Topic History of: A short stint in Cameron Highlands
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| breezyland |
During the recent Deepa-raya holiday last week, I had a short stint in Cameron Highlands. My traveling companion suggested that we embark on a road trip to experience something different from our previous Malaysia vacations.
As soon as we reached KL via Airebus coach (departed from Singapore), we picked up our rental car and made on our way to Awana Genting Highlands where we spent a night before heading for Cameron Highlands. On the next day (22nd Oct 06) afternoon, we drove along the North-South highway and ascended Cameron Highlands in the evening via the Simpang Pulai road. Traffic was light  . The road at the lower altitude was rather winding, and consists of areas with several twisty corners back to back. It was a pleasant drive; however in less than half an hour's time, it started to rain  . We passed by several scenic spots along the ascent where our eyes were treated to bird's eye view of the breathtaking mountains. Due to the rain and fast approaching nightfall, we had to drive on and enjoy the scenery from the car.
We reached Brinchang town around 7 plus pm and were surprised at the amount of human traffic at the night market outside star regency hotel despite the drizzle. Maybe it's because the night market was the few evening activity highlights available in Cameron highlands. Prior to our trip, we made a tentative booking for a night's stay at Heritage Hotel. Despite so, we decided to try our luck on other hotels although it's the peak holiday season. Most of the hotels we dropped by, like Star Regency and Iris House Hotel were fully booked. The rooms that were available during our scout were huge family rooms at more than RM 400 per night at Casa de la Rosa. We continued our way to Heritage Hotel, hoping that that there were still rooms being reserved for our tentative booking.
Heritage hotel is some distance away from the main road off Tanah Rata (about 15 mins walk). We missed the exit from the main road initially partly due to the dimly lit streets and ended up along a dark stretch of twisty road to Ringlet town. After driving in darkness for about 5 mins, we turned back to Tanah Rata and realized that exit to the minor road leading to Heritage Hotel is just before the dark stretch of road. When we reached the hotel, I was relieved to know that rooms were still available  . The room was not exactly cheap at RM 328 per night, although inclusive of dinner and breakfast. We didn't have high hopes for the buffet dinner, thinking that it would be the usual spread of "mostly barely edible" dishes. So we decided to grab a quick bite from the buffet to fill up our stomachs then head on out for a proper steamboat dinner after we settled our luggages in the room. To our pleasant surprise, most of the dishes served were delicious! The piping hot spread consisted of sweet and sour fish, mixed vegetables with broccoli, spicy sotong and even black pepper venison meat! Dessert was not too bad with fruits, red bean soup and yummy mango pudding. Another surprise during our dinner experience was that staff at the restaurant was efficient, polite and friendly. At the end of the dinner, our appetites were satisfied. Who says steamboat is a must-have for dinner at Cameron  Unlike the dinner buffet, there is nothing special about the room at Heritage Hotel. Except for the musty smell which lingered on the pillows, the room was relatively clean and comfy for respite after a long road journey.
The next day we headed out for sightseeing early after breakfast. We travelled along narrow and remote roads to check out Cluny lodge and Strawberry park resort. Cluny lodge looked neat and inviting, but less so for its caretaker - a women appeared from the lodge frowning and gestured us to leave immediately as soon as we stepped out of our car in the lodge's premise.
We made our way to Sungai Palas tea centre next. The journey itself was an adventure – one lane windy road surrounded by lush greenery. My companion who was driving would sound the horn when approaching a sharp bend to alert oncoming vehicles, something definitely unusual to a city girl like me. Along the way, we stopped to admire the tea bushes neatly planted on the contours of the hills. The view was most amazing when mist began to roll in, giving the whole place a magical feel  . Lots of parking spaces were available when we reached the tea centre. A further 5 mins hike uphill brings us to the tea centre. Had tea, sandwiches and vegetable curry puffs (which are surprising good) while taking in the tea plantation landscape. Then we strolled around the tea centre. It was clean and rather touristy. There's a shop selling many variety of BOH tea that one could ever imagine. As it was a public holiday, there were no tours being conducted in the factory, however the machineries used during the tea making process were displayed along the corridor gave a brief idea of the process. By the time we left the tea centre, the place was rather packed with tourists.
On our way out of the sungai palas, we turned off a road to Gunung Brinchang which my driver companion spotted on our way to the tea planatation. After about 2 mins of drive, the road then branched out further into two. We took the road to the right and were told by a local that we should have taken the other road when we stopped to ask for directions. There was a strawberry farm along the correct road to Gunung Brinchang. Following that, it was a uphill and twisty climb on narrow dirt tracks covered with pebbles  . The drive really required a certain amount of driving skills. And there was this dangerous pothole along the way too. After about 20 mins, all thanks to my driving companion and our tough rented Proton Waja, we survived the bumpy drive and reached Gunung Brinchang. Nothing much to see except for a telecommunication tower; and it was misty, so we can't see anything beyond the edge of the hill. As we made our way down hill and we were stuck in a jam near the strawberry farm, and a bigger jam along the road leading from the tea centre. Huge vehicles of all types - MPVs and buses all attempted to drive on the narrow road to the tea centre. Every now and then traffic on either side of the road came to a halt to allow the vehicles on the other side through.
When we finally emerged from the nightmarish jams, we were yet again stuck in another jam along Brinchang town.  People and parked cars were found everywhere near strawberry and honeybees farms, as well as roadside markets. When we reached the hotel, packed up and checked out, it was past lunchtime. We decided to drop by T café for lunch before leaving Cameron. To our disappointment, the T café was closed for washing and baking when we arrived, so we had lunch at Marrybrown fast food downstairs below T cafe.
We left Tanah Rata after lunch and headed on to The Lakehouse in Ringlet town for some tea and scones before we bid farewell to Cameron. The surrounding around Lakehouse was awesome. We reached the café in The Lakehouse before 3pm and were told that the scones were still in the process of baking and would be ready in 20 mins' time. While waiting for the scones, we made ourselves comfortable on the couches near the fireplace. It was a brief and relaxing respite. The freshly-baked scones were served with refreshing strawberry jam - - yummy!
We ended our journey in Cameron via the old road to Tapah. The road indeed was more windy than the simpang pulai road. Surprisingly, I din't get sick on the way down, partly because of the fresh air that constantly rushed into the car from our wound down windows and also due to my companion's superb constant driving speed. It rained along the way, washing off the dirt from our car resulted from the dirt track drive to Gunung Brinchang – and saved us the carwash before returning the car in KL. |
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