Cameron Highlands Trip: Day 1

We're now at Cameron Highlands - honeymoon no 4. I'm writing this from our room..

Cameron Highlands Day 1 (Friday):

I went through a hard time few weeks ago. Thats why Khalis brought me to Umbai and planned for our Cameron trip this week.

We left home at 1030. At first he drove and then I drove from Rawang to Tg Malim. And he continued until we reached Tanah Rata. I havent been to Cameron for years and I didnt remember how bad the road was. Long and winding journey! Khalis was an extremely good driver. Its the first time in my whole life that I actually reached Cameron without even the slightest bit of nausea. When we got there, naturally, we checked in first.

The hotel is just 2 mints away (by foot) from the main road (or the city itself). Our room is ok. A lil bit small but its clean, pretty basic but we get what we need. Most of the guests here are mat salleh and I was surprised that the hotel (actually its not a hotel la..guesthouse je la kot) is fully booked.

The temp outside is just nice but a lil bit colder in our room. The room doesnt have aircond or fan coz there's no need for one. And the air is so fresh!

What we did during the day:
We planned to have our lunch in tanah rata but accidentally drove all the way to Brinchang! We went to one of the foodcourts and I had rice+telur bungkus+tea and Khalis had nasi goreng kg+tomyam+horlicks. Traders/farmers were setting up their stalls when we got there, so we checked out some of the stalls. We bought fried mushroom (I love cendawan goreng, I love cendawan goreng, I love cendawan goreng, I love cendawan goreng!!) sweet potato,jagung bakar and 6 packets of dried fruits (so cheap!! just RM10 for 6!!). I could totally live here. The vege is super cheap - Ten packets for RM12!!

Dried fruits


Then we went to Boh. Going to Bharat would be easier but Khalis prefer Boh coz its the first one in cameron. when we got there, its already 420 and the teashop closes at 430. But we didnt care and ordered our food anyway. We loved the surroundings. Everywhere was green and the aromatic scent of tea.

View from the parking lot
The tea shop

Scone! A must have here (baru feeling UK sket)
Then we went to the view point. The journey up the hill was 174m and we got there panting coz its really steep.

View from the View Point
Spot the head!


We didnt do much at night. Had our dinner at an indian restaurant in tanah rata. I ordered chicken soup and khalis ordered mee mamak. Then we pusing2 town - went in and out all souvenir shops that were opened but bought nothing.

Its really cold at night. Now I'm shivering in my room

Umbai Trip

I wrote this last week which means it actually happened 2 weeks ago

Khalis wanted to cheer me up so Saturday last week he suggested that we spend the night elsewhere. We discussed the options available and decided to go to Bagan Lalang.. While packing our things, Khalis suddenly changed his mind and decided to go to Umbai instead. There was only one hotel/chalet in Umbai that we could find on the net.. I was lil bit unsure coz we couldnt find any pics of its rooms.. but we booked a room there for 1 night anyway.

We gerak at 12pm and reached bandar hilir at 2pm. I'd never been to Melaka before (I mean, like really visit the places there).. I didnt really take lots of pic in the city..coz being listed in Unesco World Heritage City its not like the city's gonna change pon. I wanted to try nyonya food, but we're both not familiar with Melaka city so we ended up having lunch @ the foodcourt in this new mall at Dataran Pahlawan. So we had nasi ayam penyet and bakso soup. Nothing special with the food I guess..


We arrived at the chalet at 345pm.. From outside it was ok..It had a kampung feel to it..See the pics below..not bad eh?


Our room


But once we got into out room, it was totally a different story...Lets just say this - I've never stayed in a room any worse than this. I couldnt even bring myself to take photos of the room. and I dont wish to disclose the name of the establishment coz it could be pretty damaging to them as there are lotsa ppl out there who are like me - decide on the place to stay based on the reviews we read on the net. Plus, its a bumiputra-owned.

I kept thinking maybe its bcoz we got the worst room. Our room was the only room in the reception+dining hall building itself. They had the music on most of the time and it was really loud. The dining hall was above our room. My suspicion was that its the kitchen area coz we could hear screeches and loud bangs on its floor (i.e. our ceiling).. They did very lousy job with the paint and there're cracks on the wall. Right next to our window was the main walkway and there were few benches where other guests/employees often lepak2 at. We could hear every single thing they were discussing.

The bed and pillows were really hard. And the pillows were flat and dirty (without the cover) that if I post the pic here, nobody would go there. And the toilet - it wasnt exactly dirty, but was built with the cheapest stuff they could find on earth.

I'm not fussy. In the past when we went traveling we always chose cheap B&Bs...but this one was really really bad

The sole reason we went to Umbai was for the seafood. I tot that Umbai Terapung was the only seafood place in Umbai but there were actually a few of them. Khalis called his dad and he recommended the very first seafood place in Umbai, Parameswara at Umbai Pernu.

We ordered:

Fruits

Otak2

Siakap Bakar Plain - The siakap there were all huge.

Sotong Goreng Tepung (This was just sekor)

Pari Bakar Sambal

Razor clam masak sambal

We only ordered 4 dishes and still, we couldnt finish all.

And my verdict. Not the best I've tried. Everything was only so-so. And I aint coming back. and its not just me. Khalis too.

So we played this game - How Much. And I won. Khalis's number was RM20 higher while mine's only RM4. (both of us had no knowledge of the price/kg of everything). When it comes to money-related stuff, I'm always right. And he knows that he's no match for me.

Happy Birthday to me

Today is my birthday!!

So yesterday Khalis belanja me pre-birthday dinner. I got to choose the place. At first, we agreed on VS. Then in the afternoon when my head was clear and I could think properly, I had a change of mind. I dont like western cuisine that much, and when I said VS, I actually wanted just their soups. So we went to Sakae instead - familiar place and familiar food. I actually planned to eat a lot - but there's only so much sushi one can eat. (I really dont get it. when I make my own sushi, 5 rolls are never enough. But when I eat outside, I cant even finish 10 pieces.)

And earlier that day, I had pre-birthday lunch with my Cardiff homey,Umi. We went to this Burmese restaurant at Sogo. Food was ok and I had a great time catching up with her + korek2 gossip about other Cardiff people.

My colleagues actually planned to buy me a cake (a surprise) but bcoz of the shocking announcement, everyone just xde mood.

And me, I decided to to give myself something that lasts forever - ilmu.

I feel that my english is below par and something needs to be done pronto. I hope to improve my grammar and write better.

But I'm the happiest today coz Khalis just gave me a birthday card. I love cards from him. Nobody writes like he does.


And we're gonna have birthday lunch today. again, Khalis let me decide. and I chose satay - something that we both love.

I cant help but feeling a lil bit sentimental today. And the office too, seems gloomy.
Our Big Boss held a meeting just now to announce that he's leaving and will start at his new office Monday next week. Its very sudden and everyone's shocked. Although now when I think about it, everything (doubts and questions that I had in the past) now just fell into places. He's bringing 3 other very smart+capable people from this dept. It will not be easy there and the risk he's taking is huge.
It has no significant impact on our team. Our boss will still be around. But a few might be seconded elsewhere (but this has nothing to do with big boss leaving)

Its just 22 days into 2010. And already, we've lost 5 ppl.

Gelang Story

Khalis bought me 3 gelangs from Sabah..
but ceritanye begini..

On his way to KK airport, I called him
Me: So what did you buy for me?
he said: takde pape lah..coz you didnt tell me what you want
Me: Ok..I want udang kering (Not that I know what to do with udang kering, but just because I heard thats what ppl usually bring back from Sabah)
He said: Ok, will try

Then I called him again, letting him know that I was gonna be back late.

He said: then you wouldnt get the udang.
Me: takpelah, put the udang in the fridge dulu.
He said: But this udang I bought bleh pkai kat tangan...

So when I came back, Khalis was already asleep and the gelangs were on my side of the bed. I put one of them on pegi office the next day.

I dont care if the gelangs were made of real pearls (but good thing is, they were!). Its the thought that counts.

The gelangs

And these I've-never-seen-before fish. I seriously dont know what to do with them

Crow Lake

This is my all-time favourite. I've re-read it so many times and I think it gets better everytime I do.


This particular review put into words what I think of this book

"The success of Mary Lawson's tender, vibrant first novel Crow Lake has been the sort of Cinderella story that gives middle-aged women writers (this one included) a lot of hope. It's one of those "overnight sensation after 20 years of effort" scenarios that implies a great deal of moral fiber and perseverance in the author. This trait of steadfastness (dare I say faith?) sounds loud and clear in the novel itself, which is so deep and dimensional, so polished and true, that it makes you wonder why agents weren't pounding down her door long before this.

But such are the vagaries of the publishing biz. The important thing is that someone finally gave the 55-year-old Lawson a break, so that we now get to enjoy a heart-tuggingly beautiful piece of work by an author who clearly knows what she is doing.

The opening paragraph is a stunner:

My great-grandmother Morrison fixed a book rest to her spinning wheel so that she could read while she was spinning, or so the story goes. And one Saturday evening she became so absorbed in her book that when she looked up, she found that it was half past midnight and she had spun for half an hour on the Sabbath day. Back then, that counted as a major sin.

This passage tells us volumes about the Morrison clan -- their unquenchable passion for learning squashed down hard by an iron sense of duty. But it reveals even more about our narrator Kate, a 26-year-old woman reflecting back on her anguished childhood from the seemingly safe vantage point of worldly success as a professor of invertebrate biology.

Four hundred miles away from the tiny northern community she grew up in, the adult Kate has supposedly won the ultimate Morrison prize: she is educated, she has escaped rural impoverishment and isolation, and she is making her way by her wits. But with all her apparent advantages, Kate is anything but free. In fact the past has a stranglehold on her so life-choking that it has left her almost unable to feel. Her backward reflections are an attempt to probe the course of her life to determine just exactly where she lost herself.

"Memories. I'm not in favor of them, by and large. Not that there aren't some good ones, but on the whole I'd like to put them in an airtight cupboard and close the door." Well might Kate fear memories, for at the tender age of seven her small world shattered in an instant when both her parents were killed in a catastrophic car accident.

They had gone into town to buy a suitcase. The fact that the Morrison family didn't even own one reveals worlds about their isolation in Crow Lake, but the suitcase is a powerful symbol of the fact that one of them was about to get out. Kate's older brother Luke, 19 years old and a diligent student, has just won a scholarship for teacher's college -- a sort of miracle for a family in which finishing high school was a luxury only earned after generations of sacrifice and toil.

The best of times, elation over Luke's breakthrough, turns into the very worst with a sickening crash. In a blinding instant four children are orphaned: Luke, 17-year-old Matt, Kate, and baby Bo who is only 18 months old.

Many reviewers have interpreted Crow Lake as the story of how a family copes with sudden and massive bereavement, and it is that. But Lawson imbues her writing with such liquid depths that it becomes a delicate prose-poem on the theme of relationship. At the heart of the novel is Kate's intense and nearly worshipful connection to her gifted brother, Matt, who ignites her lifelong love of science by taking her down to the ponds to observe the wonder of wild things:

Sticklebacks were drifting aimlessly about. The breeding season was over so it was hard to tell the males and the females apart. When they were breeding the males were very beautiful, with red underparts and silvery scales on their backs and brilliant blue eyes...

"What do the females do?" I'd asked him.

"Oh, laze around. Go to tea parties. Gossip with their friends. You know what females are like."

"No, but really Matt. What do they do?"

"I don't know. Eat a lot, probably. Probably they need to recover their strength after producing all those eggs."

The idyllic atmosphere Lawson creates in these trips to the ponds tugs at all of us who can remember gleaming jewels of magic even in the midst of the most turbulent childhood. But this poem to relationship extends far beyond Kate's adulation of her brother.

The fiercely loving yet heated rivalry between Matt and Luke (the "responsible" one) is one of the most realistic portrayals of brotherly war in recent literature. It's a tender battle, but the two can be wild as snorting stallions with each other, and sometimes even come to blows. Luke is determined to make the supreme sacrifice of his education and future in order to hold the traumatized family together, but Matt hates the gut-twisting guilt this near-martyrdom stirs up in him.

And then there are the Pyes. Just off-camera, this neighboring farming family endures another sort of trauma, the chronic, escalating generational cycle of violence begetting violence. The Morrisons and the Pyes are entwined by more than the fact that the boys make a little extra money helping out on the farm. They are caught in a sort of deadlock that becomes much more than psychological by the novel's end.

Kate's life as an esteemed professor should be rich, but in fact is peculiarly barren and bloodless. For the first time in her life she is becoming seriously interested in a man, a fellow professor named Daniel, and it is almost more than she can endure: "You must understand: I had never thought that I would really love anyone. It hadn't been on the cards, as far as I was concerned. To be honest, I had thought that such intensity of feeling was beyond me."

Intensity of feeling is not beyond her at all, but merely deeply repressed, a survival mechanism for coping with massive grief (but also a living out of the Morrison family edict: "Thou Shalt Not Emote"). This repression and its steep, life-sapping cost is familiar to so many of us who grew up with families where tightlipped reserve was the norm.

There is a sense in Crow Lake of pent-up energy, of something about to burst open or explode, but it never quite happens. Lawson is so masterful at describing the trauma of small children that it sometimes shocked me into tears, as in this hair-raising passage where Matt and Luke physically fight:

I thought the walls of the house would shatter and fall down around us. I thought the end of the world had come. And then I knew it had, because in the middle of all the uproar a movement beside me caught my eye and I looked down and saw Bo shaking so that even her hair seemed to vibrate. She'd gone rigid, her arms sticking down stiffly at her sides, fingers spread, and her mouth was open wide and tears were pouring down her face but she wasn't making a sound.

Betrayal is another major theme. Given the dizzying pedestal Matt had to stand on all through Kate's childhood, how could he fail to fall? Yet a chance for a kind of reconciliation comes up when Kate receives an invitation to the 18th birthday party of Matt's son Simon. At first she won't even consider inviting Daniel, so deep is her reserve and mistrust (not to mention a certain embarrassment about taking him to Crow Lake). But in his own gentle way Daniel has the means to unlock the airless vault of Kate's heart. This leads her to the kind of painful, hard-won insight that is literally life-changing.

Lawson gets everything right here, especially the minor characters -- the good folks of Crow Lake who demonstrate a bustling kindness to the bereaved family, and in particular the toddler Bo, a howling, drippy-nosed little terror who somehow comes across as endearing. And the writing is sometimes groaningly beautiful:

Some days thousands of milkweed pods would burst open together, triggered by the heat of the sun; thousands and thousands of small silent explosions repeating themselves in salvos down the miles of tracks. On those days I walked through clouds of silken down drifting about like smoke in the morning breeze.

Poetry, indeed. Mary Lawson is a treasure, a new voice maturing into her gift in mid-life. A younger writer never would have caught all these nuances. Let us rejoice in the discovery of this subtle, graceful, late-blooming talent"

Khalis is going to KK today. His flight was supposed to depart at 2, but it's delayed/canceled so he's now waiting for the next flight. But good news is, he'll be gone for only 2 days and will be home by midnite tomorrow. He asked me whether I wanted mutiara sabah..Of coz la I x nak..coz I'm wearing tudung so there's no point having one..unless its 2 ft long..=P
But I'm gonna him miss tonite..sedehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Its Saturday today and I'm in the office...I'm now raking my brain.. I need ideas, data and solutions! I need them fast!