Cameron Highlands Day 1

When I think about Cameron Highlands
It would be flowers, cool air, mountains, tea, pitcher plants
and RESIDENTIAL BIBLE SCHOOL!
(What a great thing to have RBS reunion last Saturday and today stay in HCC!)
BUT NEVER EVER I THINK OF STRAWBERRIES!!!

Anyway, this time we took another way up to Cameron Highlands.
A shorter way from Benta via Sg Koyan. (it's okay if you don't know this=)
There are currently four routes up to the Camerons.
One which many know is the nostalgically winding nauseating Tapah way.
Some who studied geography more would know the Simpang Pulai way which goes down to Ipoh.
Another one is the Gua Musang way.

The latest to the addition is the Sg Koyan way
made to help Pahang people to get fresher agricultural products
instead of bypassing other states like Perak and Selangor
but directly from Pahang aka Cameron Highlands!
(I'm a proud Pahangite!)
It hasn't really been opened yet, we thought it was.
We were warned of some stretches of road untarred...

And the whole journey does seem peaceful and tranquil.
There are huge tualang trees with big visible wild honey combs
and some baobab-looking trees as if we were in Africa.
Dotted along the way was Pos Betau and some other Orang Asli villages.
There was beautiful morning mist and the zephyr was cooling!

Mana tau reach one stretch there was a guard there saying we can't drive further
after driving about 1 hour plus.
That timid young man said we need a pass from Sg Koyan police station.
Previously we did went to that police station to confirm which was the road to Camerons.
But that policeman said the road is open and ditto.
WHAT PASS?
Now it really feels like a refugee being blocked from fleeing!
Especially when I've just visited some Myanmar Refugee School on Saturday!

The young man said he can let us through
but if anything happens and his supervisors find out
his menial salary will be cut.
So dad "paid" him RM 10 and both cars were allowed to enter.
(My uncle and aunt tagged along too)
Paying highway toll lah we consider it.
Moral dilemma? To bribe or go back to Sg Koyan get pass?
Lord, if we sinned forgive us!

That stretch of uncompleted road was treacherous!
Any moment our car can slide down into the ravines or river.
Just one wrong steer of the wheels, we're dead.
ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Thank God that day was raya and it wasn't from 12-5PM
where the blasting of granite is carried out (this is a rock, geography experts! not grenade).
With much praying, we safely got through in one piece
and saw the signs of civilisation!
Bertam Valley vegetable farms!
Cauliflower (white, green and PURPLE!)
Onions, gao choi, kam jing fa, yuen choi (the sweet soup vege)
tomatoes, peppermint and all kinds of other choi (vege)
This is Mr D's canteen!

We went to a bee farm. Nothing interesting.
Overly commercialized tourism and throat-slitting prices.

AND THANK YOU SO MUCH TO PEOPLE WHO FAIL GEOGRAPHY
AND THINKS THAT CAMERON HIGHLANDS
IS ALL ABOUT STRAWBERRIES!!!!
The first thing we see when we enter Tanah Rata is strawberries.
Loads and loads of them.
Be it pillows, magnets, fresh and dried sickening strawberries, jam and even CALCULATORS!!!
Rows and rows of shops invaded by strawberries.
It's like there's a strawberry monster who casted a spell on all Camerons!
Ish, strawberries!

Anyway, we visited my dad's former employer.
My dad before his college years went to Camerons to work.
He did those butterflies and insect frames.
Like those Form 6 biology students stuff.
WHAT A COOL JOB!
Working at shopping malls or
McD or Giant or wherever is never going to be that fun.

My dad's employer was a really wonderful man.
All his three children were educated and are working overseas.
That above 70 years old man knows how to use Photoshop
and the webcam he uses is HD!
My dad and he have very good boss-employee relationship.
Coz my dad was a very hardworking worker.
And I want to be like him.
Dad brought some freshly dropped Kunyit Durians for his boss.
That old man was very happy and even took photographs to keep it in memory.
(Apparently next day, he was liked the durian so much
that he felt guilty not able to treat us dinner that night
and kept asking us to join him for dim sum breakfast next day!)

His wife was very hospitable and serve us red wine and hot milo!
All of my three siblings tasted some red wine.
Not really nice but we smiled. I personally find SAGC's wine better.
(Yeah, Christians have this "sacrament" called drinking the cup,
something Jesus asked Christians to do to remember Him.
And a little bit of wine is healthy.
So I drink a few mL of wine every Sunday to remember what Jesus did on the cross.
Don't get me wrong, Christians are not encouraging excessive drinking!)

Then, about 3PM we checked into HCC.
I saw Kak Tutip and Aunty Kam Fong
Two wonderful people who cooked food for the whole bunch RBS students like me.
HCC now is so nostalgic.
Too bad I didn't get to meet Isaac Tan.

Evening time, we went to Brinchang's night market.
And you know what, it's the CURSE OF STRAWBERRIES again!
EVERYWHERE is flooded with that detestable fruit.
Now I have thoughts it's the fruit that Eve and Adam ate!

All the stalls were selling dried strawberries mixed with honey.
Cameron's must have an oversupply of strawberries!
It's crazy! And as an economics student, I'm going to be rational.
Since it's a perfect competition market, it does no harm comparing prices.
All of them are same packaging and with some "tawar-menawar", one can get a good deal!

Calvin's guide to buy dried strawberries in Camerons:
[1] Don't buy it at tourist attraction centres which have no competitors. Competition keep prices low.
[2] Don't buy stalls that are at the front of the market. Normally they use their location to get you buy at a higher price. You'll regret very much as you continue to walk down the market and see prices lowering down as well. Don't get unnecessary depression and heartache!
[3] At my time the minimum price I checked was 1 kg of dried strawberries for RM20 and get a free packet of 100g dried strawberries.
[4] How to choose good dried strawberries? Choose the ones that are wet ones, it means they are just marinated with honey. They can be kept longer. The dry dry ones are in stock for a long time already.
[5] How to store strawberries? You can keep them at room temperature. (Some say can refrigerate but others say cannot, so dried strawberries: ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK TO THE REFRIGERATOR!)

Word of caution: My dad's employer said that many of these dried strawberries are from China, not Camerons. To meet those strawberry demands, firms imported those dried things from China. The night market people will not tell you it's from China, but the packet never says the strawberries are produced in Camerons, only packed in Camerons. And you know China stuff like melamine, it might not be good for health. There's this SODIUM BENZOATE preservative in all the dried strawberries! If you tasted that the dried strawberry is bitter, then best not eat it. It might contain too much preservative.

Again, let's not stereotype all "Made in China" products. All things should be consumed in moderation. Many things you eat has sodium benzoate. So don't consider the strawberries (dried ones) I bought for my friends to eat as propaganda to kill all my beloved friends brain cells so they die in TEE. I simply couldn't find better stuff in Camerons. (There is no reverse psychology here okay, I'm going to dump them if no one eats. As proof, I'll eat it too! Die together and live together as friends.) AIYAH, IT'S SAFE TO EAT ONE LAR=P

Dad's Hometown

Well for people for think Kuantan is in Kelantan or Terengganu or Sarawak
They will have no idea where Benta is. It's near KL - Kuala Lipis!
And the state is Pahang. I REPEAT! PAHANG!
Learn some geography people. Pahang is not that ULU!
Coz I'm not! ;=)

So in this rustic little kampung called Benta,
I was first exposed to kampung life.
I bathe in rivers,
saw bamboo sticks more huge and tall than me
(which I one day aspire to be=)
ate lots of fruits
rambutan, duku, jambu, nangka, chempedak
and DURIAN!!!!

This time around the only durian tree in my grandma's house fuited!
It was RAYA KUNYIT or 毛山王 (my uncles said 猫山王 is wrong!)
It's the PERFECT DURIAN!
Said to be originated from a special durian tree Gua Musang (this one is in Kelantan!)
This durian has lots of flesh and small seeds and GOLDEN YELLOW!
Rarely you'll even find a SANG FAN SHU (a spoilt durian)!
And there was a whole bunch of it still waiting on the tree.
Each day, about three durians fall down for my extended family's consumption.

Coupled to that there the Orang Asli King durian aka barbaric people king durian.
And it tasted great! Another PERFECT durian!
They are as great as Orang Asli, I simply love them.
And they are far from barbaric as proven by the durian!

Indeed a great day to feast with durians and my family members!

IKEA Day

Some people just like going to IKEA! aka the many parents on earth.
Well, me too! (a sign of becoming a parent? hehe=p)
It's one of those stalls where I see a whole family enjoying themselvves.
No crying babies, absolute consumer-friendly!

So today, my parents after releasing me from the Torturing Student House
We went IKEA which was just nearby
and the only place in KL my dad will go by his own car.
My aunts joined along too.

As usual, they bought tonnes of stuff from IKEA
Chairs, racks, that spice container, lights and all the paraphernalia.
I got myself a laptop pillow too!
Now there's a table for my laptop wherever I go!

First day of true holiday!

Going Home

"It was a happy day, till I saw this video..." quoted from [The Great Wall of Text]

Ok, the title "Going Home" is not about Calvin the desperado

delving in escapism of EALD Mock Exam tomorrow

running his way back to Kuantan.

As Blurrie said, it was a happy day.

Calvin was really studying "disciplinely" for Chemistry...

Then time out, and he so happened to stumble across on his [Blogroll]

THE GREAT WALL OF TEXT.

There was this video with a familiar aunty's face.

So I press load and play.

It still takes quite some time to load.

And strangely he had the idea of watching movies.

He deleted many movies in his external hard drive

because many of those Hollywood movies

made him want to gouge his eyes out.

Then there seem to be this strange undeleted teen movie.

So he decided to "succumb into temptation" again...

He prays hard it won't be a teenage romance movie

with hints of premarital sex or passionate kissing.

It was CAMP ROCK.

It turned out to be a nice one

although there were the cliched "High School Musical" stuff

dancing and singing out of nowhere.

He loved the theme of being yourself, albeit cliched

Cliched but still forgotten by many.

Ok, happy movie over.

Time to watch the loaded short film.

So here it is.

The main thing of this post.

It made me think.

I hope it made you think too.

Curious?

Watch it...

Empty

The day when the post is empty.

Feeling really empty.

Nothing in nothing out.

The eerie silence of emptiness

broke by the joy of his brother telling him the prevalence of h1n1 in Kuantan.

But feeling empty

typing away on his Toshiba

Probably when it's empty only then we know when it's full.

Calvin ber-emo...haha

Calvin the Travel Guide

Having studied Geography for SPM

and scoring high in GeoChallenge,

it's still amazes me how I brought my dad all the way to Shah Alam

to visit Un Kim Fong!

Ok, SPRINT then NKVE,

turn in to KLIA, Pulau Indah junction to go ELITE

then join KESAS to go Kota Kemuning.

Geng hor me?

Self praise is universal disgrace...

Anyway, Caleb caught everyone's attention in SAGC

(even DGC youths) with his magic tricks.

And that's his first time there!

Proud of you bro!

Clash of Titans

Yong Sir and Miss Say:

Clash of Physics Titans during Parents Teachers Meeting

Quite disappointing though

No shouting, or uishe's

Only formal exchange of words.

Haiz...

Worst still, the only thing Mr Derick is worried is

MY HANDWRITING!!!

Perhaps the only solution is chop off the right hand...

Then, went shopping to IKEA

following the general rule that ALL parents like to visit

that Swedish company.

Later got lost somewhere on LDP and Sprint Highway

and Mr Yong complained of the wonderful road system in PJ and KL

The best thing probably was staying at Eastin hotel with AIR CONDITIONING.

BU students houses are ovens.

Sad right college life?