Around Town...
A leisurely day - haven't I said that before! 2 today's of hiking around in jungles avoiding snakes, scorpions and deadly spiders...ok a slight exaggeration, a few spiders then. The weather looks a little suspiciously like rain, so staying close to base might be a good idea anyway.
As usual breakfast South Indian style, a little spicy of course. Then let's take a look at this town, try to find some evidence of British occupation perhaps. Tenah Rata, a town without character for the most part. Huge concrete blocks line the main road. These complexes are comprised, shops, hotels and tour agencies, along with a host of restaurants. Set back off the main street is a line of properties, whitewashed with a mock Tudor effect fronted with tall pines. Quite picturesque but that's about as much character this town has. Guesthouses are tucked away down side roads with hotel complexes carved into the hills out of town. No sign of any historical British occupancy, although there is convent perched high one end of the town. It's has that Victorian or even Edwardian look about the place.
Recent expansion is evident as the hillsides are left somewhat devoid of vegetation, quite bare and sad to see. A side road leads upwards, past a collection of ramshackles and into a new, recently constructed area with nearby terraced fields in a forlorn state. Inbetween the old and the new, a little wildness on the fringes - wild strawberries infact, and a few bugs of course.
Looking down on a housing estate, again relatively new with accommodation blocks in the middle and detached houses around the edges. No sign of any vandalism or fly tipping!
Tour de Langkawi is staging through town as side roads are blocked off and about 50 police on motorbikes ride into town. It's the Malaysian version of the Tour de France I suppose, beamed live across the world vid the helicopter hovering overhead. Quite a crowd gathering for what is obviously a major sporting event. Cheering and clapping as about 100 cycle racers arrive looking exhausted having just negotiated the most challenging stage of the race. Furiously pedalling their way along the main street at high speed to the finish line, in the next town along - Brinchang.
4 major banks in the town including HSBC, offering a 3.9% interest on curremt accounts! My credit card issued by Halifax will only work with one back though - Maybank it's called, and can be found in most of South-East Asia.
and that's just about it. As mentioned, a characterless town, nothing to do here unless one likes to sip a Starbucks coffee for hours! It's entirely a tourist base for those of us with an appreciation for the outdoors - jungles, snakes and spiders. Big hotel complexes are out of the main town particularly towards the golf course, but of course these are marketed as resorts and as such command significantly more for the room. They seem to be the domain of Japanese and Taiwanese visitors in the main, with weekend occupancy by Malaysians escaping the lowlands heat.
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