Trips Office Matters |
| Report: Visit to Genting Tea Estate 15 February 2004 Ruby Loo shares her impressions of the members' visit to the Genting Tea Estate on Sunday 15 February 2004. Pictures are courtesy of Ruby and Fernando Jorge.
It was a lazy Sunday morning up to the Genting Tea Estate, or so I thought. Couldn’t have been further from reality. To meet at the McDonalds rendezvous at Genting Sempah by We made our way there the old way, via Jalan Kuching, Was shocked to see the elevator, under construction, at Batu Caves – I had always thought that the main purpose of a Batu Caves visit is to hike up all the steps, but guess I was mistaken, again. We met up with the group at McDonalds, and I was surprised to see so many members outside McDonalds.
Must have been about 70 people, at least. We will certainly need to obtain permits from the relevant authorities for our “perhimpunan” next time, if we want to remain on the right side of the law! We made our way up slowly, in convoy, towards the estate, hoping that there will be no traffic coming down the other way. A fair bit of the hill has been cleared on either side of the road for illegal vegetable farming, exposing the slopes and destroying what would otherwise have been a most scenic drive. We arrived at the estate to Henry Barlow standing akimbo waiting to welcome his guests.
After the usual shuffle of parking, we made of way up the steps towards the living room of the old Kia Peng house, but not before From this moment on, the “leech” became the highlight of this trip!
Henry provided a brief history of the house and the estate, and how he came to be its present owner; but most memorable were his anecdotes of Pan Foo, the last caretaker of the house under Kia Peng, whom he “inherited”. After this, we started on the walk, amidst much insect-repellant and cautions about the leeches. Henry took us through the grounds, downhill and up, along the path of the stream, pointing out certain trees along the way.
As one of the stragglers, almost at the end of the line, I missed all the info about the trees, but not the action. Caught some poachers eating the starfruits and playing with a magnificent millipede.
The walk lasted about an hour, and we were all certainly ready for our picnic when we returned to the house. We scattered ourselves throughout the lawn, and it was a wonderful respite, to just be out there, enjoying the clean, crisp air and quiet. The sharing of self-prepared food creating a sense of camaraderie otherwise missing when eating food provided commercially. It’s a thought to bear in mind for future trips. Throughout the picnic, Iolanda was busy getting tree sponsors for the 12 trees donated by Henry for the Badan Warisan Most of us reassembled in the living room again after lunch, whilst some left to make the drive back to KL. Henry shared with us interesting facts about the butterflies and moths from his personal collection, beautifully displayed on his very long dining table.
We learnt that not all butterflies are colourful, and not all moths are dull; and some are more attractive on their underside. Henry also pointed out a large specimen from Gordon Kirley’s garden. Most fascinating of all, we saw some really tiny moths; Henry refers to them as the “mosquitoes”.
And with the end of the talk, so came the end of our visit. Some lingered behind to inspect the specimens at close range, and chat with Henry. It was also a great time to inspect the “baths” in the two bathrooms as well.
It has been a most delightful escape from the heat and humidity of the city, but we were soon brought back to reality as we drove back into KL along the old road. Garbage and shanties dot the way back to Gombak, where extensive developments are underway. The little strip of greenbelt that was the back road to Genting is all but lost. It was a lazy Sunday morning up to the Genting Tea Estate, or so I thought. Couldn’t have been further from reality.
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