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Daniel's Lodge AKA Crazy Eddie's
Entry 12 of 126 | show all | print this entry |
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I swear I wrote about this already, but I can't find the entry anywhere. It musta gotten eaten by the bootsnall server crash. I had debated whether or not to go back to the Cameron Highlands again on this trip to Malaysia, but I figured after island sitting for a couple months I should probably do some training before trying to tackle a 13,000+ foot mountain. The Highlands are perfect for hiking and growing tea. The weather is cool, actually cold at night and there are 6,000 foot high mountains to climb. Fortunately, while I was there it didn't rain too much and I was able to go out hiking every day for the whole week I was there. There are some pretty challenging trails around town. Some, like 9 and 9a, that I wouldn't recommend for just about anyone. It's not a very long hike distance wise, but single track would be a gross exaggeration for the width of the path along a cliff-like dropoff. The consequences of a mistep would be grave. (No pun intended) Eva, one of the German girls from Tioman, severly sprained/broke her ankle on this trail and I could totally see how. The return path is near verticle. It took me 1.5 hours to go down 9 and about 15 minutes to go back up 9a. There are also snakes around the area as well. I saw a ~4ft snake shoot down the cliff when it saw me coming.
Other trails are a difficult climb but managable even for a 57 year old guy that I dragged up the mountain, and great exercise and training if you're planning on climbing Mt. Kinabalu the following week.
A friend had given a very strong recommendation to stay at Daniel's Lodge and look up her friend Eddie even though the "Lonely Bastard" said that it had bed bugs in 2004 ed. and in 2006 ed. says backpackers have seemingly forsaken the place (gee I wonder why). A guide book that says a place has bed bugs is just about the exact opposite of Author's Choice. One is just about the kiss of death and the other guaranteed prosperity. Apparently, Daniel didn't pay the "Bastards" to write favorably about them like some other guest houses that got stellar reviews. CH is a great place to kick back, relax, stroll through the countryside and eat some good Indian food. Afterwards, Daniel's Lodge is a great place to chill out, watch a movie or hit the bar. My favorite part was their bar with a bonfire every night. Once again, I got to hook up my MP3 player to the bar's sound system and jam tunes by the fireside.
Eddie, the manager, liked my music too so, I made him a couple CDs that he could play after I left. The bar is pretty relaxed with a "pool table" (it's actually not much more than an angular felt covered surface with 6 holes) and a seating area outside with a bonfire in the middle. I even covered the bar for Eddie one night when he went out to get some food... Chill. As for the Indian food, there is an interesting battle to get your patronage amongst the 2 Indian restaurants on the main road. I went to the first one with Daniel and Eddie my first day. The food was good but I thought they were a bit pushy and aggressive in trying to get me to eat there all the time. They even grabbed my arm once when I walked by. The owner of the 2nd one had a much more subtle approach. He came by the fire one night, hung out with us and bought us beers. He was great. Everyday I went there to eat, he'd just bring some food out to me and I'd eat it. I never really knew what I was eating, but it was usually very good.
But if you're not hiking, eating or drinking tea, there's not really much else to do in the Camerons, so in my free time, I helped them rebuild a computer, optimized and cleaned the other computers of viruses and spyware. So Eddie let me use the internet whenever I wanted which is pretty sweet for a junkie like me. I even played a few hands of internet poker while I was there trying to win enough money to pay for my room. That turned out to be very easy because after paying for my first night, Daniel decided not to even charge me for the rest of the week I was there. Thanks again guys.
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