Maps of Cameron and things to note

There is no need for maps of cameron. They small free tourist ones are fine. They do sell proper ones for M$3.50.

Night market is on Friday and Saturday nights.

The rich and poor divide is very obvious. Attap house beside beautiful golf course. Get my drift.

if you need any other information, you can email me at raymond@claydoodle.com.sg

Bus trip back to singapore

We came back on Saturday, which was good. Cause no traffic jam.
But we were delayed for 1 hour because the couple staying at KL minds resort was late. Sigh...

Left Cameron at 10am. Reached singapore 7.30pm.

Taxi transport

Appu is the taxi driver that we used. M$20 for each hour. He will bring you to where ever you want. Plan your visit properly. i.e. the places to visit are mostly on one side of brinchang or on the other side of tanah rata.

Avoid touching the water falls there. Unless you don't mind UFO. (i.e. The locals, their toilets sit on top of the rivers.) Shit and urine all goes straight into the river. Yucks.

Appu goes to Ipoh often. So if you are planning to come from Ipoh Airport, you can call him to pick you up. Understand that it is M$120 per trip if you book him.

If you catch taxi on your own, the going rate is M$180.

These taxi drivers pick up supplies from Ipoh, (e.g. Fish), So it make money sense for them to plan their trip to come pick you up. Thus the discount.

BTW. Appu wifes operates a sundry shop just at the boh tea plantation.
He has a house there, plus one in the town.
So, you can say that Appu is pretty well off.

Just mentioned that you heard about him from a couple who was travelling with their old mother plus a daughter. He might give you discount.

Ask to visit the honey farm. Can't remember what the place is called. (definitely, not the Ee Feng Honey Farm) He keeps very small bees, that look more like ants than bees.

He sells Old honey, pollen and cider honey. The old man speaks chinese though. Appu can help explain if needed. They are old village friends.

Rose Centre, Boh Tea (Sungei Palas) and Barat Tea

The Rose Centre up in Cameron Highland is a must visit. It is located up on top of a hill. Entrance fee applies. for old folks, you might not be able to climb all the way up. But I can gauranttee you, the climb up there is worth it. The view is fantastic. Remember to say hi to Snow white and 7 dwarfs for me.

Went to the german restarant in tanah ratah. Food for expensive. And wasn't very nice. The 6 year old kid there was a bit of a nuisance. Carrying his chair around smashing into customer. Oucch. I suggest giving it a miss.

Try the local indian food or chinese zhe char stall will do.

While you are up in the hills, eat vegetables. That is the best.

There's two tea plantation, Both the Barat and Boh(Sungei Palas) tea plantations are good to visit. Go to both tea plantations for your cuppa and scones are the best. (as I mentioned, you can give T-cafe a miss)

If you want, you might want to buy their garden highland tea. Ask the counter staff for what is the best to buy. As I understand, you are suppose to pour hot water onto tea leave for 3minutes. if you keep it for more than 5 minutes, the tea looses it taste and can become very bitter.

temple visit plus tanah ratah.

The third day, we were pretty much on our own. We walked down the hill of cluny lodge and happen to see the road leading up to the temple. Saved us paying for taxi to visit that place. I think that place called Tian Poh temple or something like that.

Thereafter we went to the brinchang taxi stand to take a cab to Tanah Ratah. The fare suppose to be $4, but was charged $5 for being tourist.

Anyway, the Driver call Appu was pretty good. He was the one we used for the rest of our two days in cameron.

The indian resturant opposite the taxi stand, No 16 or something like that serves good cheap food. The banana canai is a must try. Plus you must try the chicken curry.

Tanah ratah is a small town. 15 minutes to walk from one end to the other.

There is a pharmacy near the Information Centre (evidently also operated by Ms Jennifer of Titiwangsa.) Toilet there very clean.

T-Cafe above Mary Brown restaurant was supposedly very good. But found it below average. Looks more like Backpackers inn to me. But the people who serve there a friendly. and they have internet acsess if we need it. M$0.50 for 10 minutes.
environment very run down.

There's also internet access at the Information centre mentioned earlier.

BTW, there are alot of sundry shops up there, selling your usual Maggie Noodles, can food, beer, soft drinks, plus toys for kids.

Sunrise Tour and Nature tour

Had to wake up 4.45am to catch the tour bus for the morning sunrise at 6am on top of Brinchang hill, the highest point in Cameron Highland, (at least in where we stay.)

The fog was too thick, so had to move somewhere the high. We did manage to catch the sunrise for a short while.

When the sun was rising. the tea workers started working. they uses some sort grass cutter machine to cut the Leaves. (need to operate by two man, with each holding on to both ends.) i.e. they do not use hands already. And gone are the indian ladies who sing while they pluck the leaves.

After the sunrise, they brought us back up to highest point for breakfast. Hot coffee (3 in one kind), tea bags, or milo cereal. they also provided bread and apple pie. Understand from the tour guide that we were to climb the watch tower there to watch the sun rise.

We were brought back to our hotel for a short rest before they came by to pick up us for the nature tour. Which was 9.30am.

They brought us to the Boh tea plantation plus some vegetable farm. Also visited a small water fall called Pirit falls. (rubbish everywhere, broken suspension bridge plus hot weather. Urrggg).

We also visited a orang asli village before heading back to brinchang at around 1.30pm.

We stopped by Brinchang to buy fried rice and waited for the tour coach to send us back to cluny lodge, because one of the buses was toingg up to straberry park to pick up new customers for afternoon tour.

Rested in the hotel till 7pm when they came by to pick us for Steam Boat Dinner at brinchang.

One of the family's fater, Mr Seah Peck Hwee, Similar sounding to my name jokingly asked the Ms Jennifer for freebies. And guess what she gave us each a box of cameron hill tea.

reaching our hotel

Guess what we found out when we alighted at Brinchang, our lodge can be seen from the town itself, cause it sits right on top of a hill. Because we booked tour from Titiwangsa, they offered to drive us up to our lodge for free. Else, it will cost M$10 via taxi.

Anyway, we had been travelling since 10.30pm at night, reached Brinchange 7.30am in the morning, the last thing we wanted was to go on another trip.

So was glad to check into our room for a short nap.

Asked the cluny lodge caretaker to cook lunch for us. It was good. For 3 Adults and 1 Child (About M$16 each), we had 3 dishes + 1 soup. I must say, the cook is pretty good.

As our afternoon tour includes dinner, our rest of the day was pretty much taken care off. Went around seeing the usual straberry farm and cactus farm and vegetable farm. Not enlightening but it was interesting for enough for us urban folks.

For those going to cluny lodge, take note that we are required to wear slippers, which they provide. But no kid size, so, please bring your own. They provide towers so, can skip that in your bag. Two small bars of soap, so must remember to bring your own shampoo and body foam.

Caretaker will makeup your room every morning. And he will come by to ask if you want meals. If you order all 3 meals in that day, you get M$1 off. Don't see how that entices you though. :P

Start of 5Day 5Night trip to Cameron

Booked room 5 of cluny lodge via aloha.gov.sg website. Each night $15 except for friday night $30. That room has 1 queen size bed and an single bed, plus attached toilet. The care takers will provde extra mattress if you require it.

Anyway, our trip started on Monday night 10.30. Had to reach Golden Mile tower to Kornsotium office before 10pm. As it was non-peak period, the bus only had another family on board.

The trip to cameron was uneventful, but the 1.30 hours trip up the mountain via winding road was pretty terrible.

Was suppose to stop at Tana Ratah town, but the bus driver dropped as at Brinchang, which was a blessing, cause got to meet Ms Jennifer of Titiwangsa tour operator. She did a sales talk and managed to convince everyone, including people from other coaches to sign up for 3 of their tours. Most people stayed two day up in the highlands, except us. But we decided to join them for the 3 tours.

Nature tour, Leisure tour and sunrise tour. I particularly like the sunrise tour.