♥June 5th♥
After leaving Penang, we continued our journey to Cameron Highlands using the Simpang Pulai way.

We arrived Cameron Highlands in the evening, and welcomed the cool weather.

We stopped at the first place that offered strawberry plucking. For RM20, we get half a punnet to fill up which is equivalent to 0.5Kg.

Zaria being helped by a worker to reach the nicer strawberries on the higher racks.

Each flower of the strawberry plant will turn into a strawberry.

Heading down to Tanah Ratah where our hotel, Hotel De La Fern, was located, we got stuck in the Brinchang jam which was caused by the night market (If you use the Simpang Pulai Way, you’ll reach Kampung Raja, then Brinchang, then Tanah Ratah). Don’t get fooled by the Hotel website, there’s nothing luxurious about it. It’s by the main road next to a busy steamboat restaurant.

Dinner was at Rosedale Bistro, Tanah Rata. Girls didn’t want any noodles or rice, so they have scones and strawberry ice cream for dinner.

We had an early night as we knew the next day will be a long day.

♥June 6th♥
12am, when the restaurant next door closed up, the staff started chatting away. This plus the clattering of dishes, the cars revving up the slope next to the hotel, made Daddy & I have difficulty falling asleep.

Our quad room is comfy, but I don’t think it’s worth the rate we paid for. With the noise pollution we got, not a place we’ll stay again.

We checked out soon after breakfast, and headed to Boh Sungai Palas Tea Plantation. As we neared the plantation, vege greenhouses were replaced with slopes of tea plants in different shades of green. It’s a very calming and lovely sight.

We drove, got out of the car, walked a bit, explored a bit, went back into the car, drove some more, and repeated the process many times.

At the workers’ quarters, girls played with the dog and cats there.

Workers who were home were quite friendly. This handsome man allowed us to take his photo.

We also spotted this.

A real ‘rooftop’ garden in one of quarters.

Near the quarters, is the Boh Sungai Palas Tea Centre.

Love the floor to ceiling windows in the cafe.

Tea served was good, scones was ok, but the the beautiful sights surrounding was the reason people came.

The factory itself has nothing much to see, but I think this is one place that must be visited when in Cameron Highlands.

Next on our agenda was mossy forest, which is near Sungai Palas. As a bonus, when we were driving there, we saw workers picking/cutting tea leaves up close.

Their supervisor, a veteran, watching over all these workers.

Me watching over the girls messing about.

As the road got narrower, the slopes too become more jagged.

Finally, we arrived the mossy forest; where fog was thick, and visibility lower. It got very cold too.

We tried going into one of the trails, but 5mins into it, we turned back out. We were not properly attired and the girls were complaining the ground too soggy to walk on.

So we walked along the tar road, and yet, it was still interesting.

For the girls, it’s another play time.

Before heading back to KL, we did some shopping at Brinchang. The ‘night’ market started trading at 3pm+.

Girls… went searching for things to buy for their friends and teachers.

See how the car boot is filled up with all the shopping from Cameron Highlands and Penang?

After leaving Penang (and spending 2 hours rounding George Town to find a place to lunch), we continued with our holidays and headed to Cameron Highlands via the Simpang Pulai way, roads are definitely wider this way, and less winding.

We arrived at 6pm+ and it was quite chilly. Even though it was low peak, when we arrived at our hotel, Century Pine Resort, it took like 15mins for us to get our room (although pre-booked). The beds were without sheets, and the day curtain was not hung up! Tsk tsk. Luckily they sent someone to fix that soon after we complained.

Our duplex room is big and comfy as well as clean. It has 2 floors, 1st with a sofa bed and a bathroom, and on the top floor another en suite room with king bed. Girls loved the room; Zara happy to get Nickelodeon channel and Zaria loved the carpeted stair case leading to the top floor; she spent a great deal of time walking up and down the stairs.

We walked to Tanah Rata to look for a place for dinner but found nothing interesting on the main street; we ended up driving to Brinchang and had steamboat.

After breakfast at the hotel on Wednesday morning, we went to the market at Kea Farm. Since it was low peak, there were very few tourists and the vege and strawberries were selling cheap.

We wanted to go strawberry picking but it was RM30 with 3 punnets given to us (that’s the max you get to pick). So the girls went flowers picking instead, mainly the morning glories, baby breath like flowers and the hibiscus that grow in abundance at the road side.

For Daddy and I, no visit to Cameron Highlands is complete without going to the tea plantations. We headed to Boh’s Sungai Palas Tea Estate after lunch. I just love the picturesque view of the green slopes, occasionally, finding a few tea pickers’ heads bobbing up and down. You have to see with your own eyes the beauty and tranquility that the camera cannot catch.

Unfortunately, the famous tea center was closed but the friendly gate keeper kept us entertained by showing us tea flowers and tea seeds, and the girls were going around searching and picking seeds from the ground (although Zaria was picking gravels on the road thinking they were the same thing).

We then had tea at Bala’s Holiday Chalet. Bloody rip off I tell you. RM18.90 for 2 scones with tea. I bake better scones than them, and they don’t even whip their own cream, it’s all sprayed out from a can (I can tell. I just can.) What we’re paying is really like an entrance fee to their English garden, quite pretty although not well maintained.

After tea, we sent Jelly and Zaria back to the hotel room, and Zara, Daddy and I took a walk on a short track just behind the hotel.

I love the moss, ferns and wild flowers found on this path. You can see them captured here (the roof belongs to Bala’s Holiday Chalet). You have to see Zara ‘manja-ing’ Daddy, “Daddy you are a strong man, carry me.” And so Daddy carried this close to 15Kg girl on his shoulder almost the whole time.

We had to turn back when the track becomes narrower and more difficult to handle with a toddler.

We went back to the hotel to find a fully rested Zaria and headed out to have dinner. This time we tried steamboat at Tanah Rata (Brinchang’s was better).

Thursday morning, we went to Kea Farm again to get our vege and strawberry. Check out the price : RM10 for 14 packs of organic vege (real organic or not, I’m not sure); RM20 for 7 punnets of big juicy strawberries.

We skipped lunch and checked out. We headed to Boh Plantation at Ringlet, thinking of grabbing lunch there.

On the way to Boh Plantation, there are quite a few watercress farms, and we stopped at one to show the girls how watercress is grown.

This farm grows eggplants and watercress. Here you see pools of shallow water used to grow watercress, and beautiful purple eggplant flowers. Surrounding the farms, wild baby breath like flowers were everywhere.

After some more winding roads, we again get to see the breath taking views of slopes with well trimmed tea trees (girls were of course not fascinated by any of these and fell asleep on the way).

The tea centre didn’t serve any hot lunch but only cakes and pastries. I took the last scone available (better and cheaper than Bala’s), the rest had some cakes and pies, the Masala tea there was so delicious.

Girls then had a good time checking out the flowers and enjoying the fresh air around.

You can tell Zaria having a good time with her many expressions.

Our last stop before heading the North-South Highway was the waterfalls. We only let the girls soak their feet in the cold water although both wanted very much to jump down and splash about. When it was time to leave, Zaria was holding on to the car door, refusing to get into the car shouting, “Don’t want (to) go home! Want some more waterfall.”

That’s an indication this was a good holiday. 😛