The Enes Family Adventures: Laundry; Cameron Highlands Arrival: Food, Tea, and Flowers, OH MY

During all of our travels, many wonder how we survived on just 6 total outfits each. Even though we were in some different environments than the US, laundry still needs to be done by everyone. While in Thailand, we were able to pay for our laundry to be done for us. They charged per weight but the cost was very cheap! That was the nicest laundry service we had for the entire trip. In Penang, we found a laundry mat. These machines were super quick so we were in and out with our laundry in under an hour and half!

Besides wearing outfits repeatedly occasionally, I would also hand wash items in sinks or showers, then hang them to dry. Here Aaron caught me multi-tasking! Washing laundry and brushing my teeth! Yes, sometimes I am this good!

Now back to our trip! From here on out we took buses. The road leading to Cameron Highlands from Penang was mostly good until we got into the mountains. From there the road was very windy and a little scary as you sat on the upper levels of the bus!

We had our bus drop us off near a local hotel resort at Cameron Highlands. From there, our homestay owner said it was a short walk to the homestay. We would learn however that the walk was longer than we though but at least going to our place was all down hill. Going the other way up the hill however was not a lot of fun! Here is Carson balancing himself out for the walk.

Once we made it to our homestay, we were pleasantly surprised by what we found. This was a full rental house that was very updated considering we were in Malaysia! This is the front door and dining area. We could not use the front door during our stay however because there was a funeral for a local villager who had lived 2 doors down from our place. Funerals are a multi-day process and are very loud we would later learn! Lots of chanting, singing, and banging pans.

A kitchen! We actually cooked in this kitchen a couple of times which was quite the experience! The toaster oven was great but cooking on a hotplate was new to us.

An actual bathroom with a separate shower! The entire house was semi open to the outside around the roof area though so it was weird to take a shower and hear people talking or walking right outside the wall.

Living room area. The wooden slats on the left were to the loft area which had 2 beds. Then those other slats on the upper center of the photo led into another bedroom which had 2 beds (this is where Carson and Oliver slept).

The master bedroom which is the door on the left in the above photo was very cute. Note the mosquito nets in all of the rooms. As I mentioned in the bathroom photo, the house is open in many places to the outside so you have to use the mosquito nets when you sleep.

This is the area that leads up to the loft and also to the boy's bedroom. It is hard to see but there is another doorway (with 2 smaller doors) that we used during our stay.

Up to the loft area. We were too nervous to use this area with the concrete floor right underneath! Seemed like an accident waiting to happen. There were bikes here as well but the hill was so steep up to the main road that we only tried the bikes once then decided walking was much easier!

The room where the boys slept.

The boys playing around with the timer on the camera. Oliver loved posing for photos as long as the timer was set on the camera.

Oliver was also impressed by this typewriter. He played on this every time we were around the house.

Carson working on some school work. Looks pretty rough right?!

The gentleman who owned this home was obviously very creative. All of his decorations were very unique and quite beautiful In the photo above with Carson, you can see what looks like shadow boxes on the wall...well those are actually drawers from a dresser/desk!. Right past the fan is a very old tv stand from forever ago. Well he turned that into a storage space for all his music, with a music player right on top. And I have no idea about this light but I found it intriguing!

Now onto more about Cameron Highlands. The food was diverse and amazing here. Mostly, we shopped at the market right at the top of the hill but we found this great Indian food restaurant and had breakfast on one morning.

Here is Carson with his favorite....Roti.

Another type of food that seemed to dominate the area was called Hot Pot (or we saw some call it steam boat). This restaurant was also at the top of the hill by our homestay. Here we are waiting for our food to arrive. Enjoying each other and the view.

And here is what hot pot is. You have a stove of some type and pan of broth heated up to boiling. Then you have all kinds of things to cook into the broth and eat. Kind of like fondue. You pull out the bigger items and eat them as you cook them. Then at the end you have this amazingly flavored broth, in which you add egg and noodles. Then you drink the broth. Voila, hot pot!

When we were out and about, it wasn't too hard to understand what things were. Apples are still apples and oranges are still oranges (maybe not the words but at least the physical items).

Here is the view from our homestay the first full day. The view was spectacular.

Another view from our homestay. Here you can see some step farming. Essential to life in the mountains.

Cameron Highlands is known for their tea. Due to the temperature and moisture of this area, tea thrives here. This area exports a large supply of the world's tea. So you are going to see a tea theme while we are at Cameron Highlands.

Eating a little lunch at a tea plantation. Behind the boys you can see the tea trees covering every inch of the mountains.

The tea trees up a little closer.

And even closer!

In the processing center we could watch and learn as the raw tea leaves went from tree to ready to brew tea leaves.

Right next to our homestay, there was a place called the Rose Centre. It was basically a botanical garden with concrete steps and walkways. There were some unique flowers and sculptures throughout the garden.