, under the command of Pedro Mascarenhas, was sent to destroy Bentan, where Sultan Mahmud was based. Sultan Mahmud fled with his family across the Straits to Kampar in Sumatra, where he died two years later.

The Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier spent several months in Malacca in 1545, 1546 and 1549. In 1641 the Dutch defeated the Portuguese to capture Malacca with the help of the Sultan of Johore.

The Dutch ruled Malacca from 1641 to 1795 but they were not interested in developing it as a trading centre, placing greater importance to Batavia (Jakarta) in Indonesia as their administrative centre.

Malacca was ceded to the British in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 in exchange for Bencoolen on Sumatra. From 1826 to 1946 Malacca was governed, first by the British East India Company and then as a Crown Colony. It formed part of the Straits Settlements, together with Singapore and Penang. After the dissolution of this crown colony, Malacca and Penang became part of the Malayan Union, which later became Malaysia.

So Cambodia hits the news before i arrive, with the death of Ta Mok also known as the Butcher.

military commander of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge movement, he was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people during the Pol Pot regime of the late 1970s.
Born in 1926, he was named Chhit Choen and trained as a Buddhist monk at Pali High School in Phnom Penh.

During the 1940s he was an active opponent of both French colonial rule and the Japanese occupation.

Joining the Cambodian Communist Party, he rose to become a member of its Central Committee, and commanded its forces in the south-west of Cambodia.

Under the alias Ta Mok - uncle Mok - he served as the Khmer Rouge's chief of staff, after having been a member of the Kymer Issarak movement, and lost part of a leg in combat in 1970.

During the Vietnam war, Cambodia's neutrality was fatally compromised. The Viet Cong used the country as a base from which to launch attacks into Vietnam.

And the United States began a secret bombing campaign in 1969, before briefly invading the country the following year.

Up to two million died in the 'killing fields'
By the mid-1970s, Cambodia was in civil war. The Khmer Rouge, which initially presented itself as a peace-loving and democratic organisation, finally took control of the country in 1975, renaming it Democratic Kampuchea.

With Pol Pot at its head, the five years of Khmer Rouge government saw up to two million people murdered.

In an ideologically-driven campaign against so-called "parasites" - intellectuals, city-dwellers and disabled people among them - mass genocide in "killing fields" became the order of the day.

Ta Mok, who became commander-in-chief of the army in 1977, was the driving force behind a number of purges. Massacres ascribed to him, including one of 30,000 people in the Angkor Chey district, earned Ta Mok the nickname 'Butcher'.

Late in 1978, Vietnam decided to act. Its forces invaded Cambodia, and the Khmer Rouge fled. Ta Mok went north, becoming supreme military commander of the remnant forces.

Ta Mok was captured in 1999
In 1997, following a split within the movement, Ta Mok became leader of one faction. He arrested Pol Pot, who was condemned to house arrest for life and who died in his custody in 1998.

After years of cat-and-mouse in the vast forests that separate Cambodia from Thailand, Ta Mok - the last major Khmer Rouge figure still at large - was finally arrested, inside Thai territory, on 6 March 1999.

Two days earlier, the United Nations had published a report which recommended the establishment of an International Criminal Court.

Transferred to Phnom Penh, Ta Mok was initially accused of membership of the now-banned Khmer Rouge before being charged with genocide and crimes against humanity.

If he had lived long enough, he would have been a key defendant in the trials of Khmer Rouge leaders, which are scheduled to begin in mid-2007.

Correspondents say his death deprives Cambodians of a chance to see justice done.

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

view all my photos!!! just click shackers just up on the right hand side of the website and you can enter my online world.. which will outlive us all in dedication to techo posterity...........