Swindles In Malaysia (Part Three)

Arriving back in KL (a few hours late...thanks a lot, train) we seamlessly transferred to the Hertz rental car office, and that is where the easy transport for the day ended abruptly. After filling out paper work and getting the car all loaded up, we were just in time to hit extreme KL rush hour. Translation of extreme: it took us one hour to get approximately two city blocks from the Hertz place. Yuck. Then, as luck would have it, it happened to be the night before the spike in gas prices was going to take place, and so EVERY gas station we passed had lines out onto the highway, with at least 50 cars at each station. It was crazy, and took us until around 11 p.m. to reach Ipoh, our destination. We had originally hoped to arrive around 5. Needless to say, we were all exhausted by the time we got into town, and Dad deserves all the credit for being such a trooper through the crazy roads.

We woke up mostly recovered from our horrible traffic nightmare and began to get excited about our day in Ipoh. We had scheduled a guide to take us on an outdoor tour of the rain forest and other areas, and he showed up at 9 to begin our adventure.

After taking us by the old train station in Ipoh, our first real stop with Casey was an Indian restaurant to sample some local cuisine, which we loved. We especially loved the puffy bread (that's definitely not the correct name, but I forgot) and masala tea.





























Then Casey took us to a huge cave, only recently open as a tourist attraction, and we spent about an hour weaving our way through the darkness. (Oh yeah, and we paid a visit to the gift shop where Dad found a shirt he really connected with.)





































Then it was time to hit the rain forest, but on the way we stopped by a rubber tree plantation, which was so interesting! I never knew that rubber was created this way: essentially the rubber trees just bleed pure rubber. Farmers tap the trees for rubber like New Englanders do for maple syrup.















Continuing to the rain forest, we enjoyed the beautiful and unusual scenery along the way. Casey, by the way, turned out to not only be a great tour guide but a great guy all around. We loved our day spent with him and couldn't have asked for a better Ipoh friend. He was knowledgeable fun, and energetic, and Ipoh was one of our favorite Malaysia stops largely due to him. We spent the afternoon "jungle trekking" into the rain forest, eating a traditional Malay lunch, and swimming in a cool, refreshing waterfall. We even were able to observe the Orang Asli, a group of nomadic people who live in the rain forest and who, Casey told us, are thought to be the oldest pure race in the world.