Day 1 @ Cameron Highlands 11.02.2012

Super delayed post but better late then never I say. So for Valentine's Day this year, we decided to drive up to Cameron Highlands for a short trip. The four of us - Mic, Hui, Stan, & I carpooled and started our journey around 9-ish am. 

Just before 11 am, we reached Lata Iskandar is a waterfall located along the road from Tapah to CH, approx. 25km before Ringlet. You definitely won't overlook this as there will be a lot of cars parked by the roadside before you reach Lata Iskandar. Most tourists will make a stop at this multi-tiered waterfall to camho have a short rest before continuing their drive up to CH.

Some will also take the opportunity to go for a short dip in the cool water of the waterfall pools :)

Lata Iskandar

Hui & I

Then Stan busy was busy playing with his camera to get nice shots of the waterfall.

Nice or not? :D

 But he still lose to this fella. See, people go in the water to take photos one ok? LOL...

So anyways, there are also shops and stalls that sells ethnic handicrafts/ souvenirs, herbs, foods, etc.

The stalls

Things that you can find

OK, before I continue, I have to share this OMG story that happened while I was going through one of the stalls. This was what happaned:

Stall owner: Hi, tengok la. Banyak barang ni dik. You suka yang mana? You cantik ah!
Me: Smile *I was being polite ma*
Then move closely towards where I was standing.

Stall owner: You datang sini holiday ke? 
Me: Ye la :)
Stall owner: You nak phone number I tak? Nanti malam you sunyi boleh call I? *grins*
Me: Er .... *T__T.... WTF IS STAN???* 

Then my brain went into some random mode and I said out loudly to Hui "Ah Hui, ni kan zhe ge, hen mei eh!!" *frantically points at - God knows what I'm pointing at that moment*

Stall owner: La, you Cina eh??? Ingatkan Melayu... Then he walked back to his seat.
Me: Phew... *Power walked away, now where is STAN??!...* LOL

He was across the road buying one of the thing that I detest most! (-_-)"

Lotus bulb

There is a story why I hate this thing. I will share them next time.

After the drama, I told them to hurry up but not before buying some pisang goreng & cempedak goreng :D Hungry ad ma!

The next stop was here:

Bee farm

As we enter the premise, we we greeted by this heart shaped pool. 

What else would you expect from a bee farm? Bees la!

Another geli thing... urgh :( not the bees, but the comb. Honestly, there wasn't much things to see or do here, I would give it a skip. The boys got themselves a box of cherry tomatoes - it was super sweet and very cheap too.

We made another stop - Cameron Valley Tea House. Just another place for you to stop for some food and drink. But we didn't try as the place was full. So we just enjoyed the view a bit & continued driving up CH.

Finally, we reached our hotel in Brinchang. But we were too hungry to even bother to check in so makan we go 1st. You can read about our meal here. After makan, we checked in to our hotel and rested for awhile.

After much resting, we headed to Big Red Strawberry Farm - admission is free, opens daily from 8.30am to 6pm.

This farm focuses on growing their vegetation hydroponically.

Everything is so organized and so clean!

Walkway leading to the farm's the gift shop and cafe. Their menu is already strategically placed along both sides of the walkway so while walking you would roughly know what they have to offer.

The cafe walls are also plastered with their menu so just point out to the cashier what you want, pay, collect your food and enjoy :)

This is what we had:

Strawberry Pancake - meh, I had better ones. It was too thick and dry to my liking, and the strawbie bits in it tasted funny.

Fried Ice Cream - passable. Crispy skin and once you cut into it, delicious cold strawbie ice cream. Wished they would have the ice cream in other flavours too - choc chip mint maybe? Too much strawbie going on the menu.

Last but not least:

Yoghurt with fresh strawberry & honey - OMG THIS IS THE BEST!! T___T

This is probably the best strawbie related dish that I had on this trip.It was a very light & refreshing combination. The tangy sourish starwbies add much zing to the plain jane youghurt & the sweet honey just cuts and balances the sourness of the strawbies - perfect, for me at least :) Very gentle on the palate. I love how simple ingredients such as these 3 can just create such beautiful flavours.

You also can pick your own fresh strawbies here on the farm.

Just next to the cafe is the gift shop. Everything is strawbie related.

Cameron Highlands is like the strawberry heaven in Malaysia. Really! Even the pathways & toilets need to be strawbi-fied. Hahahaha......wtf.

So after makan, we walked around their garden and headed off to Brinchang pasar malam.

Flowers here are much more pretty most probably due to the cooler weather

Brinchang pasar malam is just like any other pasar malam that we have. The difference would probably be that their local fresh produce (vege,fruits, tea, strawbies, & flowers) are much cheaper. It is also a good place to go food hunting as there are many hawker stalls that cook up local favourites such as fried noodles, chicken wings, chicken rice, etc. It happens every Friday & Saturday from 4pm onward.

We were still too full from all the makan action before so we didn't buy much stuff. We just bought some roasted chestnut (super fragrant & delicious btw), sweet corn, fried oyster mushroom, and sweet potato balls. 

Sweet Potato Ball

After bracing bad traffic from the pasar malam, we got back to our hotel, freshen up, rested and got ready for a steamboat/ hotpot dinner complimentary of the hotel we stayed with. 

Makan again... fei si wo :(