Dusun

Dusun is about 10 mins up a steep tarmaced but potholed track. It looks out onto several sq. km. of forested hillsides and out over the flat land around Seremban. It's not really "jungle", being really just a penny packet that has survived because it's the water catchment area for the town below. Logging and plantations seem to have pretty comprehensively done for all the primary rain forest, at least on the west coast of Malaysia.

The main house and several smaller guest huts are built of hard wood on concrete pillars. This is obviously due to the steep slope but it's also a reference to the traditional architecture of Malay houses. Even on flat land, and regardless of whether they are shacks or villas, they are built on pillars about two meters high. No doubt it is a big help to keeping the air circulating, catching whatever breeze there is and maybe a deterrent to some of the local wildlife.

The guide books explain that wood construction means that there is virtually no surviving historical Malay architecture - termites, fire and climate-induced decay means that it is rather the stone- and brick-built Chinese and Indian temples that last.

Anyway, the first day was spent contemplating the view, reading and enjoying the pool. The slight altitude seemed to keep it a bit less muggy. It was great watching night fall from the balcony, seeing the fireflies come out and experimenting with different cocktails of mosquito repellent.

[Ian's travel tip for S.E. Asia: carry a coffee plunger and a supply of vacuum-sealed ground coffee. The alternative is ready made "3-in-1" whose principal attraction is a 20-min. sugar high.]

[Photos: the camera is working - at least on full-auto. I will try to upload the photos onto a web site and provide a link/password to each relevant slide show in the blog post. We'll also be posting a few directly onto the blog but that's a bit more arduous and Birgit is better at it than me. Any recommendations on which are the best sites to post photos?]