cameron highlands - holy week

29-31.03.2013

We spent good friday, black saturday and easter sunday in this place!

"Cameron Highlands is the smallest district in the state of Pahang which is located in the north-western corner of the state. One of the wonders of Malaysia, it is the largest and most famous hill resort in the country. This highland paradise still retains much of the charm of an English village.

Being a primarily agricultural domain, you will find an abundance of vegetables and fruits farms here. Cameron Highlands is also the leading producer of flowers and tea in Malaysia. Be prepared for a lovely sight of extraordinary flowers you won’t see flourishing elsewhere in Malaysia! Located on the Titiwangsa Range at about 1500 metres above sea-level, the temperature here can drop to 16 ˚C or lower at certain times

Cameron Highlands is made up of 4 main townships followed by smaller settlements at different elevations. The first town from the south is Ringlet, followed by Tanah Rata, Brinchang, Kea Farm, Tringkap, Kuala Terla and Kampung Raja."*

*http://www.cameronhighlands.com

photo courtesy of http://cameroncafes.blogspot.com
 

pulau pangkor on chinese new year

One of the nice things growing up in the province is that there's a certain bond that ties the people together. Like when you go to other place and you see your kababayan, feeling mo magkakapatid kayo. Especially when you're from Sablayan, everytime we go somewhere, we would ask "Sinong taga-Sablayan ang nandun?" and we would do everything to contact them and meet them for a short dinner or kahit magkita lang.

As soon as we learned that monday and tues of Chinese New Year were holiday, we planned to go out of the country since it's a long weekend. Bads' friends would climb Mt. Korbu and Gayong in Malaysia and we planned to go to pulau pangkor, an island in Perak, Malaysia.

Then after a few calls and messages, we learned that there are Sablayenos near that place. "May mga mangyan din po dito", said Joseph, a batch lower than me in high school. We call ourselves mangyan, a tribe in Mindoro, as natives of that province. 

Let me express my gratitude to them for the warm welcome at sa matinding pag-asikaso sa aming  magkapatid during that short visit. And let me share what happened.

We left Singapore at around 10pm. The group rented a bus going to Ipoh Malaysia where the climbers would meet the guides and where we would meet our cousin, Rosemarie. We arrived in Ipoh around 11am. Rosemarie treated us for lunch and bought us bus tickets for a 1 and a half hour ride going to Sitiawan where we would meet Joseph and Julius, Bads' classmate in highschool. From there, a ferry would take us to pulau pangkor, our destination. It was only a ten-minute ferry ride. As in exactly 10 minutes.

We were met by pink cabs upon arrival.

After an hour or two of rest, we decided to explore the place. What's nice about this island is you can rent a car, or a scooter for a day and you have the leisure of exploring the island wherever you want to go without having to worry about the time. We did not even realize it was already time for dinner until I heard my stomach grumbling. Hehehe just kidding! There was a place in this island which felt very much like bora slash baywalk slash dampa. The seafood was waving at me. How could you resist that?

After dinner, we explored some more. And at around 11 am we decided to stay in the hotel. We were expecting the firecrackers and the fireworks anytime soon. It was the eve of Chinese new year.

Not so many minutes after we reached the hotel, the fireworks started. This was my instagram post about it.

Fireworks right outside my window.

We had to sleep early to prepare for the next day's itinerary. Snorkeling! The plan was to wake up at 6am. We had to be there at 7 so it would not be too sunny and we could still enjoy the high tide. We happened to wake up at 8am. When we reached the beach, it was low tide and the guy who was supposed to  take us  to the snorkeling area told us it's not worth it. We were advised to come back at 1pm. So we decided to just roam around the island again, go to the souvenir shops, see sights and visit some other place. By that time I was already wearing my rash guard. So going to temples on a very humid and sunny morning was the last thing I would do. So the souvenir shops came to the rescue. I bought a shirt just so not to look weird. 

We went to the temple and had our pictures taken. Main attraction here was the ironic little great wall of china :)

Joseph channeling Goliath

The  rented car which brought us to so many places :)

I didn't give my two thumbs up for the snorkeling experience. Coming from an island which has a very amazing underwater view, di ako masyadong na please. I could see more sea cucumber than fish underwater. 

Then the jetski! 

After this tiring day, we had a relaxing one hour whole body massage. We were so tired, so puyat then got so relaxed after the massage.

The 3rd day was also our last day in the island. We had to go back to the town proper. Julius invited us for breakfast. The breakfast turned out to be a dinner due to misunderstanding and miscommunicaton hahaha! Joseph did not bring his charger so Julius' message that breakfast would be cancelled did not reach us. Boo! We were so hungry we ate at a nearby cafeteria.

It's time for us to go back to Ipoh where Rosemarie booked us in a hotel for an overnight stay. Before leaving, as Julius did not want us to leave without us trying his recipe, he prepared an early dinner. Lechong kawali, mongo, bagoong, chicken, longganisa etc. While waiting for the food, we spent the day singing and making kwento. Kwentuhan about the past and kwentuhan with the new found friends :)

Analiza, Bads, Julius, Jefferson, Myself and Joseph

Fast forward to Ipoh, we met with the rest of the guys at the same area where Rosemarie fetched us. The bundokeros brought home their new experience to climb the second highest mountain in peninsular Malaysia while we brought the memories of good friends, wonderful people, nice place and a whole new experience back to Singapore.

Legoland 2013

I told myself never to go (again) to an amusement park which has just opened recently as based on experience, there's still more to be developed and it's like an experiment for the first two years or so.  My trip to Hong Kong in 2007 has taught me a lot of lessons. It was a package trip and there's an option to spend your day either at the Ocean Park or Disneyland. I remember our tour guide strongly suggested Ocean park. She said it's already established and it's been operating for a long time already compared to Disneyland which has just opened a year ago. She said it was still half done. Some older tourists, maybe they knew better that time, chose the Ocean park. But hey, it's THE Disneyland! It's one of the reasons why I wanted to go to HK.  So pinilit ko. I chose Disneyland over Ocean Park.

It was not that bad. It was a verrrry nice and surreal experience. Pero ok nga lang din na di pa sya tapos masyado, kasi I was there for half a day only. Just enjoyed some rides, then the disney parade and the ever famous disneyland fireworks. Pero na-prove ko na di pala talaga advisable pumunta pag di pa tapos.

Pero it happened again! Ate Lala won a ticket for 4 to Manila Ocean Park. That time MOP just opened several months ago. Since tickets were free, we went. Of course kulang na kulang and I could hear people saying "Hindi pa tapos". If the tickets were not free, it would be a verrrry big disappointment. Buti na lang.

Then it seemed like we never learned our lesson. In 2011, when the Universal Studios Singapore opened, we got so excited that it was the first destination in our itinerary. What would you expect? Of course marami pang kulang. Mas marami pang sign na "soon to open" than "welcome". We just enjoyed having our pictures taken beside Frankenstein or Shrek and the big Universal studio landmark at the entrance.

And here we go again. Welcome 2013. Legoland Malaysia has just opened. We decided to go. I know, we knew it was still "half cooked". We knew there was still a lot to be developed, to be improved, to be added. Matigas ang ulo namin. Hahaha. But good thing, we already managed our expectations kaya di na kami na-disappoint sa mga kulang at "soon to open" signages.

But our experience here was very different. Ibang Yuan na ang kasama namin. Di na ang batang Yuan na ayaw namin pasakayin sa mga rides dati kasi masyado pang bata. Yuan is a big boy now. We tried almost all the rides. From the dragon apprentice to the "real" dragon to the Project X ride. Yes, may kasama na ako lagi. Ate Lala and Bads don't really fancy these kind of rides. So now may partner na ako :)

Please enjoy Legoland thru some of our photos.

                                     

 

 All these are made of lego bricks!