Getting Cold in Cameron Highlands!

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Our next destination was Cameron Highlands and here, we stayed at SK Brinchang. Hm… How do I describe the place.. Well, nama pon sekolah kan, so faham2 je la facilities tu camana.. Kena share toilets, long queues lagi, thin mattresses, limited space (we were placed in a classroom). We were like refugees. Or flood victims. Yeah, whatever. That was the disadvantage in this trip.

Honestly, this trip to Cameron Highland was not as great as I expected. Yeah, I had fun with my colleagues and students but I think we wasted too much time up there. First day we arrived there, we settled everything before going down to Brinchang night market. Well, it’s Cameron, so there was a lot of fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers, not forgotten, souvenirs, food and T-shirts and etc. I love night markets. This is the place with low price and I also could improve my bargaining skill!

T-shirts, soft toys , gloves, accessories..

The fresh vegetables..

That night, I hung out with two of my colleagues, Kak Fai and Kak Idah. I bought a black short-sleeved T-Shirt with glittering strawberry in the middle of it, so cute! Hmm.. I didn’t buy that much, because like I said, I’ve just been here 3 months ago and later in October, I’ll be going here again with my husband on his school trip. Three Camerons in a year, so no need to waste so much money shopping in the same place, don’t you think? Hmm… As for dinner, I bought Nasi Ayam Percik, with HALF marinated chicken, for only RM5!! That was soooo cheap! It was half chicken, I repeat. I think it’s hard to get that price anymore else where. Actually, if you buy the chicken only without the rice, the price is still RM5. It means, the rice comes for free, but if you buy the rice alone without the chicken, it’ll cost you RM2. Haha.

I also bought this! The best strawberry tea I ever tasted! So wangi!

After dinner, the students were not allowed to go anywhere, so they just needed to get ready for bed. Unlike us, the teachers, KakLeza, Kak Fai, Kak Yun, we went down again to get some night air, as well as to the night market, since they hadn’t finished shopping. I bought more T-shirts for my husband and I this time. Kang dia merajuk lak tak belikan apa2.. Hihi. After walking around for an hour down there, we walked back to the school. The school was actually situated on the hill. There were stairs that linked the ground level, to the school ground floor on top of the hill. To make it more ‘interesting’, our room was on the FOURTH floor, so imagine how many steps we needed to climb before we reached the room. Normal people couldn’t do it. Since I was an IPBArian (IPBA has the worst stairs ever! Imagine you are from Block 3 to the foundation class yang tingkat 4 kat hujung dunia tu, with a lot of shopping bags, sleepy and tired), I managed to get up there in one piece. Haha. I told him about the stairs and he was like, ‘Huh, kalau I mati la dah naik xder nk turun2!’

This is not captured by me. I googled it, just to show you guys what the school look like. That is only half of the stairs.

The next morning, we woke up early to get ready for MARDI and Bharat Tea Plantation. Actually, that night  some of my colleagues faced a liiiiitle ‘problem’ when they were sleeping. You know what I mean. That was a school, so biasalah benda2 supernatural kat sekolah kan.. Plus, kat bukit pulak tu. Huuu… Alhamdulillah, I was not disturbed though I was half awake when that thing happened. By the way, it was a very cold morning (duh!), so at first, I planned not to take showers unless they got water heater which obviously they didn’t. But then, tengok2 semua orang pon mandi though just mandi koboi, so I changed my mind and got showered too. D.A.M.N.C.O.L.D!! I felt like showering in ice, but it was very refreshing!

We started the day by having breakfast by the road, near Petronas Brinchang. Seronok agaknya makcik tu dua bas serbu kedai dia. Haha. After about an hour, we departed from Brinchang and went straight to MARDI. MARDI is actually Agro Tecnhology Park that is situated at Jalan Persiaran Endah, Tanah Rata. It consists of six sections; English Garden, Herb Garden, Orchid Garden, Rose Garden, research and also information centre. You can find a lot of types of vegetables, rare and unique flowers, fresh fruits and others in this place. You also can visit mini tea plantation here, 1 meter of walking up to the hill. I almost missed it.

Agro Technology Park (MARDI) in Cameron Highland

At this place, we spent more than 2 hours walking here and there, camwhoring as usual, scrutinizing and smelling flowers (especially the ones we haven’t seen in our life before). It was quite boring actually because I was not into flowers, but surrounded by your crazy colleagues, they just made everything fun!

At Rose Garden, with Kak Lina, Kak Leza and Kak Yun.

Silver Dust, the name of the flower! Or you can also call it Winter Flower. Haha. This is my favourite. Lawa kan?

I just love this picture!!

Mini tea plantation as our background. Haha. Excuse the gedikness!

The students..

Talking about cabbages! Haha. Kata lawatan sambil belajar kan… Hehe

Don’t forget to try fresh strawberries with hot chocolate dipping!

After two hours, we walked back to the bus to go to Bharat Tea Plantation. That is the biggest tea plantation in Malaysia. This place is a trademark of Cameron Highland. There is not point going to Cameron Highland if you don’t visit this place. Even though it is just an area of tea plantation, the view here is breath-taking.

Sadly, we got a very bongok bus driver. The car park provided was full, so he took an easy way out not to drop us there! He simply said, ‘Banyak keta la cikgu, tak boleh parking. Xyah berhenti laa…’ Personally, I didn’t mind because I have been there and in fact, I’m going there again this October, but how about the kids? Some of them couldn’t afford to go here and wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the school trip! Dahla mcm tu, he was the worst bus driver that I have ever met. So stuck-up, not friendly and very VERY hard to tolerate with. Tolong bukak luggage compartment kat bawah tu pon malas. HE even asked us to do it ourselves. Berat gila kot nk bukak tu. Memang teruk! Along the way from school to Gua Tempurung and Cameron Highland, he kept complaining every time we asked him to stop at RnR. Tah hape2 je.. You are a bus driver, but your job is not just drive. You have to provide good customer service. You are paid to do other things that are in your job description which are assisting the additional needs of your customers. Suruh stop kat RnR pun susah, let alone find a spot at the Bharat Tea Plantation tu. The other bus driver was okay. He was friendly with the students and teachers as well. They went to the tea plantation when we didn’t. We went down straight to Tapah (we didn’t even drop by at Lata Iskandar!). So we, including the students had two different experiences on this trip. Kesian budak bas aku..

So, that’s all for now. Remember if you go to Cameron Highland in a large group (school trip), please organize your time well. One more important thing, FIND A GOOD BUS DRIVER. It doesn’t matter if you travel in a 3-star-bus, as long as the bus driver is willing to provide you 5-star service. Ours was the opposite. 5-star bus, not even a half star deserved by the driver. Puii!

Getting ‘Wet and Wild’ In Gua Tempurung!

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Hubby’s going on school camping today so I’ll be home alone for these two days. Sad.

But you know, since I have nothing to do really, well, besides watching Gossip Girls DVD over and over, I think it’s best if I write about my recent school trip to Gua Tempurung and Cameron Highland.

Well, we gathered at school around 2.00 a.m. and I was the laaast teacher to arrive, at 2.15 p.m. Tgk, lambat 15 minit je dh jadi yg paling last sbb budak2 ni semua excited nk pegi, pukul 1 pagi dah tunggu kat sekolah. Hehehehe.. As for me, malam tu memang lambat packing so lambat la sampai. :-p  After doa and a quick speech by the ‘Ketua Rombongan’, we departed from school at 3.00 in the morning. I slept for the whole journey and only woke up at RnR Jejantas Sungai Buloh at 5.30 a.m., if I’m not mistaken. It was sooo cold, so I didn’t plan to take my shower because right after this, we were heading straight to Gua Tempurung. As I have stated in the previous entry, this caving activity involved a lot of water so there was no point taking shower in the morning, only to get wet in the cave later, right? Hehe

After freshen up, solat and breakfast, we continued our journey to Gua Tempurung. I really like the view along the highway. It was so beautiful compared to southern highway that I found too boring. We arrived at Plaza Toll Gopeng and continued another few minutes to our destination. When we arrived there, there were six to seven school buses by the road. Oh my! It’s gonna be a full cave!

Before I go further, here’s a little information about Gua Tempurung that I found in Wikipedia.

“Gua Tempurung is a cave in Gopeng, Perak, Malaysia. It is popular among spelunkers, or caving enthusiasts. More than 3 km long, it is one of the longest caves in Peninsula Malaysia. Part of it has been developed as a show cave with electric lighting and walkways and there are a range of tours of different lengths and difficulty. A fine river cave, the river passage runs about 1.6 km through the hill. There are three very large chambers and some spectacular stalactites and stalagmites.”

Okay, enjoy the pictures!

Arrived!

Before entering Gua Tempurung..

Gua Tempurung, 2012. Last time I was here, it was in 2001.

Deeper into the cave.. The exploration begins..

Tired of climbing up those stairs, now let’s camwhore! From left, KakYun, KakLina, moi, and KakLeza.

Being here in Gua Tempurung reminds me a lot of memories when I was here more than 10 years ago with my friends. By the way, perkataan 10 years ago tu sound sooo muda kan? Hehe. The landscape outside was quite different, but other than that (inside the cave), the whole thing was still the same. Of course, it’s a cave right. Haha

One of the things that you need to know before having an adventure inside the cave is, there are more than 700 steps here, going up and down. So, you can decide whether you want to stay in, or walk out of the cave. I have not done this kind of activity for a long time, so I was not as fit as I used to be. Kejap je dah out of breath! When I stepped inside the cave and walked 50m deeper, I could see the amazing view inside. Stalactites and stalagmites, both are beautifully formed into beautiful sculptures. There was one looked like a man wearing a turban (Osama, as what they called it) and others. You can see various patterns on the cave walls that were also formed into some amazing carvings, such as a giant turtle and snail, a woman, a man led the solat (imam) and the makmum behind him, and others. They were all so amazing that words couldn’t describe how amazing they were. I’m not exaggerating, really. Subhanallah!

We spent more than 3 hours in there, climbing up and sliding down, walking in the dark with torchlight in our hands, crawling like a crocodile in the water to avoid being hit against the stalactites, entering a very small hole (lubang tikus) to go to the lower level of the cave and etc (as for the lubang tikus part, I bet my hubby couldn’t fit through it haha). It was sooo fun! In fact, it was better than the last time! Thank God the water wasn’t that smelly but it was sooo cold.

Now, getting down babeh! Curamnye hoi!

Sliding down! They said the height is about 20 feet.

Sampai bawah lutut longgar terus! Haha

This is what we call ‘Lubang Tikus’. Kecik gila kan…

Be careful kids…

Done with lubang tikus, we were now at the bottom of the cave. Time to get wet fellas!

Cikgu Bahrin, one of the male teachers (2 org je kot cikgu laki) with his pair of jeans in the cave. Cool x masuk cave pki jeans? Haha

“I’ve been crawling in the dark (in our case, in the water as well), looking for the answers..” -Hoobastank

Resting for a few minutes here..

My friends, my shoes and I.

Yeah, out of cave and back to civilization!

Once we got out of the cave and felt the touch of sunlight against our skin again, it was now time to get back to reality. Arghhh! Feel like staying in there. So calm and peaceful. Not even a sound of a bat. Owh yeah, they slept during the day, I forgot.

So, we took our clean clothes from the bus, showered and changed before having lunch. It was so hot outside that my wet T-Shirt dried before I even showered. I didn’t get to buy any souvenirs here because I spent most of my time queuing in the toilet. Huh! That place was full of students from Penang, Kedah and also Pahang. Crowded!

By the way, there are many things that I learn from this caving experience. How water play the most important roles to create the amazing view and how the limestone hills and hard rocks ‘listen’ to the water. Somehow, looking at the bizarre rock formation that caused by the water in that cave, made me felt touched at this natural phenomenon. Of course we have been told this kind of story many times when we were little (at least I was), ‘camana batu yg keras tu boleh lekuk disebabkan air’, but seeing it yourself before your eyes, it was totally a different feeling. It was like, this time you really believed in it. This thing taught you, ‘nothing is impossible’. What is important is the will, and how bad you want something. Hmm… This phenomenon is very close-related to our life, isn’t it?

At 2.30 p.m., we got on the bus and continued our journey to next destination, Cameron Highland.
Will be continued in my next entry.

School Trip!

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 This morning, at about 2 a.m., I’ll be joining my colleagues and students for a school trip to Cameron Highland. This would be the second time I go to Cameron in 3 months. I went there before with my family during the last school break. It is quite recent right? So, memula tanak pergi sbb baru je pergi, plus it was also due to flu and bad cough that I’m having right now, but then I think, this trip is too good to miss. Why?

Well because, before going to Cameron Highland, we will stop at Gua Tempurung for a cave exploration. I haven’t done this kind of activity in a loooong time! I’ve been in Gua Tempurung before for cave exploration too, when I was in Form 3, which was more than 10 years ago. It was so much fun! We were crawling in the water, climbing up and sliding down, walking on our knees for 3 hours with the smell of bats poop all around. We only had some chocolates with us to keep our energy going. There was one time when our torchlights blinked a few times before dying one by one. Trust me, it was SUPER.CREEPY. It was pitch black in there, we couldn’t see anything. So, terpaksa la jalan berpimpin tangan and berhimpit himpit mengharapkan cahaya torchlight kawan2 lain, menjerit-jerit takut kena tinggal .  I’m dying to relive the moments, not the creepy part of course, but to be inside the cave again. Only this time, I’ll go as a teacher instead of a student like I was before.

Gua Tempurung, Perak. Here I come!
*picture taken from Google*

Though I am pretty much excited right now, I haven’t packed anything yet because I feel sad to leave hubby alone at home. He asked me not to go due to my ill condition, but I told him I could take care of myself and will be taking medicine. Lagipun, kalau tak pergi, takda la memory ngn my Year 6 babies yg baru abis ‘perang’ tu kan.. Some of them really want me to go on that trip. Biasalah… Teacher cool kan.. Haha

Okay, wish me a safe journey! Will be taking lots of pictures and upload them here when I get back. Bye!

p/s- This blocked nose is sooo annoying. And I can’t stop coughing. So, will be bringing a lot of Strepsils! (wow that rhymes! haha)

Moving Into A New House, And Some Other Rambles Too

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My body is still aching. I just got back from Family Day event with my ex-colleagues at De Palma Inn Hotel in Kuala Selangor (it was really fun and I’m gonna post the story about that later), then went home to Sabak Bernam to meet my parents who just got back from their vacation in Bandung, before rushing back to Muar.

This is just a quick update. After the event, we went straight home to Sabak Bernam, since it is only 60+ kilometers away. Sadly, we didn’t stay long at the house because we had to rush back to Muar. Last night, we were supposed to host a kenduri selamat at our new place, but we didn’t manage to get there in time, so the kenduri selamat started and also finished without us. A big thanks to family in law who helped us to host the kenduri… And today, people from furniture company is coming to our new house to deliver our purchases (Yeaayy, EXCITED!!).

When I was at home (Sabak Bernam), suddenly I realized that I really missed the place. I missed my cats too, but sad to say, they don’t recognize me anymore. Another one thing that I noticed yesterday was our rambutan tree. It is now starting to grow its fruits! They are all still green and yellow, but in a couple weeks, kenduri rambutan lah mak ngn ayah.

Speaking about mom, I actually pity her staying alone at home since ayah is always busy with meetings, events and stuff. Maklumla.. Ketua kampung.. And it’s hard to ask them to come here too, to stay at my new house even only for few days. My parents have only been here once, which was on my wedding day. Mom has never tasted Mee Bandung Muar and I really want her to taste it (sebab everytime I gave her Mee Bandung Muar instant paste, mak akan buat and letak air banyak2 so the kuah selalu cair. Dah ckp banyak kali kuah Mee Bandung Muar pekat, mak x percaya). Yesterday when I saw her, mom said she was just fine being alone at home, but I’m still persuading her and ayah to come here this weekend. I’m gonna use all my tricks as a second youngest daughter of the family. I’m better at persuading forcing them into things compared to my little sis. In fact, I’m actually the youngest because she looks overly matured for her age. People always think I am the ‘Adik’ anyway, which pisses her off. :-p

Okay, so, back to the main point. Since we are moving into a new house, we need a lot of things especially furniture and electrical appliances. The important ones such as rice cooker, iron, vacuum cleaner, oven and many others. Not to forget, the unimportant ones such as juice and coffee maker and sandwich maker. THANK GOD, I got all this as presents on my wedding day. There are too many sets of glasses too which helps us a lot to save our money. A BIG THANK YOU TO YOU, MY DEAR FAMILY, FRIENDS AND STUDENTS who have made our life easier by giving us those. Thank you so much!

Full with a lot of stuff. Haha

The backseat is also full. Like, fully full!

Packing..

 The other day, I was thinking to host a BBQ party (house warming party lah kunun) at our new house, only if we have enough time, budget and God’s willing. It’ll be good to reunite with friends before the school starts right? But if not now during the school break, we’ll do it later. I told my husband about this idea and he just said ‘Hmmmmm……..’ *long pause*.

Honestly, I’m not sure what that means.

Owh, suddenly I miss BBQ parties that my friends and I always had when we were in Aussie.. Those marinated wings from the Valley were sooo good!! I miss the taste of it! Aiseh, kalau nanti dah pregnant,  craving wings from the Valley camane? Taknak yang lain, nak yang from the Valley jugak. Haha

The marinated wings from the Valley. If I'm not mistaken, yg ni honey with soy sauce flavour. Ke ape tah.. This picture is taken during our Aidilfitri Open House in West End, 2008

Okay, I gotta go. Today, I’m gonna soo busy being Eric Leong, decorating my house! Yeah!

p/s – Did I say this is just a quick update? Apparently, it’s not as quickie as I thought. Haha

Fire VS Water

MAD!!

First, it’s about my Friendster blog. Ladies and gentlemen, it was deleted!!!!!!!!!! Erghh!!! I’m not sure when they did this, maybe it’s been a while, but I just realized it now! There goes everything! My writing about the butterflies in my stomach before flying to Brisbane, my experience seeing Brisbane for the first time, my experience cooking for myself for the first time, my experience playing with snow for the first time, my experience being disturbed by two drunken shitmen while watching football at the cafe for the first time, my experience SEEING AND ACTUALLY MEETING JARED PADALECKI FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!! Damn it you!! At least, gimme some warning!! Now, all gone! I’m sooo frustrated! I really like those writings of mine, even though some of them were stupid, not making any sense to some people, but it was for my own memory sake..

Gosh, some little parts of my life are now missing. I can’t imagine if Blind Kitten is suddenly deleted because WordPress is shutting down, without giving me any notification. It’s very unlikely to happen actually, but who knows?

NOOOOO!

Second, it’s about him. Sometimes I hate him for keep saying sorry. He makes mistakes, he says sorry. I make mistakes, he’s still the one who says sorry. Even though it is actually my fault. Why am I so mad when he says sorry? Because he doesn’t fight me back! His patience makes me angry. I feel like he purposely does that to make me feel guilty even though I am WELL-AWARE that it’s not his intention. I once told him about that, but he said he couldn’t do it. He said, he rather took all the blames, rather than putting those on me. He said, he didn’t want us to make a big deal out of small ridiculous things. Wise!

But, between the two of us, I’m obviously the drama queen. The childish drama queen. That’s why when I am mad, I need to yell, I need some tears, I need the heat, the anger to argue, to fight. I can’t do it with someone sooo nice! It’s like bertepuk sebelah tangan. It just doesn’t work! Fire needs oil for it to spread wider, not water to put it off.

When I can’t fight with him, I become angrier at myself (for two reasons, 1. Why can’t I make him angry? 2. Why can’t I be patient like him and stop picking a fight once in a while?), that puts me in a bad mood, bad state.

Susah la suami isteri duduk jauh2 ni. Asik rase nk gaduh je..

*take a deep breath*

Clearly, that’s why we are destined for each other. Simply because I’m the fire, and he’s the water. For an obvious reason, we do need each other.

And I do need him right now, right here. I wanna punch him in the shoulders (the best spot), to let out the anger, coz he sleeps earlier than me tonight!! I can’t sleep, I’m alone and I have no one to talk to (that’s why I’m blogging)!!

I bet tomorrow when he wakes up and read my ‘beautiful’ good night wishes, he’s gonna say sorry again.