Trip to Cameron Highland, Pahang, Malaysia

My brother was coming back from outstation for 5 days holiday between 11 Sept to 15 Sept. Neither him or me has any plan during his holiday break...............why not we plan for a holiday somewhere far from our home in Kuala Lumpur city (though I am suppose to work during the weekdays).

Then we decided that Cameron Highland was our stop for the holiday trip. The trip should be between 11 Sept and 13 Sept (3 days + 2 nights). I bought the bus ticket few days in advance and we went to the nearest Tesco hypermarket to shop for the necessity and preparation on the night before the trip.

11 Sept 2007 - Tuesday

7.15am: Leaving our home towards the Kuala Lumpur express bus station, Puduraya.

8.10am: Reach the bus station and wander around the station. The multi-tier station has already exist for at least 30 years and it is still well maintained. The facilities there I would say there is nothing lack of. There are lots of shop lot selling variety of needs, restaurant, washroom, bus ticket counter, taxi stand, hotel, parking lot, etc.

8.30am: Depart to Cameron Highland (CH) with Kurnia Bestari express bus. The ticket cost me MYR23 per person for Super VIP coach. I think the fare is still the lowest compare to the bus fare in Europe with the same travel distance. However during that day, the bus operator refund us MYR5 per person as the bus we were boarding that morning is only a normal express bus which suppose to cost MYR18 per person only. I guess this is a bonus to us and would line to give a credit for the honesty of the bus operator.

9.30am: Reach for a washroom stop along the highway and resume after 5 minutes break.

11.00am: Arrived at Tapah one of the small town of Perak state. Switch to another express bus and continue the trip. This time the road become narrower and steep. There are lots of sharp bend. I was thinking how skillful you need to be driving along these road especially you would not know what is coming from the other side of the road during the sharp bend. Nevertheless we enjoy the scenic hill view along the trip.

12.30pm: Reach Tanah Rata bus station in CH. We purchase the return ticket from the bus station booth as soon as we reach there. Departure time would be on 13 Sept, 1pm. I understand Tanah Rata is the only bus station in CH and is also the administration town in CH where local government offices are located. Few main towns in CH including Ringlet, Tanah Rata, and Brinchang but they are few kilometres apart from each other. You will likely need to take local bus or hire local taxi to travel between these town if you are not driving. I guess it is a bit helpful as I have done some homework before the trip :)

1.00pm: My brother and I decided to check-in one of the budget hotel in Tanah Rata, Kavy Hotel which is located just at the centre of the town and within the walking distance from the bus station. The room is also affordable, it cost us MYR65 nett per night for 2 person without breakfast. In the room, there are attach bathroom with hot showers (though the how shower does not function really well), bath tub, tv, 2 single bed, a mirror, and a water boiler. The room is exceptable considering it as a budget hotel. However as for the shower, I think you would not enjoy taking a bath at night or dawn.

1.30pm: We took a lunch in an Indian restaurant in Tanah Rata. I could not remember the restaurant name. We are not a fussy type when it comes to finding a place to have a meal. The lunch cost us MYR9.80 for 2 Roti Telur, 1 Maggie Goreng, 1 Coke and 1 Ice Milo. These are the common Indian/Malaysian ala carte you can find in Malaysia Indian or "Mamak" restaurant/stall and the price I would say it is quite standard and more or less what we pay in Kuala Lumpur city. 

2.00pm: After lunch, we went to one of the local tour operator Golden Highlands Adventure to check out the tour package available. Since this is our first time there, we were looking for some leisure trip while exploring some interesting places in CH. We decided to book for "Country Side Excursion" & "Adventure 1" tour package. The tour would takes a whole day starting from 8.45am on 12 Sept.

2.30pm: We have plenty of time exploring Tanah Rata town after booking the tour. One of the interesting landmark which is still exist in Tanah Rata would be The Convent (Is a primary school now). From the structure and architecture design of the building, I guess it was built during the British era in Malaya (Malaysia was known as Malaya before independance). The building is well preserved I would say.

We also manage to do a short jungle tracking on the Robinson Waterfall trail. It is sad to see unpleasant view along the trail. It turns out that the water stream along the trail has been polluted and hardly you can see any visitor along the way. Any visitors exploring this trail would be dissapointed. I believe this trail has a potential of attraction if it is well taken care of.

6.30pm: We were back at the hotel taking bath and a short some rest after a whole day traveling.

8.00pm: Ordered a western style dinner in Tanah Rata, chicken chop set with soup, bread and juice. It cost around MYR12/set dinner. We both agreed that we enjoyed the heavy dinner very much. The restaurant has a nice decorative :). Again do not ask me the name of the reataurant as we just only hop in once we decided what we want to have for dinner. After the dinner we went to Century Pine Resort (A 3-star hotel in Tanah Rata I would rate) for some information enquiries.

9.30pm: Later, we went to the local internet cafe in Tanah Rata and enjoying our time surfing the net for 2 hours. The rate is MYR3.00/hour.

11.00pm: Back to hotel to get some early rest for the next day's adventure.

12 Sept 2007 - Wednesday

7.00am: Wake up and had our early breakfast in the room. As we may expect that some hotel does not include breakfast, we brought some instant noodle (cup type) and 3-in-1 instant cereal drink.

8.00am: We check-out from Kavy Hotel and check-in at Century Pine Resort. The hotel looks new. Rooms are equipped with attach hot shower, tv, dvd player, mini fridge, water boiler with complimentary coffee/tea making sachets, slipper, safe deposit box, hair dryer, newspaper, 2 single bed, a balcony, etc. The room is clean and brightly light at the night although it is consider expensive to pay for MYR253/per night for 2 person (including breakfast).

Part 1: Adventure 1

8.45am: We started with the "Adventure 1" tour by gathering at the tour company office. Before leaving, we were brief on our today's itinery/activities and introduced to our tour guide. Our guide is a local young Indian guy in his 20s, a friendy and experience guide I would say. It is only 2 of us (my brother and I) in the tour which I feel a bit strange earlier but thinking on the positive side we can be a bit flexible when it comes in allocating the time to each activities. We started our tour on time departing with a "Kia" van heading to BOH tea plantation pass through Brinchang town.

9.00am: Entered the plantation estate. Along the way, we were brief by the guide with a short intro/history of the BOH plantation estate, how the tea leaves were harvest, lifecycle of the tea plant, how the tea are graded, etc. The road in the estate is narrower compare to the road from Tapah to Tanah Rata. Time to time you can hear our driver (also the guide) engage the "horn" while turning at the sharp bend.

9.10am: Reach the BOH tea centre. Our guide drop us off and we continue with another guide from the tea centre. We visited the gallery (with vast of information about the BOH company from past until now), tea processing factory, bought some tea from the shop, and finally reach the kafeteria. I like the kafeteria in a sense that it is design with an open balcony where it offers the visitors to enjoy a nice cup of tea/coffee with a fantastic panorama view over the hills of tea plantation estate. Combining with a cup of hot jasmine tea that we had, this creates a very strong memorable impression to me. A place you should go when you are in CH.

10.15am: Leaving the tea plantation and head towards Gunung Brinchang (Mount Brinchang). Base on the guide, our next destination is the highest peak in CH (with 6,666ft above sea level). This time we were accompanied by another tourist from Hong Kong which I undertood he was pick-up by our guide from the tour office while we were enjoying our time at the BOH centre. He is a young guy in 20s as well with less talking. We manage to stop and took some nice landscape photo on our way downhill before continue our way.

10.55am: Reach the peak of Mount Brinchang. Without delay we climbed up the observation tower. The view from the highest point of the Mount Brinchang was breathtaking. The surrounding was windy. I manage to take a few snap shot with my new Sony Ericsson K810i camera phone. It comes in handy when you need it and the picture quality is good eventhough it may not be comparable to a good quality digital camera.

11.20am: Started our forest trekking....still in Mount Brinchang. During the trekking, our tour guide explained and shows us on some of the wild grown flora of the mount while we venture into the jungle path. He also told us reveal some of the basic jungle survival knowledge. The path was slippery, steep and muddy as its name suggest "jungle trekking". We can feel the refreshing air and cold environment while hiking as the place is shaded by the rainforest jungle. After 15 minutes of hike, we begin to feel the chilling breeze as the fog begins to accumulate. It is a good adventure for the young and energetic but I would not recommend to someone who does not keen of dirty activities.

12.20pm: The end of our jungle trekking activities and we depart from Mount Brinchang for lunch bringing along a refreshing memory. We took an hour lunch at one of the stop along the way to Brinchang town before continue with our 2nd tour in the afternoon.

Part 2: Country Side Excursion

to be continue...............