Taiping Tripping

I went to Taiping with my cousins last weekend. It was great fun. We've been planning for this trip since Eid. So me, my sister and 9 other cousins (Azzad, Dhuna, Deedy, Amru, Abbaei, Amy and her kids; twin Irfan & Izzat and Cha) bundled off in 3 cars for our great northern adventure.

First thing Saturday morning we (KL area cousins) met up with our Kajang cousins at the PLUS Rawang R&R. From there we headed North. First stop on our excursion was Gua Tempurung off Gopeng exit.

Look how happy, clean and fresh everyone is. We opted for the 'Top of the World' tour that was described as a 'exciting and slightly strenous'. We paid RM9 and followed our guide and some others into the gaping chasm of Gua Tempurung.
They should have named the tour 'Visit to Hell in a Handbasket' tour. The cave was fine but 'slightly strenous' apparently translates into 'you'll sweat, you'll skid and slip on the slimy, rickety looking, skimpy metal stairs, you'll climb, you'll pray for the tour to end, you'll get vertigo from the height, you'll wear off your deodrant, you'll hike and walk and hike, and did I mentioned you'll sweat?'

Picture at the end of our leg of the tour. Word that comes to mind looking at this bunch would be : manky. Not the best smelling people you'll find. You could go on further into the cave if you want. We had to go back the same way we came in. Just when I thought climbing up the stairs was bad.

Next we headed to the overrated Kellie's Castle. It wasn't all that but it was hard not to have ridiculous fun with these people. We had a pseudo-lunch there and it rained when we were about to start the castle exploration, bummer. I'm still waiting for better pictures from the other 7000 cameras my other cousins brought along for this trip, but for the time being:

Then we continued with our way to Taiping. Checked in and went on to the great Taiping zoo. That was the original plan but the zoo was already closed for the day. We've already gone on the night tour of the zoo 2 years ago so we went for dinner at the infamous food court instead. Had ridiculous amount of Rojak Sotong Kangkung. Good times. Later went for a detour at Tesco to stock up on the junk food for our horror movie which was next on the agenda. For lack of better movies to watch, we watched The Grudge 2 and was not impressed.
The next morning, bright and early, we headed to the Taiping zoo. This bunch was easily amused by the huge Araipaima fishes (we were stuck at the pond for almost 3o minutes waiting for them to finish gawking at the fishes) and the most over-used word of the trip was, "It's huuuge!" which was understandable because all the animals were bigger than it looked in Animals Planet. Taiping Zoo is undoubtedly the damn zoo in Malaysia. The animals looked happy and well looked after (except for their snakes enclosures) and the zoo environment was clean, green, well kept and beautiful. It was worth the RM5 admittance ticket and this second return.

3 hours later, we checked out of the hotel and headed to our Auntie's house in Kemunting. The first time we were in Taiping was for this Auntie's grand daughter's wedding (i.e. My cousin's daughter's wedding). This time, 2 years later, we were in Taiping to see their babies. Yes, my cousin's daughter's babies. Technically, we were grandparents. We are normally absurdly close to all our relatives but my auntie's family is a tad estranged from us after my uncle's death 24 years ago. Nothing bad, just don't see each other enough. The boys are 8 months old twins and are the 3rd twin in our extended family. We came bearing gifts. The babies were not impressed.
Done with our familial resposibilty, we started the journey home. We stopped by Kuala Kangsar to see the sights. Although I still think nothing good ever came out of Kuala Kangsar (ahem) the places of interest wasn't all that bad, really. Stopped by the Ubudiah mosque for prayers. And the newly-renovated-but-still-unofficiated-therefore-not-open-for-public Royal museum. Look at this good looking bunch.
And later to the Handicraft square for some souvenirs shopping. We left Kuala Kangsar and after a pitstop at Tapah, continued our way home in the rain.

However, right after the Ulu Bernam R&R and 5km before the Lembah Beringin exit, Dhuna's car got into a 5 cars fender bender. It was around 9.30 pm and it slowed traffic down up to 10 km. No one was hurt. I was in Deedy's car and we managed to stop and Deedy helped with stuff. Azzard's missed and waited for us at the Rawang rest stop.
I took forever to get the cars off the right lane into the emergency lanes, it took forever for the PLUS people to come, it took forever to sort everything out and bring everyone to the nearest police station in Ulu Bernam, it took FOREVER to process and finish the police reports and it took forever for us to continue with our way home. But it was all good. We had one half of the twins with us at the police station and it was their birthday.
I arrived home at 4 am Monday morning and had to work the very next day. All in all it was a tremendous trip and we are already planning for the next one. But Dhuna said she's not gonna drive for that one. Word.