Cameron Getaway! [Part 2]

3 July 2006

There was a small problem (well, mebbe not so small...RM200+ problem in the end) when KE's car had a flat after it went over a pothole, flipped over 2 cars and landed hanging half over the edge. I dunno, listen to what they said only. Had to abandon the car overnight while Jun went to fetch them. Anyways everyone made it to the apartment safely and ready to greet the middle of the year! No need to say la, after unpacking the tables were out and we were already playing Carcassonne and Lost Cities.

First night itself already quite packed: football matches (TST rooting on Germany 'cos he had money involved, until he wasn't aware that his money was safe when they went into extra time), drinks (always entertaining), junk food and trash talk until 6am.

And everybody was up again by 8am! All fresh and ready for Puerto Rico, House on Haunted Hill and other board games galore.

Early morning bout of Puerto Rico.

Big group of House on Haunted Hill. The 'Traitor' player has yet to win a game.

Figuring out the rules and scoring of 3-player mahjong.

Food was a problem: Except for Friday night dinner, when it came to mealtimes eating out, there's always someone who'll be waiting for his first dish long after everyone else had seconds. During lunch 'Nic waited ages for his mixed vegetable and rice while the rest of us were sampling the local char kuey teow and roti strawberry and tandoori chicken. We'd reason that the waitress was distracted by the doctor in our group, fuiyoh the attention showered on him, if she was wearing low cut she would probably have leaned 90 degrees already. Come dinnertime TST and 'Ward were left starving. This one was worse as we only went to makan at 9.30pm! Edward had to wait 45 minutes for his tandoori chicken SANDWICH. Sandwich I tell you! 2 pieces of bread, tandoori chicken tika. Even Ivan had already gone through his fried rice, tandoori chicken, cheese naan and curry mutton.

Anything to say about the food? Oh yes, roti strawberry is seriously goodsheet. The one at Restaurant Sri Brinchang (and here we were staying at Tanah Rata). Must try. Tandoori chicken still cannot beat what you get in Klang.

Jungle trekking on Saturday afternoon was a blast. The plan was, we go trek to the watch tower, then come back and go kick some ball. I mean football. Once we'd reached the watch tower everyone was all DRENCHED and flat on the floor! View was good from the watch tower. Shame, didn't bring camera. We ended up staying quite a bit at the tower while waiting for the entire party to reach, occasionally shouting out to make sure the rest were still somewhere out there (and so that they knew we were still at the tower, hem hem).

Then came the bit where we splitted up into 2 groups: those whom backtracked and headed for football, and 5 of us ('Nic, TST, Edward, Shahnon and me) that decided to use an alternative route back. Mana tahu that route lead us to the forestry office, then onwards on Jungle Road No.6 and then Jungle Road No.5 before exiting at someone's plantation. 2 hours of trekking up down up down. Good thing weather was dry and it was still early. If we'd trekked elsewhere in the lowlands we'd probably have backtracked straightaway, who wants to sweat like crazy slipsliding in the mud.

Once out we'd headed to watch the others play football while entertaining visions of a tubfull of hot water to soak the feet. Must say was very thankful we'd kept the shoes we'd used when we went to Gua Tempurung. The shoes had this earthy smell and leaked sand from goodness knows where, but did its job well for the trek. Only thing was that since the soles were long gone our feet were a bit tender due to heavy impact going downhill.

Once back, out came the heat rubs. Wahsai a smell long forgetten since childhood days. A wee bit o' rest and out came the boardgames again until the rest came back.

After dinner we'd split up into 2 groups again: those to watch football, and those who weren't gonna. What did us who didn't watch football do?

Power Grid.

First impression? Simple and interesting. Of course la, whatwith the day's events of early morning games-marathon and trekking and food-waiting, the brens were a bit numb already. Too tired to really process but still too awake to sleep. In the end we had a second game in the bedroom that helped knock us out...at 5am.