The great escape
I hate Chinese New Year. Everything in China stops for a week or two as everyone travels home to be with their family. It makes it a pretty lonely time to be a foreigner, knowing that everyone else is having a happy holiday while you can't even find a restaurant that's open. What's worse is that when 1.3 billion Chinese are on the move you're going to struggle like hell to get a train, plane or bus ticket to go travelling in China. And even if you do, your destination will likely be packed with local tourists processing behind flag waving tour guides anyway.So, once a year. I like to escape. 'Escape' not only the endless Chengdu winter but also to avoid the phenomenon of 'China Rage' which creeps up on even the most Sinophile of us. (I don't think I'll ever call China 'home'.)
This year I've come down to Malaysia thanks to Air Asia now offering budget, no frills flights out of Chengdu. But I've found that it's not quite so easy to escape Chinese New Year even this far away from the Middle Kingdom.
The Chinese are everywhere! Along with native Malays and Indians, they make up a substantial proportion of Malaysia's population. So this great escape has been played out to a soundtrack of "Sorry, we're fully booked because of Chinese New Year" or "Sorry prices have doubled because it's Chinese New Year" or simply "Are you kidding? Don't you know it's CNY?"The large Chinese population means there are plenty of great places to eat. In Chengdu, they believe Sichuan food in the best in the world (this, normally from someone who's never even travelled beyond Chengdu's third ring road). But I've had some great Cantonese cooking out here. And Malay food is good too, although it invariably involves a chicken. Whereas Sichuan food tries to blow your head off with spice, Malay spice is more gentle and varied. And, unlike Thai cooking, it's not full of bits of grass and leaves that you can't actually eat.
The first thing I ate in Kuala Lumpur was 'roti', a kind of chapati which you dip in spicy sauces for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I was in a cheap restaurant next to the hostel and the last of the season's monsoon storms beat warm rain down outside. The rain was a welcome break from the insufferable heat in KL. Airco, even in the cheapest of cheap budget hotel rooms is a must - along with a good mosquito-killing machine.
KL didn't impress me much. In fact, I was booked for two nights but forfeited the second night's money in order to get out quick. Sure, it's a clean, compact and modern city and it's bliss not having to listen to car horns bleating constantly like in China but, how can I put this?, it's boring.
The Petronas Towers are worth a visit, of course. It really is a great building and very beautiful up close. I also took it in through the grubby windows of the observation platform at the KL Tower which is substantially higher than the Petronas Towers' 'Sky Bridge'. Apart from the Towers, however, there's not much else to see across the city. Even the taped commentary they give you to listen to on headphones runs out of stuff to say after a couple of minutes.It doesn't help that - this being a Muslim country - there aren't many bars and the beer in the few is very expensive. Doh! Why didn't I think of that before I came? On the first evening, tired from the four and a half hour flight, I resorted to the ubiquitous Irish Bar full of desultory ex-pats drinking cheap lager at far from cheap prices. As with KL in general, it wasn't much fun.
The night train took me north. The 'Jungle Express' rocks and rumbles up through the spine of Malaysia, finally rolling up at my destination: Khota Baru, next to the Thai border. Then it was down to Kuala Besut to catch a boat to the paradise beaches - you know the kind - of the Perhentian Islands.If you're going to go, this is a pretty good time to do it, CNY or not. The hotel owners try it on a little bit but there's no getting away from the fact that this is off-season so prices are pretty good and the immaculate beaches virtually deserted.
The warm, clear blue waters are great for diving or snorkelling. I swam among shoals of brightly coloured little fish which literally bumped into my facemask so unafraid were they. I even swam with small sharks and alongside mighty turtles which drifted up from the sea floor, limbs outstretched like fabulous angels before they took a breath at the surface and then, indifferent to my lumbering presence behind, slid through the sea with no more effort than thinking a stray thought.Snorkelling should come with a health warning, however. I discovered that spending three and a half hours with your face down in the water results in one's back being roasted to a bloody red. This kind of curtailed any further sunbathing plans I might have had. Ho hum, I never learn. Maybe it's just an English thing, having so little experience of bright sunshine.
There are two principle Perhentian Islands, one named 'Big Island' and the other named - wait for it - 'Small Island'. The latter having a more lively reputation, Mr Stupid here chose the big island and, surprise surprise, once the sun went down it was pretty boring. I found myself making a treacherous journey across a rocky headland one evening to reach the only bar on the island as it was showing football: Spurs v Bolton. (See? I was desperate.) I totally misjudged how difficult it would be to clamber over the rocks and, with darkness falling and the tide rising, was forced to wade around the rocks to reach the bar where, it turned out, a family from Stockholm insisted on watching speed skating on TV all night. Jesus! And I thought I was bored before.
Planning to visit a place called Cherating next, I changed my mind on the speed boat back to the mainland when the guy driving it told me about the attractions of Langkawi Island over on the west side of the country. So, Plan Z... I got the overnight bus to Kuala Perlis and the first ferry to Langkawi in the morning which (didn't I mention it?) is - hooray! - a duty free island!
Given that my back was so bright you could probably spot it from the moon, I was forced to spend the next few days in the shade of the Babylon beachfront bar reading the short stories of Lu Xun, drinking the odd can of Tiger while the rest of the world played on the white sand and gentle blue waters out front. Never liked sunbathing anyway.
There was only one problem. It was just too bloody hot for someone from Leeds. I know I shouldn't complain but, knowing I'd be returning to the broiler of KL soon, I wanted the chance to cool down for a few days. The perfect spot was The Cameron Highlands back on the mainland, a so-called 'hill station' where Brits retreated from the tropical heat back in the day when we ruled the world.
Taking a ferry to Penang and then a bus on to the highlands, I've had a relaxing final few days here, hiking in the jungle and just chilling in the cooler, clearer air.It'll be back to KL tomorrow and, after that, on to Chengdu and back behind the great Firewall which means this will be the last chance I have to write a blog till the next time I leave China again. (So much for all the optimism before the Olympics that everything was going to change in the PRC.)
Hopefully when I get back to Chengdu the Spring Festival celebrations will all be a thing of the past and I can look back on another new year successfully negotiated. With any luck, I'll get to write again before New Year 2011 so please keep checking back.
If you're interested, there are a couple more photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39126&id=589175623&l=c75e11433b
posted by PatRawle at
4:22 pm
2 Comments
