Sunrise Spectacular Tour from Titiwangsa Tours & Travel @ Cameron Highlands [Malaysia]

I was upset that my precious time was waylaid by the tour agent at Cameron Highlands but this didn't stop me from signing up the Sunrise Spectacular Tour at RM 65 per person.

Now, i never have much luck with prearranged plans to catch the sunrise (read: Hehuanshan Sunrise) and had in fact a bad omen about this. However, it was the only one out of the four basic packages that i have yet to take up.

Leisure Tour was taken in 2011 (you may click here for the information), as with the Nature Discovery Tour (check out here). Agro Delight Tour was later in 2013 (click here) in my road trip with my parents conquering Ipoh, Cameron Highlands and Kuala Lumpur.

Coming back to the Sunrise Spectacular, i was up at 5 am and the mini passenger van was punctual in picking us up from Copthorne Hotel at 6 am. Driving in the darkness along the mountainous road, we arrived at our destination in less than 15 minutes!

Our spot next to a dilapidated building; even though it was chilly, it couldn't compare to the near-zero temperature encountered at Taiwan's Hehuanshan where i almost literally died from hypothermia.

The sight in front of us which was unblocked by towering trees with mountain peaks peeking from the clouds that enveloped them.

Waiting for sunrise was like almost like fishing without a bait and with plenty of time to spend, i took like a hundred over photographs; many of which turned out blur due to the lack of lighting.

And unlike this gentleman in this photograph, i am too lazy to bring along a tripod and don't have sufficient money to upgrade my camera to a full frame one.

A box of light breakfast was provided together with hot tea / coffee. Curious to know what's inside the box? I would share the "insides" at the end of this post.

Road we came from; my fuzzy memory told me i had been on the road before and it's only on my way down that i realised it's the same road bringing us to Mount Brinchang and Mossy Forest!

The waiting game as the sky slowly brightened up; the guide cum driver shared the photographs he had taken using his phone in the numerous trips he had made for the tour and they were indeed spectacular. The question then was; would we be as lucky?

Standing on farmland; i was mindful not to tread on working fields that had lettuces waiting to be harvested later in the morning. 

It was too cloudy and almost the same scenario at Hehuanshan; on one hand, i wasn't hopeful while on the other hand, before the last minute, who can accurately predict nature? 

To be sure i am directly in front of the sun when it pops out, i even activated the compass app to ensure i am right in the east! Well, the sun rises from the east and i am guessing it would be true east.

Two orange hues appeared and i can literally feel the heart dropped from everyone's stomach. All the time in wait for the perfect moment and it failed to materialise. 

Thankfully, the guide had managed out expectation beforehand; hence, we had kind of prepared for it. Instead of lamenting over the misfortune, why not make use of the time to take goofy photos! I like the THEIR spirit! 

Blaring loud music, the pickup with over ten persons at its back zoomed up the road to Mount Brinchang; disregarding the fact that they were creating a disturbance to humans and wild animals residing on the mountain.

Like him, i couldn't believe my luck. By the way, Alex didn't give two-hoot about the sunrise and was happily snoozing in the van! This was exactly what he did at Hehuanshan too! 

Last look before we boarded the mini passenger van.

Driving past this humongous strawberry park known as the Mountain Strawberry Farm where you can pick strawberries and harvest fresh vegetables! I recalled seeing the signboard for the farm in my trek to BOH Sungei Palas tea centre! 

Vegetable farm that was jutting out of the hillside, just like the iconic cafe at BOH Tea Centre! 

As a consolation, there was a stopover in the middle.

With a view that literally took my breath away - coupled with the refreshing mountain air, it would have been perfect if the sun were to push its glaring face out! 

On our way and spotted a familiar sight; the jutting out cafe that i mentioned two paragraphs before! To assist you in identifying the location, refer to the red arrow.

Yes, we were driving on the same road that we walked on the day before to BOH Sungei Palas tea centre! Memorable indeed and definitely not something we would be keen to try in the future! 

Before 7.40 pm, we were back at the lobby of Copthorne Hotel; time taken was only about 1 hr and 40 minutes although the itinerary had indicated 2 and a half hours. Well, there wasn't a spectacular sunrise and personally, i don't see the point of wasting my time just to meet the duration which was also an estimation.

Curious to know what's inside?

Ta-dah! Sandwiches, biscuits and two pastries; hardly a light breakfast in my opinion but they were okay tasting. I needed a more satisfactory meal; somewhere along the line of nasi lemak, carrot cake, wanton mee etc. 

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Price of Sunrise Spectacular Tour

Adult - RM 65 per person

Children - RM 55 per child

For the summary of my short 2 days, 1 night trip to Cameron Highlands, please click here.

Restoran Yao Yat Wan Tan Mee @ Cameron Highlands [Near Copthorne Hotel]

Some people love the convenience of having breakfast and accommodation together in one single rate whereas i have always been the type that insists on not having the bundled breakfast if the option is available.

Without breakfast means i am forced to seek my own and that's precisely what i want; explore the hotel surroundings for local eats. At Cameron Highlands, we chose one that's near to Copthorne Hotel as we had a coach to catch at 10am; Restoran Yao Yat! 

Service was Hong Kong style so please be prepared for straightforward ordering with a heavy dosage of impatience. Other than that, it didn't take long for us to have our plates of wan tan mee placed on the table. 

Wanton noodle was the sweet black sauce, Cantonese tyre and i generally had no complaint about it except for maybe the noodles which were a bit tough. However, the dumplings were pretty good with bits of prawns that you wouldn't normally see in the Singapore style wanton noodles. Soup was unimpressive. 

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Location Map

As above (near Copthorne Hotel)

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Menu

As above

Pricing

Wantan Mee - RM 6 a plate

For the summary of my short trip to Cameron Highlands, please click here.

Technically Day 0 and Day 1 of the Two Days, One Night Trip to Cameron Highlands!

<<< Summarized Itinerary 

It's not the first time you have heard of me complaining that overnight coach and flight are just not my kind of thing and i am often exhausted the next day when i reached the destination!

However, with limited leave and a reduced cash-flow, i had no choice but to endure the journey to Cameron Highlands via the overnight coach option by Konsortium in my recent trip. My usual recommendation is for free and easy travelers to take a plane to Ipoh, stay a night, travel to Cameron Highlands, stay a night or two and then return to Ipoh for the flight back to Singapore.

I miss the old days when coach services to Malaysia were a lot more competitive and competitors (Five Stars) would up the game by offering better coaches; i.e. with individual screens showing pirated movies, wider seats, double decker coaches. Now, it's just outsourced to another company. I purchased tickets for Konsortium yet the coach was from Happiness Holidays.

Whatever the case, i was surprised i dozed off rather easily once we cleared Malaysian custom and before i knew it, it's the customary stopover at Ming Ang in Yong Peng!

Alex had to buy his tea leaves eggs; i had already brushed my teeth yet i couldn't resist taking a small bite of the hard-boiled eggs; the fragrance of the tea leaves was strong and i was fighting resistance to purchase half a dozen to indulge in should the hunger pangs strike in the next few hours.

Mental note: must remember to grab a few packs of Ming Ang ultra delicious Heong Peah on my way back! Don't believe how good it is; there are always available samples for you to try!

Toilet break at the petrol kiosk before the coach trudged up the highlands!

Daybreak and as i am aware, no one can pull me back into slumber land once the sky is no longer dark. Exceptions: if i am ill or there are blinds / curtains that can block the sunlight.

Something's strange; i don't recall that the roads were that spacious and trees in my previous few trips via overnight coaches from Singapore to Cameron Highlands were much taller.

My suspicion told me the route was more similar to the one i took from Ipoh to Cameron Highlands back in 2013; the same trip i made with my parents.

Sun was up!

Farmlands with plastic canopies dotting the landscape.

The suspicion i had earlier was confirmed when we entered the towns of Kampung Raja and then followed by Tringkap. If the coach had come in from the usual route, the first town we encountered should be Ringlet.

Another giveaway; driving past the Lavender Garden which i have yet to visit as it wasn't walkable from Brinchang, Tanah Rata or even Kea Farm.

A wedding convoy spotted at Brinchang where the coach had stopped. The action by the coach befuddled me as it didn't stop at the drop-off point at Copthorne Hotel and instead forged towards the biggest town of Cameron Highlands instead.

Anyway, we were asked to drop for breakfast and reassembled an hour later. I didn't mind the suggestion as Brinchang had a lot more to offer, compared to Kea Farm (where Copthorne Hotel is located), when it comes to food.

Memory was fuzzy as i tried to retrace my footsteps to Pau Hei kopitiam and i can see from Alex's face that he just wanted his food as soon as possible.

Breakfast was eventually settled at Restoran Hui Wei, which was right beside Rossa Passadena hotel.

Guess i didn't need to elaborate too much on this section since it had been covered under the itinerary; to cut the story short, the bus / tour agent was asking us to sign up for tour packages under their company. As a free and easy traveler, i feel shortchanged as my intention for buying a coach ticket was to travel from point A to point B, and not to waste my precious overseas time listening to presentations! 

More than thirty minutes had passed before we went on our way to Copthorne Hotel. One suggestion for those who didn't want to sit through the presentations - book a hotel at Brinchang so that you can go off straight! 

Kavy Hotel - an accommodation that i would not recommend to my friends. For the reasons, do check out my review here. p.s. as five years have passed, things might have improved but as the saying goes; once bitten, twice shy.

There's only so much a photograph can do; using my own eyes, the view in front of me wasn't the signboard branding Cactus Point. It was the yellow flower field that literally drew my breath away.

Busy marketplace at Kea Farm - this is my one regret for the trip as i originally planned to generate a full post for the marketplace. Sadly, the rain that came in the afternoon derailed the plan.

Arrival at Copthorne Hotel (previously known as Equatorial Hotel)! Official check in to the room was at 3 pm and the receptionist couldn't confirm if we could secure the room earlier.

As mentioned previously, i dislike wasting time when i am overseas and we did a crazy thing; we bloody walked all the way from the hotel to BOH Sungei Palas Tea Centre for the marvelous view at the cafe! 

Instead of quickening our pace back to Copthorne Hotel, i insisted on visiting 188 Vegetables Farm; i was brought there as part of the Agro Delight Tour in 2013. 

Purpose of my insistence; to buy the raw corns which don't need to be cooked! White corn was priced at RM 4 whereas the yellow white ones were priced at 4 for RM 10. Sample the differences before you decide! 

Oops - i had another regret! Why didn't i buy the strawberry popsicle!?!

Unsatisfactory lunch at Josephine Eater & Bar at Cameron Square. To read more, do check out the details at this link. 

Checked in to the superior room at Copthorne Hotel, dropped our bags, had a nice shower and it's time to hit the street again! 

Those itching to pick strawberries can consider going to EQ Strawberry Farm; please be early as all picking had already stopped when we reached at about 3pm.

Started pouring like nobody's business when we were about to leave. I am just so thankful to have purchased disposable rain coats at Cameron Square. 

Visited the Butterfly Farm! Click here for more information. 

If you have time, there's another Butterfly Garden next door that you can visit! 

We hurried to Ee Feng Gu Apiary as the rain had finally stopped. 

Now on our way back to Copthorne Hotel and i thought this would be the best time to highlight the two places that Alex and i frequently walked past on day one; four times in fact. You can refer to the above map for locations of Holidays Park and Cameron Square.

Holidays Park - essentially an amusement park for kids with stalls on the side selling farm produce, food, souvenirs and others. Not much of an interest to me, honestly.

Cameron Square - Cameron Highlands' only shopping mall although it didn't seem to be fully operational with level two still relatively empty. 

Aside from having quite a number of F&B outlets, the shopping mall was surrounded with kitsch decorations offering plenty of photo opportunities.

Given the dismal lunch, Alex needed more protein inputs and it's only logical (for him) to get the soft boiled eggs from Old Town White Coffee cafe! 

You know where's the place for the fastest yet complimentary WiFi at Cameron Highlands? It's definitely at Old Town White Coffee cafe in Cameron Square and i can attest to its speed! 

Garlic toast to the fill the gaps in my stomach! Now that i have my own house, i realised garlic toast isn't too hard to make even though i had a tendency to burn mine! 

How the hell did the small truck get to the hillside!? And its position was rather precarious as rolling forward by a few meters would increase its momentum to drop head down to the busy main road below.

Good and nice to have although no one seemed to be using it. Even in Singapore, take up for eco initiatives was slow and the blue bins placed at housing estates can be filled up with non-recyclable materials at times. 

Back to Copthorne Hotel! 

The highlands weather can be unpredictable; rain came and went and the view captured from my balcony changed from having clear sky to dark clouds and then to misty in just a few hours. 

An hour later, it was the beautiful sight of rainbow and together with it, the hue of sunset shining upon the farmlands as it descended into night! 

What shall we have for dinner? Obviously a signature steamboat meal which warmed our tummies at the nearby Chef Weng. For review, click here. 

There were a number of massage parlours next to Chef Weng and since we did so much walking that day, we figured we should pamper our legs and strolled into Fucon Reflexology.

Session by the PRC masseur was painful but she managed to press at the right acupoints that drew pain and relief at the same time. The WiFi sucked big time and i had difficulties logging in.

Price list for your reference. 

Night was still young and our by-then-pretty-sore legs brought us to the 18 Celsius Cafe at Copthorne Hotel; want to guess what we order?

Even i was amazed by the capacity of my stomach; it was only about an hour ago that i was complaining that i couldn't stuff another item in at Chef Weng yet i could still manage matcha latte and a slice of butter cake. 

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For the summary of my short trip to Cameron Highlands, please click here.