Cameron Highlands Touch `N` Go

Out of caprice and adventure, we went for an afternoon's drive to the Cameron Highlands (about 135 KM from Raub) and came back the same evening...it was Aidil Adha holidays and surprisingly, the crowd was slightly below expectation in the mountains (compare to normal weekends). First of all, we actually wanted to drive there just for tea at BOH's estate in Habu but seeing that the journey took a bit longer than usual, having arrived at about 4.30 p.m., we decided to instead visit an organic strawberry farm at Brinchang and later KEA farm nearby to buy some cut flowers for the house (just to have a change from the usual chrysanthemums and roses from the florist in Raub, or the anthuriums used sparingly from my own garden...)...

Rhododendron scortechinii, hiding between rambling ferns. As we were walking towards the farm, I spotted this stunner on a laterite slope...

Cameron Bharat Tea Plantation. Because it was almost always overflowing with tourists, we would give it a miss but this time, we decided, out of convenience, to drop by. While the plantation does have stunning vistas, the development of its products and services still have much room for improvement...

close up of the tea plants...

As it was already the onset of the monsoon season, the sky was either pluvial or just simply overcast and quite sombre the whole afternoon. Not wanting to really drive through 70 or so kilometers of road through the Main Range in darkness, we decided to leave just about 6 p.m., right after a cuppa at the Cameron Bharat Tea Plantation. The view along our way home was spectacular despite the fast approaching twilight because mist was starting to form in the Betau Valley...

looks like a Chinese ink brush painting...

The white bouquet of Cymbidium orchids for the house...

Aquatic Cockerels

When I was younger, I used to keep fishes - spillover effect from my childhood days of catching fishes in brooks and rivers. It got so overboard that I had more than a dozen aquariums at one time, the largest measuring 8 x 3 feet ( about 2.5 x 1 M). I kept everything that I could ever possibly catch in the Malaysian rivers, among others a Kelah (Tor tambroides) weighing almost 8 kilos! That was in the 90s. Things got tiring and expensive and I gather putting a hook in the fish's mouth is bad for karma...so I sold off everything and had nothing more to do with it, until recently when my wife got interested in keeping fighting fishes for pets (Betta splendens). Well, these are definitely more manageable and they don't hog space! No oxygenation required, hardy and best of all, no water treatment. The most apt description for them is a cockerel, only a tiny aquatic one...They come in an impressive range of fin shapes and colours and what makes them enduring is their 'face off' behaviour when confronted with another male fish. Here's a few snaps of our tiny ménagerie...

Fraser's Hills on a misty day

During the break for Deepavali celebration (I had a week of semester break), I drove up to Fraser's Hills on Monday 25th October 2011. As I figured it would be quiet, which it was, it would have been a good moment to observe birds. Helas, it would not be! Maybe the sudden cold spell kept the birds in their cosy niches...it was anyhow a pleasant morning, very misty and the temperature probably hovered around 18-20 degrees. As Fraser's Hills is only 33 kilometers away from Raub, I decided to drive home and took my wife up the hills for a refreshing afternoon...well, it turned out that it was even colder in the afternoon because a gust of cold air mixed with mist got my wife instantly unwell (it was probably around 14 degrees in the late afternoon). Luckily, one hot mushroom soup and warm water cured her from the shock and we stayed on for another hour or two before it got a bit too dark to drive down the winding roads from Fraser's Hills to Raub through thick jungle and threatening skies... 

misty pines near the playground...

another view

a mountain fishtail palm in the mist

Gossamers in the mist...childhood fantasies

an orange-coloured Medinella spp. in the shades at Jeriau

Firecracker plant along the path to Jeriau waterfalls

Refreshing green on a patch of moss

black berries of a ginger plant

large trumpet flowers of a huge shrub with pleasant perfume wafting in the air

view from the abandonned golf course at Jeriau

an unusually coloured bamboo orchid

the 'normal' variant

a Nepenthes, or Monkey cup growing among bushes of grass, ferns and bamboo orchids

another attractive Medinella in the shades

a tiny orchid on a fallen branch

a pink bloom near the golf course

the most iconic image of Fraser's Hills

Rolling hills and plains with a swath of brooding dark sky above...Panoramic view of the Klau Valley from the east facade of Fraser's Hills. Patches of cultivated farmland are clearly visible, with the roofs of Tras Village in the foreground...