17th Feb, 2016

Much to the delight of our resident Scot, Tristan, it was time to take the high road and leave KL for the Cameron Highlands for the next leg of our Malaysian adventure with the kids et al (you remember Al, don’t you?). This was, of course after the previous night’s revels, so not everyone had a happy face on first thing…

We were due to set off at 1000 hours, but the first glitch was that our sturdy (or so we hoped) chariot was stuck in traffic. The idea was that from hereon we would be transported via a minibus driven by yours truly. We had hired a Nissan Urvan and were a little bit worried that we might not all fit in with the luggage. We need not have worried, though the boot looked like one of the best Tetris solutions ever.

First up we had to have the group photo as Nick had organised our very own t shirts. Without further ado…

The numbering idea was good as we could then check that everyone was there (see earlier comment about school trips), except that Chris never seemed to know what his number was, so ‘numbering off’ stopped at 4. I am sure those of you educated at Emanuel may have noticed that I have been demoted from Colonel to Major. This, apparently, is due to the fact that I shaved my moustache off (about 10 years ago!). For reference, ‘rambut’ means ‘hair’ in Malay. I will try to get a photo of Nick to illustrate why he has been given the nickname (no pun intended). Everyone crammed into the bus and I tried to concentrate on the driving. It wasn’t easy! There was a certain amount of singing…

First stop was my old house. It is still there, but is now government owned and the security guy asked that we do not take any photos, so sadly it is not possible to show you what it now looks like. Equally sadly, it is not in the pristine condition in which I left it in 1982, but it was fun to show everyone.

Next it was the Batu Caves, a Hindu shrine north of KL. It was a baking hot day, so we really looked forward to the 276 steps up to the cave itself. It is really impressive with an enormous, cavernous interior. A flavour herewith….

Next we stopped off at Val’s old home in Rawang. Her family’s old house is in sad disrepair, and a local developer has grabbed a sizeable chunk of the garden. There are all sorts of legal problems surrounding it, so at the moment her neighbour is very kindly keeping an eye on it. He also kept an eye on all of us and he, his brother who was visiting from Australia and mother very kindly fed us with snacks and plied us with beer! Note the great picture of three of us having lunch in Rawang!

Finally it was up the motorway and then turn right for the winding road to the Cameron Highlands. The last time I made this journey was on 26th August, 1979 and, astonishingly I stayed, with my parents, in the same hotel. I remember the date well, because the next morning I was shaving and heard via my shortwave radio (a huge apparatus not much smaller than an old vhs player) that Mountbatten had been killed.

We were welcomed at the hotel, the Cameron Highlands Resort with face towels, drinks and a group photo in front of the open fire. It is a lovely hotel and the staff were excellent. It prides itself on being quite olde worldie, as does the whole region with huge high rises with mock Tudor ‘wood’ beams. The kids were suitably impressed I think, not least by the 4 poster bed. The Cameron Highlands are about 1500 metres above sea level and nice and cool. During the day it is a bit like England in the summer and is home to a lot of vegetable and flower growing.

As per tradition, here is the photo of our room!

Well, that is another day done, but I do feel that I will never catch up. We shall try harder!