My little short trip to the Rock Elephant!!!

Rock Elephant. Sounds like a rollercoaster ride rather than the name of a small town. LOL! Anyway, my sister's BFF came down here to celebrate my sister's birthday, which is a 2 days back (according to the date of posting), and she decided to take her BFF to Batu Gajah's Kellie's Castle for some sight-seeing. The unfinished, ruined mansion, was built by a Scottish planter called William Kellie Smith.

So, we woke up early (by our standard holiday modes, by the way) and headed out to Pusing's famous 活虾面 (not sure if it is correct). Let just call it Prawn Noodles, shall we?


Yummy!!!!


The shop is located....err....somewhere along the main road after the Police Station. I can't recall the shop's name but ask around and they will direct you there. They weren't stingy with the ingredients. It tasted awesome! You can still have the aftertaste of the soup even hours after you had it! LOL!! It was really fresh and it doesn't feel like it comes from a seasoning factory which had a seasoning accident! Now, that is important! LOL

With our stomachs filled, we headed to Batu Gajah for the mission to complete.

Batu Gajah is located roughly 20minutes drive from Ipoh. After some sweat beading on the forehead for a guessing game on the road (the dividing road leading to the otherside on the flyover. take the inner lane!), some mindless toilet jokes (Unidentified Floating Objects found in toilets and the inability to flush thoroughly) to crack some golfer jokes on some unsuspecting uncle driving to a driving range (GOLF=Golongan Orang Lemah Fikiran??No wonder people say they golf to release pressure! LOL!!), we finally arrive at drop point.


The Kellie's Castle of awesomeness!!

So we paid the entrance fee of RM4/adult although i insist that it was 1 adult with 2 children =.=". The first site we went to was a tree. Yes. A tree. Not some normal looking tree tho. It was the KUMA TREE!!!! (kuma=bear in japanese)


The Kuma Tree

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My sister, YY and the Kuma Tree


My sister trying to bully Kuma Tree


Don't you ever wonder why trees can become like that?! I mean, how does one explain how that tree came to be?

So we continue on to the Kellie's first house. It looked like any normal double storey houses at that time. Now it is partially ruined due to negligence, vandalisme and also due to the Japanese Occupation War.


The 1st Mansion


"Elizabeth" waiting for "Clifford"


This house or mansion, was already built by 1903, i believe. And by the standards of that time, it was pretty awesome. It even had italian marbles for the upper floor bathrooms! We thought of taking a piece of it home but then again, so did others before us and it is not ethical. So we kept on guessing and locating like we were NatGeo's detectives! My sister even went further to "develop" a mushy love story there and then about a certain "Elizabeth" and a "Clifford". Don't ask. But it was funny because the name really associates with that era! And it just feels right within that vicinity of those mansions! We saw an airwell before moving on to the Kellas House (or the main attraction). It was named after the owner's hometown in Scotland. I did wonder why there was an airwell instead of a...well,...well. Anyway, we took some really great shots of some random flowers there and we started on the first floor.


Random Flower.


"Elizabeth" and "Clifford"?


YY shot taken from another window


The first floor was more like a living room and a dining room. Couldn't really remember what room was there in the first floor but it was kinda cool. Then there was the stairs leading off into the basement. During the short 1 storey decent to the basement, we asked if this is where most movies had their secret identities revealed. The twisted minds, the other personality would take over and had victims butchered there. But no. The basement was kinda small. Maybe fit for 10-15 person, standing potbelly to potbelly? LOL!! Then i realised, what's the airwell for. No points for guessing.

Next we moved up to the 2nd floor, which is for the children, i think. Helen and Anthony. The rooms were big and fit to be called a prince's and princess's room. Both room were connected and with a "hidden" (its not that hidden actually) exit staircase leading to the 1st floor where both rooms met.

Then we moved on to the 3rd floor for the master's bedroom. It was huge and even has a view over looking the guard's post and across the field. Wonder why he wanted to look out to the guard's post...hmm. Around the corner, there's the bar room. But it looks like a 70's disco feel to me. I can imagine bigass afros and pole dancing girls! LOL!!! Next to the bar room was by far the creepiest room of all. The wine cellar...*dramatic music*. It was dark in there and the air felt like moist. We couldn't muster enough guts to go in. FAIL!

Just in front of the staircase leading to (sigh....) the 4th floor, was supposedly the first elevators in Malaysia. Earlier, YY asked about the existance of the elevators and i joked about looking like those in Mickey Mouse or Tom N Jerry's kinda lifts. Those with arrows indicating the floors. I wasn't that far off. We concluded that the 4th and 5th was for guest rooms. 2 rooms each floor, complete with individual toilets and a view overlooking the old mansion.


YY is holding on to dear life........


My sis looking over to the old mansion

And the highest floor could lead out to the wide open rooftop where the owner planned for the first of its kind (that era anyway!) indoor rooftop tennis court and another open pad where William Kellie Smith must have stood there every morning to start in one deep breath, yelling "I'M THE MOFO WITH THE BEST CASTLE IN THE EFFIN' WORLD!!!! FTW~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!". LOL!! That's what YY had imagined in her I.M.T. (Inner Mind Theater). My sister, of course, reenacted that very scene as you can see in the picture. FTW indeed! How cool can that be? That's awesomeness in the highest order! Talking about height. Who could ever resist the temptation to pose like a superhero when you are overlooking for miles in an open space?? None. Period.

The Morning Yell Pose


The DogCat Superheroines


Superheroines in the making

During our photoshoot on the roof, my sister actually did feign a suicidal jump on the edge. Without knowing that some unsuspecting innocent kids are looking directly at her. YY and I was obsecured from the kid's view. The following is a lil bit of the dialog.

C: YY!! Don't stop me! Ima jump!!
Kid: (looking with jaws dropped) gasp!!
C:(looks at the kid) .........Don't stop me!!
YY: OK...bye!
Kid: (still looking with jaws on the floor) ........
C: (ignores the kid) Ima jump!!!! (feigns a jump, gets up and casually walks back to us)

Talk about trauma!!! Poor kid, hope he gets over it. Nah...GET OVER IT KID!

Then we decided that it was game over and it was getting too hot and decided to go down and get some 100Plus. What a day!

JL