Cameron Highlands - Is It As Warm As Rumoured?

It was eons (fine, at least 8 years) since i last stepped into this realm situated at 5,000 ft (1,500 m) above sea level and it was with great anticipation (strawberries strawberries strawberries!!!!!!!!!!) when i boarded the bus to Cameron Highlands at 10.30pm last Thursday.

Cameron Highlands should be bestowed the Strawberry Zone!!

With only 3 to 4 hours sleep in the luxurious Konsortium Snoozer bus (free upgrade!!) due to a constant accumulation of pee in the limited capacity bladder and the 20 over movies available for leisure viewing, we finally reached Brinchang at 8am!

The town of Brinchang

Yes, a sleep-deprived 9 and a half hours!! Luckily the cool weather did a great job in refreshing my mind and body!

Unquestionably, the weather was still as comforting as before! But I can't say the same for the hot months of June or July hor.

Since the hotel check in at Rosa Passadena will start only from 2pm, we signed up for the countryside tour at RM25 a pax. This tour included visits to Rose Centre (an additional RM5), Butterfly Garden (an additional RM5), Tea Plantation, Strawberry Farm, Chinese Temple and Bee Farm.

Good news!

The first three were FUN!!

Rose centre was a big area full of flowers!! We could have spent more than an hour there!! Butterfly garden was not just butterflies! There were also insects and snakes! PLUS, you can take pictures with the insects at no additional cost! Tea plantation (BOH) was boring but I had a relaxing time at the cafe; slowly sipping a cup of hot tea and looking dreamily at the expansive scenary right in front of me!

Rose Centre

Butterfly Garden

Tea Plantation

Bad news!

The last three were BORING!!

The strawberry farm allowed only a disappointing section (3 rows to be exact) of unripe strawberries for public; the Chinese temple was so uninteresting i really don't know what to type here; the bee farm was just a garden with a lot of bee boxes. FULL STOP.

Chinese Temple

Bee Farm

To dilute my disappointment with the strawberry farm, we decided to heed the advice of a fellow traveller from Hong Kong and walked to a supposedly big strawberry farm near our hotel.

LOOK! 

Rows after rows of strawberries!!

Columns of fresh vegetables!!

Loads of mini cacti at RM10 for 6!!!

With such good weather and in such a laid back environment, it was a really relaxing and stress-free vacation!

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More Info

Brinchang is one of the 3 bigger towns in Cameron Highlands but has the highest concentration of hotels. I did not choose resorts because when night falls, you will be clueless on what to do! It will not be easy to walk to the towns in darkness and with only 50 cabs available, you will be equally helpless!

The pasar malam is located at Brinchang itself but do not expect too much! It is not that big and the stalls do not differ too much on the products for sale. However, it should be a good beneficial walk after a heavy steamboat dinner!

Tanah Rata is the main administrative town for Cameron Highlands and it has a bus terminal connecting other parts of Malaysia.