I'm finally here after more than a year of inactivity. I actually wanted to blog about my Kota Tinggi trip because that was one heck of a memorable trip, but I got lazy. I'm trying my best not to be lazy about this post because I feel like it is a disservice to SY's planning efforts if I don't record our beautiful memories in writing. Once again, thank you so much for your efforts! This post is dedicated to you xx
Also, I'm officially an art major degree holder. Took my school long enough, but I finally have the paper to show that I have truly slogged my guts out to be a professional graphic designer.
JAN 05
Thank you for being my constant support throughout my school terms. And thank you for this beautiful handmade bouquet, you are so talented!
Class wouldn't have been fun if it wasn't for them.
On camera duties even during our own graduation :')
Thanks for coming through, girls!
What is graduation without an attention-seeking selfie, HAHA.
Thanks dad, I hope I made you proud.
Can't wait to attend your convocation when you finally graduate lil bro.
So the whole budget ceremony (incidentally, the crappiest graduation ceremony I've ever attended was my own's, thanks world) did not overrun like my step-mum thought it would. How could it overrun when we have so little graduates lol, sorry guys my school suck.
Irregardless, it was such a blast to finally meet my fellow BA mates after so long.
Anyway, after the whole ceremony, I went to change out of my formals and dressed comfortably for my "secret" trip. Okay, story time!
So, a few months back, I was feeling pretty down about not being able to go for a graduation trip before I quickly immersed myself in the working life, because of financial issues. I also really wanted to go on a solo trip with SY because we've never had the chance to do so. So when she agreed that a short trip would be good, I selfishly asked her to plan a trip for the both of us, but not let me know the location.
Man, I thought I was so smart because it was so exciting to go on a secret trip.. Until you had to pack for the trip. I had no idea what to pack for! Do I pack to explore a city like KL? Do I pack light to frolic in some Malyasian beach? Do I pack cold for Genting Highlands? (I did not even consider cold until hints from SY.........) (Anyway I packed for cold weather)
After the ceremony, dad fetched the both of us to Golden Mile Complex. Apparently by then everyone knew where I was going except for me.
We got the front seats which happened to have ample of leg room! Also, nobody sat behind us, so we could recline almost flat on our seats.
Recovering from food poisoning has to be one of the worst way to travel. My tummy was making all sorts of weird noises, and for a panicked moment I was wondering if I had a mystery baby inside of me because the pain felt like vicious, angry, kicks.
The trip from Singapore all the way to Yong Peng was agony. But thank God for ensuring that my bowels behaved till I had access to a toilet.
Tired faces @ Yong Peng. Poor SY was sneezing so hard.
JAN 06
After long hours of trying to fall asleep (and failing), I finally gave up around 5.30AM. Started to get excited because I knew I was about to find out where we're headed to!
The coach turned into Ipoh and I was like shit, I packed for cold weather.......
And then we started to climb.. And white words on a brown sign flashed by. We were en route to Cameron Highlands! Wow I was so happy because I've never been there, and I knew I was going to LOVE the cooling air.
Best move ever guys, it's worth the confusion when it comes to packing so go pester a friend (who's pretty free) to do this.
Anyway the route up was really scenic, but we were so tired that we didn't really take any pictures. We just lived in the moment hahaha. The climb also took like an hour, that's pretty insane man.
Stepping out of the coach and feeling the rush of cold air hit my face just brought me right back to springtime in Germany. Ahhhhhhh.
Anyway, we went to settle the administrative stuffs at the hotel's reception. Apparently the hotel registered that we've already paid up for our first night (RM280), and only needed to pay for the rest of our days. That was really strange because we've checked all bank accounts and nothing of that amount was credited out! I don't know if they screwed up or we have a mysterious benefactor (doubtful), but I'm thankful all the same.
It was only 8AM and our room was only going to be ready by 3pm, so we went off to explore a little.
Hellooooo Cameron Highlands you beautiful, beautiful place!
This was some residential area near our hotel, like just a 2 minutes walk away.
I directed this shot thinking that it was going to look like those cliff shots. But nope. Just me on a drain. Sigh.
DOGS. DOGS, DOGS DOGS!
We were pretty fatigued from the lack of sleep though, I imagine we must've looked like zombies that day. Simply did not have the capacity nor the energy to do anything.
But we followed on with SY's planned itinerary because what else could we do?
Called a cab with the hotel's help (total rip-off), and off we went into the town of Brinchang! You can't really get anywhere around the mountain without a vehicle so we spent quite a sum on taxis. And we kept getting ripped off because we were silly tourists, sigh.
Anyway, we visited the Time Tunnel museum. I was a little wary of the place because it looked so rundown and shady, I couldn't imagine it containing anything significant.
Boy was I wrong though. It was a graphic design haven to me. Sure, it was a museum of old Malaysian artefacts and it was quite a nostalgic moment. BUT. The hand painted logos and beautiful old school typography was what really drew me to the quaint little place.
Old school newspapers?! I'm a sucker for things like these!
Not sure if this was painted, but I'm loving the typo. What a good mix of bilingual typography!
She was pretending to be a barber because it was an old school barber setting hahaha.
We called back for the same driver to bring us to our lunch location. Kumar was a shady man, and we didn't really trust him. But we didn't know what to expect from the place, so we stuck with him just for the day.
Lunch @ this restaurant called Delicious & Happiness. My appetite wasn't playing nice so I didn't really eat much, but the food was pretty good though. Their homegrown veges were amazing!
Zombies learning to smile for the camera.
The restaurant was a stone throw away from the famous Big Red strawberry farm, but even so, it felt so tiring to walk there, especially when it was a steady incline all the way to the farm.
We didn't pick strawberries because I didn't felt like it, I only wanted to drink their fresh strawberry milkshake because it sounds like it's going to be really refreshing.
And I was not disappointed! Although I preferred the strawberry yoghurt drink (ordered it after I saw it on their menu). Man I'm missing the strawberries already.
Called for Kumar and we had a bit of a situation where we couldn't locate each other. So SY went to ask this random dark skinned man if he saw a taxi go pass. He said no. (This conversation was held in malay) So SY wanted to ask for possible places where the taxi could be, and she offhandedly mentioned that Kumar said he passed by a bangladeshi wearing green. Halfway through her malay sentence (she's not very strong in the language), she realised she didn't know how to express that Kumar saw a dark skinned man, so she just sputtered "yang kamu" which was REALLY funny. I seriously can't express how funny it was to see her face and her struggles. The guy just smiled at her, not knowing what to respond HAHA.
So anyway, we were supposed to have a spa session at Cameron Highlands Resort, a different hotel, so Kumar drove us there.
About 90% gone @ Cameron Highlands Resort.
Unfortunately the spa was fully booked that day so we decided to go back to our hotel. We ditched Kumar though, didn't like him. Flagged down a random taxi and the driver was SO MUCH nicer.
Our hotel room was ready by then, thank God.
We were so tired, we hurriedly changed into sleep clothes and practically collapsed on the bed. It was supposed to be a 2-hours nap. We took 3. WORTH IT.
Thank God we didn't manage to go ahead with the spa plan while we were so tired because I don't think we would've enjoyed it that much.
Good evening sunshines! My body was awake but my brain was not. Look at our reluctant faces!
The nap did help though. Decided to walk to this steamboat place about 10-15 minutes away from our hotel. It was drizzling a little bit and honestly I just wanted to be back in bed because it was cold and wet.
But arriving at the steamboat place made it all so worth it. Steamy pot of soup in 15-18 deg weather? Sign me up! Unfortunately my stomach still wasn't ready for food so I couldn't really finish much. Soup base was good, and it was really affordable! It only cost us RM25 for 2pax.
We also ordered warm milk with honey. What a great comfort drink.
This was me trying to clear the food. Sick and grumpy. Perfect.
It started raining even more while we were eating, almost wanted to call for a cab but grab didn't exist in Cameron Highlands and flagging down taxis in the cold rain just doesn't seem like a viable plan. So we decided to walk back up.
It was strangely nice to be huddled together under a mini umbrella, fighting against the elements, knowing that at the end or the road, our warm bed awaits our cold skins.
We had so much fun just goofing around.
We look happier in the rain than when we were eating. Lmao.
Went back to the hotel, waited for the showers to warm up, did our devotions in comfortable separate arm chairs, and did some packing. I love holidays like these. No rush, no hurry, just pure comfort. It truly was the perfect getaway. Like I said, I'd do SY a disservice if I didn't record these down.
On a side note, I was really glad that we still do devotions even though we were overseas and vacationing. I'm really happy that SY ensured that we did not neglect our spiritual life no matter the situation. Thanks girl!
Anyway, I think I'll stop here, day 1 is pretty lengthy for a blog post, and I'm really tired. I don't have the stamina to write for hours anymore, although I do enjoy being back on this space.
I hope I'll be able to complete the rest of this post by this week hahaha. Cheers.
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