Travel At Home 11

Welcome back to Travel At Home. Wherever you are in the world there are probably so many wonderful and fascinating things to see.  If you are anything like my family it becomes all too easy to ignore the sites close to home, falling prey to the belief that they will 'always be there'.  Familiarity breeds contempt and we hanker after the exotic.  But the truth is that what is home for one person is exotic to many others.  As an expat family we get to be at home in a wide range of different places and we try to make sure that we make the most of any place we are living right now, getting out and exploring as much as possible.  

Travel at Home is the linky for people who want to write about their home (or host) location and all the places that don't make it into a guide book (but really should).  You don't have to be an expat to participate, just someone with a passion for their local area.  The link will be open for a week so there is plenty of time to add your post (or posts).  If you notice that something does not work as it should or you think I could improve something please do let me know.

Last month we travelled to Africa and the Middle East.  My favourite post was Africa Expat Wives' Club post on her visit to Lamu .  It reminded me very much of the old town in Jeddah.

There are just a few rules:

• Share your post - it can be a new post or an old one you want to share with a new audience.
• You can write about anywhere you have a strong connection, home country, current host or former host.
• Add the link up button and code to your post so that people can navigate back easily
• Comment on some of the other posts on the link up (the more the merrier)
• Tweet/share your link.  If you include me (@ErsatzExpat) in your tweet I will retweet.
• Add your post to the Travel At Home Pinterest Board contact me via Pinterest and I will add you to the board.
• Spread the word - the more the merrier and everyone is welcome.

Monthly link ups will go in the main feed but will then be linked to a tab (see above) for reference.  Thank you in advance for linking up and I look forward to enjoying some vicarious visits in the next few days.

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An InLinkz Link-up

The Old Smokehouse, Malaysia

Yesterday my personal facebook feed brought up some memories on its ‘time hop’ feature.  I love seeing these memories.  These memories were even more special because this marked the anniversary of our penultimate day in Malaysia.  Today is exactly one year since we left our home in Ipoh and flew into another new expat adventure.

An English cottage in the heart of Malaysia

Malaysia was not the best posting we have ever had but we do retain a fondness for it, in the way expats often do for countries they have once had a very close connection to.  I had to go back a little while ago and that was a thoroughly bizarre experience.

The southern parts of the Cameron Highlands are more picturesque than the North

The period between getting the notification that you will definitely be leaving and actually sitting on the plane is hectic, this one particularly so as starting requirements for the new job gave us just a few weeks to pack up and leave.  However, once the hassle of packing was sorted, the children had spent their final days at school and Mr EE had handed over his work we had a few days to do as we wanted.  We became, for want of a better word, tourists in our own home and we went to as many of the places we had always wanted to see but never quite managed as we possibly could. 

The Old Smokehouse

One of the places we made a point to go and say goodbye to was the Cameron Highlands.  Ipoh is situated just to the North and we would often drive up for the day to have tea and buy fresh temperate vegetables and strawberries, an unbelievable luxury in the tropics.  A colleague had recommended a hotel called ‘The Old Smoke House’ in the southern part of the highlands but we had never had the time to visit, we were determined to see it before we left.

We drove south on the main Penang/KL motorway to the southern junction access point and then up the steep switchback roads to the Cameron Highlands proper.  This route, being closer to KL, is much more popular than the northern access road which we normally used and was jammed with a lot of coaches stopping off at scenic waterfalls and roadside stalls.  Once we reached the highlands tea fields were more in evidence in the south than the lines and lines of polytunnels that hug the hillsides in the north making for a more scenic drive.  It was not long until we saw the sign for the Old Smoke House.

It was a truly dislocating experience.  Designed like an old English Cottage, complete with lawn and flowerbeds and a red telephone box the hotel was a perfect simulacrum of an English pub.  It was too cold to eat on the terrace so we enjoyed a lovely if slightly pricey and stingey cream tea in the conservatory.  The bars and sitting rooms had been decorated for Christmas and we wandered through the public rooms soaking up the atmosphere.  Although we were flying back the next day it had been over 2 years since we were last in the UK and even longer since we had been in the UK for Christmas so Mr EE, the older children and I felt an unexpected burst of nostalgia.  Mini EE who at just over one year old did not remember the Christmas tree from the previous year, was entranced by the lights. The barman was amazed that we had driven up from Ipoh, it turned out his parents lived just down the road from us.

As the light faded we drove north through the larger settlements of the Camerons until we got to the area we knew well and then the long steep road down into Ipoh and home for one last night, last minute packing and the next step on our personal adventure.

For more posts on Malaysia please click on the photo below.

Posted as part of the Travel at Home Series