Roadtrip!! Fraser's, Chiling Falls and...erm... well... Genting as well... 5-8 Sep 2005 Part II

Day 3: 7 Sept- Goodbye Fraser's!! Sniff!! Hello Chiling!! And a mysterious night stop....

Well, I did kinda wake up at 7+am, the sun was shining, wisps of mist brushed against the pine tree tops, and it looked like a brilliant morning for some light hiking and birding....just that...was simply too engrossed in my volume #8 of Lucifer, and Ming wasn't exactly up and raring to go as well!

Shortly after I put down the comic, wondered why I haven't received any SMS'es in the last 12 hours. Looked into Eric's pouch and zounds!! IT WASN'T THERE!!!! Roused the rest of the folks and searched the bedroom more thoroughly. It still wasn't there!!! Heart racing slightly, got Eric to accompany me to the restaurant where we had dinner last night and the tavern where we had drinks. Zero. Zilch. Nada.... I can only feel slightly relieved that I backed most of the phone numbers up already, well, up to the letter 'P', and anything not in the SIM card. In the midst of all the searching and plotting what to do next, forgot to make a police report, so there goes my insurance claims. Sigh!!!

Ah well, won't do to let it ruin my holiday. Checked that the next available timeslot for cars to descend starts from 10.40am, so quickly packed up and settled the bill before heading to the Gap Resthouse for brunch. We're planning to stay the night, as we heard that it was a pretty good place for birding, plus it looked quite nice. The food's only so-so though, and no balcony to illicitly cook on (hee). Unfortunately, the manager informed us that the rooms were not for let as there was a problem with the water piping! He did let us take a look at the rooms though- the larger ones came with their own fireplace! Neat!

So....we didn't have a place to stay for the night....Does that mean we'll have to go to KL and brave the traffic? Wasn't too keen to reach the city so early, but where else should we go? Something to ruminate on while trekking at Chiling.

Decided to top up petrol before our next excursion and drove out to KKB, surmising that if we run out of fuel, we would still have time to flag down cars and stuff rather than later in the evening. Also took the opportunity to check that the water level wasn't too high after all the rain yesterday. Parked at the trail head (details can be found at the Waterfalls of Malaysia site. It's neat!) next to the steel bridge. A few groups of people were swimming already in the river.

The trail was very clear, and marked along the river by little stacks of stones. Except for the half an hour of resam we had to plough through (though still nothing compared to a day of field work at Bukit Timah...), the trek was pretty easy to get through. Most of the 6 river crossings were in shallow water, with sand and pebbles underfoot. I kinda regretted getting my Raichle Scout boots wet for this...could have trekked in sandals with no problems...sobs... Des slipped on a rock while trying to cross the river and stow his camera at the same time, further proof that men are just bad at multi-tasking :).

Speedily passed through secondary forests and abandoned campsites (what's with the speed factor this trip??) before scrambling through a bat filled rock tunnel and emerging into a clearing to see.....the waterfall... oh wow...it's truly beautiful.... words and pictures can't do this gushing, roaring wonder much justice. We were very hungry by then, and glad for all the snacks and stuff we brought with us...

TT immediately set off for the pool under the fall, which could only be reached by scrambling up onto the rock at the base and then sliding in, followed by the rest of us. Decided not to push on and find the second and third falls mentioned in the website, as we wouldn't have time to swim and nuah then. Always good to get your priorities right. Currents were a bit strong so got out of the pool early and took photos for the guys still inside. A little rock frog decided to use TT's head as a jumping stone to reach the other wall flanking the pool. So smart!

Des took over the wheel on the way back and almost gave the rest of us a heart attack when he slowly overtook a lorry on an upslope while another vehicle headed our way.

For our night stop, we decided to go to the adventurous destination otherwise known as......... Genting Highlands!!!!

Yes well, we were a trifle embarassed to head for the ultimate tourist destination in Selangor, but figured it should be more relaxing than KL, plus we really missed the cold night air! Checked into First World Hotel and decadently upgraded to a room with a mountain view! It was really nice! :)

Food at Genting is waaaay expensive though...... unless you can tahan fastfood all the way. But the cool air was superb! Time to bring out all our favourite fleeces again.

Day 4: 8 September- R&R in KL & the journey home!

Spent the morning trying to figure out where the elusive Gunung Bunga Buah is from our window, and earmarked a few peaks to check out in near future. Eric and Des decided to try out the virtual skydiving experience in a tube while the rest of us sat outside and smirked mildly (we were very supportive!).

After many wrong turns and failed attempts to spiral the KL Tower, we reached the capital city of Malaysia. A few more excursions through the busy lanes of midtown finally brought us to Mid-Valley Megamall, home of Aroma Garden and the S$25 aromatherapy massage. Found a pretty decent Japanese restaurant outside the mall, unfortunately, sigh, the ramen soup had MSG. So sayang! As the rest of the food was not bad.

By the time we headed for JB was evening.. As usual we missed the last buses to cross the Causeway and had to walk over. This time though, nobody had to wake up early the next morning to work!

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