Cameron Highlands

When was the last time i went up to Cameron Highlands? It should be about 5 years or more ago with Pheck Leng. We have a wonderful time there the other time, and have fond memories. I think another trip back that way should be good.

Date: 14 - 16 Dec 05
Tour Agency: Gunung Raya
Resort: Hotel Equatorial

Pheck Leng wanna take 2 days leave on 15-16 Dec 05. Since she is taking leave, might as well we take a short break outside of Singapore. We could have travel for longer period if not because of her rollerblade lesson on Saturday. Anyway, just have to make adjustment and take whatever is in store for us.

We started off at Golden Mile Complex on 14 Dec evening. We were there early(9:30pm) as advised and have to wait for the bus(at 10:30pm). The logistic for tour operators seems to be chaotic from the outside, or could be that is the environment they worked in. Anyway i board the bus around 10:30pm+ and leave Malaysia Custom around 11:30pm. A pretty good clearance at the 2nd link. We were tired and knocked off soon, until we are awoke at Air Hitam resting area. We have to change coach as current coach have problem with its breaking system to go up Cameroon Highland. We just dragged our heavy legs and half-closed eyes onto another bus. I think we ended up at the right buses. Soon, we proceed with the journey.

According to my occassional shutting of the eye lips i realised we make two stops to drop folks along the way, one at KL infront of Ancasa(the hotel i stayed during March KL Marathon). My back(spine) is hurting on the journey, i guess that soft spot whereby there are a hollow is not able to support for long period. I remember i used clothes rolled up and put it underneath the spine to support it previously...haha...long time didnt take coach, couldnt recall to prepare for it. Anyway will do that on the return journey.

Finally the figure of 8 or snakes up the mountain. It should be fun running up from the bottom to the top? Dont think i can make it lah....at least at current injury prone status. We reach the city central around 8am i think. We went downstair to "test" out the cold weather. It was shiok & cold The local tour operator board the bus and give us a short briefing and advise us on the mini tour packages available. We signed up for the Agro Tour Package which start at 3pm till 8pm. Next stop Equatorial Hotel.



Reach hotel around 9am, tried to check in unfortunately the room was not ready until 3pm. The plan is to take a nap,laze, read book in the room for the day until we are ready for the tour. Alas have to change plan leow.

I take the opporunity to recee the hotel, indoor swimming pool is small- Not even 10metre at the longest, water isnt very clear. Wonder why did i bring my swim wear for? . Gym is okay, more on cardio than weights from the looks at the equipments available. Still doable. Running in the hotel premises wasnt a great idea, as distance is short.

Look at the mist behind and you will realised it is pretty cold, especially when the wind blows.



We "slow jog" outside as we venture out of the hotel down the street where i spotted Rose Garden about 100 meters from the hotel when the coach bring us up a while back. Quite a handful of stores are open for business. We are hungry, since we didnt have breakfast and go straight to a kopitiam shop and have mee goreng, mee soup & 2 cups of HOT tea. We walk/see/eat around Rose Garden for about 1 hr before we went back to the Hotel.

We sat at the hotel lobby, reading books and listen to MP3 while killing time. We checked into hotel room at 2:30pm.



Argo tour starts at 3pm, we visited Catcus farm, traditional farming, organic farming, strawberry farming, flower farming and ended with a dinner at the Chinese restaurant.



The logisitc of the tour operator is pretty poor, as we keep changing our coach and even table during dinner session. It was a mess. After dinner, they sent us to the Pasar Malam instead of the hotel. It was intended as we get a chance to walk/eat/shop abit in the evening.


We took the transport at 9:30pm back to the hotel. It was a long day, wasnt as great as we hope, but nevertheless we do enjoy our activities today.

I brought along my jogging stuffs, but didnt have the chance to use it. The hotel premises isnt a good place to run. Running outside of the hotel is okay, except it is hill training, and the danger of get run over by car is high. Another thing that bug me is my knee, i might not be able to run far, what happen if you ran too far down and not able to run up again? All this just doesnt give me the confident to make the run. At the end i just woke up later and enjoy the additional rest.

After breakfast we waited for a long while for the bus. Instead of 10am, the bus arrived around 10:30am. The bus is more spacious that the one we took from Singapore and we enjoy the additional leg space. We knocked off soon after the bus moved off.

It took a long time(about 1hr+) to come down from Cameron highlands. The next thing i knew we are already at one of the R&R along the NS highway around noon time. I came down the tour bus and realised my "old" injury is actually hurting me. Ayoh, i didnt do anything strenous and my knee hurts as though it have gone through some kind of siong exercise. I just sleep on the chair and the leg was also fully straighten. Why did my leg hurts like that?

This R&R is pretty good, not like those typical R&R. This one have dunkin donut and baskin ice cream stall. I guess it is somewhere between KL and Ipoh. We have our lunch of donuts there. We rest for a while, before i take on the journey back home. We stop over at Air hitam again and leave around 6pm. We reach Malaysia Custom at 7pm+. Have a traffic jam at Singapore Custom and leave the custom around 8pm. Finally reach Golden Mile complex around 8:30pm.

A good trip as a whole, could have been better with good logistics.

Photos are available at here