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PENANG & THE
CAMERON HIGHLANDS - 2007
December 5th,
6th and 7th 2007
Day 1
It was 3 o'clock in the morning when we all met up in front of the
English Program building at Kanlayanee School. Eyes half open, we
met our friends and as the time for our departure came ever closer
the sense of excitement increased. We registered, checked that we
had our passports and watched as the buses arrived. Soon we were
told to board our respective coaches, one for M201 and the other for
M202. Once we were seated, our coaches set off for Hadyai where we
would be transferring to 2 Malaysian coaches that were to be our
transport for our time in Malaysia. As we drove down the main north
/ south highway we all chatted together talking about what we would
be seeing and doing over the next few days.
After just over 2 hours we pulled into a service station on the
outskirts of Hadyai. Our coach stopped, we got off, collected our
bags and carried them across to our respective Malaysian coaches.
After a short while we were all settled onto the coaches and they
set off for the short drive to the border crossing at Dan Nok, just
south of Sadoa. Soon afterwards, at around 6am we arrived at the
Thai border crossing where we all got off and had our passports
checked by the Thai authorities. Once we had the 'exit' stamp in our
passports, we boarded the coaches again for the short drive to the
Malaysian border. Here we had to take our bags off the coach and
have them checked as our passports were stamped with an 'arrival'
stamp allowing us to enter Malaysia. Once all of our passports had
been stamped and our bags were put back onto the coaches, we started
the drive down to Penang.
The
roads, the cars, the scenery ... everything was different to
Thailand and as it was the first time that most of us had been
outside Thailand, it was all new to us so very interesting. The sun
was climbing into the sky and we looked around at all the new
things. Our teachers helped us to sing songs and to play games and
this passed the time quite quickly and soon we were crossing the
Penang Bridge, one of the longest in South East Asia and heading
into Georgetown, the capital city of Penang island. It was still
quite early in the morning so we did a little sightseeing. We first
visited the Kek Lok Si Temple, a famous Chinese temple in Penang.
This temple was built on a hill so we all had to walk up to it. The
walk was quite good because all the way up there are all kinds of
souvenier shops selling lots of interesting things. We walked around
the temple looking at all the old artwork and the turtles that live
there. Quite interesting. After we had finished looking around the
temple we went to Fort Cornwallis, a famous place of entry by the
British in years gone by. Here we walked around, played games and
took a lot of photos.
When we
finished here we went to the famous night market on Batu Ferrenghi
to shop for souveniers and look at some of the artwork on display
there. After we had walked around the market, we boarded our coach
again which took us to our hotel a few kilometres away. The Hydro
Majestic which was situated just across the road from the sea at
Batu Ferrenghi which was where we were staying. Some of the Thai
teachers and a group of students had not finished as they were
giving a Thai cultural performance that evening to some of the
Penang dignitaries and the Thai Consulate to commemorate the King of
Thailand's 80th birthday. The rest of us checked in, showered and
slept after quite a long day.
Day 2
 
The
telephones in our rooms all rang at 6 o'clock - our wake up calls
waking us up so that we could have our breakfasts before starting
another busy day. Today was going to be a very busy day as we had a
visit to the Royal Thai Consulate and we were going to the Cameron
Highlands, a region of Malaysia that is around 2000metres above sea
level. Anyway, after our breakfasts, we collected our bags, checked
out of the hotel and put our bags back onto our coaches. We were all
ready at 8 o'clock and we set for our first stop, the Royal Thai
Consulate. Here we met the Consulate and we had a meeting but we
were all very shy and even though we wanted to talk, we didn't.
We were given refreshments here and then boarded the coaches again
and headed off towards Ipoh, where we would be having our lunches.
We had fun and games on the bus and after a couple of hours our
coach pulled into the Fish Village restaurant where we had our
lunch. Stomachs full, we once again boarded our coaches and
continued on towards The Cameron Highlands. After a short while our
coach turned off the main highway onto a smaller road which started
climbing and twisting through the hills as we slowly worked our way
towards The Cameron Highlands.
Our first stop was a strawberry farm and the first thing we noticed
was how cold it was. We were now quite high up in the hills and the
temperature had dropped by quite a few degrees. Anyway, we walked
around the strawberry farm looking at how strawberries and other
plants are grown. After that, some of us sat down and ate strawberry
cake and other things that they had for sale there. Thomas ate
strawberry strudel (more later). A few souveniers were bought and
then we boarded the coaches again to continue the journey. By this
time it was raining and getting dark so we could not really see
much. We watched a movie on the coach and then we pulled into the
hotel we were to be staying at, The Heritage. Once again we
collected our bags and checked in. Before we could go to our rooms
we had our evening meal. It was quite nice. After our meals, we
collected our bags and went up to our rooms to shower.
Tonight
was our 'campfire night' so at 8:30 pm we all met up in the hotel's
ballroom. We were all in groups and each group had to put on a
presentation for all of the others to watch. The presentations
ranged from singing to getting members of the audience to
participate in different games. The evening was really good fun and
even our old teacher, Geordie joined in! When we had all shown our
presentations, we had some light refreshments before going up to our
rooms for the night ready for another long day in the morning.
Day
3
Our phones went off again at 6am as we were once again woken up so
that we could have breakfast before we set off on this the third day
of our camp. After we had all eaten, some of us went outside to join
in with the hotel's aerobics and what a great way to wake up it is
too! Others, not so energetic decided not to brave the cold and stay
indoors until it was time to board our coaches again. Today it was
still raining and still very cold, so cold that when we breathed you
could see the mist coming out of your mouths. Anyway, we were all
soon back on the coaches and we then set off. Our first stop of the
day was only a few kilometres away and it was a cactus farm. We all
walked around looking at all the different cactuses and taking
photos. We were there for 45 minutes after which we set off again
for our next stop, the morning market.
We love markets in Thailand so we all walked around buying different
things, things that you cannot get in Nakhonsithammarat, especially
strawberries! When we were 'shopped' out here we boarded the coach
and headed off to our next destination, the strawberry farm which we
had visited the previous day. Now, Thomas, our teacher had eaten
strawberry strudel the day before and he really liked it. In fact ,
he liked it so much that he started saying that we wouldn't have a
mid-term test and that we would all get Grade 4 if we all bought him
some strudel. He went on and on and on so to make him go quiet we
said that we would buy him some. Soon we pulled up into the coach
park of the strawberry farm and Thomas again asked if we would buy
him strudel We had said yes, so Thomas pointed the strudel out to us
and we bought it for him. (We would have bought it for him anyway!)
We had another look around the farm and then once again got back
onto the coaches and headed back towards Ipoh, where we were to have
our lunch.
After our lunch, we set off on the journey north and back towards
Thailand. Just before Butterworth we stopped and the students that
had previously performed in Penang got off the coaches and boarded a
minibus that was to take them back to Penang. The reason they were
going back to Penang was because they had another performance to
make as the Thai Consulate was leaving his position in Penang and
heading back to Thailand. The rest of us carried on and before long
we were back at the Thailand/Malaysia border post. We checked out of
Malaysia and then we went to the Duty Free shop to do some final
shopping before we went back into Thailand. Once in Thailand, we
changed coaches again just outside of Hadyai and continued back to
Kanlayanee on 2 Thai coaches. When we arrived back at Kanlayanee,
our parents and families were there waiting for us and we couldn't
wait to tell them about our time in Malaysia.
To read other
trip
reports, click HERE
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