Cameron Highlands Trip - Day 1

Talking about Cameron Highlands, what will be the first thing in your mind that you will think of? Is it their all year round cooling weather? Their well-known Strawberry Farms and Rose Gardens? Or even perhaps the Boh Tea Plantation in the high mountain area? But I am sure no matter what comes in your mind first; planning a trip over there is always another great sight-seeing venue for those who love the Nature compare to any shopping trips.

Our journey starts pretty early in the Morning around 6.30am whereby we need to clear the Singapore Custom at Tuas as early as possible in order to avoid the morning traffic jam at the Malaysia Custom. After the custom clearance, we stop at a “big” coffee shop which is about 15 – 20 minutes away from the custom to have our morning breakfast.

And according to Uncle James who works at one of the factory near that area, he was very familiar with that coffee shop stalls whereby he often go there for lunch break with his colleagues. So with his recommendation, most of us tried that “Ye Zi Mei Da Bao” which is quite similar to our local "Da Bao - 大包" which is big enough to be share by two people. Personally I don't really like the taste, I find that there is quite strong flour taste with the bao skin.

Like I have mention is my Taiwan trip previously, the best thing to look forward to when going for tour is nothing but eat and eat and eat :p After about 2 hours of travelling, we stop at a Chinese restaurant known as “Min Kok Restaurant - 明佫鱼翅酒楼” in Seremban - 芙蓉. Accordingly to the local tour guide, this restaurant is famous for their dim sum because most of the people in Seremban love to eat dim sum for lunch instead of the usual rice and noodle.

But for us, since we are on a tour group our lunch will be the usual 7 or 8 course meal instead of dim sum. Out of those dishes served, we prefer their “Deep-fried Fish with Thai Sweet & Sour Sauce” and “Braised Pig Trotter”. The Thai sweet and sour sauce goes very well with the crispy fish and also their braised trotter is so soft that it can melt in your mouth.

After lunch we continue our journey to Cameron Highlands and we get to stop for a toilet and coffee break around 3:00pm. I was surprised to see two mini stalls selling all kinds of cut fresh fruits, snacks, and cold drinks for travellers who stop for break like us. Rey was excited to grab some chips and drink to munch along while mum and aunties were busying getting fruits and drinks. For me, I was attracted to some of their deep-fried crackers which available even in “Pink” colour. Em... wonder what are those round and pink crackers.......

Finally, we arrived at Cameron Highlands after surviving though all those winding curls along the road to the mountain. We reached “Country Lodge Resort” around 6.30pm in the evening and the weather was around 20 – 25 degree which is still manageable for most of us.

Although the appearance of the resort look great and nice from the outside, but we will kind of disappointed with the facilities in the rooms itself. The room was pretty small for triple sharing and the washroom was kind of “scary” according to Rey. Overall, we rated our room 4 out 10 compare to what we have encounter during our Taiwan’s farm-stay resort which we think is much better than this. (Maybe we have being too pamper with our city life which makes us feel that the living standard over there is so different from what we have here)

Dinner was served around 8:00pm at a steamboat restaurant that is 10 minutes walk away from our resort. All the food are arranged nicely on the table before we arrived and after we settle down with our drinks, the waiter starts to bring out the hot broth for us to get ready for our steamboat feast. As you can see, there are so many fresh vegetables that are available for us to consume.

One of the top attractions in Cameron Highlands is their Brinchang Night Market or 'Pasar Malam'. This night market only operates on the weekends (Friday and Saturday nights) but during Malaysian school holidays, it operates every night starting from 6:00pm till 11:00pm. The Night Market cover relatively a size of at least half a football field, situated opposite Brinchang Police Station by the road side.

The Night Market consists of several sections such as Food Street, clothing stretch, vegetables, flowers, fruits corners, souvenirs and etc. Cameron Highlands seems to be the homeland for purple skin sweet potatoes. They are so soft and sweet which is best to eat while hot from the steamer. The “Pearl Corn - 珍珠玉米” appears alternating in yellow and white where you can buy it either “Steam” or “BBQ”, both are so tasty and juicy.

Along the stretch, we saw about 2 stalls selling this kind of fresh honey comb cube that is cut from the whole block of comb itself. These honey comb taste really sweet and yummy and it’s definitely a great experience to try one of this honey comb which we cannot possibly have it in Singapore. So next round when you visit Cameron Highlands, do give it a try @ RM$2.00 per piece.

This interesting snack has caught my attention as it looks similar to our local Kueh Tutu. Over there at Cameron Highlands night market, there was only one stall selling these Putu Bambu. These snack are made from ground rice flour, fresh grated coconut and coconut palm sugar that were all stuffed into the bamboo tubes. Once they are steamed till cooked, the fillings will sink into the bamboo tube and each of them is then being pushed out from the bamboo tube and wrapped nicely with banana leaves. The taste of the Putu Bambu is so soft and fragrance and it costs RM 0.50 per piece.




P/s: Stay tune for more @ 2nd post on the BOH Tea Plantation and Strawberry Farm...... coming up soon.