Xiao Pang in Cameron Highlands Day 3 (17/12/14)

     Hello! This is Xiao Pang again! Today, I am going to talk about the third day of our trip! This was one of the best and worst days. Well, the best thing is getting to touch and see a snake up close! It's not poisonous, of course. Leaving Lakehouse, which is the worst thing. After two days here, Lakehouse feels like a home to me now. Anyway, everything began like this...

     I woke up and felt a sense of dread, I was leaving Lakehouse today. How I wish I never woke up! I didn't want to leave Lakehouse. Ever. Anyway, I went downstairs and had breakfast for the last time in this visit. :( The breakfast was scrumptious. Then we packed up our things and got ready to leave. I was very reluctant to go as I felt welcome and at home here. I wish I could stay here forever! We carried our luggage down and we proceeded to checkout. We noticed Yen Yin(read Day 1) wasn't the receptionist, so we asked the person at the reception where Yen Yin was. He said she to leave to attend a wedding. Sad, now I wasn't able to say goodbye to Yen Yin and the Jungle Trekking Guide(read Day 2), I didn't even know what his name was. We board a van from Titiwangsa Tours and Travel and the driver drove us to the Titiwangsa Headquarters. He dropped us of there and he went to pick up some other people. When he came back, we boarded the van again and we went for the Nature Discovery Tour. The driver, who was also our guide, drove us to see a tea plantation. We took some photos and we boarded the van AGAIN. Then, he drove us to the top of Gunung Brinchang and we climbed to the top and there was a tower. We had climbed to the second level, when I couldn't take it anymore, as it was cold and the steps were very narrow.  And I am AFRAID OF HEIGHTS! Besides, there's so much fog you could hardly see scenery. If there wasn't so much fog, you could see Ipoh from the tower, I think. There were three levels on the tower. So, we climbed down the tower and board and van yet again, where we were drove to the Mossy Forest, which we passed on our way to the top of Gunung Brinchang. Our guide pluck a leaf from a tree and showed us the white sap. He told us that these were edible and explained to us how to check which leaves are poisonous and if it is poisonous, how to remove the poison from your skin. He also to us the leaves will make your blood circulation slower, so an adult only can eat 5 leaves a day and a child can only consume 2 leaves a day. Next, he show us some little red berries, and he explain that the smaller kinds are less poisonous, but it can be used during hunting to paralyse small animals. While the bigger berries are more poisonous, I forgot what he said that the berries could do, but they were more poisonous than the smaller ones. When were given half an hour in the Mossy Forest and we saw a lot of trees covered in moss. The forest looked really grey, like the kind you would see in Harry Potter movies. I think it give the place a cold feeling. With all the fog and everything. I think we were given too little time. There wasn't enough time to see the whole place. :( We were out in half an hour and our guide drove us to the 'BOH' Tea Factory. There was a nice view of the whole tea plantation from there. There was also the history of 'BOH' Tea. We bought lots of tea and also some souvenirs. The history of 'BOH' Tea was very long and I haven't finish reading all of it when we had to go. I was sad because I was very interested in the history of the 'BOH' Tea. 'BOH' stands for 'Best of Highlands'. Anyway, we boarded the van again and we were drove back to the Titiwangsa headquarters, which means the Nature Discovery Tour was over. We went to eat lunch, which was steam boat. It was very very very delicious. :) When we finished our lunch, our guide for the Leisure Tour had arrived. The guide drove us to the bee farm. We saw some bees buzzing around and there was a maze. We entered the maze and it was very dark. We kept coming back to the same place. We finished the maze, which was quite big. We bought some honey and key chains and left. Next, we went to the Butterfly Farm. There were snakes! We also got one of the workers there to take out a snake! The snake that we were allowed to take was the Whip Snake. The worker said it was very friendly. We took lots and lots of photos since I like snakes. But we had to go because we had other places to go. We left reluctantly and our guide drove us to a strawberry farm. We could pick our own strawberries! We could even eat it fresh. It tasted wonderful. We picked lots of strawberries and it was really fun. But occasionally I would spot a furry strawberry, the whole strawberry is covered with mould, so much so that it looks fluffy. It looks very disgusting. Anyway, after picking our strawberries, we went to the Rose Garden. At the Rose Garden, there were lots and lots and lots of flowers. Other than flowers, there were only more flowers. But the place was gigantic. Even though, we reached the top, there was still a long, long way to go. But due to time limit, we had to leave. We were then drove to the Titiwangsa Headquarters to have dinner. Dinner was steam boat too. It was fantastic. By then, it was quite late so we were drove to Copthorne, our next and last hotel. We went to our hotel rooms and called it a day.
     Well, that's pretty much everything that happened on Day 3. Feel free to comment anything! See you soon!
                                                                                                                                ~Xiao Pang

The tea plantation looks so 'green'.

So much fog!

Wow, the tower looks so big from below!

Welcome to the Mossy Forest! :3

The branches are so mossy.

Moss everywhere!

Don't I look like I'm in a Harry Potter movie?

It was very fun! ^.^

The butterflies look so pretty!

Snakes!

The red and juicy strawberries look so tasty!

That's a lot of strawberries!

The flowers look so colourful!

Xiao Pang Cameron Highlands Day 2

     Hello! This is Xiao Pang! Day 2 (16/12/2014) of my trip to Cameron Highlands started out like this...

     I woke up in bed at about 7 a.m., then I brushed my teeth and went down stairs for breakfast. The breakfast at Lakehouse was heavenly. Then, I prepared for Jungle Trekking. The Jungle Trekking Tours was complimentary. We had to walk through the jungle and the ground was slippery and sloping so it was hard to walk. Anyway, let's start at the beginning. Well, we were handed some wooden trekking sticks. They look like branches broken off a tree. The driver, the one who drove us to Tanah Rata on Day 1, was our guide. Then we started trekking. The road was quite okay at first, not to steep or slippery. But as we went on, the road became steeper and more slippery. It wasn't even a road anymore, it was more like a narrow path where there was no tree growing. Then the worst thing happened. It started to rain. Which made things, which was hard enough before, ten times harder. The trek felt like a million years and I actually fell. Twice. And probably more if the guide did not help me through the most slippery slopes. There was logs blocking the way sometimes and it was so huge that you have to sit on it to cross over it. I was so focused on getting out of the jungle at that time I didn't even think of being scared.

      Eventually the 1 hour and 15 minutes long nightmare came to an end, which was a relief, though we were soaked and muddy. When we reached Lakehouse, Yen Yin(receptionist) was wanting for us with towels. We took the towels gratefully and wiped off some mud and water and we also washed our hands and shoes at a garden tap in order not to make the floor all muddy and dirty. We felt so relieved and thankful that we didn't tumble down the slopes and that we made it back unscathed, except maybe some minor bruises. I never saw our guide again after that, which was sad, I didn't even get a chance to say 'thank you'.

     Next, we back to our hotel room and had a relaxing shower and went to make homemade strawberry jam! It was so fun! You just have to put a bunch of strawberries in a frying pan and fry it. You must stir it while chopping the strawberries to mush. Which will turn in to delicious strawberry jam! Oh, and you must also add sugar. Then continued mushing up strawberries. Mmm, it tasted great!

     After having a fabulous time making strawberry jam, we went to the bar for some delicious High Tea. I have a sweet tooth, so I poured all my milk and sugar into my tea. It tasted like the best thing on earth. Ever since then, I've always liked to drink tea, especially if there's milk and sugar in it.

     After having the best High Tea on earth, I retired back to my room and took a nap and woke up in time for dinner!    

     The dinner was just as heavenly as breakfast. Especially when you just came back from a nightmare. We found out that the fireplace in the Lakehouse was actually a real fireplace! With actual fire! It gave the whole room a warm and cosy glow.

     After that, I went to bed, the comfy bed felt wonderful. I thought back about the trekking and realised how scary it was. Weird that I wasn't scared during trekking but was scared of it afterwards, huh? That night I swore I would never go trekking again. EVER.

     Anyway, that comes to the end of Day 2. Feel free to post comments! Look out for Day three! Coming Soon...

                                                                                                                                ~Xiao Pang

The hill behind the Lakehouse was where we went Jungle Trekking!

The wooden tracking sticks, which let me hold on to them when there's nothing else to hold on to.

Look how high up we are!

From high we were, we could even see the hill far far away!

Wow. It's the first time I've ever seen a chimney! It's the chimney of the Foster and Cameron Suite.

The yummyest High Tea. :) Yum.

The traditional authentic English Tea snacks. So delicious that I ate them all up quickly!

Help! I'm burning!

Xiao Pang in Cameron Highlands Day 1

     Hello! This is Xiao Pang again! Today I am going to tell you about my 5 day 4 night trip to Cameron Highlands, Malaysia! It was fun!

     The trip started at night on 14th December 2014. We went to Golden Mile Complex near Nicoll Highway MRT Station. We waited for a long time and it was very boring. Finally, the coach arrived after a million years. We board the the coach and we set off!

     On the coach, I had to eat some disgusting sugar-coated ginger as I had motion sickness. Yuck. Then we rode the coach to Second Link and had to get down the coach to scan my passport, I think it's such a hassle to have to get down the bus every time we reach a checkpoint. I mean the coach was really comfy. After a ginormous bunch of checkpoints, we FINALLY reach Cameron Highlands!

     We had some prata and milo for breakfast as it was already morning when we reached Cameron Highlands. Then the Titiwangsa Tours and Travel guy called Kumar arranged for a van to take us to our hotel called Lakehouse. It was beautiful!

     The staff was very friendly, especially Yen Yin, who helped us carry some of our luggage upstairs. We admired the hotel for some time before we went to the complimentary free shuttle service to Tanah Rata, which is a a small town nearby. We learnt later that Tanah means ground and Rata means flat in Malay. So Tanah Rata means 'Flat Ground'. It is named that way because it is the only flat ground in the mountain regions of Cameron Highlands.

     At Tanah Rata the wasn't much to do other than eat and shop. So we spent a long time choosing where to eat and we finally pick a place and had lunch, which tasted pretty nice. Then we went to the stall which we were set up on the roadside, there we bought two gigantic rainbow umbrellas and a plush snake, which was quite heavy. We also bought some food, I didn't have much appetite as I just had my lunch, which was a pity, the food was delicious. We also bougth a bunch of stuff and walked around mindlessly to kill time. Soon, it was time to leave Tanah Rata. The free shuttle service was a van and the driver is very nice though he doesn't talk much. I'll talk more about him on Day 2. Anyway, he drived us there and back. We returned to the hotel and did some random things to kill time.

     Soon, it was night, and I watched the television until I was so tired I finally went to bed. It took some time for me to sleep which was normal for me, even though the bed was nice and comfy. But I eventually dozed off and that was the end of Day 1!

     Keep reading my blog for Day 2, which is coming soon! See you next time! :)

                                                                                                                               ~Xiao Pang

The exterior of the beautiful Lakehouse!

Doesn't it look like an old English cottage?

Live in the old days!

A nice chandelier in the lobby!

The Christmas Tree gives me a warm and cosy feeling. :)

Sitting beside the Christmas Tree makes me feel so peaceful.

Nicest Christmas Tree EVER.

Let's go to Tanah Rata!

A lovely school in a lovely place. I wouldn't mind going to such a school!

What an antique looking fan!

Zzzzz...zzz