Nightmare At Bkt Tinggi

Date: 16 Dec 2005 - 18 Dec 2005
Venue: Singapore - Bt Tinggi, M'sia - Singapore

holiday trips r supposed to b fun. but w me running into a bout of bad luck, holiday trips become irritatingly disastrous. yes, it's not filled-w-A&E-incidents disastrous, but unhappily and rottenly disastrous. haiz...

aniwaes, started the trip on fri morn. my sis was so confident dat we could hail a cab off the main rd, dat we dun nid 2 call a cab. but in punggol? 6 in the morning? i dunno wat common sense means to gals. really.

aniwaes, off to golden mile complex (where else) and took off only at 7am, cos there were irritating ppl who dun like to wait for latecomers and scooted off to loiter ard. so, when the latecomers came, we find 2 missing. when the 2 returned, another 3 went off to buy magazines. haiz... i dunno wat common sense means to s'poreans.

and den spent 1 hr at s'pore customs. haiz... all the terrorism thingy has made s'pore customs VERY inefficient. really. we breezed thru the malaysian customs lor.

it was a long and tiring trip to bt tinggi. ever since the long flights to and fro NZ, i've quite a phobia of staying in a particular, constricted space for long periods of time. it was no fun and sleeping was an uncomfortable exp.

aniwaes, we reached the foot of genting to change to a 'taxi' to bt tinggi, cos the bus we took was actually heading off to genting, and bt tinggi was juz beside genting, on another hilltop, dat is. the taxi turned out to b a run-down minivan where we had to squeeze in w a family of indians and 2 PRCs. but well, it beats walking up to bt tinggi, yar?

aniwaes, it was den i realized we hadn't taken any photos yet. and since there was nothing nice to b taken, i juz did wat was natural:














on the van to bt tinggi

wat to do? when there is nothing more beautiful to spend the megabytes on?

okok... intro to bt tinggi. actually, there is only 1 resort in it, a french-themed resort called colmar tropicale, literally meaning a tropical ver of a french place called colmar. which explains how the place looked so french, esp w the cool weather up in the mountains. everything was donned w a french name, even the fried chicken fast food restaurant dat looked like some malay kopitiam.

aniwaes, we reached the place at abt 4pm, w the sun shining like... like... pardon my lack of vocab. yup, den my 3rd sis was like exclaiming: so sunny!!! not like genting!!

we shd understand dat we r responsible for every word we say... esp when it started to pour 2 hrs later...



entrance of colmar tropicale

the place, being the only resort there, was like a hotel split into a few blks alongside a single st (which was basically the whole world oredi...). aniwaes, we moved into the 6th blk, labelled w a beautifully vulgar name of a flower, Fuchsia.



the building name of where i lived: fuck-sia...



room

the next disaster came when we stepped into our rms. despite being spacious, it was really lok-kok, liddat of a chalet. the floor was disfigured by marks from moving furniture (and most prob luggage) and the windows were faulty. haiz... the rm had the stench of smoke, which was prob left over by some generations of guests b4. bunches of hair + dirt (i guess it's called dirtball...) could b seen swirling under the effect of the ceiling fan.

the last straw came when i saw the note on the table: due to some unforeseen circumstances, the water is murky. pls do not drink from it.

guess wat? we lived on mineral water for the next 3 days. the water was REALLY MURKY. haiz... worse than the hotel at fox glacier.



view out of window

below r some of the pix of Fuck-sia blk. i guess the arrangement of the other blk were abt the same, but their exterior definitely looked different for every blk.



courtyard up



courtyard down

we then took a walk ard. the walk took abt 1 hr. yesh... cos, well, the whole resort consists of only ONE st. it was like strolling thru the arcade of hotels. but i muz admit the replicas looked v nice and coupled w the increasingly cloudy, thus cooling weather, i really felt like i was in a real version of colmar.



chateau (replica also, ah budden) opp colmar tropicale

one thing i was amazed w was how they hid all the modern amenities in the resort. there was actually a whole lot of multi-storey carpark beneath the resort. i din c the rubbish dump aniwhere. nor was there a visible loading/unloading bay (perhaps it was in the bowels of the carpark bah...).



king zenov the kong terrorising Mini-Train Town. dunno y there was such an exhibit in the midst of the resort.

we climbed up a tower at one end of the st (which was basically the end end, cos the tower at the starting end, the reception, was the office blk) and took a look at the view. ha... cos we were still fresh from the trip, took a lot of photos juz at the tower.



atop a viewing tower, of cos, it's me me ME.

and then strolled outside the resort.



i'm practising for the latest expression circulating online: puppy-look, complete w big, cutesy puppy eyes... ermz... nid more practice of cos. now, i look like a bull-dog...



impressive... speechless... ME... taken near the entrance.



st of colmar tropicale. really like fairytale...

after 1 hr, we settled at a classy-looking-but-actually-not-so-ex restaurant for dinner, during which it poured and washed the spider out. and yesh, it rained straight for the next 36 hrs we were at the resort.



nite view of viewing tower

perhaps it was due to altitude sickness, my mum and sisses prepared for bed at 8pm. so i went out alone to roam the st and see wat it was like at nite, w the x'mas decor and such. it was ok. the st was rather busy, w kids in the arcade and ppl chilling out in the restaurants. lounges and bakery. hmmm...



roof of building

had a cup of hot milo (cos it was getting chilly) and a choco cake at the bakery. yup, cos i realized dat i hadn't had a single slice of cake for my b'day, so decided to treat myself to one and say Happy Birthday to myself. too bad there were no candles. but even if there were, i wun b dat siao on to do dat in the middle of the st. ha... come to tink of it, quite nice to b celebrating my own b'day at a romantic-looking place liddat.



st view

next morn, went to the japanese garden on another hilltop. it was pouring, and for the 1st time in my recent life history, i shoved and chiong like a typical s'porean to squeeze onto the shuttle. haiz... too many ppl liaoz. and dun wanna us to get split up. i felt so miserable and low class. wondered y i lowered myself to dat level. but too bad, i did it, and it is a mark in my life. haiz...



japanese village

the village itself was built into a hillside. ie, there was a lot of climbing moving from one place to another. and basically, cos most of the facilities r for ppl staying there, we could only see, but not enjoy (like the spa...).



teahse



outside of restaurant. yup, was a bit turned off by the perpetual rain.



outside of the botanical garden... it is now dat i realize how small the umbrella really was...

the botanic garden was scary also. it was hill-climbing. went in and down... and had to climb 10-storey of height to get out. but it wasn't as if one shot climb all lah. but there was a part we had to climb abt 5 storeys straight. wow... i go holiday trip to work out...


in the restaurant, waiting for the rain to stop... or become lighter



viewing pavillion in botanic garden. so shag, i din realize my necklace was out of place...



still in botanic garden



caterpillar... 1st time i saw one dat big... and hairy



tired out...



me and storm lily. yep... white as lily, out of a storm. whoa!! dat's ME!!!



acting cute. guess wat, i imitated the expression from jay chou in Zhi Yong Dian Li Xue Xiao



misty facade

returned to colmar tropicale at abt 2. as usual, squeezed onto the shuttle. cos the shuttle was like a giant golf cart, and we were going downhill (jap village was 1000 feet higher), the trip was really scary, esp when negotiating the bends.



from italian restaurant, La Flamme

aniwaes, had lunch at a pasta restaurant, and then hopped on to the french bakery for afternoon tea. yesh... there was no place else to go, and nothing to spend our money on... so we went restaurant-hopping. haiz... hopelessly bored out...



afternoon tea at french boulangerie

after dat, bot some bangles w our names (like we can't do it in s'pore liddat) and we went up to our rm to wait for dinner time, at the same restaurant we had dinner the prev day. and then, strolled along the st in the evening bathed in the orange glow of the x'mas decor. ok... romantic, if i were there w a special someone. definitely not romantic to b w families. duh!



st of colmar tropicale



misty morning

next morning, the whole place was immersed in a misty ambience. some cloud muz haf passed by, cos the phenomena went off after we had our breakfast. we then strolled around the perimeters of the resort, ie, not the st. looked at the resort from diff angles, which we din c in the prev days.



beside the pool

and then it was checking out. haiz... then the sun came out, shining as brightly as the hr when we checked in. nevermind, it's minor compared to the disaster coming.


tower from the back

it seemed as tho we boarded the wrong bus. well, the travel agency actually sent out 2 vehicles to pick up 2 diff gps. but we, seeing it was our agency, juz boarded the bus. so, there was quite a delay as the driver tried to sort out w the parent company.



view of my rm from outside

and then the driver threw us at a shop in kl to wait for another bus to take us back to s'pore. we spent 2 bloody hrs waiting for the bus. as the shop was somewat a resting pt, all buses came to dump their passengers for shopping. ie, we breathed in the exhausts of more than two dozen buses. and well, there were 3 families waiting. when our assigned bus came, it could only take in one of the families. so the other 2 had to wait 1st.

we went on the 1st, but it dragged and dragged until we were the last family to leave the place. shucks! we were dropped off at a pathetic place for dinner. it was plain dirty and chaotic. haiz... the holidaying s'poreans... dunno how to behave.

aniwaes, the bus we sat in was a double decker, and we sat at the lower deck w only 7 seats. so the 3 seats in front of us sat 3 XXL ppl. a couple and their (adult) son. they juz ate and ate for the 7 hrs we were on the bus. and when they slept, they created such a din. a cacophony of snores. arggghhh... i actually resolved to slim down, cos i dun wanna b like them.

and then, we were stuck at the s'pore customs (again) for 2 hrs. so boring. we even finished the french premiered Narnia movie. aw man... and started the 1st hr of King Kong. too bad i din get to see KK make his appearance. but well, i'm not interested in shows w ah-meng as the lead.

and then, of cos, it's home... finally... a miserable holiday trip...



from the back

link to the whole lot of photos

in addition, an old series of photos taken on the trip to Adelaide, Australia after 'O'-Levels