A Perfect Place to Blog

The hotel was not blessed with wifi, but it more than made it up with the isolation and cosiness. And I have converted the mall sitting room into my blog space, with a nice view to boot overlooking a couple of windows on two sides.

I could imagine doing a manuscript uninterrupted in this kind of setting. It could do with a small heater when it was cold at night though ... but as it was, it was perfect!

And now for the small matter of waking up the boys for breakfast. I wished that I could spent all morning in here just writing and reading ....

2016

We didn't do anything fancy last night or today. We stayed at home and last night Anita and I watched a few movies. Movie marathon starting with Interstellar, moving on to Step Up after which I fallen asleep.

Anita watched another movie after that. When I woke up, everybody were already snoring, all in the lounge in front of the TV.

I woke up early for my rounds and after Friday Prayers, we went for a meal at great Eastern Mall, doing some groceries before heading back home again complete with dinner.

And we stayed at home again after that. The weather was also gloomy, hence no real impetus to go out. But no complains from the boys. They wanted to stay in their rooms and do their stuff, which I was sure involved video games and YouTube. Anita was looking forward to that.

Our maid were supposed to arrive today but she has yet to come home. Usually she would stay an extra night at her sister's before coming back to the mayhem tomorrow.

Looked like I would be heading for bed soon. I have a long clinic tomorrow morning, before having a few days off next week. Not sure what we were going to do yet, but we were reluctant to travel far. Maybe a day trip somewhere. Genting maybe ....

Arriving at Smokehouse

Some things were never meant to change. And the welcoming air at Smoke House was certainly one of them. This would be third time we stayed here, since 2009. My children still remember the place fondly.

We had the choice of either going to Singapore or coming here. The weak ringgit made the decision easy for us, and we spent less here at Fraser's Hill compared to Singapore and was able to bring Anita's parents along for the ride.

The staffs were all new compared to our last stay in 2012. So was the chef as the menu was slightly different - no, there was no return of the pastry chef from 2009 with the gorgeous croissant. The scones were still good though ....

We had our afternoon tea after we arrived and checked-in. We booked a couple of rooms. Since there was only a single family room available, which was located on the ground floor, we had to let our parents stay there. we were there in 2012, and we remembered the extra bed, plus a separate sitting area and a large toilet - although cold.

For us, we went for the Honeymoon Suite. But with an extra bed for me unfortunately .... which was located on the first floor. The hotel was undergoing some renovation at the time and not all the rooms were opened. And to be honest, there were not that many visitors despite this being December which was supposed to be the peak month. The economy was clearly bad ....

Still Sunny

It had been a great week weather wise. But I bet that it would be cloudy and glum by tomorrow when I had the day off.

Anita had been out this morning while I myself just got back during lunchtime at the apartment not having a clinic today. I decided to finish off some presentations I have in the coming weeks before going back to the hospital later for the afternoon rounds.

We had no plans yet for those evening but as usual, the boys would prefer to stay in. Maybe we might be able to see some fireworks from the apartment later.

The Gap

Since a second route was open to drive down Fraser's Hill - via Kuala Lipis Road, there were no longer the need to queue at The Gap, waiting for your turn to drive up the hill. The old route was too narrow, allowing only a single file of traffic to either drive up or down. The route would be opened according to the time of day, meaning you would go out at the hour and then the route would be the opposite and half the hour for those driving down. If you arrived at the wrong time, you would have to wait at The Gap, a settlement about 7 km from the top until your turn was up.

Without the wait, The Gap settlement had disbanded. There were ruins everywhere of what used to be stalls and cafe. The business at the Fraser's Hill town was also affected since those coming down did not have to wait for their turn either, meaning they could just drive down anytime.

We stopped at The Gap on the way up since my Dad wanted to use the toilet. Those were new buildings, but unfortunately, there were no water ..... And there were no other shops there with facilities. In fact, there were no other shops. From my reading, it used to be a thriving community there before ....

Time had certainly moved on and with it, driving up and down the hill was much easier. As I mentioned, it only took me just over a couple of hours to get from Gombak to the hotel. Maybe one day, I would just drive up with Anita for a bit of a drink, then come back the same day ....