Things are pretty much the same, and status quo is alright sometimes. I still love my apartment (I made a burnt eggplant and tahini salad Monday night and spiced lentils with cucumber yogurt tonight), still hate the town where I’m living (thank goodness for friends and Tuesday night badminton), still love travelling (off to Singapore this weekend, Indonesia next weekend, Hong Kong in March to see one of my best friends, hopefully Vietnam in February), and still miss home, family, and friends.
For once, however, school is going well! I have 14 students now, a proper class in comparison to 4. There’s so much more I can do! Unsurprisingly, teaching a real class of elementary students is a real challenge for me. I’ve never worked with students this young and I’ve never taught every subject. Classroom management is completely different, of course, and I feel like I’m constantly trying and scrapping ideas. If it’s anything like my first year teaching, give me 2 months and I’ll have it down without a problem. And there is no way anything can ever be as hard as that year; at its worst, teaching fifth grade can’t even come close. Right now, though, we’re very much in the push-and-resist phase. I think I’m winning. Since the administrators at school are fighting amongst themselves (on a hilarious email chain onto which the entire staff is copied!) we teachers have been left alone, which is how I like it. I have a lot of autonomy in my classroom and I really love that.
Talk at school has long been about plans for next year, and now next year is here. I’ve made my plans as best I can but they’re contingent on Mitch’s ongoing job search in Singapore. I finally understand why the people who teach overseas are either teaching couples or single; the job market for me is very different than it is for Mitch. Neither of us really understood what that meant. If we had to do it all over again, we would have done it differently. Now, we’re trying to pick up the pieces of all the determination we have left because we really do want this to work.
Now that I know more than I did 14 months ago when I took a job at a brand new international school halfway around the world and Mitch agreed to come with me, I can offer this advice: Listen. People around me who know the world better than I do made suggestions that I ignored or explained away. Fatal error. Listen, heed, and be patient.
With the aid of the trusty Lonely Planet guidebook that a friend left me when she fled to Australia and the sheer willpower of our dependable Kancil, known as Daisy, Mitch and I embarked on a road trip north to Ipoh and east to Cameron highlands.
Yes, we took this baby on a road trip up mountains. No, she did not survive the journey unscathed. More on that later.
For the geographically challenged, here’s a map of where we went:
It did not take 4 hours and 37 minutes. That is a lie. It took much, much longer.
If you’ve never travelled overland in Malaysia before, expect loads of traffic all the time for no apparent reason; lane closures that are unmarked until the moment the lane closes, leading to more traffic, speed limits of 110km/h that really mean cars are driving anywhere from 70-130km/h, and lots of trucks. As Mitch and I learned, stopping at a rest area is a bad idea. They are very crowded and there’s not nearly enough parking. I’m not sure if that’s because we were travelling over a holiday week/weekend, but that’s the experience we had. It honestly would have been faster to drive into a town to use the washroom and buy coffee, but we didn’t know that. So that slowed us down a little, too. Finally, if you’re driving in Malaysia, be aware of the demands you will put on your vehicle. Our Kancil has a 660 cc engine, which means it cannot go very fast. 90 is pushing it. 110 is nearly impossible. It also doesn’t accelerate, which is really scary when there are larger vehicles and motorcycles whizzing past in all directions at unthinkable speeds.. All that said, we got there and back in one piece. Well, Mitch and I did. Daisy needed a new battery after we left the lights on overnight. Oops.
Our trip started Saturday late morning and we planned to stop in Ipoh to wander around Old Town and grab some food. It took us a lot longer to get to Ipoh than we’d hoped or anticipated, but we did stop to wander, eat, and stretch our legs. Ipoh’s Old Town is a cluster of streets full of buildings with colonial-style architecture. There’s also a wonderful little hipster plaza where we saw three couples taking wedding pictures!
This is Ipoh’s Birch Memorial Clock Tower, dedicated to James WW Birch, its first British resident. There are figures painted on all four sides and we’re quite curious about who was rubbed out:
I really enjoyed wandering around the hipster corner, and not only because I got a real salad at a great restaurant! The shops were adorable and a few had Christmas displays and Christmas crafts for sale. The whole place was basically restored buildings built in, around, and incorporating trees. There was a public toilet behind the wall of books, which is a strange place for a toilet. We also got a kick out of the rather ancient Chubb safe.
Ipoh, like Penang, is filled with street art. At least one artist who colored George Town in Penang also had a hand in painting Ipoh. We didn’t see nearly as many murals as we did in Penang because we didn’t spend as much time there, but the ones we saw were charming and the art itself was really impressive.
We left Ipoh in the late afternoon and began the ascent to Cameron Highlands, which is about 5000m above sea level. Everyone told us to avoid the back route and avoid travelling in the dark. So what did we do? We took the back route and we arrived in the dark. It was honestly an accident. We were perhaps too reliant on our GPS and didn’t check the route map before following blindly. I was terrified and not driving; Mitch was very calm and driving, so that worked out. He got loads of practice shifting, too!
As we learned in the morning when we could see, Tanah Rata is an adorable little town full of steamboat restaurants (the local preference) and Indian restaurants (my preference). There were also a number of restaurants catering to Western tourists and even a well-hidden Starbucks which, I am proud to say, we only visited once.
Tanah Rata
We were surprised to see a convent on a hill overlooking the town, but it was actually a comforting sight. Three years at OLM has had quite the influence on my feelings towards religious houses!
Convent in Tanah Rata
There are dozens of little markets all over the place in the three main Cameron Highlands villages – Brinchang, Tanah Rata, and Ringlet – and along the roads connecting the villages.
Beautiful vegetables!I’m not sure where this fish comes from because there’s no ocean nearby, but it smelled VERY fresh
A note on the food for this trip: Indian food is my favorite food here in Malaysia because Indians understand what it means to be a vegetarian. Most of the tea in Malaysia comes from Cameron Highlands and most tea pickers are Indian, so Indian food was everywhere. We breakfasted each morning (and snacked once or twice) on some of our favorites: Masala tea, egg-cheese-onion roti with curry, and potato-vegetable thosai with dahl and curry. Delicious! I had vegetable curry twice for dinner because it’s just that good and we had amazing tom yam steamboat one night, too. The proprietor of this busy family restaurant clearly understood my dietary restrictions and assured me that there was no shrimp in the tom yam, but I’m still a bit skeptical. There’s shrimp paste in sambal, which is in just about everything spicy, so I’m willing to bet there’s at least a little in the tom yam. But darn was it good.
This sign was in front of the steamboat place where we had amazing food. The vegetables were kind of fresh, I guess . . .
The first morning that we spent walking around Tanah Rata was literally the only time it wasn’t pouring. November and December are the rainiest months in the Cameron Highlands, which also makes them the coldest. We were not at all prepared for temperatures in the 60s Fahrenheit, but we joked that it’s good practice for our upcoming trip to Spain. Nevertheless, we had come all that way to explore and that’s exactly what we did.
Strawberry farmIt was weird to see strawberries grown so “unnaturally” – where I come from, they grow on bushes in gardens and are often eats by birds. There’s also much smaller at home and that’s how you know they’re going to be tasty!
I think our best adventure was to the Boh Sungei Palas Tea Centre. Boh tea is really popular here (think: Lipton or Twinings) and Mitch and I learned that we didn’t know anything about tea production. And now we do thanks to a factory tour! For example, all tea comes from the same plant that is picked every three weeks. The type of tea (green, black, white, yellow, etc) produced depends on the fermentation and oxidation time and temperature. (Who even knew tea had to be fermented and oxidized?!)
Roller from 1935 used to crush tea leaves that is still in use at the Boh factory
If teas are flavored or herbal, that’s because of added or substituted natural products, like chamomile flowers or ginger.
The Boh plantation was astonishingly beautiful. Sadly, the pictures don’t even come close to capturing it.
We also made a very brief stop at a honey bee farm, mostly to sample honey sticks!
Like everywhere in Malaysia, religion is important. It is telling that we didn’t see a mosque in Tanah Rata. Instead, we visited Hindu and Buddhist temples.
We couldn’t go inside Sri Tehndayuthapany Swamy but we enjoyed the gorgeous outside.
We did venture into Sam Poh Temple, quite a popular and even busy sight.
As if one tea plantation weren’t enough, we had to visit the other one, too. Cameron Valley Tea Estates didn’t seem as large as Boh, but it was equally incredible.
The other popular thing to do in Cameron Highlands is hike, but we had no real rain gear and it didn’t stop raining. I’m willing to bet that a hike in these mountains is a beautiful and unforgettable experience. Personally, I’m really glad we made this trip because this is the most beautiful land I’ve seen in Malaysia and we learned a lot about tea. If you go, go when it’s a little warmer and a little drier!
There are 29 school days between now and Christmas break and all the expats are making travel plans. 29 school days is actually a lot, but if we talk about it often enough maybe it will feel closer. Some of my coworkers booked their flights home as soon as the calendar was finalized in September. Others, such as myself, waited.
Waited for what, you ask? Thanks for asking, but I’m not sure.
My original plan was to travel around Australia and New Zealand because I’m so much closer than I ever would be from just about anywhere else. A little bit of research about a month ago told me that the flights were way more expensive than I’d anticipated. Maybe that would not have been the case had I looked into it earlier, but I didn’t.
Then there was the plan of my parents and brother coming to visit me, but Mum wasn’t exactly keen. I have not provided her with a complimentary description of Malaysia, and while we would travel rather than stay in Seremban, of course, Malaysia is really far away from America’s East Coast. It’s just not worth a 10-day trip because at least 4 days are eaten up by travel.
My sister is working as an au pair in Spain until the end of June and Mum and Dad decided it would be much easier to visit Spain over Christmas. (And Mum likes creature comforts and hygiene more than anyone I’ve ever met, so she probably wouldn’t do terribly well in Malaysia.) The family Bri is working for has given her the whole school break off, too! It’s convenient that my siblings and I, currently in three different countries, have the same school break. After discussion and a look at flight options, I decided that Christmas in Spain was the way to go.
Last night I booked my flights so I’m officially going to Spain with my family for Christmas! I am so excited to see them and spend time with them, but also a little nervous. I think it’s going to be extremely difficult to say goodbye and come back to Seremban, especially considering I wouldn’t call myself happy here.
Ironically enough, I’d been talking about going to Australia for Christmas before I even arrived in Malaysia and it’s summer there now, as it is here all the time. What don’t I have with me? Winter clothes. Back home, three-quarters of my wardrobe was winter things and I have exactly zero of them. I don’t even have a pair of closed-toe shoes! Or a long-sleeved shirt! Everything I left at home is in boxes in Mum and Dad’s basement, so one day Mum and I will go through my things via FaceTime and she’ll pack a bag for me. I’ll do some quick shopping here to obtain warm things to get me through travel and one day because I land about 8 hours earlier than my family.
Never thought that lack of winter clothes would be a problem for this Montreal-born, upstate-New-York-raised girl. Goes to show you what I know! Note to self: Next trip around the world, squeeze in a pair of flats and a sweatshirt.
Photos, travels, musings, and ideas on education by someone trying to make the world a better and more peaceful place
By Rebecca Michelle 