Thursday, November 27, 2008

MAH DIGGS BIGGAH DAN YORRSSS

Yea went for something like an adventure trip to Jeram Besu Recreational Resort at Raub.

Reached there after an approx 2 hour journey. It seems our activities started without even reaching the resort itselt. Came to a purpose-built house to get ready for the 4WD adventure.

Chor dai di-ing on the bus. The game would get stuck to us throughout the trip.

The 4WD ride was exciting as the road leading to the waterfall was very bumpy. With the powerful modified 4WD, the ride's sorta like a roller coaster. Summore certain parts of the road was literally hillside. Went across milo water, curry water. You name it. The 4WD is like a jeep la, more like a pickup jeep where we get to sit at the back of the jeep, open air one. So like when the 4WD zooms past the road we can feel the air gushing.

Then we came to the waterfall site.

Not exactly there yet but you get the idea.

River. (DUH)



The waterfall. Water flow wasn't supposed to be that high but it rained so we get a stronger waterfall.

Water's freezing cold. Add in the rocks at the bottom of the waterfall. One small knock and the pain stings like nobody's business. More often than not it would result in a bruise.

After that we head towards the resort. CRP Jeram Besu, Raub, that is.

Nobody would've noticed the error if they didn't correct it themselves. LOL.

After dinner we went for a night walk, in the orchard/secondary jungle around the resort. Sorry no pics coz it was drizzling and would probably turn into a rain. It didn't rain of coz.

Saw glow-in-the-dark fungi (was it mushroom?), quail (wild?), firefly (was lucky coz it wasn't the best condition to look for fireflies), and some other stuff I couldn't recall at the moment.

Not to mention the abundance of creatures in the resort itself.

Some ant-like insect with jaw-thingy.

Some pointy insect.

The proudest moment. A firefly in the room. It flew into the room by itself so no accusation of capturing fireflies.

Baby leopard. Mom says it's a wild cat, which isn't techincally a leopard. I dunno...

Turkey. Is it a turkey?

A goat. It smells like mutton curry.

Jacky the chimp. Apparently it hates females (human). Reminds him of a failed previous relationship?

There was supposed to be a sun bear, but it died few years ago.

The next day we went for a cave tour.

Guide said it's an 'introduction to caves' cave. 'Noob' cave?

Focus on the middle piece. Looks like a bowling pin?

Legend has it that some buddhist or hindu from India came to the cave a long long time ago. Then the next 2 formations were formed. Legend la...

Looks like a ship?

This one was supposed to look like an elephant.

Then we entered the cave.


A very young stalagmite formation. Said to be few hundred years old.

The stalagtite formation that drips mineral-rich (calcite?) water to form the stalagmite below it.

We crawled thru a cave tunnel.

And saw light at the end of it. Sort of...

Some poisonous cave insect. Has prawn like features...

This was supposedly the light source for the 'Theater of Light"...

But camera cha siu pau so can only show you a blurry pic of the 'stage'. Seriously the whole section looks like a theater.

Some cave formations around the 'theater'.

Further at another part of the cave, an agak agak figure of 'Guan Yin'.

Some crystal formations.

The reason we shouldn't touch the cave formations especially the ones marked with a red tape is coz we would distrupt the chemical processes that is occuring. We'll be introducing oxides to the 'living' formation and contaminate the chemical composition. The formation would turn black and stop 'growing'. So kids listen to your guides!!

The bunch of termites juz outside the cave. I dunno, that's wut the guide said.

Next stop was jungle trekking at a forest reserve. We're goin to see the Rafflesia flower!


But coz we were goin to cross the river and stuff, it wasn't advisable to bring electronics along. So sorry man no pics. But the whole adventure was either full of challenges (mud slips, river crossing, climbing over dead trees), or full of leeches, depending on which part of it you enjoy the most. The Rafflesia flower was really like what we see in the paintings. Bright colors, and the flower looks plasticky. The buds look like cabbage. Takes 9 months for it to bloom and 7 days for the bloom to close. Of the 7 days, 1 day you'll smell a flowery fragrance, the rest a rotting smell to attract insects. That day we smell neither. Maybe it's coz of the rain the day before.

There should've been a campfire but it was raining that night so no campfire. Last 2 nights were full of Chor Dai Di-ing, cubing and mobile gaming. LOL. Had fun la chatting around.

Next day check-out from the resort but trip wasn't over yet. Headed to a peanut factory (or should say processing factory?)



Intro started wit the peanut tree (or bush? Or shrub? Plant?). They don't plant peanuts here in the country anymore. Most import peanuts from around the region.

This one with a distinct pattern is from Cambodia (or was it Vietnam?)

This brown one from ShanDong, China.

This factory produces flavoured peanuts. Flavoured as in savoury or roasted, not as in chocolate or durian. LOL. They 'marinate' the peanuts in a boiling brine (for the savoury flavour one).

Closer view.

After it's done marinating they dry it under the sun.

Close-up.

After drying, they roast it in a roasting machine. Used to be hand-done.

Then it's off to Quality Control. Obviously those that you won't eat are discarded.

These workers are filtering the peanuts for other products. You noe the kind of fried peanuts? No shells, right?

After QC it's off to packaging.

I have a sense that this factory is something like the Google company. See the basketball board? Employees can play bball when they are done wit the work? LOL

The factory also makes prawn crackers.

Next and last stop is the bean curn factory. Thought got mushroom farm to go but no more... :-(

Bean curd residue(?).

So like, to make bean curd you need soy bean.

This factory uses 'Premium Quality Soybean' imported from Toronto, Canada.

You process it, then separate the soy bean milk from the residue.

If you wanna sell soy bena milk then your job is done here. To make bean curd, you add edible plaster (some kind of coagulant laaaa) so that the soy bean protein thingy sticks together.

Put the curd into the mold and pressure press it to get the water out.

And yer done.

To further process it:

Deep fry the tofu cubes...

...in this...

...and you get 'taufu POK'!

And that's the end it the trip. Made some stupid vids along the way but it's all fun. LOL. Spontaneous creativity woi.

There were also a few inside jokes from the trip that's gonna stay wit us for a long long time. Can't stop laughing at the male dominance thingy.
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