Dear Diary :): Hi Ho A merry O a Hill Top We will Go

After a few weeks of planning, postponing, delaying and planning again, I finally set off to Cameron Highland last Thursday with my friend GM. .

(For those who are wondering what's Cameron Highland , you can view the information in this website :

http://www.cameronhighland.net/)

It is located in Pahang about 4 hours drive from Kuala Lumpur. It is a center of attraction not only for tourist but also locals, who would like to get away from hustle and bustle of the city. Disappear in the cold hill top atmosphere surrounded by lucious greeneries, vegetables and tea plantation with enchanted forests. It is literally 'far from the maddening crowd'.

Hmmmmm back to my story :

23/5/2013 - Thursday .
Started the day by picking up my friend at the office (I can't believe that she was doing work when I drove in!I really need to get the girl out of HERE!)

I dropped off my car at my apartment and took the express bus to Cameron Highlands at Pudu Raya, Kuala Lumpur(KL). (http://www.backpackingmalaysia.com/things-to-do/puduraya-bus-terminal/kuala-lumpur).

We moved out off KL around 10.20am, the best part was that the bus wasn't full, I could choose any seats I like :) (Although I have to caution you that we were going on a weekday and it wasn't a school holiday, hence the flexibility, so don't go up to the bus conductor at any other days and say this blogger says I can seat anywhere I like :P)
We stopped for 20 minutes at Slim River (in Ipoh,) for lunch and stretch our legs a bit. Funny thing was that the rest area didn't look like a rest area. First , it was located in a middle of no where surrounded by rubber trees, second,it looked like a long two storey motel with a food court in ground floor.

We didn't follow the highway route to Camerons, we followed the village road. We passed villages, rubber trees , forest, I could give more details but I believe I would bore you to sleep. Plus I was half drifting off myself. All I remembered were the endless bend when we ascend up the hill. . Wide bends, small bends, tight bends ...no bends (trust me if your sensitive and get quizzy easily buy pepermints or hacks sweets to reduce the nausea)

But if you love nature then here are some of the scenes that you can see :

We reached the top around 2.30pm. The tour company that we booked our holiday package , TJ NUr Travel was located in a small town called Tanah Rata. ( I know, I kmow , your saying , geez your staying in Malaysia and you still need a tour guide?!But in my defense, the following day would be the school holidays (jam, jam and more jam!) so I had to think fast and grab anything that came our way)

View of our lodge. Not bad I would say.....

After unloading our bags in our room , we set out, all geared up to do some activity since we missed the 2pm sight seeing group.

Tanah Rata

1km from our lodging there was a garden and also MARDI ( a research center agriculture and plants) where there are not only flowers but also agro vegetables, cactus and even rabbit.

We wandered around the Tanah Rata. We were contemplating whether to go to the other town known as Brinchang where it is popular for it's night market.

We asked for direction from a fedex guy (confident that we won't get it wrong) He mention that it will be 20 minutes from Tanah Rata . Easy Peesy......but what he failed to tell us ...Was whether it was 20 minutes walk or 20 minutes drive from where we were.

It was already 7.30pm when we set out to go to Brinchang. Walking out of Tanah Rata, into windy roads, we walked and walked,.......There were trees on our left and right, it was getting darker and fewer street light. The mist was setting up behind us. We walked for more than 20 minutes when we saw a stone that marked Brinchang 4 km. WHAT! another 4km. That is not 20 minutes, fumed GM. We finally stopped walking and looked at each other.

"What are we going to do now?" asked GM. We looked in front, windy street roads leading into the darkness. We looked behind us, mist was getting thicker and we could hear a dog howling repeatedly.

Totally a scene from a horror film.

Both GM and myself decided to head back. Funny thing was when we started walking back the dog stopped howling. I guess it was trying to warn us that it wasn't safe for two ladies to walk that road at night. Anyway there was too few cars on the road.

Reached the lodge and took a bath. Poor me, the warm water took its on sweet time to reach the pipe, that I had to take a bath in cold water.....BRRRRRRRRRR..........

The next day, we followed our tour guide to Mnt Brinchang, Mossy forest and Boh Tea Plantation.

From look-out tower

We rode on a 4x4 (4 wheel drive) up to Mnt Brinchang (6,666 ft) where I took these pictures on a look- out tower on top of Mnt Brinchang.

Next would be Mossy Forest, I love this forest, there's something magical about the trees blanketed by moss. It give an out of the world, Narnia feel to it. We learned how we can get water from moss, and bamboo shoots. We hiked up vines, tree trunks, firest class panaromic view of the forest. I really cannot explain how much I loved this forest.