Touristy activities @ Cameron Highlands

This weekend away was for our Little Gal and also for us to spend some time with her. We've been thinking that we should start trying to make some short trips so as to spend more time with our kids. One will leave soon.... so, it's good to create memories while we still can.

One thing we like about Cameron Highlands is the weather. You don't sweat. Therefore you smell okay almost all the time. One can probably go a day without bathing and still not be smelly, I should think.

The places that we went... they were all on one road. Multi Crop Central Market, Butterfly Farm, Time Tunnel, Cactus Valley, Boh Tea Plantation, Kea Farm Market, Brinchang Night Market, various tourist stops for cactus, plants and all the other knick knacks (but these days everything seems to come from China), Tanah Rata where we visited a memory lane of our youthful days.... tried lots of stuff - everything strawberry, fried mushroom among others.

But one that really stood out for us was the Galleria Time Tunnel. Entrance was RM5 for adult and RM3 for kids. It was really a walk into time... a time that I grew up in, so long ago.

Remember these rubber balls. We used to keep a few of them at home to play. Even played 'kom-piang' with it sometimes and they're really painful if you kena 'piang-ed' by these balls.. And they were also a 'staple' for PE lessons.

I got all excited when I saw this. My dad got us one of these manual calculators. He was always game for gadgets, I remember. Only thing was we did not have enough money to spend on such luxuries. But occasionally he'd still get something for us and this was one of them. I wonder whatever happened to it. Have forgotten about it till I saw it here.

Tikam-tikam... we'd pay 5 cents or 10 cents to pull one of the tabs at the bottom of the card and hope to win something big. Play tikam-tikam, gambling in a way.... throw in a sum of money and hope to strike it big. Kids and adults, it's the same, it's not difficult to harness that gambling streak in all of us.... cos it's all about hope.... hope of striking it big!

And these drinks... who can forget them, huh? But I was just telling Other Half, natural stuff all degrade... these still look as pristine as they were 20-30 years ago. So each time we take a swig, just think what kind of stuff goes into our body....

Sarsi, anyone?

Before we had insecticides in our present form. I would sometimes be asked by mom to fill up the spray above and then go round the house to spray the rooms. Filling it can get a little messy sometimes. So I had to always do it outside the house. The insecticide came in a metal bigger metal can which can be poured into this gadget above.

And this cupboard of treasures from the past. I could identify with many of the toys. As kids, me and my bros would get toys each time we visited our maternal grandmother. Second uncle ran a sundry shop and toys used to hang in there... before we left for home, we usually would be allowed to pick one toy despite mom's protest. Some of those toys brought back this memory.

And looking on, we spotted these rings in one of the display cabinets. Kids used to covet these rings. We'd buy sweets and the ring would be the 'free gift'. Some of us would go to great lengths to save our pocket money for these sweets so that we could collect the different colours. These days kids would snub their noses at such cheapos.... but it was enough for us. I guess marketing used to be a lot simpler those days!

The time tunnel.. indeed it brought us back in time for a while. And it also brought back with it many memories, things and events which are faded in our memories. There are many of old stuff in this place which stirred up lots of those almost forgotten memories. Other Half calls it an in-between museum.

Remember the predecessor to XBox, Nintendo Wii, etc...? You know how museums store all the really old things... things which you don't have personal experiences of. You relate to them because you have read about them. Here, in this Time Tunnel, you are transported back into your past, relive that innocent childhood days prodded by the sights of the things you used to hold as a kid, memories which would have faded into the recesses of your minds and forgotten... You ooh and aaah here and there, when you see something you've held, played with or had when you were a kid. Nice! This place was really worth the visit. I'd rate this as the highlight of our visit.