Holiday Destination: Cameron Highlands

(weather reports courtesy of hubs, MM)



Bharat Tea Plantation. The Tea House (right top) was great!

Selamat Hari Raya to all, and thank you for stopping by again for another awesome holiday review!! I am suddenly seized by the urge to write again after so long. So here goes!

Travel tips for Cameron Highlands this time, and if you noticed, hubs likes taking me to places of high altitude, possibly because he subconciously knows I miss the UK so much and wants me to feel cold. 

Here's some travel tips to Cameron Highlands.

1. Don't be like us, Plan it! Get some Groupon coupons for the hotels cause they're terribly expensive and places are awfully limited. We stopped by the Lakehouse Hotel first and they were sold out. (but good thing too because a room was RM1050 a night so that saved me face from having to turn it down). 

Planters Hotel. View from our bedroom window.

However, we got lucky (alhamdulillah) and managed to get a room right smack in the heart of town called Planters. Two big double beds in a really spacious room for only RM300 a night. With restaurants and shops all around us, walking distance.  

Q trying out the beds

Side-note tho, the first thing we noticed in the room was it didn't have air conditioning. Or any sort of ventilation, so we kept the windows open and we could hear people and traffic outside the whole night (which made us feel like we're in urban Tokyo).

2. It's not that chilly but some nice long sleeve shirts would be perfect. And cardigans for the pretty ladies. The laundramats don't offer same day service or self-service, so you're going to have to shop next door for the warm clothing you should have packed. Had you planned in advance.

At Lata Iskandar

Lata Iskandar

3. Bring extra clothes for bathing! On the way up and down Cameron from Tapah exit there's this awesome waterfall called Lata Iskandar. The water was so clear and fresh and the crowed wasn't bad at all. But we didn't bring any swimwear so we just soaked our heels and took some pictures. 

There's also a lot of crazy handicrafts on sale in the stalls in the area, including, but not limited to: sumpits--for killing people, tudung sajis, hand-woven baskets, eccentric-looking wind-chimes, bows and arrows, again for injuring someone, essentially stuff you'd really love if your son has a tendency for war games and/or everything where you come from is made from plastic or metal. 

Did I mention we also stopped by for some durian there and ate it on the spot, to the admiring glances of the arabs who passed us by on the street. And I'm thinkig, susu kambing smells equally strong ok.

Udang Merah!!!

4. From the moment you exit the highway to go up the mountain, its about 60 km to reach the next civilliation on Camerons. That is far. And the roads are long, winding, and steep. If you thought Genting is challenging, Cameron is far worst, so never ever go up or head down at night, just stay put until you see light, because much as I trust my driver, the max I can go is 99%. And that does not include in rain, foggy weather and dim light. Which brings me back to point number 1, plan your trip, cause if you can't get a hotel when you're up there, camping in car is next best option.

5. There's no reception on the way there!! I don't care if the fat yellow guy from Digi entered a cave somewhere in Sarawak and did a jiggle, he certainly wasn't fit enough to go mountaineering up Cameron. Maxis was--as the Malay's would put it--2 x 5 (equally hopeless). There is absolutely no signal as we did the 60 km drive. So we had to concentrate on Angry Birds and whoever is in the car with us at the time.

Blame Digi!



Consequently, no hotel booking possible from road, no WAZE for checking up congested traffic and no facebook updates possible when going up Cameron. Certainly innocent gossips on Whatsapp put on hold.

Check it out. There's also a honey stall next door. And we spent a lot
there!! The honey was awesome..

6. The Time Travel Museum was awesome. I don't know about you, but I have always been a sucker for museums, castles, and any ancient building. Hubs and the kids loved it too. It was full of junk they collected over the past years or so on the mountain and charge people RM5 to see it. I'm surprised nobody steals the stuff in there because some of them are quite valuable and rare. Definitely much more enjoyable than Museum Negara which contains close to nothing.

Strawberries with cream and hershey's chocolate, at Healthy
Strawberry Farm which was simply delicious.

7. The strawberries were awesome. Get them with cream. We went to two strawberry farms, and the Healthy Strawberry farm had the sweetest strawberries. The souvenirs sold there were slightly more expensive though. Hubs got me 24 roses in a pot and I thought that was so sweet of him. Please get flowers for your wife if you go to Cameron because they're sold everywhere and not getting any may expose extremely insensitive behaviour. 

Hubs was just sending off weather reports everywhere. This
is Lamb Shank curry at Barakah Nasi Kandar. A++

I think that pretty much covers everything about our trip to Cameron. Oh, by the by, we ate at the Hill Station Restaurant and the Baraka Nasi Kandar Restaurant (below Planter's) and both served equally great food. I must say, it was a very enjoyable unplanned holiday trip that hubs managed to pull off wonderfully. Thanks abang. May Allah bless you. 

At the Hill Station Cafe. Nasi Goreng Tomato was A++

Signing off.

sheemz