Cameron Highlands

Some pictures from the trip, not in chronological order but in thematic order :)

Arriving in Cameron Highlands

And you already get the impression at 10am in the morning of a place that is obsessed with commercializing strawberries...

After a night spent in the bus dozing on and off for toilet breaks

In my bf's sweater because mine is not enough to combat the cold air con.
I have 4 layers of clothes in this outfit...

Royal Lily Apartments - Where we stay

High tea is my favourite time of the day.

Home made scones that is fresh from the ovens, with homemade strawberry jam from the cameron farms... a nice pot of tea and lovely ambience completes the experience.

Shopping for produce at farmers' markets in Kea Farm and Rose Valley

What an irony, they don't even sell roses there or rose products and all there is, is a doesn't look so fantastic rose farm.

However, the produce is really fresh but when you see veggies and artificial strawberry products (toys, cushions, clothing, umbrellas....) everywhere, it can get very boring because all the shops everywhere are the same. . .

But one good thing that came out of the visit?

I've finally seen how strawberries could be grown under manmade conditions, i dearly hope that's not how they are grown in normal traditional farms or in the wild because little pots of strawberries are so much less appealing to plucking a fresh wild berry off a lovely bush full of strawberries. These little pots feels so...artificial. Like planting strawberries. :(

Completely not how i have imagined them to be. They are my favourite fruit and i have always imagined them to grow beautifully in natural conditions, not from tiny pots!

Strawberries in chocolate fondue 2RM per stick- but the choc is too cheap for my liking. I like real, substantial dark chocolate that has a deep flavour. Not cheap chocolate that tastes like those coin goodies you give to little kids on chinese new year. Am i really fussy or what? Hmm!

But this is the best strawberry sundae i have ever tasted!
Honeyed strawberries in vanilla ice cream, 5+ RM

Bus Station in Tanah Rata

Looks and feels like an old and ratty ride and... its just not my type of place but i suppose it is an interesting experience.

We got everywhere on these public buses taken by local workers who can't afford a car (probably the very poor or migrant workers) with frequency of 1hr on paper but 2-3hrs services in practical.

And yes, i bought a 10RM strawberry umbrella...

And the bus is so old school, so ancient with an extinct ticketing system in Singapore! Imagine a bus conducter collecting bus fees from seat to seat issuing such thin paper tickets with your stop indicated with an obscure tear that i can't understand even though i sat on it 6 times at least!

And I don't even want to mention how gross the interior is. It is a super old old old bus. The seats looks stained and grimy i don't even dare to rest my head, one of the row has someone's old puke and there's no ventilation except windows which can hardly be open when it rains...

My poor Keds shoes are muddy and stained from the constant rain and puddles on the ground.

Uncle Chow - a great place for breakfast that's a 5 minutes stroll away from my apartment.

They sell Kaya Roti 5RM , Nasi Lemak (overpriced by yummy) 7.90RM and all sort of tea time confectionaries, noodles and home made donuts and such. I even spotted a very rich man who probably owns a hotel (perhaps Equatorial?) breakfasting there with his chauffer/bodyguard/ hotel staff in uniform.

Some visit to the Bee Farm

Raining all day all night for 3 days in a row, hence i didn't get to explore too much of the farm but i saw some buzzing bees. The only place with nice scenery?

Sunday church service at a gospel hall

It was a panting climb up as it is located on top of a small hill at Tanah Rata town, not too bad a climb though because of the cool weather that doesn't make me sweat :) Some nice views although the gloomy rainy weather made it kind of dreary

Breakfast at a Prata shop with Teh Aylia (?? but means ginger)

10 minutes from the apartment, how convenient!
The best way to warm up a cold morning is to drink ginger tea... in teh tarik form *yum*

Some hunt for a waterfall

We thought it is a 20 minutes walk but it turns out that after 20 minutes, there's 3km + to go so we abandoned the thought as the path is steep and wet due to the rain. The upstream rapids ...