Up Gunung Brinchang on a Misty Day

Last Saturday, despite some discomfort from food poisoning that I had the day before, we drove up to the Cameron Highlands for some fresh air - well not exactly fresh with the traffic jams everywhere due to Le Tour de Langkawi passing by (didn't know until we were trapped on the way down from Mount Brinchang because the morning way up was quite clear despite signs and traffic police everywhere). The drive up Brinchang Mountain was as tracherous as ever - some parts are getting narrower despite some recent repairs done, not to mention some less-than-competent drivers who decided to brave the slopes without prior knowledge of the place or their cars' sizes in correlation to the environment!

As we arrived, the place seemed to be packed with cars at the entrance to the Mossy Jungle trail but it turned out that those people probably went trekking far or camping somewhere near as no one was in sight for the whole duration of our stay up there. The temperature was well below those I knew of this place and for once, I have to wear a jacket over my long-sleeved polo...the actual pretext was to observe a few birds but the cold mist didn't really help (I heard not a single chirp). Undeterred (for the fact that I had to endure the tough drive up with some minor complaints from my Home Minister), I decided to snap some photos of the plant life, seeing that the last time I was here was almost 2 years ago...

a common tiny flower usually found en masse from a medium-sized tree found commonly at higher elevation.

flowers from a dangling creeper in the mist...

a Straits rhododendron

lowland roadside plants up in Mount Brinchang.

the mist...

an acorn-bearing small tree at the foot of the observation tower on Mount Brinchang

wild raspberries

Firecracker plant ( a creeper) growing on an exposed rock boulder...

The commonest heath rhododendron around- Rhododendron malayanum, found along the trail up the tower.

same flowers with flash on the camera...notice that the stamens are actually yellow in colour.

another variety of heath rhododendron in the same spot.

Gossamers in the mist

Pink buds of a tree rhododendron at the entrance of the Mossy Jungle trail.

the delicate blooms...

tiny creeper berries...

at the Mossy Jungle Trail

Begonia lowiana, a common hairy begonia on the shaded mossy slopes of Gunung Brinchang.

the Mountain Balsam, Impatiens  oncidioides

at the Sungei Palas Boh Tea estate

Chinese New Year's Goodies

This year, instead of serving updated Chinese fares or the regular cookies (everyone's so sick of these during the festive season), I've decided to go unorthodox - serve them cheese. It's very un-Chinese to have cheese but I suppose globalisation has somehow made everyone aware of what the other side of the globe is eating habitually...

A selection of cheese available from Malaysian supermarkets: a Brillat-Savarin which is an extremely "onctueux" or creamy cheese that started life as a 72% fat content (!), a camembert, a Le Russot - another well ripened cheese with a mild taste and a peculier rusty crust, an 18 months-Comté that I brought back from France for some textural difference, a Danish blue cheese and a cream cheese Boursin with garlic and herbs (my favourite though in France this is never considered a real cheese).

a tray of goodies to help with the tasting...

 Homemade chocolate truffles.

 a savoury dish: prawns marinated with ginger and curry powder and deep fried.

 Oven-baked Tiger prawns - really huge ones given by a friend (about 400g each). They were marinated with herbes de Provence and oven baked with some garlic oil and Ementhal cheese.

Another savoury dish: slow braised pork belly in white wine.

a simple salad with vinaigrette

Could have paired everything with these sweet wines but opted for a red instead...

a Tiramisu to end...

End of an Era

Unknowingly, on Valentine's Day, I went for a hair trim at my favourite barber's in Raub and it so happened I had my camera with me...well I asked to take a few souvenirs photos of the Takara salon chairs because they were extremely comfortable and the fact that new hair salons don't have them - triggered some news: the barbers are going their separate ways and that is not very good news. In fact, I sat on these same chairs since I knew what going to the barber was (and that was over 43 years ago!).Those days, children were asked to sit on a makeshift wooden bench with a soft top made to fit onto the arm rest of the Takara chairs for some obvious reasons - they were not tall enough for the barbers to work on. It's such a nolstagia - the current owner's father-in-law cut my father's and my hair till his retirement and his partner, my favourite barber, cut hair till his depart on a bus (he passed away on a bus on the way home) which brought us to the current generation of barbers of the same shop. They used to have watercolour paintings of idyllic padi fields on the walls but now replaced by Quranic verses and I will really miss them. I remembered that this barber shop functionned like an information centre for some of the regulars (and lively political debates) about who's doing what in this small town. No hair salon can give a clean hair cut like a traditional barber shop can though I'm sure they do have the information diffusion part (a.k.a gossiping). The closing of this barber shop will definitely mark an end to an era of old charms associated with small towns in Malaysia (Raub in this case)...

The Takara salon chair that can be folded down for a good shave...

 The soon to disappear signboard from the Raubian townscape - apparently it was sold by its owner who wanted to move elsewhere...