This was quite a last minute decision. I was looking at the calendar to see if I can plan anything over the weekend, then the last weekend of May caught my attention because the following Monday (01 June 2015) was also a holiday. So I thought why not plan something. Initially, I was looking at things to do in Singapore, but there wasn't much to offer, so I started looking at overseas. I have plans to travel to a few countries, but after weighing the costs, I decided to head to Cameron Highlands. I am not willing to spend SGD700.00 on flight to go somewhere and I can only stay there for 3 days.
The Planning
The main reason for Cameron Highlands instead of other places is because the timing matched what I wanted:
- The coach departed on Friday late night (which means I can still work on that day) to Cameron Highlands and reached there by morning. I am able to maximise my whole Saturday at Cameron Highlands.
- For return journey, the bus departed in the morning, so I reached Singapore by late afternoon. It gave me ample time to unpack and rest for work the next day.
The Coach Service
There wasn't many agencies that offer coach service to Cameron Highlands and I decided to take Konsortium after visiting almost all the shops at Golden Mile. It was the most expensive one, but I took it because it is a more trustworthy brand. I didn't want to take the risk.
The Accommodation
All the travel agencies offered accommodation together with the coach, but I realised that booking online (via
Agoda) was much cheaper, so I booked the hotel separately. There are a few hotels up on Cameron Highlands, so I had to decide which one to take base on its location and what's available, but that wasn't a very hard decision to make. Copthorne Hotel Cameron Highlands is the best located place for tourists in my opinion. It is at a central location with many attractions surrounding it. I don't have a car or any transport to bring me around, so that was my best bet.
Adding all up, the coach and accommodation cost less than SGD200.00 per pax, which I find it rather reasonable.
Setting Off
Day 0
Boarding of bus was at Golden Mile Tower (where Konsortium is). The bus was scheduled at 2230hr but we were suppose to reach there 30min in advance to collect our tickets. The traffic was bad that day, the bus only left Golden Mile Tower at 2300hr, plus the traffic congestion at Tuas Checkpoint, we only reach Malaysia about 0100hr. It wasn' t very bad because it was at night, so we slept while the bus was stuck in the jam. After we cross the customs, we just slept all the way, so I wasn't sure what actually went on, but I do have impression that the bus have quite a number of pit stops for people to go to the toilet.
Day 1
The journey was a long one, but I didn't realise because I was sleeping all the way. By the time we reach Copthorne Hotel Cameron Highlands, it was slightly passed 1000hr (i.e. 11 hours of bus ride).
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| Reaching Copthorne Hotel Cameron Highlands |
Copthorne Hotel Cameron Highlands used to be called Equatorial Hotel. They re-branded themselves since January 2014. I like the whole cottage feel of the hotel. Those houses on the left in the picture is actually the rented apartments. The high rise building is where the hotel is.
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| Hotel Lobby |
Look at inside the hotel lobby. If you have noticed, there isn't any air con and the lights were off. That explained why they can afford to charge cheaper than what you expected from Copthorne.
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| Hotel Room |
Same goes to the room, you see the fan? It means no air con, but it wasn't that bad. Thanks to the cool weather at Cameron Highlands. Generally, it is about 2
0°C throughout the day.
Oh yes, there are some things about Copthorne that might be useful to know. The room was meant for 2 person but only 1 set of towel was provided. I have to call the housekeeping to get the other set. I understand that sometimes they might be have left out some things which I am totally alright about it. They also deliver after making the request once. It was already better than those hotel that I have to request so many times before they deliver. The other thing was that the toothbrush and accessories that hotel usually provide were not not in there as well. We have to request before they deliver, but I am not saying that it is a bad thing. They are trying to optimise the usage of resources. I don't really blame them, just for you guys to take note.
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| View from hotel room |
The hotel room that I got was on level 10. The view was breath taking. I can see the whole area from my room.
At the ground level of the hotel, there were so many flowers. It was so pretty. CT loved it a lot.
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| View from the hotel |
The view as we walk along the road was superb. The hotel was located at the top of one of the highest mountains in Cameron Highlands, that is why the view can be so beautiful!
Did I mentioned that by the time we are done, it was already 1300hr. We have not eaten anything since the previous night and we are lucky that there was a eatery (Restoran Yao Yat) just along the road.
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| Restoran Yao Yat |
The choices were quite standard for a Malaysia eatery so we just ordered some of more familiar food that we know.
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| Iced Cappuccino (RM3.00) and 3 Layer Bandung (RM3.00) |
It was the first time I tried 3 layer Bandung because it seems nice. It is nice if you like your drinks to be really sweet. I couldn't take it. Just in case for those of you who don't know what forms the 3 layer, it is Gula Melaka (Bottom), Condensed Milk (Centre) and Rose Syrup (Top)
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| Mee with Light Soya Sauce (RM6.00) and Curry Mee (RM6.00) |
The noodles come with 3 piece of ingredients that you can choose from the counter. So we had total of 6 pieces of ingredients in the bowl of soup because we told them to combine.
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| Vegetarian Fried Spring Roll (RM7.50) |
Of course, we top up all the food with a Vegetarian Fried Spring Roll. We were so full after that and we couldn't finish the spring roll. The food wasn't really fantastic, because I had tried before better version of those dishes, but it was decent enough if you are not that picky. At least their ingredients were fresh from the mountains.
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| Entrance to EQ Strawberry Farm |
With our filled tummy, we officially start our Cameron Highlands exploration. And right at the junction to the main road from Copthorne hotel, EQ Strawberry Farm was hiding right at the corner. At the entrance of the farm, there were a row of shops selling all their products.
*Things to note: Do not buy the goods just because they look good. There are many other shops selling the same things and at different prices, so make sure you check the prices with more than 1 shop first before buying*
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| Strawberries |
But I have to admit that the strawberries here looks the best out of all the farms we went. We skipped all the farms that we went the next few days because they had nothing to offer and their strawberries doesn't look as delicious.
Next up was the marketplace just on the left when we go onto the main road.
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| Narrow walkway beside the road to the marketplace |
It looks like a typical night market in Singapore, just that it opens in the day there. One of the shops that surprised me there was the sea coconut shop. How often do you see a sea coconut in Singapore? Not to mention Singapore, it is uncommon in Malaysia as well, but it is available at Cameron Highlands!
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| Sea Coconut Shop |
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| Sea Coconut |
The only turn off was that the sea coconut that we bought wasn't sweet. I didn't enjoyed it, but apparently CT enjoyed it even though she commented that it wasn't sweet. Good for her, she gets to eat all of it because I didn't really want to eat it.
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| Kea Farm |
Following all the way down the road, that's where Kea Farm was located. I thought there will be more to offer in there but apparently there wasn't much.There was also an entrance fee of RM5.00. From what we can see from the outside, it was just rows and rows of plants. The only thing that might be interesting were the statues and monuments that they placed around the farm. Since we felt that there wasn't anything to offer us in there, we decided not to waste our money to go in.
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| Strawberries (RM10.00 per punnet) |
Walking back the road to the market, our dear KC and SY finally arrived! We met up with them at the market itself and bought a punnet of strawberries to share because it looks so red and pretty. I though they might taste nice too, but looks can be deceiving. It was just average.
As we walked around the market with our newly arrived friends, we were discussing where to have our dinner. Because none of us were familiar with the place, our best bet was to head back to the hotel and use their wifi to find the good food in Cameron Highlands.
The most recommended place to have dinner was at Restoran Kwan Kee so we decided to trust them and head there. Luckily KC and SY drove, we get to hitch a ride to Restoran Kwan Kee. It was located at the main town in Brinchang (estimated 6-7km away from hotel), it was quite impossible to have dinner there if we do not have any transport.
When we reached there, the review was indeed correct. The shop was so popular that there wasn't any vacant table and we would have to wait. So we decided to drop the idea and go to the one (Restoran Mountain House) beside it. It looked like they were selling similar food so it was perfectly elastic to change to this restaurant.
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| Restoran Mountain House |
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| Dinner at Restoran Mountan House |
We chose steamboat because everyone that went to Cameron Highlands recommended me to try steamboat there and I know the reason why. It was an enjoyment to eat around the steamboat in such a cooling temperature. We don't even perspire while eating. The steamboat wasn't very expensive either. It was priced at RM28.00 per pax and you may add on dishes if the initial standard items weren't enough. It was definitely the healthiest steamboat I have ever eaten, most of the items served were vegetables and fresh produce. I can't blame them because that was what they have the most there. Meat was scarce. Most of the meat were on the top up dish menu. They don't serve much meat for the initial items.
We didn't order any more top up food because what was serve is definitely enough for all of us. And yes, we did ordered beer to go along with the steamboat. It was the best combination ever!
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| Cactus Shop |
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| Fried Food Display |
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| Shop selling honey |
There were a few shops selling honey. This was uncommon. Seldom do we see people buying the raw honey like that. The shop owner just cut the honey and put it in a glass container to be sold. Apparently it was quite popular, there were queue to buy it and most buyers bought more than 1 bottle.
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| Lots of strawberries |
As usual, strawberries were all over the night market. The looked really good, but I decided not to waste my money and stomach space for it. We wanted to try something else, but ended up getting beers and chips to chill in our hotel room for the night.
Day 2
Because of the late night, we slept in the next day. But because of the usual working timings, I am used to waking up at a certain time even though I might be tired. I tried to force myself to sleep again, but it was only an hour more.
While they rest were still sleeping and I was wide awake, I decided to take this opportunity to explore the hotel. I wanted to see how their swimming pool and gym looked like.
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| Swimming Pool |
The swimming pool was indoor and it was locked up. The entrance had a card scanner similar to the hotel room. It required the room card to gain access, but when I tried it with my room card, the access was denied. This photo was taken from the window outside the pool.
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| Gym |
Next I went to the gym, same issue happened. It was locked and my room card was unable to allow me to gain access. I was rather disappointed. I didn't make any complain because I am not going to use it anyway. I just want to see it.
After the quick exploration, I went back to my room to relax and wash up while waiting for the rest to wake up. After a long drag, we all managed to leave the hotel at about 1100hr. We were all hungry and wanted a brunch.
Our initial plan was to go up to BOH Tea Plantation to have brunch because we knew there was a cafe up there, but we got lost and ended up at Rose Valley instead.
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| Rose Valley |
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| Flowers on sale |
Since we were here already, we just walked around for a bit, hoping for sale of food. There wasn't much food but lot so of flower on sale.
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| Milk Corn (RM3.00) |
But I manage to find a stall selling corn so we bought some to fill up our tummy for the time being. My choice to get the corn was the right one. The corn tasted so good! The flavour just burst in the mouth every time I bite! I am not exaggerating by the way. This corn is called "Jagung Susu", meaning Milk Corn in direct translation from Malay. I have heard of this type of corn before. The colour of the corn is lighter than the usual ones and it taste better than the usual ones that we find. Make sure you try this. I can guarantee that you will love this corn.
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| Amazing Insfrastructure |
While having the corn, we walked around to see what else to offer and I realised that many of the infrastructure there were mind blowing. Look at the structure supporting the building. I really wonder how much weight can it support. Will it ever collapse? It doesn't look convincing that it can withstand much force.
Next up, we need to go up the mountain and climb the stairs to get to this place.
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| Going up the mountain |
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| Climbing the stairs |
Yes, we are going to BOH Tea Plantation!
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| BOH Tea Centre |
This place has been classified under one of the "must go" place in Cameron Highlands so how can we miss it right?
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| Awesome view |
The view from the mountain was so beautiful! Everything behind us were all tea leaves.
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| Tea Leaves |
There was a cafe up the mountain which provide superb view while enjoying the food.
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| Cafe at BOH Tea Centre |
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| Food Gallery |
They do offer quite a good spread of food. Remember we only had corn in the morning, so we were still very hungry especially we had to climb up slopes and stairs to reach here.
We ordered quite a lot of food.
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| Strawberry Cheese Cake (RM9.00) |
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| Butter Cheese Bun (RM3.40) |
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| Apple Pie (RM7.40) |
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| Chocolate Melt (RM7.40) |
Although the scenery was good, the food was average. That is usually the case. A lot of cafes now are selling the ambiance rather than the food. At least it filled our tummy, so I shouldn't complain too much.
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| Drying the tea leaves |
Other than the cafe, the other part of the tea centre was this room with glass window where visitors could actually watch how the tea leaves were being processed. Oh yes, there was a shop that we could purchase BOH's product. I didn't get anything from there though. Why would I want to waste my luggage space for something that I could get in Singapore as well? The only difference was the packaging.
There wasn't much to do after that so we headed for the famous Ye Olde Smokehouse near Tanah Rata.
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| Front of Ye Olde Smokehouse |
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| Side of Ye Old Smokehouse |
I was told that it is one of the must go place in Cameron Highlands because it looks pretty on the exterior and the food they serve are good. It does looked pretty,but we didn't get to try the food. They only offered high tea at the time but we wanted some real food.
After that KC and SY had to leave already so we said goodbye and separated. So with them away, we got no more car for us to hitch on, but we still had our legs. We decided to walk all the way back to Copthorne Hotel, which was about 7km away. Thank god CT didn't mind walking with this crazy me.
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| Walking back to hotel |
I didn't regret walking back though. Although it was a long journey, we actually manage to explore more places and get to see more of Cameron Highlands.
There was this Uncle Sam Farm along the way which we thought nice, so we decided to stop by the place for a while. Actually it was drizzling at that time, so we were just finding excuses to hide in shelter.
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| Inside Uncle Same Farm |
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| Ayamas (commonly known as "Golden Chicken Fern") |
Anyway I saw this plant they called is "Ayamas (金鸡)", but I couldn't find much information of the plant. But I manage to find the common name is called "Golden Chicken Fern".
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| Rabbits |
Oh yes, they have rabbits too. Their rabbits were so active. They were jumping here and there like they were playing catching. I really enjoy the sight becasue I hardly see any the rabbits move whenever I go to a pet shop. Is it because the rabbits in Singapore don't get that much freedom to roam around?
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| Mist in the mountains |
Because of the rain, the whole place was so cooling and mist started to form. It looks nice right?
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| Time Tunnel Museum |
Then we came to the Time Tunnel Museum. It cost RM5.00 to enter. I thought entering to see what is inside, but when I look at the photos that they pasted outside, the museum just contain common things that I have already seen before. I am not that young, so I have seen things before. Probably when I have kids next time, I would bring them in.
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| Convenient Stall |
Next to the museum, there is this convenient stall (we call them "mama shop") that sell anything and everything. It gave me a nostalgic feeling. It's hard to see this kind of shop nowadays
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| Cactus Point |
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| Lots of catcus |
We reached Cactus Point next. The whole place was filled with cactus! It doesn't get its name for nothing.
Cactus Point was already very near to the hotel already. We managed to reach back to the hotel just before the sun went down, which was what we had planned! I expected earlier though, but we still made it back. So all in all it took us about 5 hours for this whole thing. Not too shabby right?
We headed back to the hotel to put down the stash we had bought along the way and took a short break. Imagine 5 hours of standing and walking. It's almost the kind of time to do a marathon!
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| Cameron Square |
After that we decided to head to Cameron Square which was relatively near to the hotel (if you compare to the 5 hour walk) to have our dinner. The place was quite empty. It seems like it just opened not too long ago. Most of the places were still under renovation, etc.
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| Home Town Steamboat |
The only place that was huge and lively was the Home Town Steamboat. It smelled really good from the outside, so we took it as a sign to eat there.
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| Layout of Restautant |
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| Porridge Steamboat Set (RM22.90 per person excluding GST and Service Charge) |
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| BBQ Lala (RM16.90 excluding GST and Service Charge) |
There were quite a lot of variety to choose from in terms of steamboat and a la carte, so we had a mixture of both. We ordered a Porridge Steamboat Set for steamboat and BBQ Lala as a la carte. To be honest, the price here was definitely more expensive than the ones we had the previous day, but in terms of variety and quality, this place was much better. I would actually recommend this place, but I also believe there should be a better and cheaper alternatives there.
Day 3
We woke up very early this day because we were heading back to Singapore. The bus was estimated to arrive at 1000hr, so we woke up about 0700hr to do some last minute shopping from nearby market and had our breakfast. It wasn't a waste to wake up so early because the scenery was beautiful. I would have missed it if I were to wake up late.
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| Morning mist |
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| Sunrise |
We went back to Restoran Yao Yat for out breakfast because it was the better choice there already.
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| Nasi Lemak Special (RM7.00) |
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| Wanton Noodle Medium (RM7.00) |
It wasn't really fantastic, but it was decent when you got not much choices for food.
And before we left, we had to take a photo with the largest thermometer at Grand Copthorne. It was like their icon there, so make sure you take a photo with it too.
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| Giant Thermometer |
Generally the trip was a nice and pleasant one. I enjoyed it. I think I might go again soon and this time, it will definitely be better. One of the things that I would seriously consider will be the bus ride. It took us about 13 hours to reach back to Singapore. That was like half a day! I didn't realise it when we were going because it was at night and I was sleeping. The day ride was a torture, time doesn't seemed to be moving fast enough.
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