Meanwhile we hold up in the apartment and watch some Astro.
Our next stop is to be at water crest restaurant. Will see how the weather holds out.
So wet in Cameron Highlands!
The trip was particularly tiring for me and I think I caught a chill from all the rain. Now not only feeling the after effects of tiredness (with body ache and especially my neck ache from the very long drive home), but I think I caught a slight mild flu.
Going to Cameron Highlands
Looks like many people is planning to go Cameron Highlands in the upcoming super long weekend! With the Malaysian holidays and school breaks around the corner it is sure going to be a nice crowd up there.
My parents did a good planning and went up last weekend. Hope they had a good time.
As for me, with so many busy things to do, I doubt I will be going up to Cameron Highlands anytime soon. Missed the opportunity to tag along with the Church seniors who stayed in OMH which I think stands for Overseas Mission House. It seems it is a nice bungalow reserved only for Church workers only.
I wanted to show them around CH, but I guess and of course try out the bungalow. I guess I will just have to wait till another time, if God willing. Anyway, they had a good time at the Highlands Restaurant charcoal steamboat with that tall signature funnel. They thoroughly enjoyed it but wondered how they are going to fit in the entire cell members when they go up there again. I didn’t have the restaurant number so won’t be able to help them to make the booking.
Well, I didn’t think of making a Malaysian food blog for my website at that time when I visited Highlands Restaurant. Well will just have to wait another time to collect the name card and update the web page.
Church Camp @ Genting Highlands
This time round my church will be organizing a church at Genting View apartments in Genting Highlands instead of Cameron Highlands. I think it is a good thing too considering the logistic matter of ferrying the various equipment while just staying for one night only. So Genting Highlands is a good choice since it takes approximately one hour drive from KL.
But my wife wanted a longer break, and taking a Friday off was a good idea. Considered as non-peak, the rates were cheaper at Awana Genting Highlands. If we were to stay on for Sunday night the hotel rate would double!
For additional cost savings we borrowed a Genting World card and booked online and saved off about RM30. Not bad, not bad. Would be looking forward for this break. Looks like this will be a first for my baby. His first highlands trip! I’m sure he would enjoy himself too being such an inquisitive little toddler!
Enjoy yourselves this coming long holiday break!
Camerons here we come!
Heard it will be cold this time right round. The Cameron Highlands’s weather is rather wet this time round and there was some landslide with some fatalities. Hopefully by the time we make our way there it will be normalize. Still the weather is rather unpredictable.
I’m making the trip during ramadhan in the hope that it will be low peak so can avoid the holiday crowd. I should think so too judging from the reduced website traffic. Less searches could well mean less tourist during this fasting month.
There is a super long holiday during Hari Raya and Merdeka day combine during the end month of August. Could be crowded then again most people would want to ‘balik kampung’ to be with family. Still it is hard to say whether it will be a superpeak crowd as some may still want to holiday as an alternative to returning to their hometown.
And of course collect info to update the Cameron Highlands Destination website too.
Bon voyage!
Heritage Hotel view from Greenhill Apartment
Here’s a nice view of Heritage Hotel from Greenhill Apartment. Due to lack of available rooms in hotel from the Heritage Vacation Club, we had to shift to Greenhill Apartment the next day to house a large number of family members.
Actually could have avoided all this hassle but due to miscommunication from my wife and my dad and the Heritage Vacation Club, the bookings became a mess. So no choice, wasted a night’s stay of the Vacation Club points plus the hassle of having to shift all the luggage from hotel to apartment.
Well you, whenever a family group travel, and now with baby, the sheer number of items to bring for a trip is quite a bundle.
Anyway, this apartment got a nice view despite having to port all the stuffs 3 floors up! Fortunately many hands make work light.
Now the sky is getting balmy and slight drizzle, so our outdoor activities to the various attractions in Cameron Highlands may be hampered somewhat. Anyway, time for lunch soon, but first feed baby and then off we go!
Raining in Camerons
What a wet trip to Cameron Highlands. It was raining pretty frequent making the weather rather cold. I think tonight the temperature would easily hit 16 degrees Celcius.
Fortunately there were breaks in the raining pattern and we still managed to go some places like the Sg Palas Boh Tea Plantation.
Tonight we will go for dinner at Jasmine Cafe House. My wife said she ate there before. Could be, but I don’t recalled with her. So this time will see after we try some of the house specialities.
Would be good to meet up with old friend and have a good time.
Meanwhile it was just plain wet here in Cameron Highlands.
Contacts already provided, please do your own legwork
Really how difficult it is to just pick up the telephone and dial the numbers on my Cameron Highlands website? I have already done all the tedious legwork of running around up there in Cameron Highlands sacrificing my leisure time (although I do enjoy the romp) to collect the accommodation contacts and then compiling it and posting it onto my website.
Take for instance the homestays contacts in Taman Sedia. I walked the entire neighbourhood noting down the owner’s contact and telephone numbers listed in front of their houses. It took me an entire afternoon to do it. I don’t have the time to knock at each homestay owner’s door and then do further interviews like whether you got Astro, email account, can speak English or not, hot shower, room condition, how much to it cost to stay, got cats and pets or not, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah
Hello? I may know a lot of things about Cameron Highlands but I’m no walking encyclopaedia. Best way to find out is to pick up that telephone next to your desk or use your handy-dandy mobile phone, dial the number and find out from the horses’ mouth!
Easy, yes?
Kalai Villa Apartment in Cameron Highlands
I wouldn’t consider Kalai Villa Apartment in Cameron Highlands as an apartment accommodation. It is actually a house located in the Jalan Mentigi area in Tanah Rata. Perhaps it should have been called a bungalow as that would fit the bill!
Driving up from the long cemented road up to the bungalow house porch, I met up with Ms Amutha. She was very cordial when I explained about my travel destination website and would like to showcase her place. It was slow weekend and there weren’t any guests, so I got a chance to view the rooms.
The Accommodation
The Kalai Villa Apartment is a two storey bungalow house located on a hillock by the side of Jalan Mentigi. It has a nice vantage point and I could see 8 Mentigi Guesthouse as well as KRS Pines located on another higher hill across from where we were.
The upper first floor is where the guests will stay as the ground floor is where Ms Amutha and the family live. Yep, this is their house and they have decided to open up their house for lodging and accommodation. The accommodation consist of 4 bedrooms with furnished with King Size bed, 3 bathrooms with hot shower, a kitchen facility where you can cook simple meals and perhaps even do the ever popular steamboat meal, a living hall with Astro so you can while away those lonely nights! Don’t forget they got a Mahjong table for those Mahjong “kaki” who can play till the wee hours of the night! However you need to check with her whether the Mahjong set is provided or you have to bring your own as I forgot to ask.
The apartment is rented out in its entirety, ie not individual rooms, anyway most people who are looking for apartments accommodation wants to maximize their stay and usually come in a group. So far she has been doing pretty well renting out here apartment to visitors coming to Cameron Highlands. It seems her bungalow apartment is very popular with the Singaporeans and Hong Kong tourists.
Now what makes her place different is that this is actually a bungalow house, not an apartment as per her title branding. Being a bungalow she got a big compound for children to run around and play. On top of that she is also doing some minor vegetable planting at the side of her house, plus you get to see hens and rooster in a chicken coup. Now that would be a good experience for city slicker kids who has never experience what is like to be in a “kampong” house!
Some background notes
Chatting up with her, I found out that she used to run a tadika in the house, but decided to change to renting it out as apartment instead. Well kids can be quite a handful to handle. It is a good choice for her, and now visitors like you can get to experience a bit of homestay style accommodation!
A further note, her father runs a “kedai runcit” in Tanah Rata; the sundry shop is called Ettikar Sundry Shop. If you want to help her out further, you could go shop for supplies over there.
So if you think this bungalow in Tanah Rata Mentigi area fits your idea, do contact her for inquiries and further details.
Kalai Villa Apartment
No. 11, Jalan Mentigi,
39000 Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands,
Pahang Darul Makmur
Attn: Ms Amutha Krishnan
Mobile: 012-506 7507
Hotels in Brinchang Point, Cameron Highlands
Staying at hotels in Brinchang Point has some advantages as opposed to staying near the main street of Brinchang. Beside, this area is considered quite new so many of the accommodations here fairly newly set up except Kavy Hotel which previously was located in Tanah Rata.
Brinchang Point is located away from the main street, to find the place just turn in from the road between Star Regency and the Surau and the first hotel you would see is the boutique hotel Kavy. I should think Kavy did pretty well in Tanah Rata and now having shifted here, they did a nice job decorating their lodging with a Tudor theme. Even the interior looked great and rather cozy. From Kavy Hotel, you could either continue along the road, or take a left where you find more budget hotels.
Choosing to stay in Brinchang Point, being away from the main street means you get less noise from the main traffic on the main road. In addition, there are several interesting restaurants here without walking too far away. Of course don’t be too lazy, the weather in Cameron Highlands is great to walkabout, so do explore more of Brinchang and don’t hole up in Brinchang Point!
The Brinchang Night Market is just around the corner (unless they have shifted over to Tanah Rata, will need to check it out the next time I head up to CH), so you can have a gala time doing your night marketing activities.
If you like strawberries, then head down the road to the Big Red Strawberry Farm. And beside the farm, there is also Cactus Valley where you can purchase various potted plants and of course if you are itching for some Bak Kut Teh, you can find the restaurant serving them up at the foothill here before you head up to the Big Red Strawberry Farm café for some delicious strawberry desserts!
If you are too lazy to walk so far, there is always the Strawberry Moments cake house. Take your pick of the many mouth watering cakes and wash it all down with some Strawberry shakes. After having your fill, you can hop over to their shop next door and buy some Strawberry souvenirs to take home with you! And yes, Strawberry Moments is related to Green View Garden located along the Simpang Pulai – Kampung Raja – Gua Musang road.
So which are the hotels in Brinchang Point? Here you go:
- Cameron High Inn Hotel
- Flora De Cottage Hotel
- Golden Night Hotel
- Kavy Hotel
- Papillon Inn
- Ria Cameron Hotel and Apartment
- Tudor Home Inn Hotel
I think that should be all of it. If I missed out any hotels in Brinchang Point, let me know!