Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Loads of Photos.... (be warned! :P)

Here are pictures of our trip as promised.


Some pictures of just us...

This was at the Strawberry View Restaurant at Rose Garden/Kea Farm...
Strawberry tea and strawberry juice
Ben
me
my black pepper chicken chop...
Ben's black pepper beef rice... It was really yummy.
Banana split... a treat
We were a little lost when we first came :P This is where we wandered into... A plantation...of I don't know even what!!! :D

CHIMP
Hanging bridge at CHIMP.

Parit Waterfall...


moi... *Grin*


Not very clean...
Hanging-bridge... and hanging-Ben
Umm... it's been a long time since I was last hanging off bars...
...no smooth kip moves, giant circles or anything close... haha.
His moves were more funky... ;)
Taking all the time in the world to enjoy

Very nice Chinese food in one of the eateries at Brinchang. This town is btw the centre of all good Chinese food. Tanah Rata also has some good Chinese restaurants... for example, Mayflower. In this particular restaurant (or tai chao/ zhu cha), they don't do so much steamboat - as we have seen in many other restaurants in Brinchang - but more of dishes. It was interesting to witness the locals sitting together with their beers, fellowshipping and cracking jokes loudly in Cantonese.

*Cheeeeeeerssss* <3>
Pasar malam at Brinchang on a cold night...
Buying home-made ice-cream... less sugar. I liked it, Ben didn't. He thought that it was rather tasteless. But I must say that it is worth a try. We also bought cutesie, tiny pots of cacti :)
Nice...
Tall, tall pine tree....


Anyway... some pictures from the fantabulous group tour...

Before the group tour... (Our group consists of 8 people from 4 different countries (Malaysia, Singapore, Holland, UK)...minus the tour-guide. The guys: Ben, Bart, Mark and Simon, The girls: Yvonne, Flora, Samantha and myself)
"Hmmm, let's see.... "
Our group tour-guide... Satiya. Amazing, knowledgeable chap. A very humorous one too. This has been one of my most enjoyable tours ever.
Crammed into the jeep... all 9 of us... bound for a bumpy ride :P
Stopping for photos...
Simon and Yvonne...
Scenery of the Boh Tea plantation landscape... It still gives me shivers trying to imagine what it must be like to walk through those narrow aisles in between beds...and pluck 'em leaves. Especially on the steep slopes.
I just felt like diving onto the beds... They looked like they would bounce me up and down!!! :PI spy with my lil' eye....a Barney in the midst of the plantation :PWe plucked leaves... expecting them to smell like tea :P But of course, they didn't. Apparently, you have to roll, crush, dry and process them first...I guess we just looked funny......on top of the world...The gallery in Boh Tea centre...showing us tourists information 'bout tea and the processing of tea leaves...Shop display of pretty tea packagings...Ai Hua was right about me easily swayed by pretty stuff. Give me a pretty tin... and I'd buy it... whether the tea inside is good or not. Haha... But don't worry, I didn't buy anything this time. On the walkway headed towards the Boh Tea Cafe for a fresh cup of tea... and pastries... I didn't really like the pastries, but the tea was nice. (I am still a coffee person though!)Long waiting-lines for the tea-fix.Assembly of tea-enthusiasts and tourists...Me, sitting at a table...bored... waiting for Bart, Flora and Ben to make their purchases...
Tea-leaves processing factory entrance... before our guided-tour...I haven't gone on such a tour for a long time. Think the last time my dad brought us to the factory, I was only 9. With my bubble-kit and funky, checked jeans jacket :P Heheh....
Harvesting machine for tea leaves....Yes they don't pluck them by hand anymore.
The tea-leaves rolling machine that has replaced the traditional, manual hand-rolling of leaves by the Indian community in the good, old days...
Another view of the Boh Tea Estate/Valley... before we left...

...On to the top of the highest peak of Cameron Highlands... Gunung Brinchang... 2032 metres above sea level...
The watch-tower... with steep, steep staircases leading to the top...
So scary... I refused to proceed further than the first level. Haha. Ben went ahead though... I stayed at Level 1 with Yvonne.Take it from the top!
Trekking into the damp, tranquil, mossy jungle of Gunung Brinchang (bordering Perak and Pahang) to look for pitcher plants, wild orchids, funky fungi, tree-bound epiphytes, huge tree ferns and lipstick plants. It was all quiet in there... No insects or animals...and the good news, no mosquitoes! ^___^ Quite a tough trail, this one... but there are other trails which aren't quite as tough from different starting points. So that's good news for those who don't like tough trails.
BenGreen-coloured moss that covered the trees (trunks and branches)... Rocks were covered with moss and lichen too. Btw, moss isn't the algae kind of sludge you find on wet rocks. It is not slippery, but resembles a soft, green carpet... It may feel light and nice to lie on :) But, in actual fact, it holds loads of water - the source of waterfalls and 'mountain water'... an essential feature of a rainforest. Mossy jungles are where typical rainforests start... high up on the mountains.Clumps of moss hanging down in soft bundles...Bart and Flora in the picture too...
The ground beneath our feet... was kinda soft and sludgy because it is made of natural compost. You'd feel like you're walking on moist chocolate cake. It takes one a little while to get used to it...but once you've adapted, it actually feels great! Impressive footprints we left in the ground too. At one clearing, our tour guide told us to take a big jump...And the ground and trees SHOOK!!! Now, we are not sumo-wrestlers for sure... but the reason for the ground-shaking effect: the roots of those very trees that towered high above our heads were buried under 4 metres of the soft and light compost we were standing/jumping on! Can you imagine?!? 4 metres? But because any impact is quickly transmitted through those layers of natural gooey, the roots get it pretty quick.
Our tour-guide was truly passionate about the various plants in the mossy jungle. And regarding the picture above, no, he was not praying... just in case you are wondering.
Seriously, I've gotta admit that I really admire his knowledge about God's creations...Teaching us about the pitcher-plant. The kind that sucks up insects and feeds on the slush that results from the breaking down of the insects' bodies...Rumours have it that monkeys drink from the 'pitchers' when they absolutely cannot find food to eat. Therefore, the pitcher-plant is also called the 'monkey's cup'. Not proven. Definitely not evidence-based. But interesting, yes?
This was fun...I thought I'd be breathless after a while... but I didn't, even though I was often on all-fours! It must have been the fresh, cool air that helped. There were times when we had to do quite some contortionist's acts to clear the trail. Our friend, Bart, joked that it was gymnastics...I was especially glad that I was wearing shorts... and not like...um... track-pants! And I don't know what was it with my Bata flip-flops. (Yeah, my hiking shoes are damaged...so I didn't even bring 'em along this trip.) I felt much more comfortable hiking with them, than I have ever... with proper hiking shoes. They helped my feet mould to the ground, roots and stuff... and they felt so delightfully light! Then again, I still think it's wise to stick to good hiking shoes the next time, for full protection. May God provide me a new pair - with flexible soles like my Bata flip-flops!
Ropes for us to hold on to, while we crossed some narrow ledges... *Phew* Scary. Sometimes, there were no ropes. Just branches to hold on to. Our tour guide told us not to spend too much time taking photos in these narrow places... "Many Japanese have fallen off here..." he would comment... "They were too busy taking photos..."Almost there... *Huff, puff*We finally arrived at the narrow and rocky peak of that region... And we conquered!!!Batman conquered too!The view from the peak...before we made our way down and out of the mossy jungle...
Pitcher plants...
A small cave...One last look at the compost ground.Strawberry plantation. This is how they plant strawberries... in coconut fibre and not soil... they grow from bags and are watered and fertilized through tubes...The size of the strawberries depend on the action on gravity on them. Actually, the sweetest strawberries are the smaller ones...


The best strawberry milkshake I've ever had in my life - At Raju's Strawberry Farm. Seriously. This milkshake beats Mc-donald's strawberry milkshake hands down, I think.
Ahhhhh.... refreshing.
Next destination: Orang asli village. Nice thatched roofs, don't you think?
Removing our shoes to enter the typical orang asli house...
Looking out from inside...
Ben, watching the dancing and singing...
This is Ali. He was going to bring us to a waterfall and give us a blow-pipe demonstration.Somemore jungle-trekking...
We arrived at a waterfall...
Cool waters in the pool...

Some random pictures of the tree roots...
So this is the sumpit... (blow-pipe)Ali.... blow-pipe demonstration

He let us have a closer look at his blow-pipe and the darts he used...This is how the bamboo dart looks like... The one without poison. One cottoned tip and another sharp one."There the monkey....."

Back to the settlement...
A smaller bamboo/wooden hut
The orang asli's dog was getting friendly with Ben... Michael....Blow-pipe demonstration..."Come... try and see...."Ben and the blow-pipe again...After some coaxing, I decided to try it out myself...Not too bad :) I could spear the 'monkey' a.k.a target.
Samantha giving the blow-pipe a try...Michael showing us where are darts went... I'm glad to say, many of us managed to spear the 'monkey'. Oh well, it was pretty fun!!! :)
Highland dogs... Definitely smaller than that you see down here. And much hairier too...
At the bee farm...
Loving you, dear...
Many of the vegetable plantations extend all the way up to the mountain-tops... I cringe to imagine myself harvesting them on such steep slopes. I'd probably have a panic attack and roll right off...
Water-cress plantations... Apparently, these nutritious vegies are very easy to plant. You just need stalks...and they grow like weed... in water. Watercress - in cooling soups, stir-fry's, etc... Ah, one of my favourite vegies...I'm not sure what tree this is... The guide told us about tea-tree oil - but I can't remember if it had anything to do with this gigantic tree... But its leaves smelt so much like lemon grass...that I gathered a whole sheaf of them to bring back to the hotel with me. Crushed 'em and scattered them around my window-sill, bed and etc. Voila! No mosquitoes that night! Bharat Plantation... Again... I just wished that I could dive into the myriad of tea-leaves beds....
The mist just made the whole scene look dreamier... :) mmmm.....

Heavenly hills... One more picture before we all returned to our hotel.On arriving back at the Iris, Ben and I spotted a beautiful rainbow in the sky... I was just mentioning to him that it reminded me of the sign of God's covenant to Noah in the Old Testament...and then...lo and behold... another one appeared next to the first!!! As we stood watching the colours of the rainbow intensify, I felt that it was a sign from God to us, that He would continue to watch over us as we put Him in the center of our relationship and marriage. Lord, be glorified!!
It was a beautiful anniversary weekend indeed. Praise God

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