Cameron Highlands located in Malaysia and it is one of the biggest hill resort in the region. This place offers great views of tea and vegetable plantation, comfortable weather and sizzling food.

Fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, cauliflowers, cabbages, oranges and strawberries grow fresh and healthy in the cool climate and fertile soils of the highlands. You can buy them either at the various markets or the farms which are located throughout the highlands.

To get there:
1) By Air:
Book your air tickets at Airasia for budget price or Malaysia Airlines. The hill is located on the North of the airport. Once you reached the airport, take local taxi or coaches to Cameron Highlands.

2) Bus
Buses to Cameron Highlands operate daily from Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang. Buses from Kuala Lumpur depart from the Pudu Raya Station and KL Central. Buses from Penang depart from Prangin Mall / Komtar.

Express bus service from Singapore is now available. Unititi Express leaves Beach Road Singapore at 10.00pm daily and arrives in Cameron at 7am the following morning.

Bus schedules and details

Call the following bus companies for the latest bus schedules and fares.

i. Kurnia Bistari @ (KL) 016-3033330 (Counter 87 Puduraya) (CH) 05-491-1485
ii. Kinta Omnibus @ (IPOH) 05-254-0124 (CH) 05-491-1200
iii. Unititi Express @ (KL) 012-2150044 or 016-5058776 (CH) 05-491-4181 or 05-491-1452

3) Taxi
Taxis from Kuala Lumpur are available at the Pudu Raya Terminal. There are also daily taxi services from Tapah and Ipoh to Cameron Highlands. For services from other locations, please check with the local taxi terminal. Visitors coming from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) will be able to get a taxi from the KLIA limousine service (normal taxi) but the cost will be higher.

4) Self Drive:
For those familar with the roads in Malaysia, you can drive there using North-South Highway. Last time, you could only get to Cameron Highlands from the south via Tapah but since the opening of the new Simpang Pulai road, traveling to the highlands has become much more easier from the north. You can also get here from the east coast via Gua Musang in Kelantan but take note that this road has yet to be gazetted by the authorities.

From the South via Tapah
Cameron Highlands is about 300kms from Kuala Lumpur and it takes less than 3.5 hours to get here via the North-South Expressway (NSE). If you are driving from Kuala Lumpur, get find your way to the NSE by following the sign to Ipoh. Once you're on the expressway, keep on driving north until you reach Tapah which will take about 1.5 hours. Watch out for the sign that indicates the Tapah and Cameron Highlands exit (Exit 132). Once you have passed the toll booth, turn left at the traffic lights. From here onwards you will be on the long winding road to Cameron Highlands which is about 60 km's away. If you're driving from the north just take Exit 132 at Tapah and follow the same direction. It takes an average of 1.5 hours to reach Tanah Rata from Tapah.

Driving Tips :
The road from Tapah to Cameron Highlands is narrow and has a lot of sharp bends. If you have passengers who get motion sickness, its time to get those plastic bags out (just in case).
The roads have been upgraded recently so the drive up can be quite pleasant. There will be lots of heavy vehicles going up and down this road so be careful especially when you are overtaking. Most local heavy vehicles will give you the signal to overtake when its save so be patient. Its also common courtesy to let the vehicle behind you overtake you if you're driving slower that vehicle.

From the north via Simpang Pulai / Ipoh
Now that the new road from Simpang Pulai is open, more people are traveling to the highlands via this route. The road condition is much better here than the Tapah route and it only takes about 45 minutes to get to Kampung Raja from Simpang Pulai.
Take Exit 137 (Simpang Pulai) and turn right at the traffic light right after the toll booth. Turn right again at the next traffic light about 200 metres away. You are now on the way to Cameron Highlands. Eventually you will see signs to Kampung Raja or Cameron Highlands along the way. After about 1 hour, you will reach the Kampung Raja junction where you will have to turn right from the new road into Kampung Raja town. You're now in Cameron Highlands and you can just follow the main road to your destination. Brinchang & Tanah Rata is about 25-30kms from here.

Driving Tips :
Driving up this road is definitely a pleasant experience because it gives you some great views of mountains. Since the roads are less winding, people tend to speed here but watch out for the sharp bends at some stretches. There is NO mobile coverage along this road.

For more information on the NSE (North-South Expressway), please visit www.plus.com.my

Getting Around Cameron Highlands
It will be very convenient for you to get around Cameron Highlands if you have your own transportation. There are no car rental services in Cameron Highlands.

You can still get around with the local bus and taxi, but you will not have the flexibility you get from driving in your own car. Alternately you can also get on one of the many tours organized by the local tour companies in Cameron Highlands.

Some guest houses do provide motorbike rental services which you can use to get around. Bicycles are not here popular because of the terrain and the high traffic.


Local Taxi Rates


Distance between major towns in Cameron Highlands

i. Ringlet to Tanah Rata - 13km
ii. Tanah Rata to Brinchang - 6km
iii. Brinchang to Tringkep - 8km
iv. Tringkap - Kuala Terla - 5km
v. Kuala Terla - Kg.Raja - 3km

Accomodations:
I prefer to stay at Hotel Equatorial because of best deals available. I only paid for RM198++ (excluded %10 of service charge and 5% of government tax) with RM88 F&B voucher. The food & beverage credit can be utilised daily or accumulated for redemption at any food & beverage outlet. If you don't spend the voucher, it will be refunded at 50% (RM44) of its value in upon check out.

There are also many nice hotels and apartments for rent. Strawberry Park Resort is also recommended but its location a little remote from the main attraction places.

There are very high class resorts available too such as The Lakehouse, The Smokehouse.

For those traveling with more than 4 peoples, you might considering renting an apartment, like Star Regency.

Attractions

Here are all the places of interest:
Multicrops Central Market
Honey Bee – Ee Feng Gu
Sungai Palas Tea Plantation: except Monday 9:00-4:30
Boh Tea Ria Shop @ BohPlantation
Cameron Valley Tea House
Ee Feng Gu Honey Bee Farm
Butterfly farm
Butterfly Garden
Green Farm
Vegetable Market @ Kea Farm
Multicrops Central Market
Orchid Farm
Rose Centre
Rose Valley
Cactus Valley
Cactus Point
Healthy Strawberry Farm
Kasimanis Strawberry Farm
Kok Lim Strawberry Farm
Big Red Strawberry Farm
Raju Hill Strawberry Farm


My Suggested Itinerary for 3 days 2 nights trip:

Saturday
12:00pm : Lunch at T-Café or Yong Peng (Tanah Rata)
1:00pm : Go to strawberry farm, Tanah Rata – Kasimanis/KHM/Raju to strawberry
milkshare/ice-cream
3:00pm : Check in Hotel
3:30pm : Tea time or Cactus Point/Valley
4:30pm : Go to Rose Center (Kea Farm)
6:00pm : Steamboat Dinner at Highlands/OK Tuck/Golden Win Restaurant/Country
Lodge’s (Brinchang) – steamboat
8:30pm : Night market, Brinchang

Sunday
9:30am : Breakfast at hotel
11:00am : Go to Sg. Palas Tea Plantation, Brinchang
12:30pm : Lunch at Uncle Chow/ Palm Leaf Garden (Brinchang)
2:00pm : Go to Butterflies Farm, Kea Farm
3:00pm : Go to Vegetable Market/Farm
4:00pm : Tea time at Tanah Rata
7:00pm : Dinner at Mayflower/ Roselane steak house (Tanah Rata)

Monday
9:30am : Breaskfast at hotel
10:30am : Go to Multicrops Central Market
12:30pm : Lunch at Cameron Valley/ Restaurant No. 14 – southern Indian food?
2:00pm : Free & Easy / Sam Poh Temple - Brinchang
3:00pm : Tea Time @ T-Café?
4:00pm : Leave Cameron Highlands
5:30pm : Visit Lata Iskandar Waterfall

Cactus
 This is an unique Cactus that you can find at Cameron Highlands




Cameron's Corn! It's so delicious even you can eat it raw! The size is very big and the taste is irresistible, you only can find this Fat Corn at here. It's only RM10 for 7 corn, so cheap! The vegetables are also very fresh and cheap, I bought 10 packets of vege only cost RM10, can you believe it?CornCameron Vegetables


Cameron Highlands This is a morning view of the hill.

This is the hotel where I've stayed in.
Hill Resort

Maps of Cameron Highlands:
Cameron Highlands MapCameron Highlands MapCameron Highlands MapCameron Highlands MapCameron Highlands Map

Plant has been abused
I can't understand why the peoples wanna abuse such a nice plant?

Strawberry Chocolate Ice cream
Yummy....what a delicious ice-cream, you only can find this at Cameron Highlands. Go to Raju's Strawberry for this lovely desert. Although the strawberries were not very sweet but it was fresh and juicy.

Rose CentreFlowers
Rose Centre, located at Kea Farm just a little walk outside of Hotel Equatorial. The Entrance Fees: Adult - RM4.00 / Child - RM2.00. The place name is not really related because I can't find more than 10 roses there! There are many other plants instead of roses!

White Flower
Can anyone tell me what is the name of this flower? Seriously I do not know the name of it. Hahaha...

Tea Plantation Many tea plantations around at the hill, this is taken while going to the Boh's Tea Plantation.

Tea RollerThis is the first time ever I'd to see this old machinery at the Sungai Palas Tea Plantation. According to the locals, it is used by the workers as a roller to process the raw tea back in the old days. Now, they would use a much bigger machinery to produce more teas.

Posted by Evan | 3:26 PM | , | 1 comments »


Love Thai food & BBQ or steamboat? We had my birthday celebration at this Fireman BBQ restaurant at the new Jaya One Commercial centre. It is a Thai's style BBQ steamboat restaurant, it is very new and clean. The menu have ala carte and set selection. We chose the most expensive seafood set. The portion is very small, the plate is big but underneath just full of raw cabbages! Aside from the set, we have also ordered ala carte raw Pig's liver and raw pork meat. The raw food is not marinated which I find it's too plain compare to the real Thai's BBQ steamboat which I have tried at Bangkok last year. I think the main course is the raw cabbages, seems like I eat the vegetable more than the seafood! I feel the food doesn't worth the money we are paying for. The damage is RM66++ for two persons.


Fireman Show? The show started around 8pm, only last for few minutes, the man showing some stunts with fire on his body, mouth, spitting fire, dancing with fire, etc. Overall, it's basically similar to the one at A'Famosa show. Though, the show only available at the Jaya One's branch.


There also also newly launched Fireman Set Lunch - Daily (weekdays) with just RM 9.90 per set.

Address: Blk C, Unit 43-LG2, Wai Sek Kai, JayaOne Petaling Jaya
Branch: The Curve.

Recommendation: IMHO, I find the the food is over-priced. The only special thing is you can watch the fireman show which last for less than 5 minutes. The show only available at the PJ Jaya One's branch.

Posted by Evan | 12:53 PM | , , , , | 1 comments »

21 Sept 2008 - 24 Sept 2008


I went to Phuket, Thailand with my fiancée for a 4D3N vacation during the end of September, 2008. Overall, I've enjoyed the trip but personally I can't stand the hot weather. I took AirAsia for a budget flight to Phuket, it takes around 80 minutes to reach there from KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport).

Once we reached the airport, we've bound to a numbers of sales person approaching us for taxi and car rents. At last we have decided to rent a car for 4 days for 2400 Baht. The car is a Toyota Vios G which is the same as my own car! :) even the color also the same! We started to drive from the airport to our hotel, Poppa Palace at Patong.

This hotel is highly recommended because the room is comfortable, quiet, the staffs are really polite and friendly. The bad point is the location is not at the main road, you need to turn into soi (small road) to get to this hotel. I booked through Asia Rooms for 976THB per night included breakfast.

Once we get into room, wow... my fiancée was so excited to see the romantic decoration on the bed. That was the first time we saw such a great decoration in a hotel. Quickly, we took some photos of it.



After dropping the luggages, we drove to the Phuket Shooting Range. I chose Automatic Caliber 9mm, 10 bullets for 890THB. I was quite nervous at first to enter the shooting area because the sound of the shot is very loud and need to wear a earphone-like to dampen the loudness. The instructor taught me:
- How to release the magazine
- How to insert the 5 bullets into the magazine and load
- How to aim and shoot
The first shot was very nervous and at the same time can feel very excited to experience the 'kick' (momentum) after firing the shot. Here is the video of my shooting


Hahaha 6 out of 10 bullets on target :)


We drove further south to Promthep Cape to view the sunset and had our dinner there.


On the second day, we went to Phi Phi Island by cruise for 700THB per person including return transfer from/to hotel, snorkeling equipments and lunch. The distance to the island is quite far it took about more than 1 hour to reach there by big cruise. If using speed boat, it might be faster. Overall, the main attraction on the trip was the snorkeling at Tonsai Bay on the way to Phi Phi Don. The corals are very beautiful.


Passing by Phi Phi Ley


After returned to hotel, we went exploring the Patong area. It was an unlucky day, I've got ticket issued for illegal parking at a road side. DO NOT PARK at the right side of Rat-U-Thit 200 road!
300 Baht gone!


I know I've a bad mood after getting the ticket, but I didn't wanna spoil the vacation mood. We continued our journey to Baan Rim Pa for a romantic dinner. The food was a bit overpriced but it has a very nice interior design and also facing the beach. Very romantic!


Butterfly shaped pineapples :)


We headed down to the famous Bang-la Road. The street was closed at night for peoples to walk along the street to see the night life of Patong. Here you can see many bar girls dancing on top of the tables while customers watching from below. Some salesman trying to sell us Agogo show, banana show, watermelon show, whatever show but we did not go.



On the third day, in the morning we went to Phuket Aquarium. The ticket price is 100THB per person. Not much things to see, most of them are just fish, no crabs, no prawns, no seashells and others.


Giant Garoupa


Singray


We can't stand the heat anymore and we went to the Central Festival for some air-con shopping and had our lunch there. Again. the sunshine was very harsh and the heat was unbearable so we went to Jungceylon shopping centre to cool down ourselves.

Posted by Evan | 10:43 PM | , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 comments »

31 May 2008



Offical Website

Let's have some history on the Statue of Liberty here. It was a gift presented by the French to the Americans in 1886 to commemorates the centennial of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence and also a gesture of friendship between France and USA.

It is one of the most visited place in USA. The statue is located at the Liberty Island at the south of Manhattan. There are also a many replicas of the statue on several states of America and elsewhere, such as France, China and Japan.

The Pedestal


You can take the subway to reach there, take the 1 train to the South Ferry station, 4 or 5 train to the Bowling Green station or R/W train to the Whitehall Street station. Once you have reached the station, walk to a garden, Battery Park. Tickets can be purchased at the Castle Clinton National Monument at the Battery Park. For more info click here.

I have paid $12 for the entrance fee, the fee schedules:

Ticket Prices Adults Seniors Children
Reserve or Flex

$12

$10

$ 5

with Audio Tour

$18

$16

$11

(children - 4-12; seniors 62+)

You can visit the museum gallery and pedestal observation levels with applying to the Monument Access Pass. This pass is very limited! It is strongly recommended that you reserve the pass online or queue up early. I have missed the chance so reserve it online without any charges!

This is the cruise to Liberty Island and Ellis Island


Boarding on the Statue Cruises Ferry to the Liberty Island from the South Ferry Port.


Why is the Statue Green? Originally, the Statue was actually made of copper. Copper undergoes oxidation and changed gold color to green color over time. Unlike steel, this green color thin layer of coating protects the metal underneath. This natural process is called patination


Korean War Memorial


After visiting the Statue of Liberty, take the ferry and depart to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. This place was once the entry point for immigrants entering the United States.


This is the first immigrant to the USA.


The Sphere - a metallic sculpture located at the Battery Park that once stood in the middle of Austin Tobin Plaza, the area between the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan. It was damaged during the September 11 tradegy.

Posted by Evan | 1:23 AM | , , , , , | 0 comments »