Ipoh, Kota Bharu & the Jungle Train

Any bus to or from the Cameron Highlands has to pass though Ipoh so as we both want the overnight bus to Kotah Baru we decide on an afternoon in Ipoh.

Its a pretty little town and we made our way round it within a couple of hours. There is the green in the middle where a cricket match was taking place, a crazy Victorian/Moorish style railway station now a hotel.


The most random thing was a clock tower monument to someone called James Birch, he was the first British Resident of Perak but was a bit unpopular and got himself murdered. The clock tower is quite pretty and has a frieze round it showing all the characters from world history who have contributed to the colonised world. As this is a Muslim country the figure of Mohammad has been painted out. This chap was so unpopular that the road the clock tower memorial stands one was renamed after one of his murderers!


so once we had seen all that we just so happened across an English style bar and spent the rest of the afternoon in there- Had a very nice steak and chips!! Am not impressed with the food here so far!

The journey to Kota Bharu was the coldest most uncomfortable journey ever. We arrived at about 5am and spent most of the morning catching up an sleep.

This is a good day to be in Kota Bharu there is a cultural festival- this town is billed as the most traditionally Malay in Malaysia!

There were displays of traditional music, dance and games. There was also a food festival just up the road- the festival of 100 rices!! The food here was really good, it was sort of like the good food show at the NEC in that restaurants, hotels and brands all had food to sample or buy. We had a job getting away from people who all wanted to give us food when we wanted to buy!

Every one wanted to chat it is a really friendly town. On the way back to the guest house one chap insisted on hugging the both of us. Felt quite guilty that we both immediately checked our bags!!!

The following morning Dana and i parted company she is off to the islands and i am having another day here (to do my washing- yay!) before getting the Jungle Train (ooh exciting)

Even though i told the guest house i would be needing to move to a single room rather than a twin i think they though i left when Dana did because they locked the room from the outside. I took me ten minutes of banging on the door before they let me out- i was dying for the loo!!

So i moved to a different room, threw my stuff in and set about using the washing facilities, that's 2 large buckets and a tap!

I had to be up for 5am the following morning for the Jungle Train, unfortunately i was not alone in my room last night, as i get to the train station i find my arms are covered in lots of little itchy bumps, apparently my back was too. Anywhere that had not been protected by my pajamas had been munched on.

I now know that the actually quite large, red (funny that) flat looking bugs that were climbing up the walls when i was leaving that morning were bed bugs. They do not live in the bed they live in cracks in the walls and skirting only making their way to the bed at night!! Nice!

So anyway it was still dark when i got on the train so i had a sleep till the sun came up. The idea of getting this 16 hr train journey to Kuala Lumpur is that it passes across the mountains, through jungle and villages. Well it certainly does that but most of the time the jungle has grown right up to the track so you cannot see much. I had approximately 2 1/2 hours of fantastic views.

There was a 2 hour wait for my connection at Gammas and i eventually arrived in Kuala Lumpur in time to go to bed!