2-6th March 2009 (Cameron Highlands)

The first night of this trip was an utter disaster. Because of some... misinformation from my supervisor about my (our, including William's) projects, we had to make extra bags for the leaves up there in Cameron Highlands. So, everyone, 8 in total, helped us sew up those bags till 12am, while William and I finished it up at about 2-3am. I was mainly doing the leaf weighing at that time since I was already so at ease with it, weighing over 150+ bags in a row without stopping, it was insane, sitting on a cold, hard stone floor doing that. It was a really annoying night, with all the most horrible possible things coming at u all at once, my car's right passenger door's lock had to break then too. The lil projection beside the window I mean, I don't even know how it broke, I just touched it and it crumbled in two. We collected this much of a certain kind of leaf (at least we thought we did)

We thought we got at least enough leaves to make the designated amount of bags, but in the end, we identified many wrong ones and had to collect more the following day, which we did. Ficus globosa, we will remember you.

So... mother-ficus, we got screwed over and had to do with what we had for that night and get the remainders the next day. And then the following day, we had to wake up at 7.30am to tie up ALL the mother-fic-ing bags in sets of 6. We also ran outta rope. We had to unravel big ropes to smaller ones to have enough and buy even more for that purpose. Ya know how big ropes are kinda weaved with more smaller ones. I thank Sonja, Tajang and William for all this. And then, some of the tying went bad and I think a bag or two slipped out of those ropes and went missing in the end.. pffft. Lunch at 11.40am before we adjourned to William's stream-site, Pertang.

In Pertang, we were out of breath by the first vertical stretch of hike due to our lack of rest, and then while we're at the end of the trail setting up William's bags, it started raining. It's a 1 hour + hike in, and of course, we had to hike out + get his other bags done before gettin out. It was cold alright, I couldn't feel my hands/legs. My sites in Mt. Irau turned out to be slopes or ledges that can be a lil dangerous to get to, but so far so good. The footholds are breaking up, and I'm glad I've collected the bags that are furthest away first, so I won't have to cross over them again. This night (3rd March) I also forgot to lock my car over dinner when all the laptops were in my carboot.

Okay, got the ugly stuff off me chest, now, the pictures.

One of the biggest revelations that day, Shen's tan. It caught me offguard, a total 'balls-drop' scare when she appeared in a lovely shade of shit-brown.
Lunch at T-cafe in Tanah Rata, where all still seemed fine and dandy. From left: Yong, William, Tse Yuen, Sonja, Cheryl and myself.
Tse Yuen being in touch with his feminine side.
The dude whom I shared the bed with. Yes, that's the 'lovely' bed we shared. ewgh, nothing happened, stop your minds from wandering, please.
The beginning of the Irau trail, with Tajang modelling for our favourite "Bowling" brand hiking shoes (Only RM9!)
The photographer: Yong
A bad shot of a mini pitcher plant, probably the size of.. half an average pinky.
Gluttons unite, corn in cup for everyone at Brinchang market (it was good though).
*walk walk munch munch*
This was taken from across the road where I was hanging out.
Caught in feichai mode.
This is William's site, the very top of it, Sungai Pertang.
Yup, it's a nice pristine cloudforest stream.
Complete with mossy logs.
And waterfalls. It's barely visible behind here.

The catch-the-sunrise attempt the day after the hike. Barely 7am, you'd feel like that too.
Yeap, it came up and it was too cloudy to see, freakin sun.
Blooooo
More skai.
From the tower, we observe a meditator having a gaseous breakfast below.
and beyond the fluffy white bed of clouds..
We saw even more fluffy white clouds filling in the spaces between mountain peaks.
And a stray straw of weed.

The Tajang Kung-Fu series



-end-

Details
If you're free, try clickin on the image above to see the detail captured on this lil picture. I was impressed, whee.
This is what happened to our sunrise, all cloud cover. Sunrays was the next best thing we could have.. Consolation =) Pretty nonetheless
Looks cheerful eh?
And then Shen was caught poopin in public. I mean.. in a poopin position.
The mountain peak rim.

And now, the cliched tea plantation shots.
That are just so beautiful because they are so, not because of my camera/photography skills =D
Not posed for =) William overseas the sea of tea!
The predatorand its prey.
The fertilizer-spraying plane doing its job above the tea plantations. Bleah, not cool.
If I were a dog entering the tea plantations...
.. and I felt like poopin beside the plantations...
I'll first get a good view of the place..
.. and make it eternally etched in my canine memory.

In our leaf bag collection procedure, we employ the use of Turtle brand plastic bags, complete with rafia strings on each bag.De Coleur Inn, the place we stayed where Shukri the man always treated us well.
Cheryl the sister messin with my camera as I drove down those bittersweet highlands.
William, glad to be going home (It ain't over dude).
Sonja, the care-free nut-muncher. Hmm.. maybe not so care-free, but relaxed nonetheless.
The people I met when I got back and didn't wanna drive back to my house after unpacking. I felt like taking a lil chilling session, and that's exactly what I did. An ancient Shim smiling to his phone.
A disgruntled Toneh.
And a camera-shy Dorin =)

It wasn't all that cool when I'm back, some misplaced samples etc made me go to and fro uni a few times that night. Phew, that trip's over, and I wanna stash it deep, deep in the darkest vaults of my memory and never dig it out again unless necessary =D A day from the end of this 5 day trip and I find myself in Kuantan for another trip. WTF.