Cameron Highlands weekend

Good Friday is a public holiday in Singapore, so we went for our first overseas jaunt from Singapore - to Malaysia! We headed on a (theoretically) midnight bus (actually left at near 3 am) to Kuala Lumpur (about 5 hours with immigration and customs), then another bus to Tanah Rata (about 3 hours).

The epic trip was a lot longer than Google thinks it should have been.

Immediately after getting off the bus, we smelled an amazing meaty smell. Maybe it was because we hadn't eaten for about 13 hours, but we had the most amazing Ayam Goreng Berempah, a.k.a. Spicy Fried Chicken, that has ever been produced on the face of the earth.

Fragrant, spicy, coconutty, juicy, moist and delicious fried chicken. In the future, when the wind whispers, it will whisper "Tanah Rata chicken"

Went for a wander on trail 4, from Tanah Rata up to Brinchang, the next town along the main road through the Cameron Highlands. Found a waterfall, a broken bridge, a working bridge, got a little lost and found a school camp and some good mud puddles... Eventually headed into Brinchang to find the hotel we should have stayed in, a night market selling more delicious chicken, and the highlands specialities - corn and strawberries.

The look so delicious, but they tasted... salty.

Next day, we went on a walking tour up Gunung Jasar (1696 m) organised through our hotel (Father's Guesthouse). It was BRILLIANT - the leader (Jason Chin) was an ex-environmental lawyer who really knew his flora and fauna, and had some very interesting thing to say about conservation in Malaysia.

Walked from Tanah Rata (town over my right shoulder), and ended up in tea plantation over my left shoulder.

Who would ever believe he just walked 2 hours uphill?

This is the post-chocolate cake face :)

Whole group shot at peak - Heather (right) and Ben (in hat) were very nice walking companions.

After the peak, we descended 2-ish hours down into a Cameron Bharat Tea Plantation through a native Semai village. Jason had brought 6 bags of lollies for the kids of the settlement/tribe (I'm not sure what they are anymore. Like a tribe, but with satellite TV?). The walk down was pretty slippery and muddy, and both Eoin and I ended up a little muddy. We started in the higher altitude moss forests, and headed down through valleys, saw orchids, heard gibbons hooting in the treetops, smelled beehives, and mostly enjoyed the 20-23 degree weather.

Moss forest

Walking back down through the cloud layer

Semai settlement on the edge of the tea plantation

Getting their weekly lollies

From the village, it was a 45 minute walk through the plantation, and then back up to delicious, delicious ice mint tea. And the ice didn't make me sick, and I learned the orange pekoe is just the name for the newest developing, nearly-open leaf on a tea plant, and has no orange flavor (pekoe is the name of the send leaf, and pekoe souchong is the name of the third leaf).

Hiding all the muddy bits behind the tea plants!

Bharat Tea Plantation 

More tea plantation

Ice mint tea from the hills in the background

After a rest, the next thing on the list was a big post-walk Indian feed. Check. Sleep. Check.

Before...

And after.

On Sunday, it was mostly an epic trip home. We had a few hours in KL, where we tried to get roast chicken from KENNY ROGERS' CHICKEN SHOP and walked to see a mall that has a roller coaster in. Sadly, the Kenny Rogers Roasters we meant to eat in was closed (but never fear - they exist in Singapore as well!) and the roller coaster could only be ridden by going to a theme park. But Eoin got a quick round of mall archery in before we caught our last bus back to Singapore.

It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

Next time we're in KL, Gadget. It was in the Berjaya Times Square Mall. 

Shooting up a mall in KL. I don't think I should leave that caption.

Now finally home, where I am lying on the couch writing this, not quite able to fully breathe all the way in. I seem the have jarred my back (right between my shoulder blades) by lying on a floor last night (yep, walking up and down a mountain, several overnight buses and lugging a backpack was fine, but defeated by a floor), so it's an anti-inflammatories and ice pack kind of day. Maybe tomorrow, Kenny Rogers... maybe tomorrow...