18th March - Cameron Highlands - 2XS in Rebak marina

Tuesday 18^th March

The hibiscus here are BIGGER and BETTER

It is lovely here in the Cameron Highlands.  Cool and damp…

I have so enjoyed having a blanket, and even a light doona on top of the blanket.

More beautiful Islamic calligraphy

Today was our day for going to the BOH Tea Plantation, which is, apparently, a wonderful experience.  But…we soon discovered that all of the plantations are TUTUP (closed) on Mondays.  Ah well never mind…we had a leisurely Tanah Rata day.

The main street of Tanah Rata is heaving with small shops, cafes, Indian restaurants and a large number of young women and children. 

I think they are local indigenous people, just hanging out, having fun together.  Our taxi drier today, a most charming man, from Molucca, told Pete (I was chatting in the back with Nicole and Philip) that the aborigines here are being displaced from their homes – most of the Cameron Highlands used to be jungle, with little villages, houses made of bamboo.  Now it is all agricultural.  The villagers have been moved into houses made of bricks, mortar, steel, and this makes them very unhappy.  They believe in the spirits, have not been converted to Islam, Christianity, Buddhism.  When someone dies, they move on to another house, leaving their little bamboo dwelling to trot gracefully into the jungle. They can’t do this with solid brick houses… Ah, progress…

And we did get to another tea plantation a few kilometres down the road.  Pete was VERY keen to get a photo of me in what he considers to be a very strange outfit… I think it is very sensible – leggings are perfect for the cool weather, and as I am travelling very light, I couldn’t fit thick jeans into my tiny suitcase.

We met some very nice people, Philip (Austria) and Nicole (Chicago, but soon going to live in Poland – why not??)  Nicole had done the Overland Track in Tasmania in January and she said it was just marvelous.  And HOT, about 35 degrees.  I thought of my poor brother Chris, with my 16 year old niece Kate as his faithful companion, doing this walk a week or so earlier in blizzard conditions…

We took photos of each other, as you do.  Nicole has been working in Dalesford (Vic) as a horse trainer.  Philip is on his way back to Austria to start his PhD in Mechanical Engineering.  Such nice people, full of positive life force.  They are staying in ultrabudget accommodation…15 ringgits ($5) per night… Nicole said that when she got up from her mattress on the floor in her attic room in the middle of the night she stood up and clocked her head on the low rafters…

There are lots of plump, happy cats up here.  I am not sure if they belong to anyone in particular, but they are very confident and well-fed.  I loved this one, walking along to heel, just like a well-trained dog, at the Department of Agriculture where we went for a quick visit because Pete was trying to trace an old uni friend.  (It would have helped if he had ben able to remember this man’s name but…the officials in the Department were very kind and helpful, as far as they could be…

We have news of 2XS.  Our friends Janice and Mick, from SV Zoa, e now in Rebak, right behind 2Xs, and they have written to tell us (a) it is raining a lot and (b) there is an open hatch.  The open hatch is fine, it is the bathroom one and water doesn’t matter.  But I have written and asked them to break in and put a bucket on each of the main mattresses…just in case of leaks… They have already written back, saying they will check out everything and do as instructed.  Very nice, people, the Zoans!!