23 FEB Saturday - evening at Ringlet/Rainforest Inn

I chose the Rainforest Inn because its in a good position in the Cameron Highlands as we only have one night available in our itinerary - it isn't too far into the 'jungle' so only about 1 hour on winding/hairpin roads to reach it.    Also it was to give us an opportunity to learn a little about the culture and tastes of the  tribes of the Malaysian forests!

'Natives' here are known as 'Orang Asli' which is a collective term meaning original, aboriginal or first peoples in Malay.  Apparently there are some 18 ethnic groups totalling less than 150,000 who are widely regarded as being  peninsular Malaysia’s original inhabitants (pre-dating the arrival of Malays).   They were hunter gatherers and skilled with blow pipes with which they hunted monkeys and other small animals.

Our accommodation is basic but clean and spacious.  Its totally built from bamboo and raised on legs in traditional fashion.      The wall panels are sections of bamboo flattened out and joined together then coated with repellant to stop the insects destroying it.

Gee explained that there are 4 main reasons for building this style of house:

1. to prevent the place flooding in heavy rains
2. to allow snakes and other floor dwelling creatures to have uninterrupted routes along the ground.
3. to allow good ventilation and keep the place cool – lots of little gaps for airflow through the bamboo sections
4. to make the building light enough for easy transportation when the villagers needed to relocate due to depleted resources.

There is a mini waterfall in the grounds and the owners have added a series of bamboo water spouts so you can splash around and cool off in the clean water if you wish - we didn't, but we did watch other guests having a fun time.

We settled in quickly then were invited to  visit the 'cooking area' to see how the food for our 'native evening meal' was being prepared.   Basically soup and rice were to be cooked in bamboo and spicy coated chicken and fish and sweet potatoes slow cooked over BBQ hot ashes for 2 hours.

In the interim I dragged David out to walk to a local village – about 15 mins walk away.   There wasn't much to photograph along the way except these HUGE spiders who had built webs high up between shrubs/trees …  (David reckons they're 6" to end of legs)

We didn't go right into the village as didn't want to intrude.   We can hear bird calls and tropical sounds everywhere but haven't seen many birds.   We've had some black & white birds which look like small magpies but I haven't been able to photograph one.  We've also seen wagtails.   Apparently this isn't a good time of year for bird spotting.   We should be here when the fruit is ripe and there will be an abundance of feathered friends taking advantage then.  

We came back in time for dinner to be served at the table on our deck.    I don't eat much fish so David had mine but the chicken was fabulous. 

The rice was interesting.   In Southern India at a Homestay we visited twice the rice was cooked in bamboo but it was packed directly into the tube then steamed and it was pushed out as a sort of rice sausage but recognisable as loose cooked grains when on the plate.    Here the rice was folded into leaves before being packed into the bamboo, water added then heated over the coals for 2 hours.  It was compacted (and not very nice if truth be told).   Its cooked that way for a purpose.   In bygone days the Orang asli didn't have crockery so they simply unfolded the leaf parcels and, voila, instant plates.

They don't use banana leaves as these aren't strong enough to withstand the fire/heat for 2 hours – these are tougher leaves with a name something like Rentek  (I probably misheard the name as can't find it on Google).   This is what the leaves look like:

 The sweet potatoes were tiny – not much bigger than large anya potatoes and were lovely.  The braised leaves of the sweet potato plants were served as a side vegetable and tasted very much like spinach.      All in all, a lovely selection (although there were a couple of local veggies served which neither of us cared for).

We had a good night's sleep.   Basically we have two double mattresses side by side and an all encompassing mosquito net covering the lot – which made for interesting times when getting up for a bathroom visit in the night!

otherwise, all mod cons.   A shower room en suite, lots of hanging and shelf space and a wall mounted fan if needed, though it got quite cool overnight.