Morning at Tapah

I normally can’t sleep on overnight buses, I would probably get only a few minutes worth of sleep before waking up again. Which is strange since I am supposedly a heavy sleeper. I guess it takes a while for sleep sink in, but when it does, it is hard to rouse me from it. The bus ride to Tapah was very smooth, unfortunately for me. Tapah wasn’t the last stop of the bus so I needed to pay attention or I would end up waking up in Ipoh instead. Fortunately for me, I didn’t get much sleep on that ride and I was awake when the bus finally got to Tapah. The roads signs were quite clear so I knew we were already there. The driver was shouting in Malay, but I heard Tapah so I groggily gathered my stuff and got off.

Then I realized, I knew nothing about the town of Tapah. The bus left me and a couple of passengers, who quickly went their own way, at the main road going through the town. I needed to take another bus to another town but I haven’t got the foggiest idea where the bus terminal is. The trip to Tapah took around seven hours to complete and it was still pitch dark. The streets of Tapah were eerily quiet, so there was no one to ask where the bus station was.

As I was walking along the main road trying to find out what to do. I stumbled onto a KFC branch which I distinctly remember in one of my research. I decided to turn at that road and kept walking. I saw a couple of old buses parked beside a building and it reminded me of some derelict bus station from the past. Even the buses were old. Then I realized that this was the bus station I was looking for. There were benches outside the terminal building and I decided it should be safe enough to sleep here since there weren’t any people in sight. Actually there was another guy in another bench but he was also asleep.

I got about half and hour of sleep before being woken up by the sound of people talking. I guess people are starting to wake up. The sleeping man in the other bench approached me and asked what I needed. He then informed me that the bus I need only starts at 8:30 in the morning so I needed to wait. He mumbled something about buying newspaper and going to the KFC to get a ride or something and it will be faster but I didn’t really understand him. I guess he was just trying to helpful. What I like about Malaysia is that most people can speak English so it very easy to get around here.

Morning came and a group of four Malaysian ladies who apparently were also backpacking came up. They were also going my way and they even invited me to join them for a cab since they also wanted to get there early. I was surprised that they would talk to a total stranger but they don’t seem to be bothered by it. Unfortunately, the taxi mafia price was expensive and it can only take in four passengers. Disappointed that we cannot leave yet, we all decided to wait for the bus. We had breakfast at a nearby Indian shop where I had some Roti Canai and some milo. Pretty common breakfast fare here as Tapah has a large Indian population.

Soon 8:30 came our bus came to life. It was a very run down bus, it was airconditioned and it moves so who cares? The fare is MYR 8 to the town of Tanah Rata. The Malaysian ladies were going to the town of Brinchang, so they need to get off Tanah Rata and transfer to another bus heading to Brinchang. Anyway, I was just glad that we were finally leaving. I worry about those things later.

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