Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace
And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

In the countryside of Malaysia

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

I was delighted when my new friends, Val and Mark, from Melbourne, Australia, invited me to join their private tour to the Elephant Sanctuary.  It is officially called the National Elephant Conservation Centre; also known as Kuala Gandah Elephant Centre.  It is located in Lanchang, Pahang is about 200 km from KL.  I was excited since this was one to the things on my list to do while in KL.

A little information regarding the Centre:  The wildlife rangers at Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary capture elephants that raid village fields and move them to other areas to avoid conflicts.
The rangers deploy tame elephants, trained in Thailand and Myanmar, to the jungle to calm down wild elephants before trucking them out.
In the past 30 years, over 300 elephants have been relocated to safe havens.
The Asian elephant is endangered; roughly 1000 or so wild animals remain in Peninsula Malaysia. The sanctuary is run by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) and is the base for the Elephant Relocation Team.
Lowland rainforest is elephant habitat. But this jungle habitat is under pressure from expanding rubber and oil palm plantations and human settlements.
That means humans and wild animals clash sometimes. In the past wild elephants were poisoned and shot; now they are sent to protected areas like Taman Negara and forest reserves.
Conservation of these magnificent mammals is the primary function of the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary. Public awareness of the issues related to translocation and research help to educate everyone on the efforts to protect critical habitats for these endangered rainforest animals.

We met at their hotel lobby.  I was ready... armed with a new hat and tube of SPF50 sun screen.  This skin has not seen the sun this year, I was taking no chances!  I had not seen the complete itinerary, but I knew it would be good.  Our tour guide and driver arrived a little early so I paid my ringgits and now ready to go when Val and Mark arrived.  It was going to be a great day.

We stopped at a little village; I think the name of it was Kg. Jelam, but don’t quote me.  When I saw where we would be eating, well I must say, I was trying to figure out my plan B without offending anyone.  Then I figured I had to get over this food thing and just go with the flow… so I did!  I also figured if Val and Mark were game so should I… the next few pictures are me getting over the reluctance… 


Curry rice and beef with a rice pancake thing… then a very nice flat bread that is not in the picture.  This was good.


This is our guide, Roger, with his ‘famous’ 3 ingredient tea… it was really pretty good too.



This is main street...  and  across from our lunch spot… sorry I did not think to snap the… diner or not sure what to call it… not restaurant for sure.

This is a Palm Plantation...  we stopped to take a peak.  Palms were originally grown for their oil.  Now there is no part of the palm that is not used at some point in the process. 



Val, Mark, and I are standing in the grove of palm trees.  Here is what the bark and fruit look like.  The bit in the top left is the actually nut or seed where the oil is extracted from.  It would seem you would need a ton of these little seeds to make any significant amount of oil, which is used for cooking.

The bit in the top left is the actually nut or seed.  It would seem you would need a ton of these little seeds to make any significant amount of oil, which is used for cooking.



As you can see the countryside is very lush and beautiful.  The people here live very simple lives, everyone seems so happy.  Always eager to help and share information about their country.  It also makes one think about how blessed we are in the US.  There are nice houses dotted along the roads, but most are really nothing more than shacks on stilts.





This is an example of traditional Malay architecture of houses built for the upper class.  Pretty big difference in the living conditions.
Rubber is the 6th largest cash crop in Malaysia.  I was amazed at the process.  Below are some snaps…
This is the seed for a rubber tree plant.  I put the remote next to it for some perspective on the size.

First they cut the tree to drain the liquid out which is a watery latex material.

The raw liquid sets up before it is removed from the container. 


Once this liquid sets up, it is removed and is ready to be shipped to be used for all things made of rubber.


It also has a strong smell... basically it stinks!  When we walked up to the shed this latex was in, the smell overwhelms you…not pleasant for sure.
It is interesting the plants that grow along the roadside.  These are curry leaves right off the tree… clearly before they become curry powder.  Somewhere in the process it changes color... most curry I have seen is some shade of yellow, orange... or red. 

                           
The next interesting tree was the one that produces the Beetle Nut.  When they are ripe they fall from the tree… then just pick them up.  We were told the nut is cut in half and the nut in the middle is chewed.  Now… I do not know if this is true or not, but it is said that chewing this might have a drug like effect.  The fruit is dangling from beneath the cluster of frons. 


We finally arrived at our destination for the day… The Elephants!  We watched a short film about how the center was started and why, then on to the main attractions.  The baby elephants were so cute!




The babies got their baths a little differently from the adults.  They get hosed down in this enclosure.  They also got their fruit separately in this enclosure too.


This baby had been injured.  It has lost the whole bottom of its foot.  It seemed to get around fairly good.  From what we were told it was much much worse and they were not sure this baby would make it. 




The adults were happy to have a bath in the cool water of the river.  We were supposed to get to help with the baths, but the current in the river was too swift for it to be safe, so that part got cancelled for the tourist.



They were certainly ready for a snack of fresh fruit and a few peanuts.  It was pretty strange have that elephant take that banana out of my hand so close it its mouth.  But she was gentle.


Now they have had their baths and have food in their tummies, it is time for a short ride.  The center is very strict… only 150 tourists, only 2 ½ hours a day… that is the maximum number of tourists allowed around the elephants… period.  Once the time is up, the elephants are taken to another area and fed roughage then turned loose into a large compound for them to roam freely in the tropical forest. 
The ride was not as I had expected.  I thought it would be a bit like riding a horse bareback.  It was way different.  With each step you felt your center of balance shift from one side then the other.  I felt the whole time like I was sliding off.




One last picture with the baby.  It was just the cutiest.  Our guide was great.  He was camera man and pack mule... keeping  track of Val’s bag.  He was a good sport.
Our time at the reserve had drawn to a close and sadly it was time to leave.  Since we were a private tour, we were able to add stops to the day.  So next stop would be ‘Deerland’, a small zoo like park; it was right up the road from the center.  It was so close the a/c in the van had no time to give us a chance to cool down from the heat. 
The deer in the park were overly friendly and definitely wanted the raw potato I had for them.  It was not so bad when they were coming one at a time, but once they had all made their way to us, it was a bit crazy.


There were a variety of birds and animals living here.  Just a few snaps…  The peacock was fully spread and yelling.  The little birds would jump up and take grain out of your hands.  The python was almost more than I was willing to do… just not a snake person… at all!  And the Honey Bear was quite the camera hound.






After visiting all the enclosures in the park and sufficiently hot and now muddy, we loaded up for the drive back to KL.  We made a few stops along the way which, as it turned out, were well worth stopping for.   Our guide really wanted us to experience Malaysia.  We stopped to taste sugar cane water.  It was made right there in a shed on the side of the road from sugar canes grown locally. They run the canes through that machine to extract the juice.  It is then mixed with water and ice.  I did not care for it at all… it was sickly sweet and had a favor that was not to my taste… but I tried it!!




What they also had here… little watermelons.  We had our choice of both red and yellow meats.  We chose a yellow meat melon and dug in.  It was so refreshing and hit the spot on a hot afternoon.  We enjoyed every slice of it!!!


Now I am sticky... and muddy... AND hot!!  But never fear… there is always a water faucet close by!!  Add the fact I have been wearing a hat most of the day… well I made quite a fashion statement!


Next stop was a fruit stand on the side of the road.  I had heard Mark and Val talk about the stinky fruit.  It smells terrible but supposed to taste really nice.  It is Durian fruit.  The exotic durian is native to Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia. While there are 30 known species of Durio exist only nine of them have been identified as producing edible fruits. Durian tree starts bearing fruits after four or five years after plantation. The tree grows up to 50 meters in height depending on the species.  Mark is sampling the Durian.

I had bought some at the grocery store.  They were giving out samples and Michael liked it.  The first morning I sliced it into his fruit bowl.  A couple of days passed before I did it again… the second time around Michael was not liking it at all.  That was the last time I bought that.

What I did like that I sampled...  the Pulasan Fruit.  It has a very spiney outer shell, but inside is an oval white gel like flesh that is wonderful.  There is a seed in the center of that you have to eat around, but the fruit is really quite nice.




On the road again... heading back to KL.   Our guide is sharing information all along the way.  The government is building small houses for the local to move out of the shacks.  There is no welfare system in Malaysia.  Everyone must work to survive.  Every village has a mosque.  Every child gets an education.  Schools were everywhere.  Some fancy and new and others are as you see below.




We reached the small town where we had eaten lunch.  The guide wanted to know if we wanted to stop.  We were totally spent from the day and were not very enthusiastic about making yet another stop.  But he insisted… and I am so glad he did.  To the side of a parking area were a couple of vendors.  One was cooking Kepings… or at least I think that is what they were.  It was like a pancake/crepe like thing that is cooked in a small round cup.  As it cooked she added sugar and crushed peanuts... then a dab of butter.  It is crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.  These were so delicious.  The other vendor was selling deep chicken fried bananas or rather plantains.  It really did not taste much like a banana at all… more like a potato actually.  Sorry no picture.  It was yummy too



After we filled up on these nice little snacks, we are off again for KL.  It is still an hour more before we get back to the city.   Everyone was exhausted from a fun, really hot, very interesting day in the countryside outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 
We passed by the Batu Caves that Michael and I will be visiting on Saturday.  I am anxious to make the climb of the 272 steps to the entry of the caves.  More on that later.
It is almost 8:00pm when I arrived back at the hotel.  Michael had gone on to dinner without me.  I showered and was glad to lay down for a while.