Small Talk: Not going back to hometown this Raya.. So sad.. =( But never mind lah, bukannyer aku balik Raye pon.. =P Bonnie's flying to Moscow tonight! Everybody says.. "TAKE CARE BONNIE TINNIE BUNNIE WINNIE!!" LOL!
Last weekend was much well spent with my gf. A trip to Cameron Highlands was such a great escape for both of us. So great that I’d love to stay a lil’ bit longer.. Only if I could, then I would.
I’ll make this post something like a guide for you to get to Cameron Highlands, things to do there and recommended places to visit. The picture above is just a glimpse of my pretty face and the awesome tea plantation. =P
Driving up to Cameron Highlands is a piece of cake; only difference is you’ll take the time to bake a cake to get there rather than the time to finish it. There are two ways you can take – either via the Simpang Pulai way or the Tapah way (if you’re travelling from the North-South Expressway).
If you take the Simpang Pulai exit, you’ll end up at Brinchang whilst taking the latter will bring you to Tanah Rata. For your information, Brinchang is about 6km north of Tanah Rata and it’s a quieter place compared to Tanah Rata. Of course other modes of transportation are available, check out this page for more info on getting there.
When planning your trip, make sure you do your homework. One of the most important thing to do is to survey its accommodations. Are you planning to stay at some big hotels with ‘stars’ or normal budget hotel will do for you? For me, I picked Hotel Titiwangsa as many have recommended it in online travel forums that I’ve visited when planning the trip two months back.
It’s located at Brinchang and is a rather new hotel, which was opened in year 2008 if I’m not mistaken that’s why the building still looks new and the rooms are, in my opinion, like the rooms of First World Hotel of Genting Highlands, only bigger, and cleaner. Moreover, the price is affordable and reasonable. However, do check with them before making any swift bookings because there are surcharges for public holidays.
Of course there are plenty other hotels out there that you can try. Take some time to do some ‘research’ on the Internet, you’ll be surprise of how much information you can find about Cameron Highlands.
As most of the people are aware of, Cameron Highlands is famous for its cold weather and is all about tea plantation, strawberries and veggies. So, examples of places of interest are the BOH Tea Plantation, strawberry farms and vegetable farms.
After checking-in, we headed to the Big Red Strawberry Farm, which is located in Brinchang – a stone’s throw away from Hotel Titiwangsa.
Along its walkway, there are rows and rows and rows of vegetables being planted and they're mostly lettuce; like those you put in your salad. Meanwhile, on the another side of the walkway, there are another rows and rows and rows of strawberry plants.
Opps, not this picture. But well, you can see there – rowsss of lettuce. The lettuce looked so fresh that they instantly made me feel rejuvinated.
There you go – strawberry! Looks so pretty isn’t it? As pretty as it is, it’s already in my tummy :P You can pick your own strawberries at the farm and they’ll charge you RM40 for every kilogramme of strawberry that you’ve plucked.
There’s a shop inside Big Red Strawberry Farm that sells almost everything that has got to do with strawberry and a cafe that serves, too, almost every drink or food that has got to do with strawberry. You might as well get a lil’ surprised to see how creative they are.
They have strawberry tea.
Strawberry jam, which they produce themselves and which I bought one for myself.
Strawberry chocolate – chocolate with dried strawberry inside.
Strawberry cookies.
Instant strawberry hot chocolate drink.
Maybe Milo can start producing strawberry flavour too. Hmm.. Oh, that’s not it! More to come.
Strawberry photo frame.
Strawberry clock. I’m not sure if it has alarm function.
Strawberry SOAP!!
Last but not least...
Not strawberry kiss. Hey, maybe Hershey’s can think about creating Strawberry Kisses? Hah. It’s like everything strawberry there. Strawberry fans might as well bring home the whole shop.
Being a lot like a choco-freak (not an ‘official member’ yet), I tried the strawberry hot chocolate drink before leaving the farm. In my humble opinion, the flavour of strawberry blends quite well with the taste of the chocolate making it not only smells good, but taste awesome too. (=
When I say it was reasonable to have stayed at Hotel Titiwangsa, I really mean it. I don't get paid by promoting them. It’s because I enjoyed my stay there that I kept mentioning the name.
Our stay at the hotel came together with a steamboat dinner for two as well as breakfast for two, which means we only had to spend for lunch and for tea. The restaurant was rather quiet, probably occupancy was not high that weekend but the food was nice.
The food prepared for our steamboat dinner was nothing less than wonderful. The veggies were super fresh, and the seafood was as fresh as if they’ve just caught them from the sea. Isn’t it nice to have steamboat in a chilly night?
The very fresh punya shrimp. Thumbs up!
Of course, if you prefer, there are several steamboat restaurants in town. However, from what I’ve read from the Internet, not all steamboat restaurants are good. There are some that charge customers with cut-throat prices whilst some don’t. You can try to locate Mayflower or Hong Kong steamboat, which both are located at Tanah Rata. I heard that they serve good food at reasonable price.
Food isn’t hard to find at Cameron Highlands, whether you’re at Tanah Rata or at Brinchang. Heck, they even have Starbucks up there!
We paid a visit to T-Cafe for lunch the other day. A small restaurant with homely feeling located above the Marrybrown restaurant, opposite the bus station at Tanah Rata. The food is good and its price is, for what I consider, one of the most reasonable ones.
It’s a good place for you to take a break and enjoy home-cooked food (both Asians and Western food), bringing out the nostalgic feeling in you. Only thing is sometimes the noise of the cars is a bit annoying, so if you’re paying them a visit, make sure you sit a bit inside rather than near to the window facing the main road. And soon, the T-Cafe will be known as the Lord’s Cafe.
See, I kid you not.
Despite having so many tourist spots up the highlands, I still think that a trip to the tea plantation is a must and is most rewarding.
I dare say that you can hardly prove me wrong.
The scenery, the tranquillity plus its fresh, cool air beat karaoke, dotA, shopping hands down. You can’t feel me until you’ve been there.
The BOH Tea Centre is located at Sungei Palas, somewhere in between Brinchang and Kg Raja. Just a few minutes’ drive from Brinchang and off the main road, you’ll need to drive through a short stretch of hill road before arriving at destination. Park your car somewhere at the foothill and walk up the short bush towards the tea centre.
There’s a cafe at the tea centre for visitors to sit down to enjoy both the scenery and the BOH tea. Don’t forget to snap some pictures when you’re there too. Also, pay a visit to the other side of the tea centre where there’s a BOH shop selling a variety flavours of tea and some BOH exclusives souvenirs.
Take the chance to take a free tour to the tea leaves processing factory just beside the tea centre. The tour only takes about 5-8 minutes and the tour guide will briefly explain how the tea leaves are being processed into what we always see on the shelves of supermarket – BOH tea bags or tea leaves. You can, of course, raise questions should you want to know more about the processes as the guide will be more than glad to answer your queries.
As we stepped out of the factory, there was a couple taking wedding photographs and they even went down to the tea plantation place to take their wedding photographs. Hmm.. Girls, where’d you like to have your wed-photos taken? Haha!
Another special thing in Brinchang is its pasar malam (night market). The veggies being sold there are utterly fresh and you must try the Jagung Mutiara (something they call the ‘Pearl Corn’ in English). Unlike the jagung at lowlands, these Pearl Corns can be consumed raw and it’s freaking huge and juicy and sweet! We bought six of those for ten bucks. If you’re looking forward to get some fresh veggies back to lowland, you can get them from the pasar malam whilst showing some bargaining skills of yours ;-)
There’s one thing that I’d like to highlight: beside the Hotel Titiwangsa lobby there’s a bread shop/cafe that serves meat floss bread that tastes so daymn good I tapao three of those before leaving Cameron Highlands.
Gosh, now I’m craving for it again!
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Here are some info of places I mentioned above:
Hotel Titiwangsa
Lot 187 & 188, Jln Besar,
39100 Brinchang, Cameron Highlands, Pahang.
Tel: 605 490 1188 / 1189The T-Cafe (soon to be the Lord’s Cafe)
No. 4, 1st Floor (Side Entrance),
Main Road, 39000, Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands.
Tel: 605 491 4018 (Opens daily except Sundays)
- More info on BOH Tea Centre Sg. Palas here.
- Cameron-Highland-Destination.com is a very good site to visit should you need information on Cameron Highlands.
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Do you know any hidden places of interest or of good food at Cameron Highlands? If you do, please leave a comment to share =)
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