Why Cameron? Why?

Reasons why my friends and I decided to visit Cameron Highlands (why not Genting Highlands?)

1. It's cool

2. It's quiet and relaxing

3. It's less crowded

4. It's chilly

5. It's not loud and stressful

6. It's not filled with a lot of vacationing tourists

Alright, that's just about it. (And some of them are even redundant.)

There's quite a few tourist attractions, but you can see all in just about 1.5 days.

These are the places we visited in Cameron Highlands:

1. The night market

2. Rose Valley

3. Strawberry Farm

4. Cactus Valley

5. Tea farm

Side trips on our way home:

1. Ipoh mountain temple

2. Success 9 Store (featuring mostly Malaysia made products)

On Saturday, 8Aug09, we were at Golden Mile Complex, waiting for the bus at 530am.

By 6am (plus), we were on the road, stopped somewhere to change bus (into a more comfy one, but with no toilet! sob! =< ).

Then, we got to the Malaysian immigration and from there, it was an hour plus before we reached the outskirt of Malaysia where we stopped over for breakfast.

I must say, the dimsum in Malaysia tasted much better than what we have in Singapore.

After that, it was another hour or two of continuous bus ride. We stopped over for lunch, and since we weren't familiar with the food and the place, we settled for A&W, something we recognized.

I had their Volcano burger meal (MYR9), which was so teeny tiny and not even spicy like what they boasted. I also couldn't resist buying their MYR12 A&W bear (in celebration of how many years)

Then it was hours and hours of bus ride. Painful for the neck, the back, the rear, and just about every part of the body.

We got there around dinnertime. From hereon, all our meals were paid for. So no more cash out except for miscellaneous purchases.

At the table, since it was a package tour, we were grouped into 'meal mates' (table#8). We were with a couple in their early 40s, a granny with her two sons and two granchildren (a boy and a girl who just couldn't eat veggies. This was in favour of us. You see, what they didn't want went straight to our stomachs).

After dinner, we went to the mini night market where they were selling various food, almost all were fried! We wanted to buy, but eeew, it just wasn't nice. Imagine, it's just fried, and it's still not good.

It was time to go back to the hotel after the trip to the night market. Early retreat because it was early again the next day.

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Next day, we went to the Rose Valley, Strawberry Farm, Cactus Valley and Tea Farm. The tour ended at 8pm on Sunday night, because again, we had an early call time the next day.

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Last day. We grouped together at 8am and at around 802am, the bus was already moving and we were on our way back to Singapore. This is when the 16 hour journey started. Grooan.

To summarise, what the tour guide said was true. As the tour progressed, the meals became better and better. The first dinner was just a smorgasbord of simple stir fried dishes and herbal soup. Second dinner was steamboat with unlimited fresh veggies. The last dinner was at a seafood restaurant. Quite yummy. This was somewhere before Johor Bahru.

We got to the immigration at around 12 midnight, and from Tuas back to Golden Mile (civilisation), it was around 30 minutes.

I was finally home at 115am. My goodness.

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Overall, the trip was okay. It's an experience to get to the mountains, where it's foggy and chilly and peaceful.

The trip was SGD255, including all meals except the first breakfast and lunch.

Mandatory tip to the tour guide and bus driver combined was 5 Ringgit per day (only. wow).

Since the ride is 12 hours atleast, it's good if you can stay at Cameron Highlands longer. Perhaps 4D3N might be perfect.