Road trip Day 3: Cameron Highlands

This is the view from our room at Cluny Lodge (Room 3). The resort is situated quite high (i.e. secluded so its better to drive) so we could get a "bird's eye view".  It was relaxing to be surrounded by greenery with birds chirping happily among the trees and fresh crisp morning air. :)

View from our room...

A common sighting in Cameron Highlands...

We headed off for breakfast on board the resort at a cost of RM6 per adult. It's a sumptuous breakfast loaded with a bowl of cereal, two pieces of bread with butter and strawberry jam, 2 sunny side ups with ham/sausages and a choice of tea/coffee/milo. (Tip: Choose Milo at your own risk).

@ breakfast table. Loved the very English and retro cutlery used...

We headed off for a strawberry plantation. There are many peppered along the roads in Cameron Highlands so finding one is not difficult. Among those listed on the map that seem to have more visitors is one called Raju Hill Strawberry Farm. We chose EQ Starwberry Farm (Address: 78, Jalan Kuari, Brinchang) after reading it from someone else's blog.

Open daily from 8am to 6pm! Free Entry...

And this had to happen... No chance to pluck the strawberries! *sobs*

(TIP: Need to pay to pick strawberries. If not wrong, they will charge an entrance fee and you can pick as much as the basket (they provide) can hold. Psst... no eating while plucking. The uncle there told us they will try to space the harvest to coincide with weekends. So if you intend to pick strawberries, go when strawberries are in season (Dec to Feb) and during the weekends)

View of the farm from the "toilet" area. Can see those strawberries (should be ripe for picking by Friday I guess).

  Nevertheless, we got to see the "stages" of a growing strawberry through the fence. :)

If you think these look sour, you are wrong! These are the ALL SWEET organic strawberries @ RM20 per punnet

(TIP: Uncle says there are 2 species - the "All Sweet" and the "Sweet & Sour". He lied that "All Sweet" were not for sale but when a big group of tourist came, he whipped out the stocks! -___- So do not trust what he says... *tsk tsk!*)

You know what is good when someone cleans up 2 quickly and says "我还要!".

Prior to lunch, we walked down to Kea Farm market. As the name suggest, the place sells mostly vegetables and flowers. There is a small sprinkle of shops selling souvenirs (strawberry themed plush) and food (tempura looking food and steamed/bbq corn on cob). We did buy some pearl corns but due to the number of days we spent in Malaysia, they were all "spoilt" by the time we came back to Singapore.

We spotted an interesting stall selling freshly cut honey comb. At RM 1 per piece, you can drain the honey directly from the comb (PS: Do spit out the comb since it's made of wax and not exactly digestible...).

We then headed for lunch at a Chinese chi-char eatery. It's a walk into the road just right next to EQ strawberry farm. You will notice these strawberry chairs along the shops there...

Little gal's failed attempt to get up the chair... :p

The food there was actually quite good. Hubby loved the Ba-Kut Teh, I liked my fried noodles and the little gal had her chicken rice with little fuss (chicken was really soft).

The next most popular must go in Cameron is of course the tea plantation. The biggest and most renowned tea plantation- BOH Tea. I read that there are 2 BOH tea estates there and the older one at Sungai Pallas (Opening Hours: 9am to 4.30pm, closed on Monday. No entrance fee.) is strongly recommended. The road that leads to this tea plantation is a single lane, so you'll have to be a daring and pretty good driver!

Entrance to the Sungai Pallas BOH Tea Plantation

We were "misled" by the GPS and missed this entrance 3 times! Yup, we went up and down the adjacent road 3 times spending close to 2 hours, missing those info boards due to the rain. :(

 We were lucky to find the following map which led us to the entrance... 

(Directions: Head North i.e. towards Simpang Pullai. You should see Kea Farm/EQ Strawberry Farm on the right. Drive onwards, the entrance is actually diagonal to the "Ee Feng Gu Bee Farm". (Map taken from http://www.cameronhighlandsinfo.com/attraction/BOH_Tea_Plantations/) 

We parked at the visitor's carpark which is at the "foot" of the plantation. Thereafter, you can experience walking through the tea shrubs, towards the terrace (where they serve tea and snacks), souvenir shop, factory and exhibition hall.

We took the tarmac path up which is less of a slope... Almost near the terrace! :)

R&R at the tea terrace while the little gal drinks her afternoon milk...

Lovely scones with cream & jam + Firecracker (the spicy sausage) + tea

Buying Palas Supreme (tea leaves for the connoisseur...)

Foggy weather... The scenic view from the terrace...

Terrace where you can have tea and look out into the beautiful plantation...

View from the "highest point" in the tea plantation...

We found that it was actually much easier walking back down to the visitor's carpark at the foot of the hill. However, due to the rainy season, the road down got slippery. So if weather is all dry and nice, take the tarmac road up and the experience through the bush when going back. :)

 The experiential walk among the tea-bushes

Back to the "foot" of the plantation where I took a picture with the little gal at the visitor's carpark. (PS: We actually found some cars driving all the way up to the terrace area and park behind limited space behind the terrace area. If you intend to skip the walk among the tea bushes, can just drive up there I guess...)

The end of our journey at BOH tea plantation...



It was our last night at Cameron Highlands... Hubby was only dreaming of one thing for dinner...

 *Drum rolls* TADAH - KFC lor...

(Tip: There is a Binchang Central Market opposite this KFC that sells cheap souvenir t-shirts. No harm going there to buy!)

Road trip Day 2: Cameron Highlands (Part III)

After dinner, we decided to head for the Binchang Night market close by. Hubby decided to drive there and as I was commenting about finding a space and parking, hubby turned our car into a space right next to the "pasar malam".

According to hubby, there used to be only night markets on the weekend but it seems now there's one every night. The stall owners remove their tentage after they close and start setting up the next day as early as 2pm!

This night market sells souvenirs (magnets, key chains),food (Ramly burger, Mee goreng/nasi with fried chicken, steamed pearl corn in cob, etc), clothes (Cameron t-shirts, jackets, etc), slippers, cactus and raw veg (mostly cauliflowers and their very sweet "pearl" corn). What we did notice is stalls similar to those at Ayer Hitam - soft toy material bedroom slippers, bolsters, cushions, etc. the twist is they are "strawberry" themed.

We walked through the night market and bought some souvenirs (note: t-shirts in the main night market are overpriced - see nxt post) and mostly food.

I got my steamed pearl corn-on-cob to share with the little gal (look at her sink her teeth into the juicy corn!). Hubby got his Ramly burger (ayam special + cheese) which he says is much better than those at SG pasar malam!

Sinking teeth into the corn... Yumz...

Road trip Day 2: KL - Cameron Highlands (Part II)

A colleague of mine suggested that we took the new route up to Cameron Highlands. Whilst the route which was nearer to Ipoh was like a detour, it was supposed to be better.  Hubby did his research and said it would most probably take 15 minutes more.
Because we only left KL at 2pm, we got flustered since we needed min 3 hours to reach Cameron Highlands and check in to Aloha Cluny Lodge by 5pm! The journey on North South highway was smooth except for that Petrol Station that refused our business because we had an SG carplate and they only sold 95 petrol...

After exiting Simpang Pullai, we thought the road to Cameron Highlands would be quick. However, we came to realise that it was a long and single road uphill! It was especially exasperating when you get stuck behind snail paced trucks or buses. Luckily, hubby is a great driver and we reached Aloha Cluny Lodge 1/2hr pass the latest check in time ! (psst, we were the earliest to reach despite being late :p)

A photo of cluny lodge... ;p

After dumping down our luggages, we decided to head for dinner at the strech after Binchang which was peppered with steamboat eateries (before KFC)! Steamboat is popular there perhaps due to the weather and easy preparation.

Finding parking was not easy but some stall owners were smart to "chop" parking lots for their clients. We decided to patronise one such eatery - "Moutain House Restaurant".

The steamboat is cooked old style - via charcoal. It was not buffet despite the per pax charge. We got a 2 adults set which consisted of organic veg, golden mushrooms, eggs, carbo, seafood, chicken, fish/meat/vegetarian balls, etc. We got the herbal and tom yam stock base.

Our damage in total was $35 including a pot of 茶王. We felt that the soup base we had (Tom Yam & herbal) were really good. The dory fillet were soft and fresh! Veg serving was so much till hubby says he feels like a cow... Service was also good as the guys there were quick to help top up soup and control the charcoal "fire".

It was the most enjoyable steamboat I had with hubby and little girl. Even hubby agrees because the weather was sooo cold! Little girl enjoyed it too and was entertained by "Mr Snail". Hubby found him on the veg (organic indeed)!

Too excited forgot to take photo until we finished... :p

Little gal and papa posing with the charcoal steamboat pot...

Road trip Day 2: KL (Part I)

The Royale Bintang has a well kept pool and it's busy with kids. The area has 3 water area - jacquzi, a wading pool and lap pool.

I had a running nose so decided to skip and relax by the pool instead while papa and daughter have some water fun!

Hubby and I noticed the little gal's wading skills improve. She can use the float on her own and "swim" a distance (kicking and wave her hands in the water).

Checked out of hotel and headed for Midvalley Megamall. Lunch was at Sbread (Penang Assam laksa was good - see pic). Little gal had fried rice (so so only). Hubby had Palau Ketam Yong Tau Foo (all deep fried but hubby says its nice).

Did a little shopping and got ourselves a couple mug at a push cart. The cups were featured in a TVB drama... ;)

Road trip Day 1 - KL (Part III)

Now this was the highlight for the evening. We were actually heading for another dinner place which hubby tried with his colleagues during their last KL trip... Then we chanced upon THIS!

Ta-dah!!! Bar.B.Q plaza (unit C33 Sungei Wang)! The apparatus they use is kinda like a hat. Brings back fond memories of my first overseas trip with hubby (then BF) where we first experienced this same thing in Bangkok ;)

The eatery has pretty brisk buisiness, offering dinner sets (which includes prawns,squid, meat such as pork beef chicken, vegetable). They also have ala-carte items which u can add on to yr sides. Tissues are also available at every table (a really nice thought)

We ordered one dinner set, one garlic rice, one omu rice. In the end we added on more stuff such as marinated pork etc. Actually, ordering their "family set" could be more worth it.

Hubby totally enjoyed himself (being the BBQ fan and cook while I fed the little gal). Little gal also had fun adding raw veggie into the pot. I'm happy because she had 2/3 of the omu rice and some BBQ meat. ;) Price was reasonable at RM 85.60 (abt SGD 36) for 2 adults and 1 toddler.

Tips for ordering:
Restaurant not halal because pork lard is used as "oil" to cook the bbq meat. We realise most couples order two sets and a free flow drink (yellowish in colour). Plain water and wet towels are chargeable. Opt for garlic rice cause it's quite good! The restaurant charge service and govt tax.

Road trip Day 1: KL (Part II)

After settinh down the luggages, it was almost time for dinner. Hubby said we did not explore Sungei Wang fully the last time so we decided to head there for a pre-dinner walk.

Sungei Wang is connected to BB Plaza, which has a big Giant supermarket.

Other than Parkson Departmental stall, Sungei Wang has a variety of shops selling souvenirs, little toys, shoes, clothes and lots of handphone covers going cheap (buy 1 at RM25 and get one free). ;) we also noticed that Levi's here is cheaper than SG.

Bought the little gal a pair of boots looking shoes. Then bought those "too cute to resist" t-shirts for my little gal and my brother in law's niece and nephew... Hubby got himself another belt at a steal RM 35 (org price was RM 200?!) because we manged to redeem a voucher.

Check out our BBQ dinner in the next post! ;p

Road trip Day 1: SG - KL (part I)

We set off from Singapore at about 9.30am. Weather was saddening because it was raining so heavily. Cleared the Tuas checkpoint smoothly. The rain continued while we were on the North South highway...

The little gal is so toilet train, she refuse to pee on her diapers. So she went like a siren while in the car "mama, 我要尿尿!" over and over again until we found a toilet stop. The good thing is she had her full 2 hr nap in the car.

After 2 toilet breaks and 1 lunch break, we reached KL for our one night pit stop- The Royale Bintang at about 4pm.

We booked the deluxe room King. However, the hotel claims that they are full and we had to settle for twin beds. Hubby not to happy about it. Oh well... What to do right?

But the room is really spacious even with the cot. The little gal was so excited, she was jumping all over the bed asking is this a new room? Lol!

Little gal jumping on the bed!

The little gal in her cot...

The toilet...