DAY 1
0800-supposed gathering at Sentral, bus due to leave by around 0830 to 0900, which happened to leave at...
0930-bus finally got on its way. Slept most of the time, apart from the occasional jolting and scouring around for snacks, which i thankfully stocked up.. MMMmmmmmMMM smarties....
12++-reached the halfway point, at this waterfall which had a wierd name that i sadly forgot. Had nasi lemak there, and took some pictures. Climbed up a hell of alot of stairs, almost causing indigestion, and managed to be a sucessful haggler when i bought a wooden toy gun (managed to bring down the price from 10 to 8 ringgit.. Am i good or what? :P) All in all a nice stop, and had fun cam whoring there..
13++-the bus set foot again to meander further uphill, missing near accidents and close shaves. Almost fell off the steep ravines on the way up.
1430-reached some form of civilisation. What i meant was farms selling Strawberries and all sorts of fruits, and more strawberries- with ice cream, whipped cream, by itself, in yoghurt, in chocolate, with honey, blended into shakes, with biscuits, on wafer, on a salad, or even dried. (A particularly blur moment occured when i enquired with a little old lady selling fruits on whether the cherry tomato she was selling was actually a cherry or a tomato.. Poor lady. And in the end i didnt buy anything from her.:P). Also managed to get my friend who was doing attachment, to belanja me strawberries with yoghurt and honey which was simply exquisite!
1530-left the first of many strawberry farms to come, and carried on, encountering the first and last fast food stall to be seen, EVER. And it was a KFC for god's sake!!
1630-stopped at a MARDI (Malaysian Agricultural Research & Development Institute. Or at least thats what i think it is) research centre. Poor guy having to give informative walk through of the many plants cultivated at Cameron, while most of us, including and especially yours truly, was busy being a kid taking loads of pictures of myself posing with the landscape of which u shall lay your eyes on later on in this post..:) Of all the setbacks, this has got to be one of the redeeming factors of the cameron trip..
1730-left MARDI, and headed to our hotel, which was coincidentally owned by one of the peep's distant relatives who were tempting us to bludgeon them to death (reasons shall be discussed at the 1800 slot).
1745-turns out the bus couldn't go up the hill to the hotel with us in it coz there was a sign that didnt allow vehicles exceeding 6 tons to go up the hill (a point to ponder is that the bus's unladen weight is 10 to 11 tons, and surprisingly, it went up the fucking hill with no problems).. Back to the story, so we had to WALK UP THE BLOODY HILL WITH OUR BAGS!! THANK GOD I TRAVELLED LIGHT (which i shall regret at around 1830 to 1900).
1800-now, the snobbish accomodation owners fucked up our day. Here we are, all breathless climbing up the hill with our luggage, only to be told that we cant have the BBQ we were planning to make coz: a) the guys bungalow we were staying for the night is a strict no cooking area. b) there was a gazebo to have a BBQ with a conventional stove, only problem being OUR GRILL WAS A FUCKING ELECTRIC ONE. c) the kitchenettes for bungalows were FULLY BOOKED. And the only place that cooking can take place is at the service apartments where the girls were gonna be in. So much for BBQ. After being drenched by the rain on our parade, we headed to our respective places for some much needed R&R (and for most of the people, a much needed BATH).
1830-ok now we found out the bungalow was a farce. The bungalow was actually divided into EIGHT. our compartment consisted of a hall and 2 rooms. The plan was that the Malay guys and Indian guys were to share a unit (something about them shall be brought to light at around 0030). Another unit of the bungalow is shared by the Chinese guys and Indian girls, and the service apartment is cohabited by the Malay girls and the Chinese girls. The owners then came up to check on us, telling us that soaps and towels aren't provided (here is the reason why i regretted travelling light) and to not make noise after 11. And we thought Mahallahs were horrible.. We soon freshened up and left for the girls' apartment at...
2000-arrived at the girls' apartment only to find the food that was supposed to be completed was not. So we hung out and had fun chatting our tonsils off while our tummies started a choir till...
2110-Dinner is served.. Bon appetit.. The food cooked by the girls who were stuffed in the kitchen like sardines was amazing! splendid!! ate to our hearts content and hung out some more and chatted with each other until...
0000-everyone was full, woozy and a couple of kilos heavier. So the guys decided to head back. I was hoping to feel the cold, but in truth it wasn't as cold as i expected (probably coz i had extra layers of fat to protect me). The Malay guys, some with their girls, me alone with my 'imaginary girl', decided to hang out with them while the Indian guys went back first.
0030-i left the guys coz i was getting nauseous seeing their lovey dovey endeavours with their couples and since i wanted to give them space, headed back to the room. Upon reaching the room, i went in, only to be greeted by the sight of DRUNK INDIANS. ALL THE FUCKING INDIANS INCLUDING THE STUPID SUPERVISOR WERE DRUNK!!!! Was a hairy moment passing by them, and im glad to report i wasn't hurt. In the room i decided to bathe WITHOUT A HEATER, something i regretted. The blood rushed out of my poor hands at that time, and my heart was beating as if it was about to explode.. Lol..
DAY 2
0600-woke up, freshened up and bathed, this time with a heater.
0700-headed out to the girls apartment again and awaited breakfast before visiting all the farms. Indian guys were hung over and didnt come with us. Phew.
0900-aftr breakfast, we left to the first destination, BOH tea plantation!!
0930-reached the tea plantation, and was greeted by an obnoxious Indian BOH guide by the name of Parthi. Was gonna reshape his face actually, coz he was a cocksure son of a gun who was very rude to us. He even demeaned his own companies products, like the tea bags and flavoured tea! But the plantation itself was F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S.. The view was splendid, the food was nice, and so was the tea! The scenery though... Fantastic.. Again one more redeeming factor of the trip.
1100-left the tea plantation and headed to a bee farm. I managed to have a chat with the bus driver who was still remorseful after seeing me climb up the hill the day before (see 1745, Day 1) and so, i managed to make him feel even more guilty to the extent that he bought me a drink as a sign of apology.:P the farm itself was so boring we were there only till..
11.30-left the stupid bee farm and headed to *GASP* another strawberry farm... We were there for only 30 minutes, and majority of the journey involved walking quite a distance downhill to our bus. Interestingly on the journey down, we came across a medley of items and interesting consummables. Like a fried stall selling nice fried food like fresh potato chips on a long stick, footlong sausages and some nuggety stuff with cheese and mushrooms inside! and we could choose the flavour of our fried foodstuff too!! And oh.. many other crappy shops trying to cash in on the strawberry craze..
1300-we finally left that area, and headed off downhill. But before really setting off on our perilous journey downhill, we stopped by a flower shop. There, my friends and i tormented this small Chinese boy entrusted to run a flower shop. We asked so many questions till he was clearly flummoxed not knowing who and what to answer. Poor guy.. I managed to ask the driver to wait coz i wanted to take an a la Hindustani pose at the back of the shop where there was a rusty metal bridge overlooking a nice lake. Only after i boarded (much to the annoyance of everyone else who had already boarded the bus) did we REALLY make our way downhill.
13++-1800- the trip was so long, we all slept throughout the journey back and there wasnt much to report anyway from this point onwards. It was just that everyone dreaded heading back to civilisation and reality coz despite all the foibles, it was actually an awesome escape from the dreariness of our daily lives.
All in all i really felt it was money well spent. My only wish was that it could have been alot longer. Coz a day was surely not enough. But i did successfully return back to my childhood days, and it was something i cherish and shall treasure forever. Thats one thing i can really thank Cameron for. For giving me back my childhood, albeit for a brief moment. But just having a taste of how it was being a total child again was a really rewarding and gratifying feeling, especially bearing in mind that our childhood is slowly slipping away from our fingers as we slip further into the maw of adulthood and resonsibilities.
Lessons learnt that would be of use to others:
1)cameron highland ladies, especially the older ones, prefer to be called mak cik rather than kak. They dont buy our efforts of flattery and dismiss our haggling skills ab initio.:(
2)when going up, be sure to have your consumption of strawberries cut off, perhaps around 5 years beforehand, for i swear you will be sick of it when you are there. When you get down, like me, you will vow to knock out the teeth of people who ever utter the 'S' word to you, and you will not want strawberries for another couple of years to come....
3)wearing a furry cap with a tail at the back often gets you attention, and many smiles and friends, especially fellow cam whores.
4)if you have to ever share a room, never ever EVER share it with an Indian, let alone an Indian guy, unless he isnt a drinker, or is a Muslim.
5)never, ever EVER go to the place we stayed at. The name of the place is Arabella Hotel. It's atrocious, with rules set out even worse than a Mahallah. So if you wanna enjoy your trip, i would advise you to give that lousy excuse of a lodging spot a miss.
6)be sure to bring a camera, for Cameron shall bring out the cam whore in you!
7)never ever believe the hype that its cold up there. Sad truth is, IT'S NOT. (maybe im just speaking for myself, with my extra blubber) But i didn't think it was THAT cold...
8)now don't be trying to act all macho and shit, trying to bathe without a heater there, at night. Coz you will absolutely DIE of the cold, and it will suck the life out of you. But, if you still think you are more macho than me who tried and survived, then by all means, go ahead. But don't say i didnt warn you.:P
9)try to ask others to drive when going up or down, and never use your car, if you wanna prevent any potential fender benders, or its utter destruction. Well the destruction of any car would also mean your death. Urmm.. Just ask a competent driver to drive u up. NEVER GO THERE IF YOU STILL HAVE A 'P' PLATE, AND IF YOU JUST LEARNT DRIVING. You'll most probably end up in a ditch burning to death, that is, if the fall itself didn't kill you yet.
10)never trust good looking muscular guys. They are perverted and selfish, often exploiting girls who are dumb enough to fall for their rippling muscles. My trip to Cameron subjected me to witness such atrocities with my own eyes.. The HORROR!
Ok now thats all for part 1, part 2 will show the pictures that 'captured the moment' of Cameron highlands. So stay tuned! FB out..
EzzE
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