...jungle drum!

..the last two days I spent in the middle of nowhere straight in the jungle and it was just awesome. Veronika, Zainab, Lucie, Sofia and me were at Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. We just had two days to discover everything but it was fulfilling at all. I loved it! We went there by bus and it took us about 9 hours but it was more fun than I thought it could be. The buses here are very comfortable and so even this 9 hours were fine with and I didn't recognize how fast the time flew :) We had dinner in little india and then we started our trip from beach road with the bus line konsortium – heading Tanah Rata – Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. At the pass control I was shivering because I was afraid hearing a „mam – you are not allowed to enter without visa“ hehe..but this time I double-checked everything so actually there was no need to bother at all :) Anyway...I tried hard to get some impressions from the bus drive..but despite all my effort I felt asleep and woke up only for the stops and finally at the border to Cameron Highlands.
So our final destination was Tanah Rata – a small town located in Cameron Highlands. Very quite, very small, and full of stuff which strawberry pics on them and full of banks + 1 Starbucks + 1 KFC! Against all idialism I had a coffee at starbucks..hehe I'm sorry guys but there is a lack of local good espresso – sooo hope ur sense of „political correctnes in case of enjoying asian stuff in asia can forgive me“! ;) Anyway...after arriving we headed right away our hostel called „Daniels Lodge“. Very nice place – but only for the few seconds u stand infront of it...once u get in and see your doss its totally disgusting :) Okey disgusting might be some kind of excessive but sleeping in a mixed „dirty“ dorm next to a 60-year old man who aspirates sounds all night long is not fun. This place was really messed up! But thanks got the people there were very nice. We met some very nice guys and had long chats with them soooo the time in this mixed sleeping area was very limited to the minimum :)))) One of the guys we met was from Myanmar. Very interesting background. He flew from Myanmar because of the strict military regime and he is some kind of a rebel in their view cuz he complains and critizes the regime! So he flew from his home, parents, friends five years ago. He left his education, his secured future and his quite comfortable life behind to end up in malaysia as an worker in a electricity company with no legal legitimation so no rights to claim good working conditions no right to claim for equal payment etc! He told me that he sometimes feel very angry about himself for the decision of making some choices whether being with or against the system he was used to live in. Mostly when it comes to the point of education. He almost had his degree before leaving..and now...he has nothing at all...somehow he doesn't exist for the legal world cuz he has no permissions to live in malaysia, work in malaysia or somewhere else. Getting the status of a refugee is quite hard job. He told me that it is frustrating to work side by side with people who have no education at all and being aware of your own skills but not being able to make use of them! So we have on the one side a man who would do everything for his studies – and I'm sure there are a lot of people which share his fate and on the other side we have US – those people who study without any borders and without struggles and who are used to complain all the time about how hard it is to study and all this blabla and main part searching for the easiest courses and easiest way to get to a degree. The fact that we have all this opportunities let us forget the reasonable use of this opportunities at all maybe. Sustainability is not only for the nature of proper importance – no - maybe we should learn how to study sustainable at all – how to get the maximum knowledge in a reasonable time and not the highest degree/grade in the shortest time which the tendency nowadays is. While we were planing our trips to I don't know where – he was just sitting there don't being able to say where he is going to end up. His way of life, his story and his perspektive for life is somehow a slap straigt into your face – especially if you are always surrounded by privileged exchange students who just struggle to find a common sense where to go next for travel.
Anyway...back to Cameron Highlands. Since we didn't had that much time we booked our first trip straight after arriving at the hostel. We chose the trip called „country side“ which includes a trip to the highest point of cameron highlands afterwards a trip to the tea plantage followed by a visit to a strawberry farm and butterfly house. Was quite nice. But after our second trip to the jungle..mainly redundant :) The climate in cameron highlands provide a good place for tea plantations. So all trips include also a trip to those. After a ride through the plantations they bring you to the Tea House BOH where you get a short guided tour in their old factory (which is now just set up for the turists) and then you can enjoy a cup of tea at the terrace of the tea house with a glorius view to the surrounded tea plantations.
Our second trip was a fullday trip (from 9am to 6 pm) to the jungle, tea plantation again and to the time tunel (history of cameron highlands, some pics of old times when british army was there, …).
The most impressive part was of course the jungle. We first visited a indigenous people in their jungle. Our instructor told us that the malay goverment offered many times to those people living in valeys of the jungle to settle down in the cities. Some of them accepted but after a short time they went back to their villages because they couldn't manage the noise and also the way of life there. He also told us that the indigenous people are not used to work all the time. They just work when money is needed...as soon as the requested amount is gained they skip working! We took some photos of children there. I'm not sure if it is very „ethic“ to take pics of children and stare at them like staring at monkeys. Actually thats their home and we go there and behave like we are in a zoo and take pics of them. But I couldn't stop it. I wanted to take this impressions with me and somehow transfer this to others and just keeping it in your mind and describing won't help even tough also pics don't tell you their story at all. After our visit in this village we got to our truck and tried to make our way to the biggest flower on earth – called RAFFLES FLOWER! It grows at the end of nowhere in the middle of the jungle – 2 hours walk up – and then 2 hours walk down :) Was fun at all. I enjoyed it! Seeing the mentioned flower was not spectacular for me..but the walk up/down and then the swim session in the waterfalls...just awesome! I could take this trip once a week :)))
So this was my first trip outside from Singapore...I suppose I'll go to Malaysia once or several times more to do more backbagtrips :) It is nice there and now I now a bit more what useful things u should take with you to make your trip easier :) I'm curious about Thailand - Phuket and Khoi Phi Phi – Im sure that its going to be fun at all – beach- sea – sun – people – lot of party hehe a great contrast to those days in cameron highlands :)))