Welcome to HHM Land!

Dear world,

i'm back from the cooling cameron highlands. had a thoroughly good time there fellowshipping with my cute anntic comm and spending time with God. Thank God for providing us with such a nice place for the camp in Dec, im sure the vcfers are going to love the place as well.

The weather was very nice. Good to be away from the hot and humid spore right after exams. On tues, we met at 7.30am at kranji mrt. i was there early, at 6.45am. we took a bus to woodlands checkpoint, and through the malaysian checkpoint. then we got on the bus again to get to larkin bus terminal. we reached there at 9+ am and realized that the 9.30am bus we had bought tickets (rm 24) on somehow had no seats for us (dunno how the msian booking system works), so they gave us seats on the 10.30am bus. so weiying n i shooed the comm into macdonalds while we went to hunt down calvin who had enthusiastically embarked on his task of finding cheap buses that we can charter for the camp in dec. mac is cheap in msia, but the size of serving was smaller. i didnt eat mac, i had donuts which we bought from dunkin donuts.

onto the bus again at 10.30am. we got to KL at 2.45pm, and bought tickets (rm 18) for the 3.30pm bus to cameron. the bus came late and we sat inside the bus ticket cum grocery shop to wiat for it. meanwhile, we started eating the kfc we had bought and the sight was really funny. we were seated in 2 rows facing each other, on white plastic chairs, like how maid agencies display their maids outside the agency office in shopping centres.

the ride from KL to cameron highlands was supposed to take 4 hours but we travelled from 4pm to 9.30pm. it was very dark when the bus ascended the hill (mountain?) and thank God we got up there safely. we reached tanah rata town and went to have dinner: naan, nasi goreng, mee goreng before heading off to barre ij centre which is where anntic is going to be in dec. we were ushered into our dormitory, and told that lights out was at 12. so we rushed to bath and was really thankful that there was hot water in the shower.

day 2 wed
before we went to eat breakfast, we decided to book bus tickets back to spore. we walked the whole town n couldnt find the bus company that sold bus tickets direct to spore. when we finally found the place, it was the first place we had stopped at in the morning to look for a map of cameron. sigh. hahahaha.

we had prata for breakfast, then went back to the centre. ryan led worship and reflection. what was supposed to be 30mins became 1 hour. then we went to the building opposite barre centre to visit huien's missionary friend. she baked scones for us and they were so quaint and lovely. michelle ate 7 scones, to our bemusement!

in the afternoon, we went trekking to explore the feasibility of bringing the campers out for some nature trekking. we decided to go on the 30mins route to waterfall. we were quite disappointed that the waterfall turned out to be this unimpressive pool of water descending very little height. there was a trek ahead and my comm, the excited and adventurous lot, decided to climb up to the clock tower. towards the top, i was panting and exhausted. the steps were steep and high, but i made it to the top, thanks to Brothers Securities. (cal and ryan were wearing their 'brother' shirts). i think we trekked for 2-3 hours and then we went on this road that will bring us up to Healthy Strawberry Farm.

at the farm, we ate fresh strawberry ice. OH, that was sOOOooo000oooo good! we met a couple from KL who bought strawberries and insisted on sharing it with us. such nice pple! then we set off on the road back to tanah rata. it'd take close to an hour to get there. we went past the smokehouse that sold the best scones and tea at cameron, but some pple were sick of scones, so we decided to move on.

then "the rain came down and the ark came up"...there was no ark, but we started running when the rain started. we didnt have umbrellas, just jackets. my jacket is non-waterproof, but it can hold up a bit of water. then a bus came along and we hopped on. we were so happy!!!!!! weiying said she was praying furiously for a bus, and it really came along. its not often to see a public bus travelling around, supposed to be 1 an hour i heard.

we got back to tanah rata, safe from the rain. we had steamboat (rm 13 per person). it was so scrumptious, especially in the rainy and cold weather and after trekking for several hours. before going back to the centre, we checked out another steamboat place 500m from the centre and decided to book it for the camp.

back at the centre, we bathed. we had worship, a devotion on prayer then one hour of corporate prayer for ourselves and also the theme of the camp. after prayer, we had personal sharing until it was lights out.

day 3 thurs
woke up at 8am and went for breakfast. we kept having prata n naan. the food in cameron is either malay or chinese. the teh tarik was GOOD so everyone kept ordering that too.

we had worship when we got back to the centre and 30mins of personal devotion time. then we had a meeting to brainstorm for theme and workshop topics.

then the 3 yr1 girls went out with ryan to buy marrybrown for lunch. huien, wy, cal n i stayed back to play diamant. it was quite fun. after lunch was a continuation of personal sharing from last night. we shared till 5pm and realized we dun have enough time for dinner cuz the bus was coming at 6pm to go to ipoh. i bought some bread (they complained that its hard. tsk tsk. sporeans like to complain) cuz ryan was hungry already.

got to ipoh and bought tickets for 9.30pm non-stop bus back to spore (rm 48). went to grab dinner at a ramly burger store at the roadside. ipoh town is very 1960s, 1970s style.

we reached spore at 6am in the morning.

had a lovely trip. thank God for the great company, fresh and cool air at cameron, all the sights and sounds, and many personal moments with Him. :)