Last train to clarksville and jungle fever
So here was the plan after penang:
from KL, take a bus to Jerantut, stay one night and then go the next morning to Taman Negara ("National Park") and stay for 3 days or so, doing some trekking through the 130 million year old jungle, maybe staying overnight in a hide there and hanging with the monkeys and tapirs. then back to K-L before we fly out on Monday.
here was the plan after we got to jerantut and heard about how taman negara was way overcrowded and they built a resort INSIDE the national park and too many people have scared the animals away:
go to taman negara for one day to do the canopy walkway (in the treetops) and say we went there. go on a three-day-two-night trek with just us and a guide to a smaller much more better kept secret state park bordering taman negara from the guest house we stayed in. then back to k-l before we fly out on monday.
here was the plan after we went to taman negara, saw no monkeys or tapirs, were surprisingly unexcited about the canopy walkway (longest in the world - made from ladders and rope - very high off the ground), and came back to jerantut, where i had second thoughts about all the leeches and the jungle and nabia didn't feel so good:
ditch the jungle trek and take a 9 hour train ride (on the "jungle train") in the opposite direction from KL to get to the town of Kota bharu, which is one of only 3 towns to be more than 50% malay, devout muslim, and in one of the few states where people still practice some of the old arts of the culture, including kite making and top spinning.
here is the current status: we're here in kota bharu, very close to the thai border (so close, in fact, that it seems ridiculous we're not just going now, but we already have plane tix, we weren't going to southern thailand anyway, blah blah blah). We had felt kind of disillusioned and bored with the trip back in Jerantut, but i think i really like trains. yes, it was 10 hours (not 9, as it turned out). yes, i sat on my pack on the floor instead of in one of the seats (to be fair, that part was mostly my choice). yes, it was unbearably hot for most of the ride, especially when we were standing still. no, i don't know why the fans on the ceiling only got turned on 3 times for about 20 minutes each on the whole ride. yes, there was pollen blowing into my hair, mouth, and backpack. yes, i felt disGUSTingly dirty when we finally arrived. but i also felt newly interested. sitting there, with my arm out the dirty window, watching rural malaysia go by, stopping at places i couldn't see more than one corrugated tin roof sticking out of the dense jungle, riding with so many women with tudongs and children and bags and boxes of market purchases... was good.
on the ride, we befriended a malaysian girl - Ida ("eedah"). she was sitting across the aisle from us, and we both, separately, noticed that she was being bothered by an older indian man who i think really just wanted someone to talk to, but she was staring straight ahead and looking very uncomfortable. i made eye contact with her once or twice, letting her know i commiserated and saw what was happening. na made the move, though, asking her to come sit with us and help with something in our guidebook. she didn't speak much english (though we disovered later it was more than she initially let on), but with our newly purchased phrasebook, nabia made do pretty well, i must say. i could hardly hear, sitting a few feet away as i was, so i participated when possible, but mostly just sat back and watched them between gazes out the window. Over the next several hours, we learned a bunch of Malay, sounded like idiots as we repeated, in unison, "pokok. pokok. pokok calabah" (tree. tree. coconut tree.) to the amusement of several other people in the car. We showed some pictures of the family to Ida, pointing out "ima" (eemah - mother) and "aya" (eye-ah - father) and whatever the word is for brother (can't remember now). The photos got passed around the car a bit - to the boys sitting behind us that were half friendly but probably saying some not-so-nice things about us in malay, according to ida's facial expression, to another man that was just passing by... so family, you're famous now.
So the train ride was great and even though it rained all day today, even if it were to rain all day tomorrow (which i hope it doesn't), it would still have been worth the trip out of the way for the train ride. So here in Kota Bharu, it's ok that it rained today because everything is closed on Fridays anyway (it's the main muslim prayer day). Kids actually go to school from sunday to thursday in this state. friday and saturday are the weekends.
what we DID get to do today was go to the Central Market. It's supposedly the biggest market in malaysia and it was really great. looked just like the postcards. we started in the section that had all the little packets of rice and other goodies: woven in banana leaf bundles you can buy in sets of three of this one, 5 of that. we bought one set of each to try, having no idea what was really inside them until we got upstairs later and unravelled them. there was the vegetable section - tables stacked high, women sitting cross-legged in the middle of their displays. there was the raw fish and raw chicken section, which we avoided as much as possible due to avian flu and just plain grossness, but it was big and there were SO many fish. cuttlefish, squid, crabs... everything. there was the big fruit section - under a different little building, actually. we tried to buy a pomelo but ended up with a big grapefruit (delicious anyway). we bought some longan. we were given a taste of something - i'm not sure what - but one is definitely not supposed to eat it raw - after we each took a little bite, the woman who had handed it to us and her next stall neighbor were laughing. but other people were very nice as we practice our newly learned malay phrases and numbers. problem is: if you ask a question in malay, they might answer in malay, and you won't have any idea what they're saying. anyway. upstairs was the dried fish and other snack section, which smelled pretty bad to my nose but others didn't seem to mind. in another part of it (thank goodness) were some food stalls selling dishes made from the ingredients for sale. we had some blue rice with shredded coconut and chilis (nasi kerabu) along with the rest of our grapefruit. third floor was clothing and batiks and things of that nature. and, as the guide book mentioned, the best view of the vegetable market was from there - you could look down on the women in the middle of their wares, their tudongs and clothes brightly colored in clash and contrast with the earthy gem tones of the veggies, and the shoppers, distinguishable from the sellers only in that they were toting bags of already purchased goods.
we're staying at a guest house and there are a bunch of other travellers there and more communal area than there's been at the last few places. as such, we've already had some conversations with other people, which is nice to break the monotony of each other once in a while ;P. It's very basic accomodation, with mostly squat toilets (one is not), no a/c, and not much else included, but the staff is friendly and available, you can buy bottled water and toilet paper from the reception desk, there is a garden with tables in the back, complete with a couple of bunnies, and that's really all we need.
so i was feeling less good, and now i'm feeling good again, due to train ride, a mood-boosting email (you know who you are), and market food. tomorrow, cultural shows at the cultural center (hope they're not too kitchy), and then a night bus back to KL. one day and a half to see KL properly and then off to indonesia.
crazy, man, crazy.
interesting interactions:
>back in taman negara, the national park, we were sitting on a bench after having completed the Canopy Walkway, collecting ourselves for the journey back and talking with two Canadian girls we met, when a group of teenagers on what must have been a school trip came over and asked if they could take a picture with us. we said ok and what followed was a rotation through everybody's camera, with more people joining us as they came off the Walkway, jogging over to make it into the picture. they didn't ask our names or anything - just that we were foreigners. i wonder what they'll think or remember when they look back at those pictures later. interesting #1.
>today was a first of many. we were sitting on the steps of the basar (mall) and an adorable little girl in a tudong and everything walked over to us. we said "hello" as we tend to do, and she said "one dollar" and held out her hand. this was the first time we've been asked, and it will NOT be the last by any means, if what we hear about travel through southeast asia is true. but it was the first, which makes it significant. it was hard. but interesting. #2.
and that, as they say, is all for now.
love,
amy
email me
from KL, take a bus to Jerantut, stay one night and then go the next morning to Taman Negara ("National Park") and stay for 3 days or so, doing some trekking through the 130 million year old jungle, maybe staying overnight in a hide there and hanging with the monkeys and tapirs. then back to K-L before we fly out on Monday.
here was the plan after we got to jerantut and heard about how taman negara was way overcrowded and they built a resort INSIDE the national park and too many people have scared the animals away:
go to taman negara for one day to do the canopy walkway (in the treetops) and say we went there. go on a three-day-two-night trek with just us and a guide to a smaller much more better kept secret state park bordering taman negara from the guest house we stayed in. then back to k-l before we fly out on monday.
here was the plan after we went to taman negara, saw no monkeys or tapirs, were surprisingly unexcited about the canopy walkway (longest in the world - made from ladders and rope - very high off the ground), and came back to jerantut, where i had second thoughts about all the leeches and the jungle and nabia didn't feel so good:
ditch the jungle trek and take a 9 hour train ride (on the "jungle train") in the opposite direction from KL to get to the town of Kota bharu, which is one of only 3 towns to be more than 50% malay, devout muslim, and in one of the few states where people still practice some of the old arts of the culture, including kite making and top spinning.
here is the current status: we're here in kota bharu, very close to the thai border (so close, in fact, that it seems ridiculous we're not just going now, but we already have plane tix, we weren't going to southern thailand anyway, blah blah blah). We had felt kind of disillusioned and bored with the trip back in Jerantut, but i think i really like trains. yes, it was 10 hours (not 9, as it turned out). yes, i sat on my pack on the floor instead of in one of the seats (to be fair, that part was mostly my choice). yes, it was unbearably hot for most of the ride, especially when we were standing still. no, i don't know why the fans on the ceiling only got turned on 3 times for about 20 minutes each on the whole ride. yes, there was pollen blowing into my hair, mouth, and backpack. yes, i felt disGUSTingly dirty when we finally arrived. but i also felt newly interested. sitting there, with my arm out the dirty window, watching rural malaysia go by, stopping at places i couldn't see more than one corrugated tin roof sticking out of the dense jungle, riding with so many women with tudongs and children and bags and boxes of market purchases... was good.
on the ride, we befriended a malaysian girl - Ida ("eedah"). she was sitting across the aisle from us, and we both, separately, noticed that she was being bothered by an older indian man who i think really just wanted someone to talk to, but she was staring straight ahead and looking very uncomfortable. i made eye contact with her once or twice, letting her know i commiserated and saw what was happening. na made the move, though, asking her to come sit with us and help with something in our guidebook. she didn't speak much english (though we disovered later it was more than she initially let on), but with our newly purchased phrasebook, nabia made do pretty well, i must say. i could hardly hear, sitting a few feet away as i was, so i participated when possible, but mostly just sat back and watched them between gazes out the window. Over the next several hours, we learned a bunch of Malay, sounded like idiots as we repeated, in unison, "pokok. pokok. pokok calabah" (tree. tree. coconut tree.) to the amusement of several other people in the car. We showed some pictures of the family to Ida, pointing out "ima" (eemah - mother) and "aya" (eye-ah - father) and whatever the word is for brother (can't remember now). The photos got passed around the car a bit - to the boys sitting behind us that were half friendly but probably saying some not-so-nice things about us in malay, according to ida's facial expression, to another man that was just passing by... so family, you're famous now.
So the train ride was great and even though it rained all day today, even if it were to rain all day tomorrow (which i hope it doesn't), it would still have been worth the trip out of the way for the train ride. So here in Kota Bharu, it's ok that it rained today because everything is closed on Fridays anyway (it's the main muslim prayer day). Kids actually go to school from sunday to thursday in this state. friday and saturday are the weekends.
what we DID get to do today was go to the Central Market. It's supposedly the biggest market in malaysia and it was really great. looked just like the postcards. we started in the section that had all the little packets of rice and other goodies: woven in banana leaf bundles you can buy in sets of three of this one, 5 of that. we bought one set of each to try, having no idea what was really inside them until we got upstairs later and unravelled them. there was the vegetable section - tables stacked high, women sitting cross-legged in the middle of their displays. there was the raw fish and raw chicken section, which we avoided as much as possible due to avian flu and just plain grossness, but it was big and there were SO many fish. cuttlefish, squid, crabs... everything. there was the big fruit section - under a different little building, actually. we tried to buy a pomelo but ended up with a big grapefruit (delicious anyway). we bought some longan. we were given a taste of something - i'm not sure what - but one is definitely not supposed to eat it raw - after we each took a little bite, the woman who had handed it to us and her next stall neighbor were laughing. but other people were very nice as we practice our newly learned malay phrases and numbers. problem is: if you ask a question in malay, they might answer in malay, and you won't have any idea what they're saying. anyway. upstairs was the dried fish and other snack section, which smelled pretty bad to my nose but others didn't seem to mind. in another part of it (thank goodness) were some food stalls selling dishes made from the ingredients for sale. we had some blue rice with shredded coconut and chilis (nasi kerabu) along with the rest of our grapefruit. third floor was clothing and batiks and things of that nature. and, as the guide book mentioned, the best view of the vegetable market was from there - you could look down on the women in the middle of their wares, their tudongs and clothes brightly colored in clash and contrast with the earthy gem tones of the veggies, and the shoppers, distinguishable from the sellers only in that they were toting bags of already purchased goods.
we're staying at a guest house and there are a bunch of other travellers there and more communal area than there's been at the last few places. as such, we've already had some conversations with other people, which is nice to break the monotony of each other once in a while ;P. It's very basic accomodation, with mostly squat toilets (one is not), no a/c, and not much else included, but the staff is friendly and available, you can buy bottled water and toilet paper from the reception desk, there is a garden with tables in the back, complete with a couple of bunnies, and that's really all we need.
so i was feeling less good, and now i'm feeling good again, due to train ride, a mood-boosting email (you know who you are), and market food. tomorrow, cultural shows at the cultural center (hope they're not too kitchy), and then a night bus back to KL. one day and a half to see KL properly and then off to indonesia.
crazy, man, crazy.
interesting interactions:
>back in taman negara, the national park, we were sitting on a bench after having completed the Canopy Walkway, collecting ourselves for the journey back and talking with two Canadian girls we met, when a group of teenagers on what must have been a school trip came over and asked if they could take a picture with us. we said ok and what followed was a rotation through everybody's camera, with more people joining us as they came off the Walkway, jogging over to make it into the picture. they didn't ask our names or anything - just that we were foreigners. i wonder what they'll think or remember when they look back at those pictures later. interesting #1.
>today was a first of many. we were sitting on the steps of the basar (mall) and an adorable little girl in a tudong and everything walked over to us. we said "hello" as we tend to do, and she said "one dollar" and held out her hand. this was the first time we've been asked, and it will NOT be the last by any means, if what we hear about travel through southeast asia is true. but it was the first, which makes it significant. it was hard. but interesting. #2.
and that, as they say, is all for now.
love,
amy
email me
posted by theonetheycallamy at 3/25/2005 06:29:00 AM
2 Comments:
ok, where's everyone? I was trying not to be the first to comment, but it's taking too long.
The train ride and the guest house with other travelers sound like just what you guys needed.
Front page of the NYTimes Sunday travel section today is BALI. Sounds absolutely beautiful- maybe more touristy and hotel-y than you'd like in some areas, but it also described some more out-of-the-way places that you might love. I hope so.
You brought that huge market to life with your descriptions- fantastic stuff.
Enjoy KL and safe flight to Bali.
Love, mom
ok, where's everyone? I was trying not to be the first to comment, but it's taking too long.
The train ride and the guest house with other travelers sound like just what you guys needed.
Front page of the NYTimes Sunday travel section today is BALI. Sounds absolutely beautiful- maybe more touristy and hotel-y than you'd like in some areas, but it also described some more out-of-the-way places that you might love. I hope so.
You brought that huge market to life with your descriptions- fantastic stuff.
Enjoy KL and safe flight to Bali.
Love, mom
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