Failed attempt of conquering Mt.Brinchang

The attempt to hike Mount Brinchang was really filled with a lot of obstacles. First, it was the trip itself.

But luckily, we made it.

Though it was just me and Charissa. and Zhi.

Our room for the first night. A double bed and a single bed. Wished there were more people here with us to cram on the bed though. Would've felt so much more fun =D
Not to say i did not have fun in Cameron Highlands. It was fun!!

Took some pictures while waiting for our tour guide Zhi to come. Was told by him to not walk around by ourselves but we did so when it rained we took shelter under this small hut and i texted him we're under an abandoned shed in the middle of nowhere. And he didn't fall for it. Pffft.
We're still in the hotel's compound, really.

Read the content yourself. Lol. Saw this at Tanah Rata, after WALKING down from Strawberry Park Resort.

I'm not kidding okay!
We were supposed to hike Mt.Brinchang the day after we arrived, but it was raining so it wasn't possible. So we extended our trip (2 days --> 3 days)

There was nothing much to do so we really did walk. Walked a total of 13km, to and fro. Some of u might've walked alot more but this is my furthest in a day so i'm freaking proud of it okay (:

When we reached Tanah Rata, went up a mini hill to go see a watch tower. Didn't take any pictures cos on the way up, i was trying to keep up with Zhi and Charissa was trying to keep up with me hahaha so there were no space for distractions. Like when Charissa tried to look up to enjoy the scenery and fall =P

Didn't take pictures when we reached the top too cos i was .. let's say, not in the shape to take pictures. And the watch tower itself has been wrecked down, so that those illegal immigrants won't go and make it their home (according to Zhi). It's a crazy place to make a house though. All those hiking just to sleep -.-

Took shelter under another hut in the jungle. While waiting for the rain to stop, i thought i'd force Zhi into the picture and use self-timer.

Passing by the Marrybrown i really wanted to go :( Charissa is scratching her stomach hahahahahahaha. When we reached T.Rata, nan bread was our pre-lunch. But in the end we didn't have a real lunch so that was our lunch.

On the way back, we came across this. Reminds me of the Form3 English Literature "The Road Not Taken".
Actually, we were taking the road taken (obviously, it's the one with white lines) and then i mumbled "can i take a pictuuuree??" and surprisingly Zhi heard it. So we went back and take a picture. Hohohohoho.

On the way back to the hotel. Can u believe i wore leggins for all this?? Wasn't intentional though.
We used a route that was really kinda unknown to public, so there were really little cars around. BUT it was an extra km to walk. Thanks, local boy (Zhi). >.<
Then again, now i can brag that i walked 13km instead of 12km. Haha!!

On the 2nd night, we received an upgrade. Cos the're guests that wanted to stay in the room we were staying the night before. CHO and me were feeling so paiseh right cos we're freeloaders right. Kinda felt like we should get an abandoned store room instead of a real hotel room. But oh well. Zhi was a terrific host. So are his parents. Esp his dad, despite his busy schedule he made time to bring us around. Ohohoho~

Do u feel creeped out? Not by the guy in yellow jacket, i meant the tree. It's humongous!! I wished i had a tree like that in front of my house.

And yeap, that's me and Charissa posing in front of the famous Jim Thompson's Moonlight Bungalow. Zhi kept bragging that not a tour guide in CH will bring us to a tour like this, so apparently he IS the one and only best tour guide in the entire CH (: But seriously, who else would bring us trespassing into a private property that is rumoured to be haunted and all? So yeah i owe a thousand thankiu's to Zhi even though he was creeped out by the bungalow himself  =D

Ooh yeah that's me :) That bungalow has an aaaaawesome view! Apparently it's called Moonlight Bungalow cos at night, the moon is shining directly on it. And there's another Sunlight Bungalow down the road where the sun is shining directly on it? (Who would want that kinda of bungalow anyway. I'd rather have the moon)

On our first day, Zhi's dad brought all of us by car to the bungalow cos his mom wanted to see if she can do the treasure hunt here or not. But too bad there was a "Private Property. No trespassing" sign that blocked the road there, so he turned back.
Here we are, walking down again :) It was crazy steep, so on the way up it was really.... challenging.

Came back to the hotel's Jim Thompson's terrace to have tea while looking at the rain and becoming emo.
LIKE SERIOUSLY HOR. It rained non-stop when we were there. Damn depressing and it made Zhi so emo! :(

It's called Jim Thompson's terrace cos u're supposed to see Jim Thompson's Bungalow from here. Pls try your hardest to spot the roof in the midst of the trees behind Charissa. That's Sunlight. Moonlight is behind Sunlight. If u chop the trees to the left of Sunlight, then u'll see Moonlight :)

Here's us, of course i'm not in the picture if not there will be no photographs taken. So yeah we're waiting in front of the guardian, away from the rain, waiting for Le Tour De Langkawi to pass by. Just to pass time. We really had nothing much to do, so Zhi's dad asked if we want to go and see. So... yeah. Why not?

Btw, i mentioned "away from the rain", is because of the existence of these jokers :

Zhi puked at the sight of these people. He says he don't complain much about stuff. Very cin cai. BUT THE FACT IS THAT HE ISN'T OKAY. Complained bout everything. He benci these people. But yeah Charissa and me were laughing at them too. And guess what?

They took a picture with the police's bike. I think they were raised in the jungle where the only vehicle existed was sampan. And guess what(again)?

No this time i didn't have any pictures cos i wasn't fast enough. I saw the guy in the camera behaving sneakishly behind a policemen (trying to do his job), and i told Charissa "See see see he's going to ask the policemen to take a picture with him", AND HE FREAKING DID OKAY!! Speechless much.

Anyway, we killed time waiting for the racers to come so we watched this group's monkey acts all the way.

This is the clearest shot that i can get of the racers up close (where u can actually see them). Cos they were going downhill right. So all of them were like pew pew pew pew pew and zoomed past us.

It was boring but there's nothing much we can do. Then after that we went for lunch at You Hoo (don't laugh at the name okay the food is very nice especially the 'Dragon Beard' vege with salted egg)

And then Zhi's dad came n pick us up. So paiseh again >.<

Anyway he brought us to BOH's Southern tea plantation. The Northern one is the one that i went to during 18UP camp. According to Zhi, that tea plantation sucks and was ugly and *complaining non-stop*. But his dad said otherwise. Nyahahahahaha

His dad bought us tea and even offered to take a picture of us.

Excuse my super messy hair cos of the wind and there were no hair dryer in our room so.. yeah. Charissa's hair look fine though. More like normal =P

See thanks to the rain hor it was so misty and we can't even see Mt.Brinchang. And yeah that morning we're supposed to go hike Mt.Brinchang (attempt 2) but it was too misty so Zhi's dad said it was too dangerous for us to go up since we can't see anything and it'll be super slippery cos Mt.Brinchang is very steep. So we extended our trip, again. (3 days --> 4 days)

Here's the number of people that went into the BOH's tea shop since they built it. What if they hit a million? Have to change the whole machine loh.
Zhi's dad gave us a tour in the tea factory, but there's no pictures for u cos the lighting inside is bad for clear pictures and i didn't wanna use flash. So after one failed attempt of a picture i gave up and listened to Zhi's dad explaining about the process of processing the tea and all.

After tea, Zhi's dad offered to take a picture of us with the tea plantation behind us. Had to force Zhi into the picture again -.-
Charissa was suggesting to ask one of the workers (that was singing to himself) at the side to help take a picture for us with Zhi's dad in the picture, but by the time she decided we were at the car park already.
Some serious decision-making issue here, girl.

See the thing sticking out like a sore thumb? That's the place we had tea :) Zhi's dad told us that the place costs a few million (i forgot how much) to build, but they earned them back in a year. Fuhhh!

And then Zhi's dad brought us to the butterfly garden which i went last time with my family but still went in because since he brought us there we couldn't say "No i've went here let's go back".

Literally pulled, forced, and begged Zhi to take a solo picture next to the flowers. Cos he said he'd look gay. So i took a picture with him first, then asked him to take a solo one by himself. Didn't have time to choose a nice looking flower cos we had only a few seconds period before he changes his mind and say 'NO' again.

And then we went back to the hotel. Zhi brought us to the hotel's personal strawberry farm, where they use soil instead of hydroponic to plant the strawberries (sweeter this way, according to him).

Looked like a plastic strawberry right hahahaha. But it was raining these few days so it wasn't good for the strawberries. It wasn't sweet and there weren't much.

Have u seen strawberry flowers before? I know i haven't.

Hahaha! We were studying how the flower became the fruit because there were the flower, and then the green thing (on the left) that has the fruit in it. So after quite some time, we concluded that the bud bloomed into a flower first, then the petal dropped, and it became the green thing (on the left), then it grows into a strawberry. :)

And the next day, we wanted to hike Mt.Brinchang (attempt 3). Prayed, and hoped, and wished that it's NOT going to rain cos the weather forecast said it won't rain in the morning but in the evening.

BUT IT STILL RAINED!!! So yeah we didn't extend the trip this time. Went to another mountain, Mt.Merembun with an orang asli tour guide. After the hike, Zhi said that we(CHO&ME) are fit enough to go Mt.Brinchang since we didn't fall or anything. AHA!!
So Charissa and me pledged to train and be fit ourselves for the next attempt at Mt.Brinchang some time in the future. When it's sunny (:

Our shoes were filled with water during the hike cos we had to cross 3 small rivers (they looked like mini streams for me but the tour guide said they're rivers - and it sounded cooler to say we crossed rivers instead of streams right :P ). And every step we take, it's like squish squish squish inside the shoe. We made 10 raisins in our own shoe by the time we finished the hike.

No pictures of the hike (but wished i took) cos Zhi said not to take anything except my medication cos it's gonna be hard to hike and all. It wasn't that bad, actually. Should've disobeyed him and brought the camera :P

So yeah we went for a mini lunch and tea after the hike. By this time, Zhi was too bored of the good ol' BOH tea, so he asked for teh tarik instead. Charissa and i had tea :) And went home after that with a taxi cos Zhi was too worried for us if we took a bus cos he's not following us back cos he has to stay back to help his mom work.

Ending the post with a picture of snail-san (: