~sHalLy~

Cameron Trip

2009-10-12T19:21:00.002+08:00

It took me more than a dagger to start updating my blog with this post by keep editing and loading, editing and loading...

Both of me and my bf's families went for a 3 days 2 nights Cameron Highland trip one week before Hari Raya. Me, my mom, my bf and both of his parent went up first then my dad, my brother and his gf, my aunt and her daughter as well as my grandma will join us a day later.

On the way up, we stopped by the water fall. Well it doesn't change much except there are more small stalls by the road side selling some snacks and souvenirs. I kinda like the way the wind blows on your face and the fresh air as Cameron Highland is covered by a lot of trees.

All of us...except my bf of course

After that, we went to the bee farm before we checking in to our room because it is too early. Actually nothing special as I found that the bee farm located in Malacca is way better than this. The only specialty of this farm is that they allowed you to pluck the strawberry you own with only RM35, but it was festive season and it is very crowded, all the strawberries have being plucked away by previous customers.

We went to the night market at Brinchang after checking in to our hotel...er...I would rather say it as a private apartment in Tanah Rata. There are a lot of food and stuff selling in the night market. We bought some fried mushrooms, fried potatoes, sweet corn, drinks and find ourselves a nice place to sit down and enjoy what we have bought. That was the most happy and fulfilled dinner I have had as we can seldom sit by at the side of the busy night market to enjoy dinner.

The next day, we wake up really early in the morning. We are going to visit my uncle's organic cum hydroponic farm while waiting for my dad and gangs to come. We went for breakfast at Brinchang before meeting up with my uncle.

So this is the so call transport that will fetch us going around the hills...oh and its 50 years old.

The Land Rover is the most-seen vehicles in Cameron Highland as most of the farmers use it to fetch vegetable and climb up the hill. Although my uncle's Land Rover is a bit "old" and "sick", it still works really fine, well except it is time to have a lil' clean up for those fungus at the back as shown in the photo below:

EWWW!

My way to prevent myself from getting sun-burn...*hot*

Look! That's what we have harvested...it looks like we are just back from pasar (market)

And my favourite strawberry too!

Actually those strawberry plants were planted by my cousin. I only take one so don't get mad at me alright? Haha. Then we went around and look for something to harvest and there is where we saw some cherry tomatoes in a very adorable size.

Only one for me? How cruel~

Oh there is more~~^ ^

Is all covered by plants...they really don't waste any piece of land

I don't know what it is call in English and I found it looks...funny, no?

It looks nice, it looks delicious, once you bite, you will die (because it is poisoned)

These flowers will be export to Japan...wooo...nice~

Me with the popcorn. I love popcorn =P

Our next plan is to visit the Boh Tea factory. The road to the factory is so damn narrow that it can barely fit two cars at the same time. I find it a bit dangerous as there are no dividers so if you are trying to avoid another car then your vehicle might fall down or roll down from the hill...but I think first of all you will kill all the tea plants if that have to be happen lar. XD

On our way up we saw one thing that make all of us really curios. We saw part of the tea house was like hanging in the air without any support at the bottom so we were wondering when it will collapse.

See? Not scary meh?

Fascinating

It is so windy that I couldn't resist to stop by awhile and let the wind blows ob my face

We rush back to our room to meet up with my dad and gangs once we get their call. They have bought some durians as well! After we have rest awhile, we bring those "new members" to the night market. I don't know whether they are bad luck or we are lucky, it started to rain like popcorn and jelly. Suddenly, the strawberry umbrella became the most sell-able item throughout the whole night market. We went to the shop lot nearby to wait for the rain to stop.

Well most of the stalls have closed after the rain. The adults went hunting for flowers, dried strawberries and vegetable while me and my dear went hunting for my strawberry campur chocolate. Haha. Well it's actually a strawberry dipping into chocolate sauce like the fondue that we are able to find in some of the shopping complexes. But here cheaper mar, so sure buy from here lar. After walking round and round, only one stall is selling it. So without any choices, my bf HAVE TO buy it for me or else I will merajuk like a small kid. I know...what a spoilt brat I am.

Then at night, we invited my uncle which we have visited his farm that morning to join us for the steamboat session, with the durian as side dish. All of us were really full until we can't really walk. While the adults were busy chit chatting, all of us which is "under age" gather around to play UNO cards.

The last day before we say goodbye to Cameron Highland, we went to visit Cactus Farm. It started to piss everyone off when the person who in-charge of the parking area keep scolding people as if he owned the whole place. I mean we are the customers, no matter how busy you are that day or how tired you are try to be polite with your customers then we will also tolerate with you. We know he did not want to block the traffic by shouting at us to move away but we were waiting for another car to reverse so that we can park in that space.

Haih...so off that topic shall I?

Somehow, the Cactus Farm really transformed a lot as it is more organise yet there are nothing much to see. Except, there are many flowers with cheap price but I wonder are they able to survive in hot weather.

Strawberry!!!

I love myself in this photo because it is very natural

The name of this cactus is Stylo Cactus because you can style it...nah~I made that up. Haha

Have you guys seen this flower before? So unique!

I love this...but I scare it won't survive when I bring it down

This plant has the same function as mosquito repellent

Luckily my dad is driving Nissan Frontier as we bought a lot of flowers and harvested a lot of vegetables. Then we went to my dad's farm which located at Tapah. Well actually my uncle and my dad are working partners so they owned several farms around Malaysia to plant organic and hydroponic vegetables and supply it locally and to Singapore.

There is this gigantic fish pond in the farm and my dad decided to catch a few and cook it for dinner.

This is the fish pond with thousand fishes inside

My dad is on show...haha

This is our hero watch dog...Tapah...he killed all the snakes that appeared in the farm

We have 4 fishes and a few more plates of vegetable as dinner. After the whole trip, I can't even feel myself anymore as I am really tired but I enjoy the whole trip as I learned that to operate a business is not easy. I started to appreciate more on my mom and dad sacrifices to both me and brother so that we can enjoy a more...erm...I wouldn't say more wealthy life but at least a more easier life. Thanks mom and dad, I love you!

In conclusion, I wish that everyone would started to plant something green in their house as now the earth is getting sick. I may not be able to do that 100 percent as well but at least give it a try.

2009-06-27T15:35:00.004+08:00

Learned that Michael Jackson has passed away on Thursday morning in LA hospital. Well, ever since this news spread, many people were discussing about this issue over the forums and blogs about the cause of his sudden death. Some people believed that he has been taking drugs, some even claimed that he committed suicide.

What in my mind is, give this poor man a break. When he is still alive he has so many cases that make him lost his image which cost him a lot and now when he died people still making comment on what caused him dead without any proven facts. I am not a fans of him but I feel that how pathetic human can be to make out something which is untrue.

Lastly, rest in peace MJ, you are still one of the best entertainer and those who loves you will remember you always. Love his songs by the way...

My KK Trip

2009-05-04T15:30:00.035+08:00

Went to the capital city of Sabah which is Kota Kinabalu on the 25th of April. It was a really great experience and trip for me, I really enjoyed it.

We stayed at Sutera Harbour on the first night. It has a really nice view and the sea water is so damn clear! You can even see life corals and fishes.

The view from our room

The next day, we rented a Proton Saga for RM80/day. Every company charge differently, so next time if anyone go there remember the rates for Proton Saga is only within RM80 till RM120. Any amount beyond just don't accept it.

So while we were still around the town, we went walking around all the shopping complexes, fish markets, souvenirs' streets etc. Then we came across this Hong Kong restaurant while we were looking for a nice place for dining. Coincidentally, it was my dad birthday and they give free drink for the birthday baby.

The big gigantic drink that you can rare a fish inside

After that, we went to 1Borneo to shop for some preparation for our mount climbing trip. It was so ridiculous that such a big shopping complex was having leakage of pipe everywhere. So we rush to grab whatever we want then go.

Then we keep asking people on places where to enjoy seafood. The city is so big you see, so it took us almost 3 hours to reach that place in one piece. The place calls Gayang, famous of seafood but not really as cheap as Sarawak.

My brother, my dear and I spent my dad the seafood dinner. Well, it did not course our wallet a hole anyway. But I must say it is delicious lar. Then we drive to Kundasang and look for our hotel that located on top of a mountain.

We took this at the chalet because our room can only see trees

The hotel is call K.K Heritage Spa & Resort. We stayed at suite which is kinda big but the facilities inside is a bit old but good view and windy indeed. They do not have air-con or fan but when the wind blows at night you can really freeze till death. Well, the people around there do not know about this hotel, but when you mention Perkasa then they will know where it is. Anyway, my recommendation is that if you guys really wana stay at this hotel, get a chalet room. It is new and has nicer view plus fresh, windy air.

We slept early and woke up freaking early the next morning. For your information, Sabah and Sarawak located so far from East Malaysia yet following East Malaysia's timing. Somehow, they are having sun set around 6 in the evening and sun rise at 5.30 in the morning. So by 10 at night it looks like it is already mid-night so you will eventually go to bed that early. Plus, there is no night entertainment at there. So, the next day by 6 in the morning it is like 10 in the morning. Unless you close all the curtain tightly, or else you can't really sleep.

Went to hot spring at Poring on the afternoon. Well, it was rather disappointing as it is built like a bath tab. Then the hot water flows damn slow that we have to keep waiting. So, it is better off that I install a big bath tab at my own house. If I go to my dear house, I can enjoy jacuzzi some more. But the hanging bridge is really fascinating, I mean...it is tall and all the trees are huge and tall. Even the bamboo is really big and tall!

See...the stupid bath tab

The hanging bridge

Can you see how big and tall the bamboo is?

Now, it is time for us to pack and prepare everything for the Kinabalu Mount climbing trip. We were terrified after looking at the map. The total journey is 8.72KM to the summit. There is station every 1KM for resting and there is washroom but kinda dirty. We will stop by for lunch at Layang-layang, which is 4KM away from the starting point. Then we will overnight at Laban Rata which is 6KM away. By the way, I wonder how they count the KM. At the starting point, we used 10 minutes to walk 1KM but in the end, we have to spend more than half an hour to climb 1KM. The map below shows you everything.

My brother reached Laban Rata first. He used only 4 hours to climb up because he did not stop by with me and my dear for lunch while me and my dear used 5 hours to reach Laban Rata. My parent arrive after around 15 minutes. When we thought it has come to an end, my brother told us that our hostel is still 100m away. Oh God you better shoot me now! So we have to climb again to reach our hostel then climb down again for dinner as the restaurant is located at Laban Rata.

Timbunan is our starting point

It was cold and windy

Me with my pass

See how difficult those road is...

Saw what that porter is carrying? Is a gas tong!!!

Finally we reached Laban Rata after 5 hours climbing

This is where we stay

Our room

All of us posing...in cold

We were standing above the cloud!

Sun set...nice?

We have to start climbing to the summit at 2.30 in the middle of night then have to reach the top before 5.55 to see the sun rise. We can barely sleep because it was hot when you wear all the long-john on you but when you take it off you feel cold. All the heated room has already fully booked so we have to bare with it no matter what.

Around 1 a.m., me, my dear and my brother sit at the living hall there to munch on some biscuits and chocolate. There are some other groups there also preparing for the climbing trip. So it is normal that they chat with each other but in a very low voice. There are this two stupid French guys that did not pay but stay at the hostel came out and scold people for making too much noise. They think they owned the whole place or something. Really damn irritating.

After our guide has arrive, we start our journey to the top. Oh...I forgot to introduce our guide cum porter, John. Since we start climbing at night and it is really dark outside, we can only rely on our head lamp to lead us the way. We reached the top at around 5.30 in the morning, but when the sun came out it was covered by the cloud so we can't even catch any nice shoot.

The rock! Haha~

Our prove to the top!

Group photo, haha

Wonder how the hell we climbed up just now...see all the rocky road...GOSH!

Well, the climbing trip is a really adventurous and fun trip. For people who are interested can try to contact Sutera Harbour for more information. But below are some of the details:
To hire a guide - RM100
To hire a porter(you can either ask them to carry your stuff go up for you first or to stay with you, sometimes your guide is your porter at the same time) - RM8/KG
Things recommended to bring - sun block, lip balm, red bull or livita, water(must!), chocolate, biscuits.

My conclusion for this trip is that, everyone can surely climb up to this mountain as long as you have determination and passion to do so. Never give up when you feel hard or fatigue. My advice is that walk slow but non-stop because once you stop your body will cool down then it will be harder to start climbing again. Good luck for those who plan to climb Mount Kinabalu.

New start

2009-05-03T21:40:00.005+08:00

A brand new start for a brand new life.

Deleted all my previous posts to start a brand new entries.

Will blog about my vacation to Sabah tomorrow.