) to get some fuel and to rest a bit. Just after the stop we leave the highway to start ascending to the highlands. The road is a lot more bumpy (
) then the highway but still very good. 20km from Tapah we have a look at the Lata Iskandar waterfall (
). It's very nice but not very special, just the average waterfall (
, , 
, 
, ). From here we continue further up towards the first town called Ringlet. On the way there are a lot of small houses where they sell fruit and drinks. There are even some groupings of houses (
). They live here in the middle of very beautiful nature, accepts for the road of course (). After a long trip of 5 hours we arrive (
) at the Merlin Inn Resort between Tanah Rata and Brinchang.That evening we go to Tanah Rata to look how it is over there and to see if we can get some Internet access. Well, the town is awful but they do have a form of Internet access. Extremely slow but also extremely cheap, only RM4,_ for each hour. This is where I sent the newest version of this text combined with some photographs. A Dutch couple mentioned that we had to try the local speciality called Steam Boat. That seems to be a hefty meal so we choose something else. The beer is cheap over here so Martijn has some and I just stick to the normal Coke...
10_7_2001: I wanted to see how the surroundings of the hotel look very early in the morning. So I set the clock to wake me at 7:00hr. It was very beautiful and after taking some photo's (
, 
) I hurry back to bed... Just a bit to early for me :) At nine the clock rings again and this time we really get out of the bed. The breakfast here is a lot simpler than we have become used to but still good enough. Especially the music is really peculiar, hard metal!
As soon as we are ready we go for a walk, passing trail 3 and 5. After some searching for the start of the trail we immediately see some monkeys sitting in a tree (
, 
). The trail is good, very good (
, , 
, 
, , 
) but not as special as we hoped it would be. It could almost be mistaken for a nice green wood in Austria. Except for the monkeys at the start of course, but they probably were some kind of pets for the house close by. Halve way the trail we start to see some butterflies. I even managed to take a picture of one at very close range (
, 
). The trail ends very near to Tanah Rata where at that moment the schools close. So it is very crowded with children in uniforms (
) going to the bus stations.
It is lunchtime so we have a small portion of chicken rise. We want to go to Gunung Binchang where the view is supposed to be very good. But because we sweated a lot during the walk we first go to the hotel. Also because my memory of the camera is full. After changing clothes we go for the drive towards the highest point in the region reachable by car. The trip goes by a very steep road that ends at a communications station. It's a big disappointment because we can't see anything. It is completely clouded (
) and extremely quit. Only the noises of crickets and birds surround us. Very relaxing so this makes the trip not completely worthless. They do have a viewpoint (
) at the top, so without the clouds it must be very good. But because we don't see much we start the trip back pretty soon again. It is a bumpy road () with some nice views on the way (
, 
, 
). Despite the lurking dangers we do make it to Tanah Rata again and we eat a Steamboat (
). It's a big bowl of boiling soup where you have to cook your own stuff in. People told us that it tastes very good and indeed it does. Back at the hotel we spot a pool table (
) and we play twice. We both are lousy at it so the final score was more of a lotto then real ability.