bittersweet solitude of a fireflower

Went for a little road trip from 17th to 21st June 2009 in Malaysia and it was, well, fun but tiring. A total of near 1700 km travelled by car!

We went to a few places: Cameron Highlands, Gopeng (for whitewater rafting), Fraser’s Hill, Port Dickson (for lunch) and Malacca (again!). I wish the holidays will never end, though

Cameron Highlands, 17th to 19th June 2009

I’ve never been to Cameron Highlands before, so this trip was a great eye-opener for me, and I must say that the place is BEAUTIFUL! It’s so filled with greenery and serenity. Very cool.

Gunung Brinchang, the highest peak in Cameron Highlands (the view on the top was quite a bore); the lake at the Lakehouse, which was not as blue as before; Ye Olde Smokehouse, a colonial house converted into a hotel and restaurant serving not bad Western food

We stayed at a nice little lodge called Cameronian Inn at Tanah Rata, and I thought it was not bad! The place was quite clean in general, and they had listed trails that one could try (we didn’t bother, though) as well as bus timings for those who were interested in visiting the rest of Malaysia. They also sold lovely scones, which were delightful but not a must-try

We did do the touristy thing and visited the tea plantations, and I thought it was so lovely.

高山青，河水常蓝

There was this overwhelming sense of calmness washing over me as I stood there breathing in the 20°C fresh air, and I had, in a extremely short fleeting moment, wish I didn’t have to leave.

Of course, how can we forget the strawberry farm? We didn’t do the whole pluck-them-yourselves thing; I’m not a great fan of strawberries in the first place, although they are quite delightful to have sometimes.

Strawberries galore

The strawberries were looking really cute and petite amongst their little green canopies. I loved how fresh they looked, though I doubt their sweetness…

On 18th, we took a little day trip off to Gopeng, Perak and did whitewater rafting with Nomad Adventure on Sugei Kampar! It was my first time and I thought it was really fun, except that it was now the dry season and therefore it could have been more fun.

Fraser’s Hill, 19th to 20th June 2009

We set off to Fraser’s Hill after we visited the strawberry farm on 19th morning, and it was a good 3 hours drive before we reached the Gap, the ‘entrance’ of Fraser’s Hill. Because the road leading up to Fraser’s Hill was one-way, timings were allocated for up-going and down-going traffic, and so we had to wait for the timing for up-going traffic before reaching Fraser’s Hill in the first place.

Fraser’s Hill was quite a disappointment, sad to say Well for one thing it was incredibly crowded because there was an international bird race going on 20th and 21st (a bird race, apparently, is one where teams of 3 go around to search for different species of birds and identify them within a stipulated time), but I didn’t see much except the nice view from our horrible room and Jeriau Waterfalls, a nice little waterfall. Kinda missed trekking at some point in time; perhaps we would go trekking some day? For dinner we ate at Ye Olde Smokehouse and I thought the food was not bad

…

We had wanted to stay over at Port Dickson for the night of 20th as we were so disappointed with Fraser’s Hill. Set off at 10:15am on the morning of 20th to head to Port Dickson… only to find that there were no vacancies at all at all the resorts/hotels we’d visited! so horrifying hor! As a result, we only had lunch there and we headed off to Malacca, hoping that the house would be ok for us to stay in (his family has a house in Malacca, and it’s currently undergoing some renovations now)…

… and boy were we lucky that we could stay over at his house for the night, considering all the construction stuff going on. And I finally managed to walk around Mahkota Parade without my students!

And I just love how Malacca looked at night.

Overall, the trip was a good getaway, although I really look forward to a longer (and further) vacation. Well, till next time then…