*Ehem* As I was saying, I went to Cameron Highlands... again! *wind blows*
This time I went with my be kor and her husband (my uncle lah) and their 2 kids aka my little cousins. We went for 3 days and 2 nights and stayed at Natasya Resort which is in the middle of everywhere we went. Natasya Resort is in the same grounds of Equatorial Hotel. So convenient! :D Okay, although the location is good, the apartment wasn't that pretty if you compare it with the photos in the gallery of the website click here. Wait. NO, don't click! I should lower your expectations because the lower the expectation, the lower the disappointment right? It's not that the room we stayed in is not nice, it's just that the pictures look better. Haih. The ugly truth. Always indah rupa dari khabar.
Right. And we took about 500-600 plus photos in that 3 days time. For the sake of posting this blog post, I have narrowed down to about half and into 3 categories :
Day 1 (Friday) - 92
Day 2 (Saturday)- 157
Day 3 (Sunday) -28
Which is still too many. Gahhhh!!! We took so many nice photos that I can't possibly choose which one to delete/not to post here. T.T I need help. Aiya really cannot la. I can't bear to not include them in my blog! :(
So here's Day 1!
We went jungle trekking to see the largest flower known, the Rafflesia. We travelled for 45 minutes on a Land Rover from Equatorial Hotel to somewhere... I don't know where, I didn't ask and there wasn't any signboard to indicate where we were. And then we had to trek for 1 hour and 30 minutes to see the Rafflesia.
Our little jungle trekking started off with this kind of earthy trail. It was very steep at the beginning, and after about 15 minutes (I think) then we were able to trek on a horizontally flat ground.
Before coming, my aunt and uncle told me to bring salt in case there we slugs and told me to be very careful when I walk because there could be snakes. OMG I was so scared the entire time and I looked nervously from left to right and up and down before I take each step. And then there were also bees. They just zoomed right in front of your faces at amazingly high speed that sends your heart racing. I kept thinking "Omg what if the bees miscalculated their paths and ends up flying into my face? Who knows if I am allergic to bee stings and then my whole face will blow up into a big balloon for the entire trip?" Okay. I over thought. Like I always do. Hahahaha. So stupid of me.
And that is when I heard a loud hissing sound. I stopped and tried to stand as still as possible. I had accidently watched Anaconda and Snakes on The Plane. Accidently because I never intended to watch horror and thriller movies. Because I'll be forever scared. Then I tried to calm myself and turn to look around to see if I can see any snakes near me. I noticed something black.... it's long... and it's it's....
After hiking for about 45 minutes, when everyone was getting tired, our tour guide, Francis had suddenly stopped and turned around. Thinking that a Rafflesia was very close, I got excited. And then he said, everyone, take a look a this flower. So everyone quickly whipped out their cameras and smart phones to take a picture of this flower. And then Francis said, this is the ginger flower. Haih. We are so gullible. Kena tipu. Thought we didn't have to walk for 1 and a hour hours.
Although this picture failed to show the steepness of this trail (failed photographer), I am here to say that I thought this was the hardest part of the entire hike. It is so steep that based on my calculations, it should be inclined at a 10 degree angle. No kidding. That's what I thought. Don't believe me then you go and experience it for yourself before you judge me. Being a person who is so afraid of heights, I tried to lower my center of gravity to avoid falling down. So I squat-ed down and make small hops like a rabbit to go down. Seriously thought this would be the end of me.
This experience is definitely a new and hard challenge. We had to walk under a fallen tree, walk over another fallen tree, cross a bamboo bridge, jump over stones to get to the other side of a river, etc. And then there's another problem. Francis has been in this line for over 15 years and he said he climb this same hill/ trek this jungle every single day. Imagine his stamina la. So damn good. He walks really fast and we, the orang-orang bandar who rarely exercise had a hard time keeping up with his steps. A few times we shouted "Wait up" and then he stopped while we catch our breathes and sip some water while he looked bored, without a hint of feeling tired.
And then finally... like finally... We reach a spot. The official term these people say to refer to a place where there's a Rafflesia. Because the grow at different places and the spots are always different.
People say that this flower has a pungent smell. But all I could smell was the mosquito repellent I sprayed all over myself beforehand. Because I attract mosquitos. Lots of them.
Fact #1 about the Rafflesia is, they attract bugs.
There's a lot of bugs flying around the flower. So taking a photo next to a Rafflesia is kinda hard because of all the bugs flying around. Which might hit your face. A few times.
Fact #2 Rafflesia stinks (According to everyone).
And because it smells and there's so many bugs like mosquitos, flies, bees, etc, you kinda feel like you're taking a photo next to garbage. Hahahaha
Fact #3 Rafflesia take years to germinate
Fact #4 Rafflesia takes about 20 hours to open and when fully opened, it lasts for only a week before it spoils, into that big, black cao tah thingy
Fact #5 That small, red cabbage look-a-like thingy is actually a baby/seed of the Rafflesia.
It takes 9 months for a Rafflesia to grow from this small cabbage to a big grown flower. And like a baby, there's a possibility that it can spoil and rot inside the cabbage and just die, unable to blossom into a flower.
Fact #5 Rafflesia is named Rafflesia after the person who discovered it.
It is discovered by a British man. A very famous penjajah. Can you guess who is it? It is the infamous Stamford Raffles.
Although this Rafflesia that we saw wasn't a very big one (the biggest species can grow up to about 100cm in diameter), Francis told us that this particular species of Rafflesia we are seeing that day is a very rare species. He said that the last time he saw this species was about 9 years ago and that we are very lucky to be able to see this flower.
Francis is explaining to us that we cannot eat this wild banana because it's poisonous. Ngawww... Minions would be dissapointed. Unlike normal edible bananas which grows downwards, this wild banana grows upwards. Defying gravity, defying the gods. Hence, it's inedible. Francis did mention something about the colour.... which I forgot. Because of my poor memory. Haih. Oh well, moving on.
This is the shoots of the banana tree and why am I showing you this? According to Francis, if you accidently swallow (or was it inhale? I forgot which already) this small, black spores that sticks to the stem, it will flow into your bloodstream and sticks to your organs. And then maybe 10 years later it will puncture your organ and you will die.
[WARNING : The information above might be wrong because of the very bad memory the writer has. TQ]
The aborigines used to use this yellow flower as a anaesthetic or painkiller to ease any pains. So if you fell or cut yourself in the jungle, look out for this flower okay? Just slightly crush them and put it over your wound and it will numb the place. It is also safe to use for a toothache. You dont believe right? Just try to leave some on your tongue. Ask my cousin Lucas who did exactly that because he didn't believe Francis. The brave boy accepted Francis' challenge and eventually complained that his tongue was numb. Hahahha
So after having seen the Rafflesia, it's another 1 and a half hours walk back to the Land Rover we left at the bottom of the hill/jungle. Down there was a big group of orang asli. Don't worry, they're fully clothed. Just so you know, in case you are wondering whether or not they only wear a small piece of cloth. And they have their traditional weapon in which they use to hunt. It's a long, wooden pipe with small wooden darts. You can try your hand at it, if you want...
What you have to do is just put the small darts inside the hole and blow it out. Francis said that he wouldn't recommend that because "You know how there's so many people who tried it out and everyone's saliva is there... If you are okay with that, then by all means, go try it out." At first I was like, Yeah! I wanna try it out. See how well I can aim the target. And then he planted that thinking into my head and I was appalled by the idea of putting my lips on something that everyone already did. Yuck. And then he said, or if you want, you can buy the pipe.
Everyone felt really tired after that 3 hour jungle trekking and our legs felt as if they were about to fall off. No kidding. Feels like I've stood for the entire day.
[Update]
If anyone of you are interested in the jungle trekking, you can contact Francis at 0165051514. It is RM60 for an adult. But I think you have to call and arrange with him because I don't think there's always a fully bloomed Rafflesia.
Okay, so after that, we went to have our lunch nearby and after that, we went to someplace (idk where) to do the touristy stuffs.
This place is really nice for photos leh.
This place we went is so awesome. Know why? ............................................... *drum rolls*
Because they have a variety of food with strawberries here!!! 46 types of desserts! :D
Gahhhhh I'm drooling right now. Plus, it's not very expensive. Very affordable and reasonably priced.
We went to The Smokehouse in hopes that we can take nice pictures there but they only allow in-house guests to enter. See? They put up a barrier and even have guards to make sure we cannot enter :( And it costs around RM400+ to RM680+ to stay per night. But worry not! If you still want to go in and take pictures, you can go there for a simple meal and sunbian go and camwhore all you want. But I think you will have to prepare to pay a crazy amount of money la.
Then off we went to the pasar malam at 5 o'clock. Most of the stalls sell the same things.
After that we went back to the hotel. Phew. So tired after the jungle trekking and all the walking. Took a bath, went out for dinner then came back to watch tv before sleeping. At freaking 9pm. But everyone was dead tired, so it's fine. Because we had woken up at 4.30am and left the house at 5.00am and travelled from Klang all the way to Cameron Highlands that morning. Just so we could go jungle trekking to see the Rafflesia at 9am.
Okay. That's the end of the first day. Wahhh so damn tired now la. I took a few days to upload all the pictures and then I took 5 hours to type all this. So easy for you to just scroll through this entire blog post but so hard for me to post this. Haih. The difference between amateurs like me and professionals like fourfeetnine is that I take a very long time to produce a blogpost while this would probably take only 30 minutes of their time. And since our trip is a 3D2N trip, I'm probably gonna have to sit in front of the computer for another 2 or 3 more days to produce Part 2 and Part 3.
THE END
So here's Day 1!
We went to the site on this Land Rover, but we only travelled on the tar road with this
Our little jungle trekking started off with this kind of earthy trail. It was very steep at the beginning, and after about 15 minutes (I think) then we were able to trek on a horizontally flat ground.
The view from the top. The road is actually very far below from where my feet is, but somehow it doesn't show in this pic. Hmmmm
After that exhausting 15 minute climb
Yay no service up here
Not even halfway there and I had already soiled my shoes.
Yeap I stepped in a puddle of mud
Before coming, my aunt and uncle told me to bring salt in case there we slugs and told me to be very careful when I walk because there could be snakes. OMG I was so scared the entire time and I looked nervously from left to right and up and down before I take each step. And then there were also bees. They just zoomed right in front of your faces at amazingly high speed that sends your heart racing. I kept thinking "Omg what if the bees miscalculated their paths and ends up flying into my face? Who knows if I am allergic to bee stings and then my whole face will blow up into a big balloon for the entire trip?" Okay. I over thought. Like I always do. Hahahaha. So stupid of me.
And that is when I heard a loud hissing sound. I stopped and tried to stand as still as possible. I had accidently watched Anaconda and Snakes on The Plane. Accidently because I never intended to watch horror and thriller movies. Because I'll be forever scared. Then I tried to calm myself and turn to look around to see if I can see any snakes near me. I noticed something black.... it's long... and it's it's....
A pipe. A long black pipe. Probably carrying water. -_- Thank you very much for frightening myself. Idiot
Ootd. Yes, that's a cute turtle bag. Which I borrowed from my little cousin
With the owner of the turtle bag, my little cousin, Legolas.
Who happens to share the same birthday with me :D
After hiking for about 45 minutes, when everyone was getting tired, our tour guide, Francis had suddenly stopped and turned around. Thinking that a Rafflesia was very close, I got excited. And then he said, everyone, take a look a this flower. So everyone quickly whipped out their cameras and smart phones to take a picture of this flower. And then Francis said, this is the ginger flower. Haih. We are so gullible. Kena tipu. Thought we didn't have to walk for 1 and a hour hours.
A ginger flower
Although this picture failed to show the steepness of this trail (failed photographer), I am here to say that I thought this was the hardest part of the entire hike. It is so steep that based on my calculations, it should be inclined at a 10 degree angle. No kidding. That's what I thought. Don't believe me then you go and experience it for yourself before you judge me. Being a person who is so afraid of heights, I tried to lower my center of gravity to avoid falling down. So I squat-ed down and make small hops like a rabbit to go down. Seriously thought this would be the end of me.
This is either another part of the same ginger plant or another species of ginger
This is my aunt. Beside the giant bamboo plant.
This experience is definitely a new and hard challenge. We had to walk under a fallen tree, walk over another fallen tree, cross a bamboo bridge, jump over stones to get to the other side of a river, etc. And then there's another problem. Francis has been in this line for over 15 years and he said he climb this same hill/ trek this jungle every single day. Imagine his stamina la. So damn good. He walks really fast and we, the orang-orang bandar who rarely exercise had a hard time keeping up with his steps. A few times we shouted "Wait up" and then he stopped while we catch our breathes and sip some water while he looked bored, without a hint of feeling tired.
Meet Francis. Our tour guide
He stopped and shared a few facts regarding the Rafflesia as we were waiting for the group ahead of us to finish marveling and taking pictures with the Rafflesia. Sometimes we had to speed up because the next group was catching up behind us and sometimes we have to slow down to leave some distance for the group ahead of us.
And then finally... like finally... We reach a spot. The official term these people say to refer to a place where there's a Rafflesia. Because the grow at different places and the spots are always different.
Tadahhh!!! It's the mighty Rafflesia. The largest flower on earth.
Did I already mention that?
People say that this flower has a pungent smell. But all I could smell was the mosquito repellent I sprayed all over myself beforehand. Because I attract mosquitos. Lots of them.
Fact #1 about the Rafflesia is, they attract bugs.
There's a lot of bugs flying around the flower. So taking a photo next to a Rafflesia is kinda hard because of all the bugs flying around. Which might hit your face. A few times.
Fact #2 Rafflesia stinks (According to everyone).
And because it smells and there's so many bugs like mosquitos, flies, bees, etc, you kinda feel like you're taking a photo next to garbage. Hahahaha
Fact #3 Rafflesia take years to germinate
Fact #4 Rafflesia takes about 20 hours to open and when fully opened, it lasts for only a week before it spoils, into that big, black cao tah thingy
Fact #5 That small, red cabbage look-a-like thingy is actually a baby/seed of the Rafflesia.
It takes 9 months for a Rafflesia to grow from this small cabbage to a big grown flower. And like a baby, there's a possibility that it can spoil and rot inside the cabbage and just die, unable to blossom into a flower.
Fact #5 Rafflesia is named Rafflesia after the person who discovered it.
It is discovered by a British man. A very famous penjajah. Can you guess who is it? It is the infamous Stamford Raffles.
Although this Rafflesia that we saw wasn't a very big one (the biggest species can grow up to about 100cm in diameter), Francis told us that this particular species of Rafflesia we are seeing that day is a very rare species. He said that the last time he saw this species was about 9 years ago and that we are very lucky to be able to see this flower.
A orang asli who helps us when we come to a difficult path
Here he is pictured pulling Legolas who had a very hard time.
The guy with the mustache. Our orang asli who maked our trip easier.
Wild bananas
Francis is explaining to us that we cannot eat this wild banana because it's poisonous. Ngawww... Minions would be dissapointed. Unlike normal edible bananas which grows downwards, this wild banana grows upwards. Defying gravity, defying the gods. Hence, it's inedible. Francis did mention something about the colour.... which I forgot. Because of my poor memory. Haih. Oh well, moving on.
[WARNING : The information above might be wrong because of the very bad memory the writer has. TQ]
The aborigines used to use this yellow flower as a anaesthetic or painkiller to ease any pains. So if you fell or cut yourself in the jungle, look out for this flower okay? Just slightly crush them and put it over your wound and it will numb the place. It is also safe to use for a toothache. You dont believe right? Just try to leave some on your tongue. Ask my cousin Lucas who did exactly that because he didn't believe Francis. The brave boy accepted Francis' challenge and eventually complained that his tongue was numb. Hahahha
Going downhill. I felt that going downhill is much scarier and harder than going uphill. Because you feel like you are going to fall and hit yourself in the face.
So after having seen the Rafflesia, it's another 1 and a half hours walk back to the Land Rover we left at the bottom of the hill/jungle. Down there was a big group of orang asli. Don't worry, they're fully clothed. Just so you know, in case you are wondering whether or not they only wear a small piece of cloth. And they have their traditional weapon in which they use to hunt. It's a long, wooden pipe with small wooden darts. You can try your hand at it, if you want...
What you have to do is just put the small darts inside the hole and blow it out. Francis said that he wouldn't recommend that because "You know how there's so many people who tried it out and everyone's saliva is there... If you are okay with that, then by all means, go try it out." At first I was like, Yeah! I wanna try it out. See how well I can aim the target. And then he planted that thinking into my head and I was appalled by the idea of putting my lips on something that everyone already did. Yuck. And then he said, or if you want, you can buy the pipe.
Everyone felt really tired after that 3 hour jungle trekking and our legs felt as if they were about to fall off. No kidding. Feels like I've stood for the entire day.
A picture with Francis, our tour guide
[Update]
If anyone of you are interested in the jungle trekking, you can contact Francis at 0165051514. It is RM60 for an adult. But I think you have to call and arrange with him because I don't think there's always a fully bloomed Rafflesia.
Okay, so after that, we went to have our lunch nearby and after that, we went to someplace (idk where) to do the touristy stuffs.
My extremely dry hair which looks brown in the sun. Nope, I didn't dye my hair
Captured with my Iphone! Not bad leh ;)
These are real grapes okay? Not plastic ones
Caught camwhoring
This place is really nice for photos leh.
I personally prefer candid shots like this. Hmmm although I should use a higher ISO
so that it's brighter. Or I could just use photoshop. Hahahhaa
This place we went is so awesome. Know why? ............................................... *drum rolls*
Because they have a variety of food with strawberries here!!! 46 types of desserts! :D
Gahhhhh I'm drooling right now. Plus, it's not very expensive. Very affordable and reasonably priced.
Oh, and this is one of the cameras we used for this trip. NX1000. I love it for it's lightweight and amazing results (plus it's white!) but the one thing I hate is that it's not user-friendly, much like how I find Samsung phones are.
Legolas. Very handsome right? :D
The 3 things we ordered
Top left is plain yogurt with caramel and fresh strawberries toppings. On the right is waffles with strawberry jam and vanila ice-cream served with fresh strawberries. At the bottom... My favourite one! Fried strawberry ice-cream!!!
Got so much pretty food to eat. Must take picture first. Lego looks sad because he has cough and flu, so he can't eat. Hehehehe less man, more share!
Omaigoddd!!! I miss this soooo much
See that face? It describes how good the strawberry is. Yes, be jealous
Got so nice and red strawberry must camwhore a bit de ma. Hahaha
My uncle and aunt
There's a claw machine there also. Lucas played and got this little finger puppet.
He's so lucky. So cute right?
Camwhore in the car. Cause there's nothing else to do.
Took the opportunity to take a picture when the 3 other guards go off.
Heheh stood in front of the one remaining guard.
Then off we went to the pasar malam at 5 o'clock. Most of the stalls sell the same things.
Strawberries... strawberries and more strawberries...
HAHAHA found Husky's friends here in Cameron also.
How odd... selling turtle souvenirs in the highlands
After that we went back to the hotel. Phew. So tired after the jungle trekking and all the walking. Took a bath, went out for dinner then came back to watch tv before sleeping. At freaking 9pm. But everyone was dead tired, so it's fine. Because we had woken up at 4.30am and left the house at 5.00am and travelled from Klang all the way to Cameron Highlands that morning. Just so we could go jungle trekking to see the Rafflesia at 9am.
Must camwhore a bit with this cute little thing.
Upon realizing that I happen to have so many green things
Okay. Just one last one before I go bath. HAHAH
Indoor slippers from Daiso because the floors are so cold
Okay. That's the end of the first day. Wahhh so damn tired now la. I took a few days to upload all the pictures and then I took 5 hours to type all this. So easy for you to just scroll through this entire blog post but so hard for me to post this. Haih. The difference between amateurs like me and professionals like fourfeetnine is that I take a very long time to produce a blogpost while this would probably take only 30 minutes of their time. And since our trip is a 3D2N trip, I'm probably gonna have to sit in front of the computer for another 2 or 3 more days to produce Part 2 and Part 3.
THE END
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