I had decided that the best way to catch the jungle train in the day time was to use the local train from Gua Musang to Jerantut. So I arrived in Gua Musang by bus form Kota Bharu. I arrived a bit after midday. I wanted to get off the bus when we crossed the railway line, but the conductor indicated I should stay on the bus. Then we passed through the old town bus stop before continuing onto the new town bus stop. I by now had decided that this had been a mistake. I asked a few people and eventually confirmed that the train station was back the way I had come. The driver of the only taxi, did not understand word I said, so I walked the few km back into town.
I grabbed a hotel, one of the ones I had passed in the bus, quite expensive at 70 rm and then headed off in search of the railway station. After walking back past the old town bus terminal, and then another 1 km, I found the train station. with some help form the locals. I looked at the timetable. The train I wanted to catch left at 9:30 in the morning. I waited for a while for the ticket office to open. The office only opens about 30 minutes before a scheduled train. Luckily the return train was scheduled to arrive not long after I arrived at the station. So I purchased my ticket and waited for the train to take some photos. The train was over 45 minutes late. I was worried that if my train was that late if would muck up the fairly tight connections I was expecting the next day.
After sorting out the train I headed back into town. I bought a drink for 1rm. As I was walking back down one of the two main streets, I passed a police man sitting on his motorcycle in a lane way. He asked if I was here on business or a holiday and I sad, a holiday. He then asked where I was from, and I said Australia. I continued walking and had some dinner at a chicken place before heading back to the hotel. When I entered the chicken place, there were many older school girls as customers sitting around a large table they had made from smaller ones. They seemed very happy. A woman behind the serving counter, spoke on a mobile phone. She loudly complained, we think like that! The staff were very happy and smiles abounded. On the way I found a bicycle shop.
Back at the hotel I went for a walk of discovery around the complex. There were food shops, car maintenance places and a few offices. If I had not been feeling so frail I would probably have wandered further and taken some more pictures. The Chinese girls in a child care place smiled to me, as did the Malay girls at the food shop. At the top I dawdled a bit as I bought some things from their little shop. There was much hysteria when I picked the water bottle from the fridge that the girl on the couch was drinking. I thought it did not have much water in it, so I replaced it with a new one. When I went back to my room, a man rushed up the stairs and proclaimed to everyone in earshot, “he did not know!”. In my room I set up the computer and did my daily process of photos and backing up of my images. Unfortunately I unplugged the TV to get and extra power point. But the TV had a European plug and I could not get it back into the square Malaysia power point, so no TV for the evening. By now I had worked out that the switches with the red lights were for the major appliances. On ran the air-conditioner and the other the hot water heater for the shower.
A dream: A man says, where is he now? Another replies, Gua Musang. The first man says, We’d fix it if he’d stay still!
The next morning I checked out. The man at the desk was asleep so I just left the key on the counter like the others before me had and walked down to the station. At the station I had a coffee and bought some stuff to eat on the train. I did not eat anything as I was not 100% health wise. But I did finally see some people eating the famed blue rice. Though I could not work out which of the sets of brown paper packed breakfasts it came from. Each table had a couple of plastic containers of the food and I guess the locals just know (well perhaps they ask in Malay) what the packets contain.
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