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!

Porcupine Buns

Disclaimer: This is not a desperate attempt to make my blog cute=)

Remember the porcupine buns I mentioned in the yesterday's post?

HERE THEY ARE IN ALL THEIR CUTENESS!!!

They are

WARM and CUDDLY!

Come porcupine, mum mum!

Awwwww...

I'M GONNA EAT YOU!!!

(It reminds of my hamsters Kilo and Cal=)

The porcupine on the right looks like Sarah, all sulked up =p. Then the middle one is yours truly, trying to be nice little boy. The one on the right is Nicky the weirdo who poked his sesame eyes out XD

Together we STAND

and conquer the world!

Munch Munch MUNCH!!!

In the end eaten also=p

Porcupines playing

STACKS ON!!!

aka Rumble, a rough guys' game.

The porcupines little white stomachs sure hurts with the spikes=)

Thanks for viewing!

It's a nice holiday and I'm going out for VIBE later.

Very Interesting Big Event. I'm sure=)

Expensive Sunday

I just realised that I like to buy a lot of expensive groceries.

1.0 litre Marigold HL Milk (4 cartons)

costing RM 18.30

(that's already in the saver twin pack)

Ayamas Premium Chicken Cheese (2 packets)

costing RM 12.78

(I really like it a lot...my main source of protein for dinner)

Gardenia Original Wholegrain Fibremeal (1 loaf)

costing RM 3.00

(I ate very healthy one... wholemeal sumore)

Dry Apricots from Turkey (2 packets)

costing RM 9.98

(Sudden urge for apricots and I bought enough to last me for two weeks of craving)

Fresh Huluwa Dates from Saudi Arabia (500 g)

costing RM 12.90

(This is way too expensive, but would come in handy to belanja my Malay friends)

Philippines Dole Bananas (RM 0.59 per 100 g)

costing RM 6.07

(The bananas I eat also imported one because I gave up on Pisang Montel which decays at an exponential rate!)

TOTAL = RM 63.05 (rounding adjusted)

Man, all my fruits are imported!!! So tak sokong local fruits of Malaysia. What to do, most Malaysian fruits not fresh and hard to store and inviting ants.

My groceries very healthy and expensive, but I fall sick last week.

Now I know where my budget deficit comes from.

But this one is priceless:

The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey

Rediscovering the Jesus of the Bible...

Rediscovering the central figure that split history into two parts

from the comfortable images that we made him to be...

"No one who meets Jesus ever stays the same..."

Happy Meal =)

Today is Judgement Day at EALD...

I was a judge to comment on people's speaking skills on interpreting pictures.

I just record this for fun.... haha

The main for today is this:

Happy Meal at Yuen Steamboat restaurant

The one where chicken wings disappear within less than 5 seconds after it appeared.

The height of human competition for food!

Never in my life I've seen it to be so intense!

Happy Meal =) was a liberation of steam in the form of steamboat.

Liberation from steam and pressure of

Physics Topic Test on Tuesday

Chemistry Topic Test on Wednesday

EALD Assignment on Thursday

and Applicable Maths Topic Test on Friday.

We have to celebrate merdeka early

because immediately on 1 September, there's oral test and more classes.

It's was true merdeka

people showing all their colours in eating.

Ming Chai's ferocity in fighting for chicken wings.

Sing Yong's verbosity in announcing the arrival of chicken wings.

Joel and Jaevon's boldness in engaging a war over chicken wings.

Beng and KCV's amazing appetite for ICE CREAM

and not forgetting the ALWAYS EAT JAGUNG gang! (Long live Fern and Calvin!)

Let's talk about HAPPY MEAL =) Dish 1

CHICKEN WINGS!!!

It just drive people crazy!

People dive in and with such dexterity to grab all the chicken wings.

Such tenacity with all sorts of technique of obtaining highest yield!

Ming Chai proposed all kinds of techniques:

1 - One take one block the competitors

2 - Take from other people's plate when they are busy taking it.

3 - Steal from the kitchen.

And I'm really amazed at how fast the chicken wings disappear within seconds, literally.

The whole thing was clean and done.

However, the best thing I like about Yuen is the ice-creams.

I think I ate about eight flavours.

(in increasing deliciousness: dried fruits with vanilla-less vanilla, sugus-flavoured strawberry, yam, very artificial honeydew, jagung-y corn, vanilla, chocolate, chocolate chips in vanilla)

Tony, KCV and Ah Beng are experts in eating this.

They ate like seven bowls?

No wonder ice-cream disappear so fast

and for once I had to queue to get ice-creams.

Come here eat steamboat or ice-cream? Haha.

Actually, the other food are pretty plain. The steamboat is just normal.

I ate all the meat and vege until so jelak already.

Guess it was the fun of being with friends.

Switching tables and talk to very long time no talk people.

Mutual feeding of ice cream between Fern and Calvin

(oh we are just friends... don't over-analyse)

Meeting junior like Jia Jun, a future-to-be architect as well

Posing in pictures

See other people run away from photo shooting

See Poh Hui killing Ming Chai for pranking her into photo shoot

"Ei, Poh Hui! Look at my handphone camera lens!"

*points at it as if something wrong with the lens*

*chak*

"EI, YOU TAKE MY PICTURE!!!"

This is so 经典!

And yes, Jun Kai's wonderful picture and

announcement to the world of his name by his Engineering mates.

And discrimination of tall guy sitting under a pot of artificial pitcher plants.

Great question from Nai Lin:

"What hurts the most? Durian falling on your head or coconut?"

"Durian" and with lengthy physics explanations of pressure exerted by durian thorns

and Tony's strange biology answer of durian causing both internal and external bleeding unlike coconuts only with internal bleeding.

"YOUR HEAD LAR!!!"

How can we be so stupid one?

(Dear reader, get the joke?)

However, I guess the best-est thing about HAPPY MEAL=)

is about discovering pure laughter and the freedom to be wacky.

Studies really has a toll on my PR skills,

but today I regain joy of just discovering to talk to friends without inhibition.

To step on other people's shoes just like that. Haha, Poh Hui double step in return.

To sing merdeka songs while waiting for T632 back to Kelana Jaya.

To stand tall in pictures and smile without kaku-ness.

It's been a great day!

Thanks to Nai Lin for making it really VIBE

VERY INTERESTING BIG EVENT!!!

Thanks to Ming Chai to reminding and inviting!

Thanks to Poh Hui for driving and guiding the way!

Thanks to Fern for making things really funny!

Thanks to many who came: Sarah, Jaevon, Joel, Nicholas, Woei Song, Ginger, Ah Beng, KCV, Ming Chai, Sing Yong, James, Poh Hui, Keoh Ying, Yat Seng, Nai Lin, Fern, Tony, Jun Kai, Jia Jun, Keng Chai, Gary, Wei Khang, and who's that missing 23-rd person?

Oh yeah, drop the comments about the things you find interesting during HAPPY MEAL=)

I really want to record this great eating we had!

For it's really a HAPPY MEAL=)

Carpe Durian

Maybe it smells like pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock.

But I'm gonna carpe diem, as Mr Kok said,

Seize the days of youth when you can eat TONNES of durians!

Seize the durians! Carpe Durio zibethinus!

Durians, or lest I die!

(Although there are news reports

Of people dying from excessive consumption of durians

there are people like me who are dying of durian deprivation)

Ever since last year, I never tasted durian in raw form.

And if this year I don't get to eat,

It will be five years of durian deprivation in Kangaroo-land

because Kangaroos hate that fruit.

I never get why Westerners hate it so much,

and we Malaysians are whacking away in that hydrogen sulphide-d fruit.

Just do it, Australians!

And life for me in Australia will be more wonderful!

In view of durian deprivation in Kangarooland,

And I was allowed to choose what birthday gift I want from church friends,

I decided to stock up durians in my stomach.

It was great to have the Chinese Ministry people to bake a chocolate cake

and some girls whom I barely know than less a month baking delicious cupcakes for me.

But I "need" durians!

The Lord shall provide all your needs

So the church blessed me with DURIAN RUNTUH!!!

Whack the durians kao kao at some stalls in Sri Muda.

God bless even further for it was a night without rain

And many can enjoy durian under the moonlight!

Thanks Un Dex for sponsoring all the great durians!

Thanks Linus, Michelle, Hui Min, Chee Kean for accompanying me just to eat durian.

Thanks Ivan for coming too although you looked blurred with the durians

and Mrs Elaine Teoh for bravery in attempting to poke the durians and try some.

Of course, Samuel, my very young and cute friend for eating durian like me!

When you go home, don't snatch from Popo and Mummy their durians.

(And Linus, love your comment that

Popo can run to the durians without tongkat, so kua cheong! LOL=)

Durians made my day!

No, SAGC folks made my day!

And thank God for that fruit!

(Hope it's not the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden,

coz Eve will have a hard time carpe durian!)

Okay, time to move forward into durian deprivation period. T.T

The LORD will provide...

Most of my dinners are pathetically the same.

But dinners are the ones the LORD provides the most.

It's a need. If don't eat, where got glucose to be alive?

Yesterday, Elaine baked a cake for me.

My birthday is still a bit way off.

Sometimes, food do drop from heaven.

That day, when I was so tired to cook.

Then suddenly an SMS came that I can take Tony's dinner.

I didn't even know Tony caters.

And so happen on the day he caters (Thursday), he got sick

and I got his rice.

Then books dropped from heaven in SAGC office table.

I wanted so much to read some good books lately

and TADA the books I wanted to read appeared.

So I was allowed to borrow it.

Yeah, it might seem I overexaggerate things...

After all I know those people who gave me those things.

But why on earth Elaine suddenly bake a cake? She's has no reason to bribe me.

Why on earth Tony happen to fall sick on the same day that I was too tired to cook?

Why on earth people just dump good and brand new books on the office without specifying who should read it?

Sometimes when we belanja people, we have no reason.

But COINCIDENTALLY it brings much joy to the person belanja-ed.

And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

And yeah, thanks Elaine!!!

Fast Food

Calvin is going to grow fat.

I think.

Revised economics in McD

Ate McChicken McValue Meal

Refilled three times the coke

And brought it the coke to exam.

For dinner, excessive sausages he had

Fearing that once opened the packet will go spoil

like his milk, jackfruit, yoghurt drinks

eew... no 16 student house refrigerator is way too dirty.

Calvin is going to grow fat

People say college life contributes to overweight

A good thing for Calvin

Just that it's genetically proven

That he will just grow upwards and not sideways T.T

Hasta La Pizza!

PIZZA!!!

I go crazy when pizzas come!!!

Today's CF Auntie Dolly made home-baked pizzas!!!

The soft crust

generous amounts of cheese

lots of meat (and vege, Sam)

AND THERE'S HAWAIIAN CHICKEN!!!

Can't you believe it?

Don't ask me why I'm so excited over pizzas today.

I also don't know.

Probably the manifestations of

strange physics question before CF.

Too easy until I don't know how to do,

Absolutely fighting against time.

But who cares?

THERE'S PIZZAS!!!

The best thing is that I get to tapau for dinner!

Oh glorious pizzas!

God has been good

although I blew it the week many times. (Calvin sinning, get it?)

Today's CF reminiscing the wonderful life before AUSMAT started.

Then at night, at VIBE at BU6 field (yeah, VIBE going outdoors)

it's time to focus on studies but never let studies dehydrate spiritual life...

Okay, prepare sermon Calvin!