Continuing the mission to The Cameron Highlands various Lawrences plus Grandma Sausages had a great march the jungle yesterday, tramping up and down steep paths doing our best to be explorers. It is quite a domesticated jungle around Tanah Rata with ten different signed paths all interconnecting. Our party's chief mountain goat was Rupert, once again. He loves charging up and down the various paths ducking under fallen trees and making light of mud, muck and slime. All in all it was a grand day.
Because I had to return to KL today it was decided that Trixie should have a family tea out with as many of us as possible yesterday evening. Following some careful hints from me she wisely selected one of the many Nasi Kandar type restaurants, specializing in Malaysian and Indian dishes. Generally speaking Nasi Kandars in tourist areas will have a go at cooking anything or there is the option of having a scoop of whatever is available with rice or naan. Little Lawrences like the simple things in life with Edwin and Trixie munching on roti canai and Rupert going for dosais, flat and crispy rice flour pancake things. And so while adults were eating more exotic food Trixie enjoyed opening a present and card or two and generally acted as a tourist attraction to the staff and passers by in a way that only blonde seven year old girls can do in Malaysia.
After littler Lawrences had settled Grandma Sausages took on the baby sitting duties to allow Lexi and I to have a night, well, hour, out. We ended our hour with a very large hot chocolate from the Tanah Rata Starbucks. I know that that doesn't really feel right but Malaysia has embraced capitalism with open arms and so global brands have boomed. Admittedly Starbucks is the only chain store in Tanah Rata, banks excepted, but it was booming. But the question has to be asked, why? In terms of price and value it has no reason to be in existence in Tanah Rata, let alone anywhere else. Lexi and I paid RM48 for a hot chocolate and cake each, whereas earlier we had paid RM72 for all seven of us to eat exactly what we wanted at the Nasi Kandar. Starbucks regulars must need their heads examined. (For the purpose of this blog I was clearly only carrying out research, honest Guvn'r.). The least said about the RM59 bottle of wine that I bought from a corner shop (that for accuracy's sake was actually a terraced shop, but terraced shop doesn't really convey accurately what to sold) the better.
Anyway we sat down to enjoy our treats, but was it £9 worth of enjoyment?, after completing an important phone mission. Last week on Edwin and I's mission to Low Yat Plaza and Little India in KL I finally got round to going hi-tech on phones. I had always wanted to replace the iPhone that our burglar had removed from Chateau Lawrence in January 2012, but other things always seemed more important. However when a deal came along for two brand new iPhone 4's I decided that we couldn't really turn them down. At less the half the price of the iPhone 5 it all seemed to make sense. I went for it and bought one each. Marvellous. So far so good. Of course things in Malaysia have a habit of being either extremely difficult when they don't need to be or sometimes incredibly straightforward. Replacing a lost car park ticket becomes a quest, booking an airline ticket can take hours and transferring money to the UK only seems to work if you go into your bank and commit loads of time to the process. However it is when one is presented with contrasting information in the same shop by different people that matters really become frustrating. In KL I was told by someone from Maxis, our current pay-as-you-go phone people, that we could have contract packages on our new phones. Great. Naturally passports would be needed, is there any major or mundane purchase that one does not need a passport for? But also a RM1000 deposit each would be needed because we are not Malaysian citizens. What? Alternatively we could simply get replacement SIM cards for our new machines, up have them inserted and away we go, just as long as we paid the RM25 fee each and, you've guessed it, presented our passports. In Tanah Rata when I first asked about the simple SIM card change, RM25 option the first bloke I spoke to assured me that such a transaction was not possible. I persisted and said that surely it was simply a matter of switch a SIM? Bloke number two the chubby, geeky one with the unusual hairdo who operates several different devices at once, but does not appear to have the power of speech (every phone shop has one) grasped what we were after and took our old phones from us, removed the SIM cards, cut them down to size with scissors and a 'cutting SIM cards down to size machine,' pressed a few buttons and the new phones worked. No charge and no passports needed. (PS another phone shop bloke in KL, with an usual hairdo, did say that if we brought along a Malaysian friend the RM1000 deposit might be waived. Does the unusual hairdo add credence to his whisperings, I wonder?)
Only one cultural lesson learned on the coach journey back to KL this morning: just like in other parts of South East Asia a coach is, seemingly, never full, and following this rule a few extra people were shoved on to the maximum of 44 passengers coach. The extras sat on the steps by the door all the way. All the way except for a 50 metre stretch when setting off from the wee stop. For this brief section the extras had to 'move right down the bus please' (shouted in a seemingly angry Chinese dialect) as the driver made his innocent way past two police officers who were reclining under a gazebo. Rules have to be followed at all times, except when they are avoided.