suffer up gunung bunga buah, laughter up bukit tinggi

How about

"LEECH"-ing on gunung bunga buah,

"BITCH"-ing on bukit tinggi..

Now that I got your attention, don't worry, there wasn't any bitching around.
Not that there's anything wrong with a Babe-In-Total-Control-of-Herself anyway.

11 July : This time, the 'pha-san kakis' decided to hike up Gunung Bunga Buah in Gohtong Jaya, Genting Highlands. This 4,690-ft high mountain is a great training ground for :

- beginners who attempt to turn pro hikers (like yours truly, eh-hem)
- anyone who is about to scale Mt KK and is looking for fast-track training (have I mentioned before that Gunung Nuang is another excellent place to test your stamina and discipline those muscles?)
- anyone who vows to counter the fear of leeches;
- anyone who wants to feel like they're in a scene from the series 'Lost' (I'm serious...certain parts when I was running through stretches of long lalang, I felt like i was acting in one of those 'fleeing-from-the-enemy' scenes...)
There are 2 entrances into this mountain - one from the roundabout right after the police guardhouse leading into Genting Highlands and the other from behind Hotel Sri Malaysia (where we started from). You'd need to get approval from the authorities first as both are considered private roads, which basically means Uncle Lim will have his guards shoot you down if you're found trespassing.
Thank God I made it back alive.

check out the fog behind us!

This was us right before the start of our climb.

Best thing about this climb was....I hardly trickled a drop of sweat!

It was like the entire hill was fully air-conditioned....which also made breathing a tad difficult at times.

And the not-so-good part, when it rains, it can get real chilly...brrrr..

and muddy!

Here, we're taking a long hour's walk along an old quarry road, before the climb actually begins.

Remember those jungle scenes from 'Lost'? This is SOOO like it.

Mary looks more like the wicked witch of the east with her poisoned apple!

Halfway through, we reached the Rock Garden - a place to best view the panoramic Genting Highlands, on condition you are lucky enough to get a clear sky. We won't, though. All we could view was the marshmallow-like fog hogging the skies.

oh oh, who's this standing so close to me??

it's Marky Mark and lol, he has to stick close to me coz we were standing on the very edge of the rock!

tsk tsk, how we sacrifice our dear lives just to take great photos to show you...

and since i'm on this topic, i've this message to a particular someone......

never assume, coz you'll just be making an ass out of u and me, get it? (snigger)

Finally, we've reached the peak!
Nothing much to see here, as the area was small and covered with trees so don't expect any oooh-aaahs of the view from up here.

And I have no idea what this structure on the peak was all about. Looked like some abandoned unkempt tower of some sort.
Didn't really mattered to us though...look at our dead-tired faces! lol

So glad we brought Alicia with us! hehe...

Thanks to Alicia, we got hot Milo to drink and hot kuah to eat our Roti Canai with!

yup, you got that right.

Meei Lai and her smashed curry puff.....we were so hungry, anything goes and everything was gone!

According to the 'experts' in our group, leeches avoid white-colored attire, hence our white goddess, Meei Lai!

Nevertheless, when you take the risk of wearing all white,

even her towel is white...hahaha

....this is what you might end up looking like.

can you see the blood stains?

Wearing tights is an option to prevent leeches from prying through your pants.

Remember though, if your tights are too tight, movement may be restricted and you might find yourself rolling downhill like this.

Though a tiring almost 8 hours climb up and downhill,

at the end of it all, it was no doubt one helluva ride, leaving you wanting more!!

ok, that sounded so wrong.....i'll rephrase.

at the end of the day, it was no doubt one heck of a climb, leaving you more satisfied than ever, never mind the body aches and leech marks!!

Though nothing to awe about its scenery, nor did I find any rare species of flowers (or fruits for that matter, no pun intended), this was still a nice mountain to hike up. Partly because it's very secluded and you hardly find other hikers up here.

The other part, I almost believed the climb would bring me to the entrance of First World Hotel where I could at least play a few rounds in the casino.

Leech-wise? Everyone is bound to have a few crawling up here and there. Nothing to be panicky about, as long as you got plenty of salt-solution as ammo, a pair of sharp eyes to target in on the leeches and the occasional flicks to rid yourself of the blood-sucking worms.

Some even wore lady stockings due to their very tiny holes.

Me? I wore TWO socks (the sports kind) and ta-daah... did not donate even a single drop of blood. heee.

Hard part's over.........

We touched down around 6 in the evening, freshened up (by this I mean, stripped myself naked for a leech check...wouldnt want those creepy crawlies up the wrong places ma!) and had a nice dinner at Gohtong Jaya.

ok, this is the only photo of our dinner then..too busy eating to take more

Then it was time to check into the Berjaya Hill Resort, Colmar Tropica in Bukit Tinggi for a well-deserved night's rest. By the way, this was my first time in BT. Frankly, I had a really high expectation of this place (after hearing so much hype about it), and errr..oo..aah....let's just say, the company was what made my time in Bukit Tinggi a real bLasT!

Big HuGs going out to the pro photographers for making us girls look so gorgeous and irresistible in every shot during this entire trip.

Thanks to them, I present to you the following WaCkiEsT shots of the Pha-San Kakis..............

BUT not before showing you how poor Moon slept that night.....lol, hope his mum's not reading this

At the balcony of our 'modest' 1 bedroom apartment (2 units shared by 13 of us!)

LoVe the GreeNery!!

no, we weren't pretending to be in a shampoo ad - it was freaking windy actually!

(Entrance of the French Village)

Paid RM 10/pax for entry. Too bad the Japanese Garden was closed that day due to a fallen tree blocking the road leading to its entrance.

gee, can you tell we were looking at the sun's direction? lol..

then we got used to the glare,

and was able to make silly expressions!

At the Wishing Well

(err, the well's somewhere in this photo..)

just the ChiCks...

How the 3 Stooges would react to a wishing well...

Pong in action!!

don't ask me what they're doing...

wow, what are the chances of you getting tatooed up in Bukit Tinggi?!

(nah, it's only temporary)

Found... IronMan!

Found....my Dream Son!

aint he the cutest!

And our attempt to kidnap him?

Foiled, when big brother came to his rescue!

we stumbled upon these children who were actually hotel guests and couldnt helped but take photos of them. holy cow, they looked like a really young KiMi Raikkonen.

Then, we found some empty wine bottles and what else to do with them but...

wow, didn't know i was getting the wong-fei-hong left and right!

Up close and personal!

And that's another feather to my cap!