Tapah is a small place. Very small. Not as small as Tanah Rata which is basically a one street town, but not far off with probably three or four main roads. Spending just a bit more than a day here without going stir crazy, and coping completely on my own for the first time since Hat Yai in October, was going to be a challenge.
Deera's godmother gave us a lift into town from the village so no bus conductors quizzing me on the British public transport network, and we got there about half 10. I went to the hotel I had scouted out the day I was passing through town. 30 ringgit (about 6 quid) for a private double room was well sweet, with the promise of free wifi in the room as well. I turned up at half 10 and the room wasn't ready so I went for a chai with Deera to pass the time. This was the second time in the same place, Restaurant Haji, and I sat at the same table and ordered a slight varient on my previous food with and egg roti. Exciting.
I put Deera on the bus about midday and went back to the hotel for some hardcore alone time. Don't get me wrong I love people, when they're interesting and don't resort to backpacker banter (I need to blog about this pet hate soon...), but getting proper alone time is pretty much impossible when you've been living in a dorm for four months. So I settled into my room, western toilet, my own plug socket, two pillows and everything, and couldn't get on the wifi! Because alone time equals naked time to me I couldn't be bothered getting dressed to moan about the wifi so I just watched Firefly on my computer between far too frequent dozing.
I did get dressed to go and buy phone credit and some water, not used to being in a very warm climate I'd forgotten to remind myslef to drink lots of water and was feeling dehydrated. I was the only white person in town, wandering around at eight at night, pretty much everything closed. The joys of small, non touristy towns! Phone credit bought it was back to bed for more alone time, I was texting a friend who was very confused as to why I was in such an arsehole of a town which amused me. That's how fun Tapah is, texting my friends in the Highlands is probably the highlight of my time there.
The next day, after leaving a suitable mess in the room, I checked out and went back to Restaurant Haji, same table, supping a chai, reading Catch 22 waiting for Bella to come down from the Highlands and continue my adventure with me...
No comments:
Post a Comment