Sunday, September 19, 2004

It has been a great weeks, first last Tuesday, the seventh September we went to the hinterland, in the heart of the Malaysian forest, that is said to be some one hundred and fifty million years old....It is the Malaysian National Park, locally know as the Taman Negara...It was in nineteen thirty nine that this part of the Malaysian forest was gazette by the then colonial government as the National Park ....Thanks to those people that at the time saw the need to save this great hinterland, a piece of the good earth that was never touch by the ice Age, thus all the floral fauna have been preserved for million of years...Going there is like going back in time...What a place to visit and enjoy the adventure of a life time....I have been there some forty years ago in my youth, at that time it took almost the whole days to get by road and by river upstream, on the great Pahang river, where there are many rapids that had to be cross to get to our destination....At that age of our youth it was always an adventure to ride on those slow boats and then when the boat encounter the rapids crossing and could not get through, we all had to get down into the river and help to push the boats across those fast flowing rapids....But then it was fun all the way.....It was then but now in our golden age,some forty years later..It is a different story all together....My wife had not been there, and want to make the trip but then she did not want to venture on by going by boat upstream,so the going had to be postponed many time....And then another couple, a close friends, says that they wanted to make the trip to the National Part and that we all should go together...He said that his friend had got there by road....What? I said...It is not possible....Well according to his friend it is now possible...The had made the trip by road...And tell the story of the holiday at this wonderland of Malaysia....In Malaysia the development are going on all the time and sometime if you do not follow the news, you are lost as to what happen...In this case a road had been built and I did not know it exist,....Well that is good news, for now my dear wife would be able to make the trip....So together with another couple we went on the trip by car.....I drove all the way from Kuala Lumpur taking the new Highway and while our friend who at that time live in Kuantan, left Kuantan for our rendezvous at the Temerloh toll plaza.....We left Kuala Lumpur at just past eight in the morning, the weather was fine but a little bit hazy, anyway it did not bother us since we are heading to the hinterland, where the atmosphere are different for the city, out there the weather would be just cool and the atmosphere clean of any man made pollution...The place we are heading is the National Park, a large stretch of land covered by dense jungle, with river flowing all along, the water fresh as the mountain dew.....We arrived at the rendezvous site at just past nine thirty in the morning and after paying the toll, I drove the car to a parking lot and wait for our friends to arrived....This toll plaza is new, one of it kind on this part of the country....It is an interchange to get out of the highway to the towns and villages nearby, for the highway do not pass through the town like the old road, it bypass all the major towns like all Highway do....I waited there and soon got into a chat with the security man, a local who must have just got a new job at this place..... Like any new development projects, it created jobs, now that the road is ready....Other jobs are available, like the security man I was talking to, there are jobs for those toll collectors and other odd jobs to keep the toll plaza a pleasant place to stop....With the Highway came the opportunity to do business for the local at the various roads R & R, where the wary drivers would stop for a rest for refreshment or to have lunch or dinner....It is now a sorts of a culture for all those that frequents the Highway to stop at the R & R from time to time, to take a rest, to fill the tank of their cars or to take their breakfast, lunch or dinner whenever the time they makes their stop, for on a long journey it is wise to stop from time to time, the least is to take a short rest before proceeding on....It would refreshed oneself up making the journey safer.... I always make such stop and it has became a ritual to me when I travel on the highway.....Since I love to drive....The Highway make its more fun and enjoyable to travel.......I continue to chats with the security man while I wait for my friends to arrived.....[to be continue]

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