8:30 Lulu’s friend, Lip came to pick us up. First stop was for breakfast in Ipoh. Then we drove to the mountains. There were some cyclists on racing bikes, because the streets are good, the scenery is nice and sometimes the elevation is challenging.
Our first break was at chocolate factory with a lavender and a strawberry garden.
Unfortunately, the factory itself was not open for visitors this day, only the shop with a variety of dried fruits, chocolate and combinations of both. I bought a Durian chocolate, I ate some pieces the next morning, it was stinky like Durian but when I read the ingredients, there was no Durian in it, just flavour. Whoever tried to copy that smell, he did a good job, but whoever made this chocolate had been a cheater…
Not far away is the kea farm market, were you can buy local products, especially those strawberries that are grown all around.
not sure, if this fly eating plant was for sale or just to eat flies
We also saw a special accommodation: little huts in rows. You paid maybe more for the fun or special experience than for quality.
By the way, not everything what they build there is a good view, maybe it provides one…
On a narrow street with great view, we drove on to the Boh tea plantation.
There was a little walk up to a hill with a restaurant on top. On the way up, we saw a group of people all dressed in pink t-shirts and orange sweaters.
It was a funny and colourful contrast to the deep green of the tea, however we thought to better be fast to get a seat. The restaurant was big enough for everyone, but we got a table at the terrace with even better view. We wanted a table for three, and three German girls wanted the same, so we moved two tables 50cm apart, but the waiter came soon to reunite them. Also, a second try later was fruitless, the tables just had to be joined! The cake tasted well in any case ?
Many people made photos of the scenery, but two couples made my day making selfies and her face was covered. At least by the colours of the clothes later they can tell if he took the photo with the right woman…
Heavy rain started, so we stayed a bit longer and watched the workers in the plantation fast cutting the tea leaves with big scissors and putting them in big bags, out in the rain that made at least me freeze.
Before we went to dinner, we stopped at Lip’s family’s airb’n’b apartment. We were three and there were also three bedrooms and without arguing each of us chose one ?
Next highlight was dinner in a restaurant in Tanah Rata, for hot pot!
We had ordered a vegetarian variant but had got a mixed one and as the corn and other stuff was missing, we got some things extra. At that time when we started dinner, I had felt cold, but hot por warmed from inside and by the steam and the pot also from outside. And we were full!
But people who know me, also know that the second stomach starts craving for a sweet finale. So, I was not sure if Lulu and Lip just agreed to going to a café or had similar cravings. We had a recommendation from the restaurant and went a while to find that place. When we finally found it, it was closed, and we went back, just to see a café under the restaurant we had been eating in (we had left through an under exit).
We had three different cakes with a clear ranking (carrot cake was best), some nice talk, also some Smalltalk with the waiter and went home.
Besides other things,
we made some recordings of Lip and Lulu reading a few lines from “Die Bürgschaft” (The pledge) by Friedrich Schiller. This was one of two project-ideas I had had for this trip, to have a mixed version of many friends citing parts of the poem.
I think it will not so much be a message of unity of all people in the world or other meaningful thing but fun to produce and in the best case fun to see and hear.