Sorry readers but I have had a week off and have sort of got out of the habit of blogging. Never fear there is plenty to write about but due to it being late I will have to be short and sweet.
Last week Clan Lawrence spent four days and three nights chilling in The Cameron Highlands. Chilling was the appropriate word as temperatures plunged as low as 15 Celsius at night meaning that we all had to take to wearing jumpers or hoodies as the mood took us. We stayed in the very pleasant Father’s Guesthouse and had a day walking in the jungle, a day on an organized tour and plenty more chilling time. I’m not sure that I am very good at “chilling” as an activity though. I would rather be “getting on” instead and that is why our four-hour clamber through the jungle was really fun. Armed only with water, trainers and a packet of chocolate chip cookies we parked our Hyundai Tank next to a golf course and set off along one of the many way-marked routes in the jungle. They could never be classed as paths as they were far too up and down, as well as being rough and ready. But they were signed well and, led by a very keen Rupert, we tramped, clambered and, towards the end, trudged.
That same day we visited the first of two tea plantations where I drank my annual cup of tea. I don’t know what I had expected of tea plantations really but it was simply row upon row of hedges all waiting to be picked, dried, otherwise processed and eventually drunk. The tea itself still tasted pretty nasty, I blame Lexi for converting me into a non tea-drinker, but the view from the paths around the plantation were very pleasant.
Tea production is certainly a labour intensive business as we found out when we visited BOH tea’s main plantation the following day, this time on an organized tour. Tea buffs will doubtless know that the best stuff is saved for the loose leaf boxes and the dust is kept for the bags. While our guide was telling us this in the tea drying area we did see one guy sweeping up rather a lot of brown powder into a pile. The obvious question came to mind and I did look out for stacks of Asda own label tea-bag boxes lurking in the background but didn’t see any. Also as part of our organized tour we learnt some startling and eye-watering things about what WW2 soldiers did with bamboo shoots when dealing with captured prisoners and how shavings from bamboo could be put into drinks and do really horrible things to the drinkers. Please do not try either of these activities at home.
As always we ate well. Breakfasts of bread and spreads on one of the many balconies of the guest house made good starts to the day and we enjoyed a good combination of lemon chicken, beef and cashew nuts, omelette and vegetable curry in one of the many eateries near to the hotel.
My not getting-on time, as opposed to chilling, gave me time to reflect on the traveller in a techno world. Years ago when Lexi and I did La Grande Tour of South East Asia it was in a time before mobile devices. An i-pad then was simply something that a Yorkshire man used after a bruising encounter. However today’s economy conscious world traveller can not survive without their mobile device and so the guest house was liberally spattered with people in various states of repose all glued to tablets and pads feverishly telling everybody except those within ten feet of them all about their adventures. Now I don’t want to sound like an old git but back in 2000 guest houses were alive with the buzz of backpad-clad youngsters and backpad-clad oldsters all discussing the where, what, hows and wows of their’s and other people’s travels. In the dim and distant times of 1989 when I landed upon New Zealand youth hostels and the like were amazing places for all sorts of adventurous meetings, debates, discussions and what-have-you. Clearly technology has changed our interaction with the world enormously, evidence here, but the few conversations that I had with fellow human beings who were not part of the Lawrence Clan were quite rewarding and I would not want technology to get in the way of a good (breaks off to update facebook status) chat.
Back in KL I decided that it was high time we had some high time and so on Friday I set off with Little Lawrences to visit and go up The Petronas Towers. All was going very well, parked car, got on train, didn’t go anywhere near the women only carriage, got connecting train, arrived at PT, had Malaysian ID card ready to get reduced price etc and of course The Towers were closed. It was a public holiday. We will tackle those dratted Towers eventually.
We saw Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie” on Friday evening. It was a nice idea but why did there have to be an apple pie ending? I had hoped that Mr Burton could have held his nerve and done his best to avoid such things. I am looking forward to James Bond’s arrival in the tropics. Enough ramblings for the moment. More anon.