Sunday, August 29, 2010

Cameron Highlands - Last Day

Finally our holiday came to the end. Why all the happy moments have to pass very fast? Well I think that's life. Every moment that we enjoyed seems to fly just like that, but if there is time we hated and bored, the clock seems to stop moving. Menci!!

Back to my last day at CH, coz it doesn't finished yet.... we checked out from the hotel at 10am. We have such a great stay here so we took a memorial photos at the entrance.


Me with ZT


OMG... everybody was so excited. This was successfully snapped after more than 3 attemps!! Lenguh beb... Even not everyone floated in the air, I like this pic a lot. Meriah.


Bye-bye Strawberry Park Resort, see U next time!


Next, we stopped at Kasimanis Strawberry Park with a big hope to see a strawberry farm where we could carry a basket and plucked a fresh strawberries directly from its tree as much as we desired. Well it's only a dream as on the reality, all the plants were securely planted inside a cage and not in open field.

I had to selit2 my lense to take this photo tau..


I'm not sure about other places, but there were not much ripe strawberries here. It's more green appeared than red. Maybe blum musim.....probably. So honestly I was a bit dissapointed gak la.


See the strawberry behind the net at my back


This was the closest view my lens could take.. bravo!


Tomatoes also available here...


Cam-whoring never dies...


We didn't spent much time here... lgpun not much to see so after finished tour the park, we all went out..


Look at me, I was finishing the corn that I bought yesterday. Even it's already cold, but still juicy and sweet. Kak maz sampai ternganga, nak sikit ke?? (petanda dah lapar tu..)


All got hungry, we went for lunch at KFC, Brinchang town.

Finally acara yg ditunggu. Before we went down the hill back home, we stopped at the famous market located on the way back down to Simpang Pulai, near the Equatorial Hotel. From end to end of the road, stretches about a kilometers long you can find almost everything here from local farm products to souvenirs.

Facing the main road mostly are the souvenir stalls. Pillows, umbrellas, bags, key chains, candies, pickles, sweets, snacks, tea are among the products...


See, sampai Nor pun stress nak beli mana satu..


If you go further to inside part of the market, there are vegetable stalls selling potatoes, corns, strawberries, tomatoes and lots more!

Besides vegetables, there are also locally grown flowers like roses, dried flowers, colorfully grafted cactuses and potted plants available here.

Lihatlah hasil belian kami! Penuh dua2 tangan dgn beg plastik..


Tired and satisfied... we had a strawberry ice-cream for the last time while waited for others member finished their shopping.


Believe it or not.. almost 4pm baru we olss gerak from that market. Tu la dia perempuan kalau dah shopping, 4 jam x terasa apa!!

Funny eh nama restoran nie.... I took this photo ODW down to Simpang Pulai.


We reached home nearly at 8pm (coz ade singgah Tapah for rest), and the next day which was Monday almost all of us AL/EL to work.

Alhamdullilah we finally managed to start a holiday program with SWG and hopefully the xtvt doesn't stop here as I hope for more in future. As for now, this holiday will always be in my memory coz I enjoyed every days, every hours, every minutes, and every seconds of it....

Till then sweeties, thanks for reading.

-LOVELeen-

Friday, August 27, 2010

CH at Night - Part III

We finally checked in at Strawberry Park Resort at 6pm.
Took photo at the lobby while Abg Yus went to register.


We really had a short time to check on our room, unpacked our stuffs, took a quick break, pray and bath.

This is master bedroom. Fizah and hubby got a second bedroom while 3 of us (ZT, Nur and me) shared one single room. Another one single room to keep our luggage.


Tara... all dah siap for dinner right after Maghrib.


At living room. Lokasi utk acara BINGO malam nanti.


We went for dinner at restaurant nearby the Strawberry Park. Cant remember the name :P


Tp lauknya I tell you......... thumbs up! (Kak Maz kt sebelah tgh syok sendiri tgk gamba)


Dinner that night was under Fizah & hubby's treat! Murah rezeki....


Do I look macho? Jacket bought from Jenot who study at UK that time. (Now dh balik Malaysia dah...)


Next location...................

BRINCHANG NIGHT MARKET



This market available during Friday and Saturday night. It offers a wide variety of products. Apart from vegetables, fruits, flowers, souvenirs and clothes, the main attraction here is their great variety of local street foods. Other than the representative Cameron food like fresh strawberry stick with honey/chocolate cream, steamed sweet potato or sweet corn, fried sweet potato ball, fried fresh mushroom or vegetables, the night market also serves a lot of common foods like pancake, roasted chicken, fried chicken, ice-cream, cake, fried meat ball, Murtabak, Kebab and others. Although these foods are quite common in Malaysia night market, it become different when they are served in Cameron cold windy night.

Key-chains sampai rambang mata!


Fav Dato CT nie... Chocolate Dipped Strawberry


OK, I just knew this vegetable, KIMCHI when I came here. Sebutan ala2 Korean, probably originally from there however it available widely at this market. We got this "KIMCHI Goreng tepung" ala2 Fried Mushroom from one "kakak" yg suddenly baik hati sedekah kat Kak Maz and Trisya. Dia x habis agaknya. Sekali rasa, benda ni mmg sumpah SEDAP!


Back from dinner + market, everybody was so excited for the next xtvt, BINGO!
Bertempat di ruang tamu, all of us bersiap2 amik port masing2. All the stuff for the game (cups, papers, pens, and etc) already prepared by Kak Maz. Semangat!

Abg Yus with her assistant selaku tuan cabut nombor and juri pada hari itu.


Mari kita lihat sape yg kena!!!


Stress....2x.


Finally, kemuncak pada malam itu... for those who lost at each session will be punished.

Come and take a look senarai of THE LOOSERS!



1) ZT, the first biggest looser. Since she was our pioneer, she's quite lucky coz at that time we didn't use talc yet to spread at the face kasi horror sket, plastic bag pun still mulia lagi. So her photo turned out OK la...
2) 2nd session, just got the idea to add the talc+pasar malam plastic bag and our victim of course... 2nd looser, Kak Maz.
3) Terror ah mamat nie... susah mau kalah wo! Rasanya dia kalah nie kasi can sama Kak Maz bg puas hati. Diaorg mmg rival berdua.
4) Wifey kat sebelah, I think both of them berpakat. Skali mcm itu topi soljar Ali Baba Bujang Lapok da...
5) Erm.. nak komen x nak.. nak komen ke tak nak. Tp yg pasti tgk plastik kepala tu teringat topi yg P.Ramlee pakai time audition cite Seniman Bujang Lapok, yg dia pkai ngan misai tanglong tu.. Ingat x??
6) Haiya jgn kacau a... ini nyonya a.. kat salon o..mau buat lambot lo...

Puas main BINGO, we played card until midnite then slowly one by one went to bed.
So I stop my post here. Will continue on my last day at CH later. Thanks for reading. Cayunk!!!



Thursday, August 26, 2010

Cameron Highlands - Part II

Continued from last Entry on CAMERON HIGHLANDS - PART I

Finally we managed to get our lunch at Brinchang nearly at 4pm, of course all the lunch menu finished so we ordered the fried menu. I had a mushroom fried rice which was just ok.
Perut dah lapar balun je la.....

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5pm : Cactus Valley

After we had our lunch, we found out that we still have a few time left before dusk (which all the parks would be closed that time) so we decided to have another visit to one more place before check in. As per Zt's suggestion, we went to Cactus Valley.

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As per it's name, this place is a tourist attraction with numerous types of cactus on show. But its not just cactus that visitors can get to see here, there is also a whole lot of flowering plants to admire and a garden shop where visitors can purchase small plants or trinkets in the form of strawberry key-chains, among others.

Oh I forgot to tell you, there are actually a lot of choices for places like cactus valley, strawberry farm, butterfly park and etc... available at Cameron. Take Strawberry park as example, there's like more than 3 parks available so it's up to your choices. As for me all the places are more or less similar so I just go to which one nearer to my accommodation or any where that within my journey.

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We had lots and lots of photo-shoot here as the view was so superb and extraordinary beautiful. So in this post I hope U can enjoy some of the hundred photos that we took. I tell U its really worth to go there, especially for photographer who passionate the macro shooting of flowers and plants.

Rose among the thorns

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From up view

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Gambar syok sendiri

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Honestly I tell you, it has been a very tough job to choose the best photos among the hundred photos that we had took. All were prettily captured and I like it all, however I try to select the most unique one, different style and poses to post it here. Hope you like it, gambar2 perasan dari kami!

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Group photo

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So Sweet Group Bercanda di Cactus Valley

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"Cam-Whore"ing

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I tell U, banyakkan...? Rileks jap. Gosok2 mata. There're few more!!

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Honestly I like this photo very much! Me with "Kuch2 Hota Hai" pose smpai tertutup Fairul kat blkang. Sorry ek... :D

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I love this photo too.... Pemandangan mcm lukisan.

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Feel like throwing out anyone? If not then take a look of this.

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Wah masih tegar nampaknya kalian melihat foto2 saya ya. Amik nie my best shoot!

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Finally before exited to check in at our Hotel, we had the famous Strawberry Ice cream (Pegi Cameron wajib beli ok). Despite the cool weather, who could resist the temptation of sweet & sour tastes of the soft ice cream. Superb!! Honestly, mmg x cukup makan satu. (Tamaknya kiri kanan pegang eskrem)

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Finally finished my 2nd post on my Cameron Trip. Sorry if this post is full with photos coz like I tell you, I feel guilty to ignore all the photos. Trust me this is only 1/3 of the overall pictures taken. Being a lady, I know you all will understand. Till then, bye Sweeties!!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

SWG To Cameron Highlands (Part 1)

SO SWEET GRUP HAD ITS VACATION FOR THE VERY 1ST TIME!!! Believe it?? Idea came from Kak Maz who was very the "beria2" asking us to had a trip to Cameron Highlands. At first, I did'nt take the idea seriously (thinking of so far any SWG plans for vacation were never happened yet), but who ever expected that this time everyone got the approval from their spouse/parents. Hip-hip hooray!! So that was it, ahli rombongan terdiri daripada :
i) Kak Maz, hubby (Abg Yus) & Trisya
ii) Fizah & hubby (Fairul)
iii)ZT
iv) Nor
v) ME!!

I started searching online to find the interesting places that we wanted to visit beforehand. It was important to prepare at least a rough itinerary since we stayed for only one night so the time was quite limited and Cameron Highlands provides you with so much tourist attractions. Luckily we did'nt have to worry on the accommodation part as Abg Yus already booked the Strawberry Park Resort using his UMW privilege. We were gonna stay at the Shasta Apartment which comes with 3 big bedrooms, a smaller room and a living area. So convenience especially with Kak Maz plan to play BINGO at night as all of us stay in one house.
That's was one of her reason to have this trip. Weird huh, tp Kak Maz ttp semangat. Siap bawak all the BINGO thingy for our game that night.
Transportation for that day would be by car which Kak Maz and family with their own car while ZT, Nor and me together joined Fizah & hubby's car.


KL-Simpang Pulai, Perak (30/07/2010)
I started my day to ZT's house punctually at dawn where my sister sent me there and together we went to Fizah's house.
Cis kata suruh awal, sekali Fairul pun belum siap lagi. Tunggu laki bini tu bersiap kitaorg transfer our stuffs to Fairul's car.

This is the reason why we olss nak naik keta Fizah, besar and yg penting ade org bawak x perlu drive...

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We officially departed for the trip around 8am where Kak Maz also off from their house at the same time, picked up Nor who waited for us on the way and stopped for breakfast at R&R Sungai Buloh where we already promised to meet Kak Maz there.

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After breakfast (took an anti-dizzy/nausea pills as precaution), we continued our journey but then stopped once more at R&R Simpang Pulai for the toilet business. Starting from this point we all noticed one similarity between Nor and Abg Yus. Both were "toilet friendly". Sekejap2 nak terkucil... belum sampai tempat sejuk lagi tu.

Dah sampai perak mmg x sah kalau x beli jambu potong. Terbaek!!

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Three of us at the back... time nie still fresh coz belum start naik bukit lagi.

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There were actually two routes to Cameron either use a normal way by exit at Tapah so U will meet Tanah Rata first, climbing up the hill passes others few town then U reached Brinchang (main town of Cameron); or you can also get off at Simpang Pulai (another 20km from Tapah exit) straight to Brinchang.
I attached the map for much clearer view.

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As you can see on the map, even it's a long winding and narrow road, driving up to Cameron Highlands using Tapah exit has a pleasure in itself, as many interesting stops along the way can be made. You can take a short break at Lata Iskandar Waterfall, Orang Asli villages and more.

Guess which route we take? Of course exited at Simpang Pulai because the road was much wider which provides much safer, the curve were not too sharp so xde la pening or mual sgt and it's a new road. The route is sort of like coming to Cameron Highlands from the back door! Well it felt like it, but it was a lot more easier to drive.

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So far, even not as misery as if U're inside a floating boat but the nausea was still there. However the tense slowly faded once we went higher the hill as the atmosphere started to change. Off goes the air-conditioning and down come the car window. We had a fresh air, cool and showered our view with breathtaking panorama. The excitement arose and pull out all the dizzy-mingy feeling that we felt before. Alhamdullilah we made it to Cameron and the most important thing that there's nobody throwing up.

2pm : Sg Palas Boh Plantation

As per map, the first attraction would be Sg Palas Boh Plantation which located along the way to Brinchang so that was our first stop of the day. However once we drew nearer at the Equatorial Hotel, the traffic started to be congested. I think that was because of the souvenir shops and market that located along the road. Car slowed down to find a parking, some more the car space was quite limited so most of the people parked their car at the corner of the road that made it become more narrow. To make thing worse there were car which blocked other car so you can imagined how bad the situation was. We stuck in the traffic jam like more than an hour. Luckily it was cold and the fuel was still in the safe level. Wosshh........

And it was because of the traffic that we over-passed the junction to the Boh-Plantation. After made a U-turn, our adventure was not end here as we encountered the most challenging part of our journey. A good portion of the road to the plantation can only accommodate one vehicle at a time and is rather winding. My stomach shrunk everytime we encountered another vehicles from opposite direction. Imagine with only one vehicle can passed at one time, its either you bring your car closer to the hill side or closer to the cliff. There were few times I felt that the tyre was just few inches from the cliff. None of us seems to relax and I can bet that none of us had their asses comfortly on the seat. Fairul even tried to act relax, but I could see his "peluh jantan" ade kuar jugak tu. Anyhow, still kudos to Fairul as we safely reached there without any harm. (so dramatic)... hehehe

A greenery scene welcome us. It was like mind theraphy as suddenly we felt so calm and piece...

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I remember the last time I went here (back 10yrs ago I think), the place was still under construction. My friend's experience was worst since she had encountered a snake! Well, that was then... now it is totally a sight to behold. When I arrived at the newly renovated tea centre, it has now been transformed into an ultra modern setting. We parked our car at the foot of the hill (as ussual quick stop to the toilet first) and went up to the tea centre. There are 2 ways up, you can follow the road or you can use the path that cuts through the hill surrounded by greenery of tea bush plants. We opted for the path because of the soothing greenery and a chance to have a good close look at the tea leafs plus a few snapshots that was mandatory.

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As I made my way up, I could see that the new structure of the cafe was indeed quite impressive. At the far end a 6.096m (20ft) overhanging platform balcony was purposely set up and made protuding over the hilltop. It looks a little precarious but it did give a very commanding view of the tea plantation.

Finally we made it to the top!

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A very beautiful landscape where the tea trees are grown on the hills in rows. Wonderfull sight!

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The trooper... (in front of the tea centre)

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Me at the cafe balcony, enjoyed the view and snapped some of beautiful pictures.

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Dont worry if U dont get a chance to take a seat at the balcony(it will be very congested with visitors during peak season). Apart of that, the walls were just made entirely of glass windows, so you still can enjoy a nice view even inside the cafe like what I did here..

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Soaked in the relaxing athmosphere and enjoying the spectacular view at the same time while waiting for a nice cup of Boh tea with some savoury cakes... I can say HEAVEN!

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We already passed our lunch time, it was 3.30pm so tea and cakes did'nt seem to eliminate our hunger so after enough of photoshots, we went down back to car park (this time using a normal road) and proceed to find a restaurant at Brinchang. Bofore ended my post here, to be continued of course... i left you with my final photo at the tea plantation. Stay tuned....

CH3