Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26772
Looks like you’re having great weather. My memory tells me that it rained pretty much every day in Malaysia, and you could set your watch by the daily thunderstorm at 4pm!
I remember taking a bus towards Singapore and it was such heavy rain that we got soaked in the bus through the leaky roof! Didn’t slow the driver down though. Scary ride 😧
30th Mar 2024 7:46 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 73075
It started early today, 2:17pm, only a couple of hours after that pic was taken. Luckily an hour after we got in. It’s raining at the mo but we’re not out and about. Soooooooooo glad we have somewhere with AC and a ceiling fan, it would be pretty grim without!
Re scary rides, we had similar in the bus from Kuala Lipis to Jerantut, then a blind taxi driver that seemed to feel his way up to Kuala Tahan. At least the train wasn’t scary!!
30th Mar 2024 8:47 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 73075
Pic catchup time.
Butterfly “Farm” in N Penang. If you wondered where the lizard in Death in Paradise went, he’s on his hollibobs here.
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Lots of butterflies.
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Some liked getting UC&P.
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Some of the old ferries that used to ply the crossing between Penang and Butterworth. Locals aren’t happy as the new ferries don’t take cars (they have to do a long trip round via the toll bridge) and the fares effectively trebled overnight. Still by our standards the crossing was cheap as chips, 33p each.
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A couple of nights followed in KL, we didn’t even leave the hotel as much planning and plotting (checking hotel prices and killing/rebooking for those that had fallen) was done for further in the stay. Plus figuring out how we were going to get around a big country further down the line.
Then the travelling to get here. We could have just gotten a transfer from KL to Kuala Tahan but where’s the fun in that? It was planes, trains and automobiles with a bus and small ferry boat thrown in. Train from KL to Kota Bharu, almost up the top right of MY. It’s the most predominantly Muslim state in MY, in the middle of Ramadan, and Thursday was a state religious holibob to-boot. Luckily we got a taxi from the airport to the hotel, unluckily the taxi driver managed to get us completely lost and eventually asked me to guide him using my map. Nice seeing all the back yards and farms in the area. Plus everything was closed, luckily apart from the seven eleven under the hotel. Starvation averted with chocolate biscuits, rolls and crisps. Room was OK, cheap at £20 (even if they and bookings.com did rip us off), but glad not staying too long.
Then trains. We expected old cronky trains like in Thailand and Vietnam but no, new fangled swanky trains that were streamlined!!
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Few pics from trains.
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Some of the stations challenge Waterloo in scope. Not! Dude on the right is bringing the driver the “key” that lets the train continue down the single track line. Very old-school but if it works that’s fine
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Getting to the next stop, Gua Musang, great views of the cliffs. Again everything closed for Ramadan. Luckily KFC opened in the late afternoon, pheeewwww. And another £20 room, again glad not staying long!
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There are quite a few of these big concrete boxes along the route. Luckily our confusion was limited as we’d come across them in Vietnam on a ferry trip from HCM to Vung Tau. They are birds (swifts) nest farms. Give them a nice home, mini bar and good wifi and they build their nests, not even objecting too much when you take them. Then they build another nest. All for soup.
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And that takes us to here. Bus from Kuala Lipis, full sized coach with only us on board, all for £1. Nice and cool inside as the bus had sat in the bus station for 2 hours with the AC on, with us sitting in the heat! Then blind taxi driver, finally walk down the hill to get the ferry over, the latter for 16p! Ferry looks like an old military ridged raider type boat, judging by the green and black paint.
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Sadly I wasn’t allowed to get in the luggage train thingy up to the hotel. And my baggage stayed on my back!
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And finally, view of river we’d just crossed. Not sure if I was taking the pic for the view or the rest. I suspect the latter!
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Will bung up some pics of our sweaty jungle adventures later, off out to get dinner. Luckily quite a few foreign tourists here so scoff is easily available!
tbc.
Last edited by DSL on 30th Mar 2024 3:13 pm. Edited 1 time in total
30th Mar 2024 9:44 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 73075
Pics update later but just back from night river wildlife trip and pretty good. Saw kingfishers, herons, bats (that may have been giant moths) and a couple of shoals of fishies. Oh, and a clouded leopard! Excellent end to a full on day. Officially knackered!
30th Mar 2024 3:07 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 73075
And this is the last night in the jungle, well for now and this part of MY. Really enjoyed the stay here, been busy, busy, busy - to the extent afternoon naps were compulsory!
First day, before we headed off on night boat trip, was a hike to the canopy walk way, much of said hike was up and down so pretty quickly we were both soaked to the skin.
Big buttress tree just as the start of the hike. Much freshness on show due to the flat terrain, ah the happy naivety!
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Temps were about 35c and humidity was very high. I’m tempted to say humidity was 100% but I think that might be an underestimate! It was pretty knackering for both of us but the view was deffo worth it.
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On the route.
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Luckily we had a pretty busy schedule so didn’t have to do it again!! Pheewwwww! The sight of the walkways going down was deffo better than going up!
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As above, great night river trip. Highlight was deffo seeing a clouded leopard (not snow leopard as Mrs DSL was calling it). No pics as it was too far away and didn’t like the attention. Deffo a highlight.
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Now around here there are plenty of warnings re the cheekie chappies in the trees, the long tailed macaques.
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Good lesson in monkey, see - monkey do take was a couple walking back from dinner, one of their 2 kids obviously didn’t appreciate the offerings from the buffet but was heading to his cabin with a reasonable sized bag of crisps. That was until one of the two macaques say him and became a snack seeking primate, dropped from the tree with much crashing a in a heartbeat said kid was no longer the proud owner of said crisps. Now nothing unusual so far, but the monkey then followed the family, scoped out which cabin they were staying in and chose that roof to climb up on and enjoy his crisps. I bet it was even his fave flavour!!
After seeing that, we didn’t carry stuff in hands, hat, water bottles, phones etc. Here’s one chappie checking out the waterproofs left out by our neighbours.
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Yesterday morning was a boat trip up into the park to some rapid and swimming pools. No swimming for me as I had a fresh cut on my knee, waaaaaaaaay too high a risk of infection!
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The great tree, and it was mahoooooooooooosive.
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A different big tree.
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And the rapids/pools. Lovely place to sit for a while.
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And on to last night’s walk to meet the nocturnal stuff. Lots of creepie crawlies including a whip snake, assorted spiders, stick insects, millipedes and centipedes, a large scorpion, and (my fave) a gliding lizard.
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Also we’d just missed a blue coral snake, not too worried re missing it as it is a big bit venomous. Deffo not one to be stepping on.
Today was a car trip to try and see rhinoceros hornbills, didn’t see any but saw assorted other birds, best of which was a hawk changeable eagle!! And no, that’s not a typo!
We did go to the local hide for an hour around sunset hoping to see tapirs in an opening but no joy, just lots of very loud jungle noises in very close proximity so bailed once it was fully dark, torches didn’t show any eyes watching us.
Nearest we’ve been to seeing a tapir.
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Oh, and another couple of beasties from our wanders earlier today. Second pic is a cicada, will bung up a vid for sound in a mo. They are piggin loud!
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1st Apr 2024 1:05 pm
Moo D3 Decade
Member Since: 13 Aug 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 14377
Cool trip
However, what really impresses me is your commitment to looking after Nige and I and the replenishment of the log pile....
Are you going to ship back in one piece or log it so it can dry and season on the way back? I'd prefer the latter.
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New Defender L663 110 SE (known as Noddy!)
Sold Volvo XC90 R-Design (known as Basil)
Sold - D4 HSE (Known as Gerty)
No longer the Old Buses original owner
231,000 miles and counting
05 S manual owned from March 2005
D4 Face lifted
Still original injectors and turbo
V8 Front brakes
BAS Remap, Allisport Intercooler and deCat
EGRs blanked
T-Max split charge
Hanibal Expeedition rack
Prospeed ladder
Duratrac tyres
IID BT
BAS FBH control
1st Apr 2024 1:20 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 73075
Deffo don’t think that would fit in my carry on allowance. Nige will just have to tough it out and stay cold.
By way of PS, cicadas in full voice. Locally called the fire alarm bugs!
Member Since: 31 Dec 2005
Location: South West
Posts: 23819
I’ve just binged this topic. Another fantastic adventure Del.
By the way, this was spotted near to your Scottish abode earlier today:
Probably not worth worrying about. 2006 D3 HSE (Original & still the best)-GONE
2010 D4 HSE (A bit bling)-GONE
2014 D4 HSE (Almost too bling)-GONE
2015 D4 HSE (A heated what?)-GONE
2016 D4 Landmark (Written Off)-GONE
2016 D4 Landmark (Surely the last!) PD1881 rims-GONE
2017 FFRR SDV8 Autobiography (now semi-retired)
1st Apr 2024 5:27 pm
Gareth Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26772
That’s a house alarm! Was that just one or a herd of them? What’s the collective noun for Chicada’s?
1st Apr 2024 5:28 pm
Moo D3 Decade
Member Since: 13 Aug 2010
Location: UK
Posts: 14377
A cacophony! New Defender L663 110 SE (known as Noddy!)
Sold Volvo XC90 R-Design (known as Basil)
Sold - D4 HSE (Known as Gerty)
No longer the Old Buses original owner
231,000 miles and counting
05 S manual owned from March 2005
D4 Face lifted
Still original injectors and turbo
V8 Front brakes
BAS Remap, Allisport Intercooler and deCat
EGRs blanked
T-Max split charge
Hanibal Expeedition rack
Prospeed ladder
Duratrac tyres
IID BT
BAS FBH control
1st Apr 2024 6:55 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 73075
And that was just one!! The jungle can be a pretty noisy place!!
Oh, and saw lots of tigers.
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Used all around the resort to keep the monkeys away. Not sure they are that gullible!
2nd Apr 2024 1:39 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 73075
Evening to all back home, and elsewhere, and greetings from the Cameron Heelands. Gorgeous view awaited us this morning, and it was positively fresh at 15c, deffo fleece weather!
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Never mind all the standard tourist sights (tea plantations, strawberries, orchid farms, honey, mossy forest and all the other tourist attractions), this place is FULL of LRs! Series ones, 110s of every shape and mod, some working for the farms, lots lurching around with tourists in the back and NONE looking rusty!
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This was the 110 SWMBO & I squeezed into the back (very back) of. It’s obviously having an identity crisis. The pink one above (pic with the flag) was the knackered old 110 that took us down to our hotel from the next town up, boy was that a rough ride.
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And in case the locals get out of line, there’s a couple of these handy!!
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Above are mostly tourist transport, plenty of working ones as well, both series and onwards. Hmmmmmm, they’d be worth a pretty penny relocated back home.
3rd Apr 2024 10:55 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 73075
And the tourist bits today, in between bouncing around in the 110.
The main raison d’etre for this place, tea. Good old brits set it up and it’s been producing the odd cuppa ever since.
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A Nepalese worker brought a bag like this up from where the peeps in the field are working in the above pics, carried on his back but the weight held by a strap around his forehead. These bags weigh a minimum of 45kgs, our guide reckoned that his bag was more like 50 - 60kgs. And they get paid 6p/kg. Seriously hard work for a cup of daisy lea!
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Pano view from the restaurant where we splashed out on the top level tea, which was very nice but to our poor tasting skills tasted just like ……….. tea!
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And to the Mossy Forest. A cloud forest up at 6,600ft and we were lucky to see the views just before the clouds came rolling in.
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Then back down the hill and our transfer to the Pink Panther and back to hotel.
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I’m deffo too old to be rattling around in the back of an old 110, there were a couple of VERY nice looking D1s, sadly they weren’t in our transport schedule.
And on to food. With all this tea there is a lot of Indian influences. Our guide was of Bengali origin, lots of workers in the tea and other agricultural industries are from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, etc, so needless to say their culture and cuisine has followed.
This was our main meal yesterday after bus ride from Taman Negara. And gorgeous it was too. Banana and mango (not together) lassis arrived too late to be photographed as we’d dived right in. Biggest meal of the trip, and totally deeeeeeeeeelish! But meant the walk up to the hotel was full of regret at having stuffed ourself totally!
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Today was a wander down to the food market. We were part way through wandering round when the heavens opened. Luckily we had brollies, retreated to a shelter, eventually ventured out (still pouring) to get a couple of murtabak. It was scaldingly hot! That, a mango juice and a shared packet of choc chip cookies was a feast for tonight as I think we were still stuffed from last night.
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Shame for the stall holders as trade dried up but once the rain stopped their punters flooded back. Sorry, couldn’t resist.
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Oh, and good news for the peeps of MY, we managed to get a full laundry load done. We’ll get the last bits and pieces done at the next hotel as they have 3 items per night included so we’ll be heading to pastures new on Monday with everything freshly laundered. Recycling may save the planet but it doesn’t make many friends on the KL metro!
3rd Apr 2024 11:43 am
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 73075
Morning all, and a booooootiful morning in Tahan Rata in the Cameron Highlands. It’s a nice fresh 17c so the sky is blue, the birds are tweeting and the fleece is on!!
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Few pics from the tourist sites. Apart from tourism, most of the industries here are agro based so tea, strawberries, plants, flowers, honey, cacti, etc. naturally they all have their own attractions to get peeps in to visit and spend.
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And the only short wheelbase LR seen here. Looks a bit sorry for itself.
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Final LR pic, honest. Must confess it was nice yesterday being in a Toyota minibus cf a 110, at least I could walk upright after getting out of it. This 110’s owner is obviously an Iron Man fan.
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Off in a bus from here to KL, it’s going to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride down.
5th Apr 2024 12:42 am
Gareth Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26772
Nice pictures 😎 That swb looks like it could be a good project.
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