Field trip to Cameron Highlands

Don’t let me take your book away.

— Pn. Pushpa

I just came back from Cameron Highlands last week. It was an exhausting 3 days 2 nights field trip organized by the Photography Club of my school. To be frank, I had absolutely no intention of going to alpine Cameron Highlands. The only reason why I decided to go was because my friends were organizing it and I was being supportive. I had so many things to do — some I did not even get to complete before the school break.

Because I love History so much, I brought my eleventh grade History textbook along. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Pn. Pushpa, my present Chemistry teacher who was a chaperon throughout the field trip wanted to confiscate my book when she found out that I was reading History on the bus. LOL.

Brought along my Malaysian cultural notes too

myself and Eng Khim.

Was bored to death.

Our very first stop was at the rest area situated in Tapah (pronounced as Tapeh). I was EXTREMELY appalled by the horrid stench that was emitted from the frying of the Tapah fishes. It was disgusting. And the weirdest thing was that there were people who could actually sit and dine in that sickening place. I can’t believe it! But the restroom was cool lah. Open aired with trees and all. It was like peeing in the wild. It was really the first time I’ve seen such a thing.

Half and hour later, we arrived at the Lata Iskandar waterfalls. Honestly, I have never seen a waterfall in real life until that day. Ha ha. We scaled the steep stairway to the top where it was much cooler up there. It was exhausting! Throughout the climb, I was complaining how climbing up that stupid stairs had made my new shoes turn black. I was pissed. It was certainly a good early morning exercise nonetheless.

We’ve arrived!
(I was seriously not as enthusiastic back then as I seem to sound now)

Awesome schoolmates.

Adrienne and I.

I find this picture of me cool. Thanks to the photographer… whoever it is because I’ve forgotten

Later, we went to the Blue Valley Tea Plantation. There was absolutely nothing to see there other than the tea foliage. Omg. It was boredom to the core. Oh, did I tell you that it was mad difficult to find a bottle of mineral water in Cameron Highlands? I’d searched high and low for a bottle of mineral water but to no avail. Sad. Tired and dehydrated, I had no other option but to buy that stupid and outrageously overpriced STRAWBERRY FLAVORED water — the only liquid close to mineral water. Must write a letter to the mayor of Cameron Highlands about this! THIS IS TOO MUCH! They should totally have a “for no one else but middle class and lower class Malaysians only” vending machine that sells mineral water. Maybe I should fight for some of these in my future political career so everyone can drink!

LOOK HOW RIDICULOUSLY SMALL THE BOTTLE IS?! It is $4.00 people, $4.00.

myself, Kai Yee and Ryan

We FINALLY arrived at the apartment at 3:30PM. Hallelujah! But alas things turned ugly when all of us guys ran up the stairs at one go! It was a mad dash for the beds. There were only three Queen-sized beds in the apartment and someone won’t be lucky enough to be sleeping on the bed. 2 nights of total comfort was at stake. It was every man for himself. Ha ha. I ran my wee legs off to the bedroom! Through sheer determination, hard work and a lot of tenacity, I literally fought my way to the top and GOT THE FUCKING BED BABE! Whoo hoo. Must be my happiest moment of the month. Eng Khim and Yongming were my roommates. Yongming slept on the floor.

It was almost like a scene on the very first episode of America’s Next Top Model where all the girls would be running into their apartment and a whole hullabaloo begins when one or two of the ladies failed to secure a bed for themselves. The only difference is that — we’re all 17 year old guys! Hahahaha.

Later in the evening, Hon Sang who brought his stereos along went blasting it at its maximum volume at the balcony causing all our multiracial neighbors of Indians, Malays, Chinese and foreigners to stare crossly at us. Being ignorant 17 year olds, we just smiled and waved back at them. LOL. Deeply embarrassed by this, Pn. Rosemary (another chaperon) who was at the ground floor was shouting at the top of her lungs at us to lower down the volume. Everyone basically ignored her. Ha ha.

And apparently later that day one of the neighbors threatened to call the police if we do not keep the volume down. Hohohohoho.

At night, we went to the night market in the town of Brinchang, a few miles up north from our apartment. Proud of my city-slicker status, I excitingly announced to everyone that it was going to be my first time at a night market. Everybody gave me the “What?! Are you serious?!” look — except Kai Yee who has never been to a night market herself. Hi 5! Lol.

Kai Yee and I

In all honesty, I had hoped to see a stall selling porno CDs. It was not because I was dying to watch porno or something but rather because I wanted to get that typical Malaysian night market experience. Other than corruption, Malaysia is  ill-famed for being the crème de la crème of the pirated software industry. I have read in several blogs on the internet on how the writer had encountered such illegal stalls at a night market.  I also wish that I can proudly declare “GUESS WHAT PEOPLE?! I SAW AN ARRAY OF PORNO CDs ON MY FIRST VISIT TO THE NIGHT MARKET” but unfortunately, I can’t because I did not. Instead, I saw a Spongebob balloon flying in the air which I found myself pretty tempted to buy!

HAHAHAHAHAHA

This might sound a little crazy but I slept at 10:30PM that night. HAHAHAHA. I was mad tired okay?! At midnight, my friends went out for tea at the nearby mamak stall while I was fast asleep. I had been ditched. Ugh!

At 2:00AM, I was awakened as Yongming opened the door to my room. Kreeek krak Kreeek Krak! Pfft. I could not fall back asleep ever since. Grr… And so I got out of bed and groggily made my way to the living room only to discover Zhen Yau and Bianca cuddling on the couch. What a sight! And then I strolled towards the balcony and saw Alan, Sheng Ling, Victor, Lih Shyan, Min Jet and Ryan lying on top of a mattress on the floor — yakking like no one’s business. Pok pet pok pet pok pet. WHEN WILL I EVER GET SOME PEACE Y’ALL?!

Still madly tired, I quietly sat down on the floor with the rest and tried to comprehend what they were talking about. I had my butt frozen out in the cold. As everyone was feeling more and more lethargic and sleepy, I was feeling more and more awake! Ha ha. One by one slowly abandoned the balcony until there was no one else left but me. At 3:00AM, I was at the balcony alone with my History textbook reading about the Constitution of Malaysia. Sounds sad but it isn’t! History rocks!

I went back to bed two hours later. I couldn’t sleep yet because I had the flattest pillow ever. I needed two pillows! I was musing whether or not I should secretly pull the pillow off Eng Khim’s head. He wouldn’t realize. And then I thought it would be a sin to “steal” so I gave him a whack on the shoulder and asked him if I could have his pillow instead. “NO!!!!!”, he grunted. LOL. Ain’t I the most awesome roommate you’ve heard off?

So oh well, I had to make do with that one miserable pillow. Fell asleep eventually.

Day 2

Matthew, can you not be so Western?!

— Hon Sang

Woke up at 7:30AM. Had Koko Krunch for breakfast. Yummm… It has gotta be the best food I ate in Cameron Highlands. Cereals are awesome.

Umm… we left for some retarded rose garden at 8:30AM. I had a good sleep in the bus. Basically in Cameron Highlands — the best thing to do there is sleep.

I was reluctant to get down the bus for I was having such an awesome sleep in the bus. I was so not interested in looking at flowers. But I got down anyways since everyone else did.

So yeah, as usual we took photos. That’s pretty much about it. And oh, we slid down the slide and played on the swing due to utter boredom. Can you imagine?

After the rose garden, we went to the bee farm (oh my god), and then to the strawberry farm (double oh my god) and finally the tea plantation (just push me off the BOH tea cliff people).

Are you bored of  reading about my adventures in Cameron Highlands already ’cause I am bored to tears writing about them especially when it comes to these retarded places. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t call them retarded. Retarded isn’t the right word to describe a place anyway. Gardens, farms etc. are not the typical places I would personally go to… sorry.

Classmates

On top of some stupid bridge. It was fun to climb actually

Me and my retarded pose.

myself and Kai Yee

In the tea factory.

Eng Khim and I

myself and Adrienne

For dinner, we ate steamboat. Hmm.. that steamboat was the second best meal I’ve eaten throughout my entire stay in Cameron Highlands though nonetheless, it is still the worst food of its kind that I’ve tasted. Ko Ko Krunch reigns supreme!

The ingredients.

edit: @Ryan, fine! It’s a steam pot.

That night was the best night for me, personally. Finally I can have some real quality time with my friends — far far faaarrr away from the roses, strawberries, bees and other parallel nonsense. And the awesome thing was that I wasn’t even feeling sleepy and I was surprisingly not in the mood for History! Ha ha. For most of the time we played Empire, a game that was introduced by Adrienne. It is an awesome, awesome, awesome game. I am too lazy to explain how the game goes so just accept that it is awesome because I say so. Besides, I have written a lot already and probably no one has been reading my grandmother stories.

For those of you who are still patiently reading and waiting for this loooooong blog post to end, please stick with me people. I am about to finish.

And yeah, while we were playing Empire, some of my friends started drinking and got themselves completely drunk. Virtually half of us were drunk. Almost everyone went literally mad leaving those who were sober like me (I don’t drink) terrified for our lives. You can never expect the things they would do and say.  But it was amusing to see them drunk. There was once I had an intoxicated Sheng Ling lying on my lap during which I put on a disgusted look on my face. She then looked up at me and hornily mumbled “This is so fun”. Omg. I am now mentally distraughted for life because of this.

Suddenly everyone — the drunk and the sober started singing. The loudest came from the drunk ones of course. Imagine a drunk Sheng Ling singing Taylor Swift’s Love Story. She was sitting slothfully right beside me on the sofa and omg, I think I saw a slight crack on my glasses the moment she opened her mouth and sang.

The air of madness and drunkenness subsided by 3:00AM. Everyone was mad tired and went to bed.

Day 3

The third and final day was plain boring. We checked out at 11:30AM and headed to a retarded hot spring somewhere along the way back to our home state, Selangor.  Half of us protested, me included. We had no choice but to get down the bus since Pn. Rosemary was craving for a swim. For many of us who opted not to swim, we were left to die of boredom and decompose. It was only two hours later we finally get to move on with our journey!

I slept like a swine throughout the journey home. Thank goodness Kai Yee was short enough for me to push my seat backwards to its maximum so I could sleep. And oh, I ate the worst kaya pau ever at one of the stops. This makes me so proud to be a Selangorean because I think Selangor sells the greatest paus in the world!

And before I end this blog post, congratulations to the organizers of this trip. You guys have made the best out of the highland for everyone. Yongming, I have told you this during the trip itself — to be able to lead a small humble club with only a membership of less than 20 and do something so big such as organizing this field trip — that is truly awesome!

I AM DONE!