Mal ein Wort zu den Schotten – wenn wir schon die ganze Zeit Diana Gabaldons Highland-Saga lesen! Es fällt einem naturgemäß sofort ins Auge (oder ins Ohr) wenn hier schottische Namen auftauchen.
Der erste ist natürlich Mr. Cameron höchstselbst. Hier eine kurze Geschichte der Highlands (wenn ich Zeit habe, übersetze ich es ins Deutsche):
Cameron Highlands was named after William Cameron, a British surveyor who stumbled across the plateau in 1885 during a mapping expedition. Failing to mark his discovery on the map, the location of the plateau was a finally confirmed by subsequents expeditions.
In 1925, Sir George Maxwell visited the highlands and decided to develop it as a hill station. A development committee was then formed which functioned until 1931. During this time, the winding road up to the highlands was constructed and this enormous task was done entirely by manual labour.
Once the road was constructed, wealthy residents and British government officials started building retreats on the slopes of the highlands. Later some settled here permanently and a business community developed. Farming was the main activity at that time. A permanent British army base was also established soon after that.
In 1929, John Archibald Russell, who was the son of a British administrative officer started a tea plantation which is now the famous Boh Tea Plantation. The highlands had developed successfully until the outbreak of World War II. After the war, the British returned to administer the highlands. Development continued even after the independance from the British in 1957.
Der nächste, der mir „begegnet“ ist, war ein McKenzie, und zwar bei BOH. Also daher weht der Wind. Diesen Werbeslogan mit dem UMMPH kann ja nur ein Schotte erfunden haben, oderrrr? Ich finde ihn grad leider nicht, aber im Museum auf der Sungai Palas Plantage, da war er.
Witzigerweise heisst der jetztige Chef von BOH Tristan Beauchamp Russell!
Es kommt noch besser, wir haben auch einen James Fraser zu bieten!
Fraser’s Hill is named after Louis James Fraser, a Scotsman who prospected for gold in Australia but eventually struck tin here instead in the 1890s. Employing Chinese miners to do the hard work for him and earning his keep by operating mule trains down the mountain, Fraser set up opium and gambling dens to increase his profits, which may have had something to do with his subsequent mysterious disappearance. The tin ran out in 1913, but the lush valley within was rediscovered as a colonial hill resort that, thanks to its 1524m elevation, enjoys considerably cooler temperatures than Kuala Lumpur. By 1922 a road had been cut through the mountains to the valley, which soon sprouted bungalows and even one of Malaya’s first golf courses.
Not much has changed since, and Fraser’s Hill retains a wonderfully weird mixed-up character, where locals eat curries off banana leaves in a English cottage next to a golf course while the call to prayer sounds from the mosque.
Soso, plötzlich verschwunden ist der Gute also? Man solllte mal hinfahren und gucken, obs dort einen Steinkreis gibt…
