Time Tunnel : A walk thru Malaysian past

I wanted to do this since last month but I am not known for my time management. The hospital I was born in, is still waiting for my blood sample and records. Being part of the Malaysian civil service, they seem to think I already submitted, so all's well. Anyway, I wanted to have a separate article just on this place that we went to in Cameron Highlands last year. It was a museum of things that you could find in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Meaning it contained things that I grew up with. It was very nostalgic for me and I hope it will give you the same nostalgia while giving our foreign friends a glimpse of Malaysian life, when things were so much more simpler.

The pic below is called "Tikam" which means "poke" or in this case "trying your luck". You buy a stuck piece of paper (stuck to that cardboard rectangle) for 5-10 cents and unfold it to show a number corresponding to a price on another cardboard. It was gambling for the young un.



Below is a poorly taken picture of a rusty iron pump. It is primarily used to pump kerosene into a bottle to be used in our stove or lamps. We used kerosene a lot and it was a chore my brother and I hated! Not only was it dangerous (like I said, times were simpler then, so who knew these were fire hazards), it STUNK!!



This was about the only bicycle you could get back in the 70s. This was before the emergence of the BMX, Chopper, etc. I think the most popular brand was 7-up Sport (can't remember why though) but we called it the Bengali's bike because we see a lot of the Bengali's riding it.



Here is a little treasure trove but check out the lamp used by miners on the top right which was used in a lot of households. Also the calendar which was hugely popular, where you tear out each day. Not very eco-friendly those days. The "A Go-Go" record on the top left also cracked me up!!



This is a cool drawer, filled with items that I could remember. My favourite of course, was the Nintendo "Game & Watch". This particular one is "Octopus". See how many you could remember.



We didn't have many electronics stuff back then and behind Melissa, is the weighing contraption that was used to weigh groceries. You put the groceries on the flatbed and the put weights on the dangling doohicky until it is balanced. Then you see how much it weighs by the amount of weights you have added.



Aaahhh....this is a magic contraption. You depress the long tail and death comes out of its nozzle. Below the nozzle is a round container which is where you put in the "death" solution. If you haven't guessed, its an insect spray.



Old light switches.



How many bottled drinks can you remember and also the coffee shops used to have these table settings. Far cry from Starbucks eh?





These were our comics. The Chinese flying heroes always had a dot on their forehead. Must have been Chindians!!



Mikey trying the old "aneh" barber chair and a dentist chair. Can't tell which is which so go figure.




Some cash denominations.



The evolution of the telephone. You should see the kids' faces when they saw our old black, heavy dial phones! ("How many ring tones does it have?", "Where's the camera?", "How the heck do you fit in into your pockets???").



You have got to have one of these at home. Everyone did!! Remember the jingle? "Singer! Menawan keluarga bahagia". "Singer, makes your home a happy home" or something to that effect.



This is our food cupboard or "meat-safe" or something like that. On top of it, is a contraption we used to shave coconut so that we get that scraps to make coconut milk or "santan".




This is the ever popular butterfly kerosene stove, also known as a extra large molotov cocktail!! The kerosene goes into that transparent thingy which flows into the wick in the middle of the stove, which was hugely popular. We used this during the Japanese occupation and in our war against the communist, where you can fling it into the middle of the army!! Ha!Ha! It's a bloody wonder, my brother and I didn't burn the house down, or our parents would have killed us.



Every house had a Fab washing powder and if you lived in a village like I did for a while, you will have that huge ceramic tub. It used to be as tall as I was.



That's Malaysia's most successful performer, P. Ramlee. Sadly, since his death in the 70s, no one has been able to take over.'



Every ladies' fav past time. "Setting" their hair at the hair salon. I used to follow my mom to these places and had a ball since they had comics and normally a junk food stall. Mikey says it's some alien brain washing thingamagic! And in some ways, he's right.



This is a usual scene of a grocery store. Check out that HUGE Ajinomoto container! Can you imagine the health inspector having a heart attack seeing such a huge blatant show of MSG-ness!



Common electrical appliances. The fan will cut off your fingers and the TV comes with a radio at the base. Sorry, no remote!




Cinema movie flyers.



Mortar used in the kitchen to grind chili, pound garlic, onion, etc. I used this a lot! Back in the days, men were a lot more faithful. These things will crack your head wide open!



Toys for the kids. Remember these? Though the car will be for the more affluent.





And as the pictures says it, this was a "Speshul" posting. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Make a trip if you can and re-live our childhood.

Tea, Tea everywhere

I spoke about my recent trip to Cameron Highlands and thoroughly enjoyed my stay there. I expected it to be warm and tons of development happening but found that it was cool and good balance of activities for the family. It was also important that we had good company and folks whom you can enjoy a trip with. My cousin KLY's family and my sister-in-law are such folks. Just a note, it you intend to go up Cameron, take the Simpang Pulai exit about 40km farther than Tapah. That route is wider and more comfortable (something like going up Genting) while Tapah is more narrow, windier and is much more prone to landslides. This posting, I wanted to elaborate more on 3 locations in Cameron that I enjoyed. This posting we will elaborate on Sg Palas Boh Tea Plantation.

The road into Sg Palas is very narrow and your first impression would have been, "Is there something at the end of the road or is it going to end down a ravine with tea tree spokes up your nostrils?!". When you are there, the view is gorgeous and they have a tea house which is built on a jutting out platform. Do take the tour as it is very informative. The food was very reasonable, the view excellent and the company delightful. I almost elected to stay there all day but they only had snacks so I had to go down for solid food.

Enjoy some of the pics.
Mikey at the car park.

Platform of the tea cafe.

Admiring the little ones with their queens as well as the view.

3 key ladies in my life. (R to L)My wife Melissa, sis-in-law Jessy, cousin-in-law Caryn.

A tea tree can grow this tall and is useful for 150 years.

Shovelling the tea to be packed after all the processing.

The family at the tea cafe.

All at the tea plantation,

Going down the path into the plantation.

Tea Plantation behind us now.

Land of Land Rovers, scones and tea!

Here is a trivia fact. Outside of a British Army Garrison, which place has the highest density of Land Rovers? This small little mountain top plateau has more than 2000 Land Rovers (albeit most of them are falling apart and spewing thick black carbon monoxide soot!) being used by folks who live here for their everyday life routine. I was there during the Chinese New Year Holidays with my cousin KLY, his family and my sister-in-law Jessy's family. Contrary to popular believe, this place is still cold (about 14-16 degrees is cold by Malaysian standards, development has slowed and they have build more farm for tourist to knock themselves out! I will come back to that later.

I am talking about Cameron Highlands. It is a very popular tourist spot for the British and the affluent folks during colonial times. Some of the hotels are still around and the most expensive is this place called "Ye Olde Smokehouse". Since it is built during colonial times, it has the colonial look which means stiff, old and haunted.

It is a great place for your photo ops but I can't feel comfortable there. It makes you feel that if you make too much noise or cut the scones the wrong way or even smell tea differently, a headmaster or mistress type of person will jump out of the woodwork and whisk you away to a place where they will force Victorian manners on you. And this person may already be dead, if you get what I mean!

Anyway, we had a great time! We stayed at the Equatorial Hotel which was on a peak so it was a colder there. If you take the road up from Simpang Pulai, you will hit Equatorial first without going through Ringlet, Tanah Rata and Berinchang. Also its a much more comfortable road to travel but it will set you back by about 40 minutes. Good price to pay for not throwing up at the end of the trip.

Some interesting observations:-
1) There are more farms or markets where you can basically get the same things which are vegetables, strawberries, honey and dried strawberries. Many are now using the "Pick Yourself" as a selling point. So let me get this straight, I pay for the produce but I pay extra because I pick it myself? Talk about fleecing city slickers!!!

2) While there were many, I strong recommend Kea Farms market which is walking distance from the hotel. It is large and looks more like a market.

3) There are some tea plantations and they sell lots of scones (English tea product) and cakes. And scones are over rated. You must check out Sg Palas Boh Tea Plantation and have tea there after a tour of the facilities. After Triankap, you will see a Cameron Valley tea plantation. That's not bad either.

4) Rose gardens are a big con. They charge you entrance fees for you to climb up heart stopping slopes to see some flowers and view of the Cameron Highlands valleys and farms (which you can see for free at all places in Cameron).

5) There are something like 6-7 curry houses along a single stretch of shop houses at Tanah Rata town. I am very baffled by this.

6) Berinchang has a good pasar malam on Fri and Sat but I would suggest we stick to the markets. Almost all restaurants offer steamboat.

7) Those of you born in the 70s and before MUST see the Time Tunnel museum. I will share more with you in later postings.

We stayed for 2 nights at the Equatorial at an apartment with 3 rooms. We were given a food voucher of RM250 a night. Whatever we didn't use, they gave us back 50% in cash. Personally I thought it was an excellent deal. I will share more photos and talk more about some interesting places in Cameron Highlands, the land of Land Rovers and Scones!