Mandy: Wednesday 7th August
Déjà vu
We bought some Tiger balm, before we left Brinchang to head back down to warmer climes. We had been warned that the route out of the highlands that we were taking would definitely make people sick. As we boarded the coach we noticed every seat had a sick bag! An hour into the journey the young children at the back of the coach became quiet and 10 minutes later the smell of sick drifted down to us. We smugly smeared the Tiger balm up our noses and sat there in our oasis of menthal and clove air! For all its exotic mystery and hype it basically has the same smell as the smelling salts Nan Permial used to use when she had a headache in the 60’s and 70’s. The little glass bottles (similar to the picture below) that had little white waxy beads inside with a little bit of cotton wool in the top. (smile) As a child it would knock you backwards if you had a sneaky sniff. (chuckle)
Once we had come down onto flat terrain, half way through our journey, I gave Glen a quick congratulatory kiss of relief that we had not veered off the side of the mountain roads into a tea plantation 300m below. As I did I noticed that he smelled of the old chewing gum called DENTYNE. The little chunky red strips in the age when all you could buy previously was wrigley’s long thin strips (green, white or yellow….spearmint, peppermint and juicy fruit) I think it must have been because of the cloves and cinnamon in both the Tiger balm and the Dentyne chewing gum maybe. Anyway I guess that is what it is like when old couples kiss, it smells of ointments and boiled sweets (smile)
We are heading back to Kuala Lumpur. We had a slight change of plan and we will now be staying around the Bukit Bintang area of KL for a week. We have a list of places to visit and will be going to the Indonesian consulate on Monday to get a 60 day visa. (Grin)