Class trip to Cornwall

Class photo taken at Eden Poject

I was away at Cornwall for the whole week. It was a class trip. The purpose of the trip was to look at various sustainable practices in the UK - Wessex Water's carbon neutral building, the Eden Project, disused China Clay mine and heathland restoration project, urban regeneration in Cambourne, Pool and Redruth, and wind energy project in Bears Down. Therefore, it wasn't just Cornwall per se but several other places along the way.

Our first stop was at the Wessex Water, owned by Malaysia's YTL Group. Felt kinda proud as a Malaysian because it is not only owned by a Malaysian company but is also one of the most sustainable and well managed water utility company in the UK. The purpose of visiting the Wessex Water was to look at how little details in the building design could save energy consumption e.g sun and wind direction, rainwater harvesting and the absence of air-conditioning in the building.

Our next stop was Bath which is an old city in Wessex. The trip wasn't all about academic stuff. We stopped over in Bath to walk around and it was a great opportunity for foreign students like me to look at other cities in England. I can't always be knowing England by knowing Cambridge and London only.

Coming to Bath is like visiting an ancient Roman city. In fact, the highlight of this city was the Roman Bath. I thought I could get a short "onsen" in Bath but realised that it was only a tourist attraction. However, there really was a public bath which I didn't go because it was away from the city.

Roman Bath

L to R: Bettina, Don and me. Background overlooking the Cathedral.

The above two photos were taken at the Roman Bath. The paid admission into Roman Bath was also inclusive of a guided phone. It was really convenient, as it means that I could dictate where I want to go and when I want to do it without having a real guide around.

Next, we headed for Newquay, the place that we put up for 3 nights. Newquay is a beachside tourist resort in Cornwall, known for surfing. However, the water was just too cold for me to train up for triathlon, so I ended up playing football with the ESDers.

A trip to Cornwall isn't complete without trying their local pasty. In fact, Cornish pasties are everywhere in the UK but it's really hard to miss it especially in Cornwall.

I loved it. The nearest to describe Cornish pasty is the Malaysian curry puff with (almost) the size of an open palm (or four times the size of curry puff), stripped off the curry flavour. The content depends on what you order but I noticed the traditional filling was steak. There is also the common ones like pork and apple. History has it that the Cornish pasty was originally made as lunch for Cornish miners (mining was Cornwall's main industry in the early days) who were unable to return to the surface to eat. Covered in dirt from head to foot , they could only hold the pasty by the folded crust and eat the rest of it, discarding the dirty pastry.

My version of eating Cornish pasty; with tomato and mayonaisse; came out like eating hamburgers. The brown sauce turned out to be a disaster.

The highlight of the entire trip was the Eden Project. There are two biomes in Eden Project and one in the outdoor featuring temperate climate plants. The two biomes are Humid Tropics and Warm Temperate. It is the biggest greenhouse in the world and is high enough to hold the Tower of London or eleven double-decker buses piled on top of one another.

The Biomes are made up of hexagons of various sizes, the largest of which are approximately 9m across.
Below is the Humid Tropics Biome which features the tropical forest in countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and parts of Africa. I felt like I was back in Malaysia as soon as I stepped into the biome. I had to take off my sweater. The temperature was exactly like Malaysia, around 25 to 28 deg C, except that there was no wind.
Above: Malaysia House; a typical local village in the Malaysian forest

"Hari ini tanam padi, besok makan nasi"; what the heck was that??!! It sounded really stupid. Whoever wrote that should be shot!

Above: Tropical forest

Above: Tulips from the Warm Temperate Biome

We were also at the Imerys China Clay site to look at how heathland in old mines could be restored. I think it is a massive task to convert a few hundred acres of old mine into heathland. I still remember when I was in a 1200-acre housing project which took 10 years to develop. In addition, we also had the opportunity to look at how kaolin/China clay is processed from mining production to the finish product.
In the kaolin production facility
Finally we were at the Bears Down wind farm to look at renewable energy initiatives in the UK. Bears Down is the largest wind farm in Cornwall and supplies energy to 7500 homes with only 16 wind turbines.

The only time I look forward to in the trip; the evenings. Chilling out at the bar. Don't get me wrong, the bar culture in UK is what mamak is for Malaysians.