A long and winding road ...

Trip Start Mar 17, 2007

253

401

Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Malaysia Ringlet, Malaysia
Saturday, March 22, 2008

For once we accepted the offered wake-up call, they call more than half an hour early. Which is a LOT, when you were planning to be woken up at 6h30. Hubby hardly slept. The taxi is also a quarter of an hour early. We arrive at the station 3 quarter before departure time of the bus. Luckily nice Malaysians pint out to us that we have to go on top of the platforms to exchange our ticket for a bus ticket. I stay with the luggage on the platform. Dr T comes back with the news: the office is not open yet and the only take away the coffee stop has ... is in a bag with a straw. I do not think so. Tony goes for a coffee and reports I did not miss anything. He does have the number of the bus and platform on our ticket too. The bus arrives and it looks crappy. No toilet aboard. Little leg space. A couple of tourist on boar have a guide, who informs that there will a stop within 3 hours and the ride takes 6 hours. I thought I saw 4 hours on internet. It is less than 200 km! We do stop after 3 hours and I am grateful to go to the toilet. It is, of course, a squat. Pretend my knee is 100 percent cured, I hurt myself. The closer we come to our destination, the more often the bus stops to pick up locals and drop them off further on. Then, the mountains start. The bus CRAWLS up to them. We even stand still, once in a while! The long and the short of it is: the trip takes 7 hours. Dr T books us a VIP deluxe bus to KL for tomorrow with the same company but whether that will be any better... . It is SUPPOSED to be 4 hours. The company is called Kurnia Bistari. We did not find another company. If you do, give it a try.

The Cameron Highlands are very pretty. The temperature is lower and it rains more, which makes everything green. Not to your surprise, it was a popular place for the English to live, where there is rain, there is British. They grow strawberries here, tomatoes, lettuce, grapes and flowers.

We take a taxi to "our" land house (22 Ringgit or 4,4 Euro) for 8 km.

http://www.lakehouse-cameron.com/home.htm

It is an example of old fashion chique. Tony put our name in The Book. Starts in 2002. Sucks for Greg and Akiko, but since we arrive first, we choose the room: the one with the double bed. Again old fashion fancy inclusive a basket of fruit. The local strawberries are delicious. We sit down on the terrace and order beer and sandwiches. Even before the beer arrives, it starts raining and then: pouring. That is why the outside pictures of the hotel are for tomorrow, in the sun. poor Greg: he has to drive 7 (seven) hours on his gorgeous Harley Davidson from Singapore. We hope he did not have a lot of this weather. We decide on scrabble and I loose. My tuna sandwich is the most tasteless I ever had in my life! I bet there was not 10 gram of tuna in there. Just I lost the scrabble game, it is reported to us that Bro arrived. And that he went changing. Soaking wet? Yup!

Quarter of an hour later he walks into the room. Is it wrong to drool over your brother in law? A bit later Akiko arrives too and they are very happy to keep the fire running. Yes, Greg was drenched. Akiko was not so bad: little girl hiding behind big man stays dry. If we want to have dinner, we need to order. We do. I am the only one to have then fixed menu. I fancy everything on there! We order for 21h.

Then, it is drinking beer and gossiping time. We are informed that diner is formal. We do our best and I guess we JUST pass. My menu: fresh asparagus with smoked salmon, watercress soup, beef Wellington with cooked potatoes and steamed vegetables and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert, which I share with everybody. Proud of me? The quality is excellent. And Greg has a surprise: he brought his own bottle of champagne all the way from Margaret River in Australia to Singapore and then all the way from there to The Cameron Islands on the Harley: impressed. We drink to Akiko's birthday of 2 days ago.

After dinner, I have one more drink around the fire place and then I let the boys alone to gossip about the girls. Half an hour or reading and I do not hear the Tomcat coming to bed. Before I fall asleep I take mental note: ask Hubby in the morning whether he would care for some Tylenol!