Cameron Highlands Photo Diary

Can you believe that it's already April? I can't. I felt time just slipped away through my fingers - literally, when I am swiping my phone or typing on my keyboard with my fingers. Honestly in the past three months, I spent too much time on the computer and my phone.

It's time to have a break so we traveled to a place where there is limited internet access - Cameron Highlands. If you're a U-mobile user like me, you can't even send out a text message properly. So rest assured that you can have some uninterrupted time for yourself. Besides that, there is practically nothing much to do at night, besides reading, watching the news and enjoying the cold weather. 

We stayed right in front of a vast piece of green land. This is the morning view from our AirBnB's balcony:

In Cameron Highlands you see greenery everywhere. It's not nature - it's agriculture. Cameron Highlands is notorious for decimated natural landscapes and over-clearing of forestland, resulting in the landslide tragedies that we hear almost every year. Some of my friends even dreaded to come here, both because of the possible landslide and the windy road.

But this is also one of the most fertile lands in Malaysia. The farmers here plant the most beautiful flowers and vegetables. You see flowers and crops everywhere!

My friends always ask me to recommend interesting places for a short weekend getaway. I usually don't give any suggestion because travelling is so personal.

If you really want to know, Cameron Highlands is not the ideal place for a 2-days-1-night weekend getaway. Spending 3 nights and 2 days here is better. Here's why - the traffic here is very congested on Saturdays. You probably have to spend 1 hour (instead of 20 minutes) to travel between Tanah Rata to Brinchang. The roads are pretty narrow and windy too. You might want to take a good rest upon arrival rather than driving back home the next day.

There are a few places that I think you should go:

1. The Lord's Cafe - their strawberry scones are heavenly and cheap (RM 3). Once you try theirs, you can forget about any other scones. Their lemon cheesecake is fantastic too. Oh and you should try their mango smoothies! I came here many years ago and yes, I still think their food was good. The ambiance was cozy too.

2. The Smokehouse Hotel & Restaurant - If you are looking for a fancy experience and don't mind spending a small fortune, have lunch or afternoon tea here at the Smokehouse. This English hotel was built in the 1930s. The interior is classically English and the exterior is a fairy-tale flower garden. My partner-in-crime Fred knows that I'm a big fan of Englishman and flowers so he brought me here. I'm impressed.

3. BOH Sg Palas Tea Centre - Beautiful, beautiful and beautiful. We had a wonderful breakfast, sitting at the best spot on the terrace overlooking vast fields of tea trees. The weather was amazing early in the morning, so make sure you come before 9 a.m., or else you'll have trouble driving through the narrow roads and finding peace of mind amongst the crowd.

Right after the wonderful morning at the BOH tea garden, we drove for hours back to Kuala Lumpur. I went straight to organizing an event and Fred had to drive for another 3 hours back to Johor. Yes this was a hectic trip but it's all worth it. 

You need to set time for yourself to disconnect with the virtual screens and connect with the fundamental reality.

Happy traveling! ❀

Photos by Frederick & me