20090501 Back to Dales
N4.04260 E103.39617 Lis Naa Ree beach resort
After a few days working, it was time for a ride out for this was the May Day Bank holiday long weekend so Mark k Paton and Roy and his wife, Souki (yet again another pretty young Asian lady) and myself met up early Friday morning. Our aim was to avoid the worse of the holiday traffic which would be heading to the East Coast like us. We stopped for breakfast at what looked like the main biker cafe. It was 100% full of bikers ramming Roti Chennai’s down their throats but it gave me an opportunity to see the bike scene. Most of the local bikers seeming to prefer tricked out low rider customs. making Vafa almost looked like a race sports bike in that crowd.
One of the local girls in her leather gear caught my attention but not because she was done up in sexy tight black leather but because she had the most bizarre complexion. Looking further I could see her ears where a regular bronze brown of a typical SE Asian female but her face was so plastered in whitening cream in a vain attempt to look white skinned that it made her look as if she would keel over and die.
By the time we were back on the road the holiday traffic had caught us up. When, with Abi, we had set off on our tour of Malaysia and Thailand we had also done this main East-West highway and it had been a delight as the tarmac carpet rolled up and over the hills running through spine of the country. This time the holiday traffic limited the fun and much of the time was spent waiting for the numerous lane hoggers to acknowledge my presence and move over. A driving licence in Malaysia only requiring a small bribe to the relevant officer.
It was great to meet up with Dale and his wife Sal at their Lis Naa Ree resort but as we sat around the table trying to work out our destination for the night it became plainly clear everywhere was full locally. Sal did some ringing around on our behalf and none of her fellow hotel owners could accommodate us. Then she rang a customer who had not yet turned up and by some miracle they had decided not to come and another couple had left a day early so there was "room at the inn".
So we relaxed, rode to a Chinese restaurant (as the Chinese have a dispensation allowing them to sell alcohol even though the state was officially dry), rode the back roads, swam in the sea at the resort before piling into Dale’s truck to go to a local pub for more food and alcohol - the other members of the party being insistent without alcohol the night was not the night. Never being a big drinker I much prefer to keep my money for motor biking so only joined them for the minimal but even that amounted to two Jack Danels and coke and one beer - probably the most I have ever drunk in one day.
20090502 Fraisers Hill
N3.71585 E101.73772 Silverpark Hotel, Fraisers Hill
This day we rode back towards the West coast spending the night at Fraisers Hill. Initially Scottish Louis James Fraser created the town in the 1890’s having found tin in the area, though later it was made into a pleasant hill resort during the colonial time due to its high elevation away from the heat with quaint English style pubs and shops.
It was a great ride up and using the camera mount Dave had lent me I was able to record a few videos but unfortunately my running commentary was lost. Shouting at the camera as I rode simply did not work with the camera’s microphone facing forward and the noise of the wind and motor drowning it out.
We taking a two room apartment at the Silverpark hotel, about the only place left with rooms. The room had a wonderful view but the hotel had a particularly poor and uninteresting restaurant as we found out that night, so could not really be recommended.
Mark and I explore some of the jungle paths. Though these jungle walks did have vines to swing through the forest like Tarzan the concrete steps and roped walk ways kept the going easy so we ended up doing 4 of the walks as each one was so simple and quick to complete even Roy and Soukie in her high heels joined us for one without major difficultly. It as a delight to see some new fauna and forna, a ant’s nest 3 metre up a tree being quite remarkable to me, but the wail of the local mosque at pray time finished of the illusion of being anyway remote.
20090503 Gambling den
After a quick noisey around a local waterfall we head back down the single track road from the top Fraiser’s Hill to the plains again. From the map I could see Genting’s Highlands, the only gambling resort in Malaysia, was close by. The others having been there knew it was nothing to write home about but I wanted to go see it so I could write home about it. So Mark and Roy ride onto to KL while I take another winding road up into the hills after we split at a small restaurant where from some unknown reason a local was making silver jewellery on a table at the front of the dining area.
The ride up the Genting’s Hill was fun on a wide, sometimes dual-carriage, smooth road. This had been privately funded by the resort probably indicating just how much money was involved. As I get close to the top the mountain and the clouds meet leaving me to fumble my way forward till I eventually round the last corner and a concrete small city painted in many colours appears along with numerous taxis dropping off what looked like a mainly Chinese crowd with just the odd Muslim scarf here and there.
There are about 10 or 11 hotels to choose from and the cheapest one appeals, obviously. This turns out to be the First Hotel which with 6118 rooms is the largest in the world. The foyer is like a modern busy airport check-in with people going here and there or alternatively standing in queues. That is all too much for me so rather than checking in I wander into one of the entertainment areas. It is like a mini amusement park jammed into a large shed. With the cloud blowing in through some of the exits for the amusement rides it is quite atmospheric, literally. But as I am carrying my helmet the security guards will not let me venture into the casino area. I can see a car to win perched just in front of the slot machines and above the entrance there is a sign saying no Muslims are allowed, given Malaysia is a Islamic state that is like having a pub in England and saying no white British males are allowed in as it rules out about the same quantity of the population.
Vafa and I are cutting through the mist heading back down the mountain moments later as I had seen enough in 50 minutes to get a feeling for the place. If you are a rich Chinese then probably a fun place to go otherwise it was just like Butlins at Skegness with a ferocious cold sea breeze blowing in. Within an hour I am back at Dave’s in KL.