My Leave - Part 2-- Cameron Highlands

The second part of my holiday was personal favourite place Cameron Highlands,.. the hill top station of Pahang. Located among the Titiwangsa Mountain Ranges,..This highland station is famous for its vegetable production and also the cool chilly climate.

Because of the chilly and relaxing environment over there,.. I always choose it to be the place of my retreat every year,...

I did went there last year,.. due to the short time allocation for the trip and also lack of transport going there,.. I had only one night to spend and enjoy ..

This time is different,.. I personally transport to get there,...no need to wait for specific timing to get there,.. I can go there anytime,...

I previously mentioned,... we were this time from Tok Bali in Kelantan. From Sharin's folk place in Machang,.. we head on in the main road toward Gua Musang,....From Gua Musang,.. I am suppose to split up with the rest of my family (as they will head to Kuala Lipis)

The road from Gua Musang will lead to Lojing (the heavily deforested area) and finally to Brinchang ( the highest point of the Cameron Highland Hill Station). Later,.. I would find out that my family would use the same route and head straight to Ipoh,... and use North South Highway to head to KL.

As we had skipped our lunch on that day (I seem to be in fear of food that time as had a great stuffing day the day before),... I immediately pull over the first decent restaurant at Cameron Highlands,... As usual,.. From both way of Cameron Highlands Entry (from Tapah and Ipoh),... the first classy Tea House that you could come across wound be Bharat,...

So we pull over and discovered that it seem to be hard to get a parking spot,... so manovoure here and there before finally decided to park beside the road,...

The place without much doubt is crowded with people,.. To get a place to sit was a challenge,.. the place would have been a good relaxing place to chill out,.. BUT it just too crammed with people,...

Yes We do know it was the school holidays,.. but didnt expect to be THAT jammed packed!!!!

Luckly we had made the reservation early for the place in MNS Boh Plantation Research Centre,... If had not been so,.. I seriously doubt that I could find a decent place over there,...

As the place was rather secluded,... lies among the Tea Plantation ( about 5 KM from Ringlet),.. buying sufficient grocery is important,...

Had a fun time drive up to the place among the Tea Plantation with my Hilux,.. the experience just made every penny spend and parking difficulties that I had to go thru worth it!!!

So when I reach the place,.. I got to our lodging,.. settle my stuffs and get myself going with a warm cup of nescafe!!! Enjoying the cool breeze of the place,... the peaceful environment and serenity of the place,...

However the quietness and serenity would be short lived,... the other family from the next door room had kids ,.. several family of kids or cousin,... they not much of nuisance though,.. just a bit too noisy for comfort and the ideal kind of holiday or retreat,...

Anyway,.. we cooked our own dinner,.. a sausage,.. Sunny Side up, Bake Beans and French Toast,... A lovely dinner for the day,.. some break of Malay food streaks back in Kelantan!!!!!

After dinner,.. we rested awhile before setting out for a walk in the hope of finding slow loris that are know to be in the vicinity,... No such luck that night,.. just a nice chilly walk in the moon light lit road,...

After the walk we rest at the veranda,.. we notice a particular medium build dog,.. belonging to the care taker of the place,.. a female dog,.. it of course hoping some food to be throw to her,.. we also notice that she seem to be scooting,.. at the place,.. May she got worms ??? Particularly the tape worm ,...

Anyway,.. another quick drink of chivas ,.. I am off to the bed!!!

Woke up early as usual,.. to do some birding,... the birding score at that day was,...

1. Silver Eared Mesia (Leiothrix argentauris)

2. Velvet Fronted Nuthatch (Sitta frontalis)

3. Mountain Bubbul (Hypsipetes mcclellandii)
4. Magpie Robin (Copychus saularis)

5. Yellow Vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier)

6. Common Tailor Bird (Orthotomus sutorius)

7. Black Throated Sunbird (Aethopygia saturata)

8. Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis)

On my way,. down to the lodging,.. I discovered that our fren,.. the dog,.. had join me to my birding exlusion,.. She seem happy to be in company of me,.. I later discovered that she really move well at the slope and among tea plants!!

So on reaching the lodging I woke up Wen Chee for breakfast in which she cooked this time!! And we head up to Brinchang,..

We stopped at Tanah Rata near the Parit Waterfall,... a horrendous dirty and heavily polluted water fall,...at the parking lot,.. i gave wen chee a chance to drive my car (Wendy),... before to do a short hike to the observation tower there and birding along the way,. birds that are in our records that day was;,...

1. Silver Earrd Mesia (Leiothrix argentauris)

2. Chestnut-Capped Laughing Thrush (Garrulax mitratus)

3. Chestnut-Crowned Laughing Thrush (Garrulax erythrocephalus)

4. Large Niltava (Niltava grandis)

5. Mountain Tailorbird (Orthotomus cuculatus)

6. several other small birds species that cant be identified,...

Later we off to T cafe,.. in Tanah Rata for lunch,.. a wonderful place,.. very cosy,.. setting for a lunch and the food was good!! However from there I was inform that my granny was in for surgery,... (she had been hospitalized a week before for hip fracture)

We would later go in search of a pharmacy to buy dewormer for the dog,... and try to look for chicken to cook for our dinner,..

The search for chicken was hard,.. went to several place ,. including wet market,.. only to find it not too fresh or too large of quantity to be sold in,... Finally,.. found a place in Brinchang that sold chicken piece but also in large quantity,.. however the owner allow us to cut half and keep at this freezer until tomorrow,..

Later we headed to Brinchang to buy other grocery for dinner,.. got some vege but,.. seem to be expensive,... and ice,.. we used coleman as our food storage,.. so need regular ice replacement,...

On our way back to the place,.. i soon discovered that my GF forgot to inform her mom that I would be back on Thursday instead of Wednesday,.. I am also suppose to meet up wen chee elder sister who happen to be my financial advisor,.. so have to cut short my holiday,....

So that evening,.. had to cook,.. all the perishable food item,.. we cooked chicken soup,.. mixed vege,.. omelette and butter prawns,..

We soon discovered that the particular dog had puppies under her,.. 3 cute puppies,.. we do have large supply of food,... especially the chicken,.. still brought too many,... we throw out the window some spare chicken parts for the puppies and bolied some for easy of deworming them,...

Wasnt that nice dinner,.. i was too tired preparing dinner,.. spend about 2 1/2 hours doing them,... of course too much as well,.. kept the balance of chicken soup later for supper,..

After dinner we head out again to look for wild slow loris,... no luck again,.. that night,.. the dog together with her puppies followed us,...

To ensure we leave the place early the next morning,.. we packed up our stuff to the car and headed early bed (had supper of chicken soup)

Woke up early,.. skip breakfast,.. and headed to BOH plantation at Sungai Pelas for breakfast,.. hardly suprising,.. the place is jammed packed with people again,.. even early in the morning,... this is a bette tea house than the previous,.. better ambion,.. a balcony to a vast tea plantation with better smelling tea!!!

After breakfast,.. we head to brinchang,.. to buy,. vege,.. and strawberry,.. after buying the vege,.. we discovered that we short of budget,.. so need to go down to Brinchang town to withdraw money,.. and continue strawberry,.. Spend RM80 for vege!!!

After getting everything,.. i headed back to KL,.. via PLUS,.. stopped at Ringlet for fuel and Tapah for packed lunch,...

Headed straight to hospital to see Granny,.. saw some of my uncles and aunty,.... happy and relieve to find her healthy and doing well,.. spend a few hours there before headed off to Wen Chee's place for dinner,.. her parents especially her dad against my idea of straight heading back to JB after dinner along,.. nevertheless,.. i still proceed with the plan,..

So here am I, driving alone,.. from Klang to JB ,.. smoking,.. listening to ABBA hits most of the way and some times pouring the coffee into the cup from the flusk while I am driving!!!!

Reach home,.. around 2am,.. dead tired but the at same time happy to be back home!!

So that goes my holiday,,... oh yeah,.. i washed my car the next day,.. Wendy been superb the whole trip!!!

My Leave Part 1 -- Besut and Tok Bali

After the much traumatized working experience for the last two months,.. i was finally able to take some days off for a break,.... I didnt really had a good break the other time on February as I was very much busy and hussled by my sister wedding during that period.

The last time that I really had a leave and a break was on last november,.. in which I spend a few days in Fraser Hill and was testing my new car,.. Toyota Hilux,.. Wendy ,.. that of course is what I called her,...

So this time ,I was given leave from 4th to 12th June,... Cant really say,.. that I spend it in the most preferred manner,.. but still I do get some rest,...well,.. i guess that what leave is for I suppose,...

4th June

Spend the whole afternoon (with Wen Chee) servicing my car and searching for the Coleman ice box,.. I actually,.. did found the suitable size in Carrefour,.. the first place that I search for,... But it has only 1 in stock for the perfect size and looked a bit old for my liking,.. so we went to other nearby shopping complex to source for it,.. but only to find there are none that have the right size,...

What makes the matter worse is that my elder bro have some hair trimming celebration for her new born later that evening,... So i felt the some sense of urgency to get the ice casing and felt frustrating to find all the other shopping complex except the first one dont have the prefered size....

So eventually,.. i have to go back to Carrefour ,.. the place where I started looking to get the ice box,... and i have to rush to Gelang Patah,..

Well, speaking about the ceremony,.. it was long ,.. the living room in which the ceromony take place was so super stuffy that the temperature rises several degree inside there,... Luckily,... i was able to sneak out and retreat at the veranda most of the time,... with my dad and brothers,..

5th June

Nothing much,.. just packing and meeting up Karen Koh,.. for some discussion on some paper,... for VAM

And went to Barbara house to dump my parrot Hiroko Morimoto and my rabbit Playboy for care taking,.. she is my wonderful care taker for them any of my holiday,...

6th June

The long journey to Kota Bharu begins,.. we started at 6am,... sharp,... it was long and we used the Jabor to Jerangau Road,.. which is a short cut,... by passing major cities like Dungun, Kuantan and Kuala Terenganu,..

We made several stops,.. one was breakfast at Endau,.Pahang,... Lunch at the junction to Kuala Berang and stops at the Ajil Pheasant Farm,.. which in my opinion is crap,... Got some interesting pheasant,. .but the birds condition and the cages is horrendous,.. Soo many same species of pheasant being exhibit,.. but it does have good collection of green peacock though,...

All along the way,.. i was hoping to have a good rest at the Five Star Hotel in Kota Bharu,.. once we reach there,... But,.. when we were at Pasir Puteh, Kelantan,... My younger brothers ( Tano and Rustam),.. informed us that someone had cancelled our booking done 2 weeks ago secretly and leaving us with one room instead of three,...

So the hotel contact a resort in Tok Bali, Kelantan about 20 minute drive from pasir puteh,.. to have a villa room for us,... all six of us (me, dad, mom, my two younger bro and wen chee) cram into one room about 5 meter by 8 meter,.. with one huge toilet that seems to be stuck all the time!!!

We paid good money,.. with lousy villa and when we discovered that the air conditioner,..seem to turn off on its own every half an hour,.. the management did nothing to repair it,.. it is a totally ripe off!

It was a huge disappointed for me,.. to have such a lousy room,.. instead of the comfortable hotel room,...

The disappointing day,.. only gets worse at night,... from the GPS,.. we knew that there is Chinese Seafood Restaurant in Besut,.. from the name,.. it does sounded good,.. But the moment we reach there,.. it was horrendous old chinese kopitiam restaurant,.. And it was jammed packed as well,... man it was really heart breaking,.. so we settle in at the nearby malay Sea Food restaurant,.. that really serve late,.. we ordered too much as well,... and i have to force myself with the grilled fish that we order (that came 1 hour later)

7th June

Woke up and find that the villa served lousy breakfast,.. and pump diesal into my car and buy grocery at pasir puteh for my cameron highland retreat,...

Later in the afternoon,.. we went to Sarah (my cousin) new in law place for wedding,.. nothing much,.. except my sis was late as usual for the ceremony but made it on time,..

Later,.. after the wedding,.. we went to Sharin's folk place for dinner,.. the problem is that we are really full and again,.. have to force in food,. just out of respect for them,... However,.. it was ok over there except,.. we cant understand much on what they were talking most of the time,...

8th June

Again,.. lousy breakfast,.. later,.. I and Tano plus wen chee when separately to Sharin's place in Tano's Car whereas my dad with my mom and Rustam (my youngest Bro)went to Besut to shop for Keropok

Somehow,.. Rustam meddle up with the GPS and my dad had a problem getting to Sharin place,.. so we had to wait sometime before moving on to KL for my parents plus Rubee, Rustam, Tano and sharin ; and Cameron Highlands for me and Wen Chee. Only approaching noon that i started heading to Cameron Highlands

So our journey to Cameron Highlands begins!!!