BTW, this blog is certainly picture-dense (>100, yikes) but I have to say there are some very stunning shots here. The Cameron Highlands, known for tea, strawberries, honey, and waterfalls, is a photographer's dream. The greens are so lush, the forests so thick, the roads so twisty. . .
But first, we had to get there. First stop? A noon-time picnic at a playground in Kuala Lumpur (KL). These pictures show our approach to the huge park/playground skirting the Botanical Gardens in KL. We got a little turned around looking for the playground and ended up at the National Mosque, which looked gorgeous along with the surrounding gardens, but the security officers there weren't that keen on a bunch of scarf-less Westerners wandering around there so they sent us on our way.
The playground had a dinosaur theme with lots of topiaries and several distinct play areas arranged by theme. It was about a million degrees Celsius so we stuck mostly to the shade, found a picnic table, and enjoyed some PB&J and apples.
It seems no matter where one goes in Malaysia or Singapore, there is a bridal shoot happening. As with the others, we are not sure if this is for a magazine or for a real bride and groom, but this happens just about everywhere we go.
Next to the playground was this giant bowl-shaped English-style garden. The "bride" almost fell down the steps here during the shoot.
After a couple-hour break, we headed back to the car for the second half of our 8-hour trek to the mountains. The kids loved this octopus on top of the bank building.
Our GPS sent us through the center of the city. We didn't have time to check out KL really on this trip, but snapped some shots of the interesting street scene.
A couple hours later, it was time to get off a main highway and snake along a winding road into the mountains.
Alongside the road, there were dozens of stalls set up selling mostly durians, but sometimes baskets and other handicrafts. This is one of the bigger collections of them.
We passed through several towns that would appear out of nowhere.
And then we would be back in the jungle with intermittent durian stands.
Shockingly and somewhat surreally, Swiss style architecture dominated in the Highlands. It felt both right and wrong somehow.
School buses.
Here, we are nearing the top of the mountains. The air was cool and wet, looking and feeling like I imagine both Ireland and New Zealand do.
We had some trouble finding our apartment rental, but eventually made it. After dropping off our stuff, we drove into Brinchang for dinner. We chose this Chinese place that specialized in steamboats (hooking up big tubs of broth to a propane tank under the table and cooking up your own array of seafood) but opted for individual dishes instead. Although it was cool, we were able to enjoy sitting outside under an awning that blocked the drizzling rain.
We quickly finished dinner, downed our Tiger bears, and went to bed. When we woke up and looked outside our room, this is what we saw.
And honestly, isn't that heavenly? The slope was so steep but every inch of it is planted with strawberries or something else. Crazy beautiful. This view is one a person could check out forever. The problem? Our apartment was freezing and had no heater. Yes, I was looking forward to chilly weather, but I also thought I would be able to get a hot shower at night. It IS vacation, after all. Nope. Too cold. Also, the apartment smelled like mold--and we found a ton of it.
But during the day, we didn't need to think about all that. It was time to explore! Starting with a breakfast of strawberry and chocolate waffles (delish) and strawberry Nescafe (not so much, but interesting) at this beautiful spot on top of the world.
This is how a lot of strawberries are grown in this region, new to me. They are in these compact tubes of soil with holes cut out for the plants to pop through. Irrigation tubes also poke into sections of the tubes. Tidy.
This is the front window of the breakfast/strawberry stand. We ate on the roof. The whole meal cost about $8.
From there, we took a short drive to the Boh Sungai Tea Estate to check out the tea plantation. The drive itself was breath-taking.
The workers built their own Hindu temple on the property. There are closer pictures later.
Most beautiful parking lot (car park) I've ever seen.
Rose took the journey with us.
We walked up the steep road to the visitor centre and tea shop.
We looked around inside for a short bit--
--and then got right to the good stuff.
We sampled a little of everything on the tea terrace: strawberry cake, chocolate cake, cheese custard roll, chocolate roll, carrot cake, scone, shortbread cookies, tea, and even hot chocolate. Because, you know, the strawberry waffles just weren't enough for the Bachs.
The rest of the pictures are of the plantation as we walked around it.
There was even a little school with pretty little gardens and a shrine. I snapped some pictures of the (motivational?) quotations hung up at the school.
This one reminded me of Jessy MacNeil and all the basketball girls from Holbrook.
This is a closer shot of the temple for the workers.
This shot looks straight out of Athens County, complete with a rusty old Datsun.
Don't let Wyatt fool you. He looks wide awake here but we weren't in the car one minute before he was out cold. He napped for the half hour ride to the playground.
And because I'm eternally a twelve-year-old boy, I had to snap this picture.
This building is called "Lily." Hmmm, I know some much prettier Lilies.
Just in case you haven't seen one before, this is what most toilets in Malaysia look like: squatters! No TP, just a hose!
The kids were showing signs of needing some run-around time and we wanted to see what the weather was going to do before we committed to a waterfall hike, so we decided to check out this playground in the town of Tanah Rata. It was another fun playground with several different play areas and lots of kids from all over the world. It was a children's UN conference really.
Everywhere we go, people ask permission to take their picture with the children, particularly Wyatt. From now on, we have decided we will take their pictures too. This family was having some sort of celebration with tons of food at this park today. They took pictures with the kids but we didn't have our camera ready until after Wy and Z had already run away to play again. Later, this family gave Ted a bunch of fruit. He wasn't sure how to eat it.
It's kind of spiky. They didn't speak English and we don't speak Malay so Ted was miming biting the skin and they said "OK." Everyone was making happy sounds as Ted bit into it but those sounds quickly turned to shouts of "No!" and then laughter. Ted was starting to chew the spiky skin along with the fruit inside, but really you only pierce the skin with your teeth, then pick the grape-like fruit out of the middle with your hands. They--and we--thought this was hysterical.
As we were getting ready to leave, Wyatt started having one of his all-star freak-outs. Another family brought over a bunch of barbecued potato chip packets and gave them to the kids. Ella was thanking them for helping to calm her baby brother down. Friendly folks here!
We determined that we could handle a little drizzle during a waterfall hike, so we took off for another adventure. The trail and dropoffs were both very steep so we did decide to cut this hike short. That's the unfortunate part about hiking in the mountains--all the trails are labelled "rigorous" and "steep." Not the best combination for little ones.
Along the way we passed a house with a sign out front saying that they sold home-made strawberry jam, honey, and other things. We added it to our schedule and kept walking, passing their bunny hutch.
On the return trip, we did stop in the house to pick up some honey or jam. This interaction took close to half an hour due in part to the language barrier and partly to the man's drunkenness. He thought it was important to explain in English mixed with Malay about the importance of Christmas, Jesus, December 25, and the number 25. We bought jam and jammed out of there.
The kids loved our smelly, cold apartment.
We liked it a little less. We also started thinking about how cool this city Ipoh sounded and how much time we would want to spend in the hot springs and cave temples. The original plan was to spend another day and tonight (in addition to this 2nd night) here and then all that stuff would be squeezed into the trip to the beach hotel. Ted made some calls and we went to bed knowing that this would be our last night in the cold. In the morning, we would explore the butterflies and bees, and then head back down the mountain to the heat.
But first, we had to stop back by that strawberry waffle place. This time they had regular coffee though. Nice.
Breakfast on top of the world!
Bellies full, we headed to the Butterfly Garden, admission $2 adults, $.80 kids. The first things we checked out were these insects that looked like leaves. Can you find them?
Then, we entered the butterfly area. The air was sweet with flowers and filled with fluttering wings. We saw butterflies of every size, color, and shape.
This butterfly looks like a wilted, drying leaf.
and a caterpillar too!
The size of the plants made us feel like we were walking in some pre-historic time or some fairy-land and we were the fairies.
This must be the breeding area.
It's weird to think of such a cool, wet area as haven for cacti, but here it is. Unfortunately, the cacti in this place were all covered in graffiti. Gross.
Another bunny hutch.
Beyond the butterflies, this place had many other unexpected animal attractions. First, we checked out the insects and spiders.
Then, we saw some geckos and other lizard types.
There were frogs, millipedes, and scorpions too!
A little bit of flower porn for you.
Snakes! These are vipers.
Tortoises, too.
And even turkeys? What a bargain this place is!
We had to go back to see the bunnies again.
We had a blast at the Butterfly place and then drove a little up the road to the Ee Feng Gu Honey Bee Farm. We walked through several storeys of shops and made our way to the back where the bees are.
Another group photo. Wyatt has learned to love the peace sign too.
Of course there is a shrine here at the back. There is one everywhere.
And then, we jumped back in the car hopeful that the kids would take naps (they did) on the way down the mountain into the beautiful town of Ipoh and the hot springs and cave temples that surround it. That journey is next.
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