Cameron Highlands

My trip to Cameron Highlands was not planned by me and I did not pay for the trip. I can only give limited experience based on the place that I have been. I will update with more details and places on Cameron Highlands if I plan for a trip there. The plan of our 2 day trip is as follow:

Saturday:
7 am - Depart from Penang
Around 11 - Reached Rose Apartment in Cameron Highlands and check in.
Lunch and sightweeing at nearby market.
Visit to Rose Centre nearby the Rose apartment.
Visit to Big Red Strawberry Farm and some kind of cactus thing which is in the same area (Taman Agro Tourism).
Walk around and buy food for steamboat dinner in Pasar Malam Brinchang.
Back to apartment for steamboat dinner.
9 pm - sleep

Sunday:
Breakfast
Visit to BOH Tea Center and breakfast there.
Visit to Bee Farm.
Visit to EQ Strawberry farm.
Lavender Garden.
Lunch.
Back to Penang.

Access
We went to Cameron Highlands by car from Penang. The directions to Cameron Highlands from Penang (or other places such as KL) is easy by just following the signs on the highway. Then there will be a big sign which tells you to turn into Cameron Highlands.

This is not the end of the journey as you still need to drive through a winding road for about 1 hour before reaching the towns of Cameron Highlands.

Transport
Our transport in Cameron Highlands is by car and I believe that is the only available transport around in Cameron Highlands. Throughout the journey I have never seen any public bus or taxi's available. They might be around but will not be convenient as the places of attraction are everywhere. It is recommended to only go there and navigate around by car.


Accomodation
We stayed at a rented penthouse unit in Rose Apartment. For large groups it is actually a good place to stay. The interiors are clean. There are 4 bedrooms and 2 toilets. There is also a kitchen with all the utensils where you can cook your own food from the stuff bought at the markets.

Climate
Its been raining on and off the two days we were there. Although just drizzling, I have heard from other friends that it was also raining when they were there. So it's best to ready an umbrella just in case. Most of the time you wont get wet even without an umbrella. Its very cool during the morning and during the night. When we first step into the apartment, the floor was so cold that we had to wear in-house slippers around the house. The slippers were also provided by the house owner. When outdoor, its cool in the morning but when it reaches noon about 11am or so, it gets warm and we had to take off our jacket/sweater.


Food

Comparing to Penang, the food in Cameron Highlands are more expensive if you eat in restaurants or cofee shops. There are very few restaurants and coffee shops around. So if you are hungry, you better eat whatever you can find. On the other hand, street foods are plenty and widely available. Most of the things sold there are similar which are mainly vegetables, corn, fried foods, strawberries, vegetable, vegetables and vegetables. The vegetables and strawberries are cheap. After all most people go to Cameron Highlands for the starwberries. We bought some vegetables from the market and had steamboat for dinner.

Strawberry coffee: They have so much strawberries that they dont know what to do and dump it in your coffee. Something you dont find often. Taste like strawberry and coffe. Nothing unique.

They also have bee farms and some places sell honey. Not sure if it is something famous and special in Cameron Highlands but in the markets, there is a stall selling honey comb. Tried it and the honey is quite sweet while the honey comb I chew it for about 1 hour before giving up and spit it out like eating chewing gum.

Places of interest

If you expect fun, games and adventure from Cameron Highlands then you will be disappointed. It is nothing like Genting Highlands but is only a vegetable town. If you are a vegetable lover Im sure this will be heaven for you. If you love flowers, vegetables and sightseeing then you will also love this place. People also come here for its cool weather which I also think is a great place to cool down. I have not been to all the places in Cameron Highlands and think that there are better places which I have not been. After all there are more than 10 strawberry farms in Cameron Highlands and I have not been to all to compare them. I can only talk about places I have been.

Rose Centre
The Rose Centre is the first place we stopped. It is less than 5 minutes drive away from where we stayed. Entrance is about RM3 or RM5 and there is parking space provided for free. I was not impressed when I first entered. I was expecting it to be a place filled with millions of roses that I will lose my way in the "rose jungle". However what I saw was a place filled with million of leaves with a few spots of flowers here and there. Unfortunately, it was not possible to take beautiful pictures to make the place look like a paradise.

Entrance of Rose Centre

Some random statues to make the place looks like it is not a jungle.

Then I realized that I can get some beautiful pictures of the place by just taking close up pictures and make it look like there are millions of flowers compared to the leaves.

At the end of the trail, there is this "cave". The Rose Centre gets more interesting after exiting this cave. By entering the cave, it brings you to a higher ground and the Rose Centre is actually quite large. More flower varieties are available at higher grounds and they dont look like a million leaves anymore. After walking through many flowers, then there is this trail which will lead to the end of the Rose Centre after you hike up the hill.

Notice the white trail which leads up to the hill

Some other pictures I took along the way up.

The sunflower is as big as my face

So this is how a cabbage looks like. I never knew there are outer leaves protecting cabbage as the cabbage we see in the market doesnt have the dark green leaves.

Overall, the Rose Centre is not as bad as the first impression when I entered. Although not a fan of flower, I had a relaxing time walking all the way to the end and looking at the flowers. The actual variety of flowers are much much more than the pictures I took.

Taman Agro Tourism (Big Red Strawberry Farm and Cactus thing)
This is in Brinchang Pasar Malam area which we visit after this. Along the main road you will see a blur label writing "Tapak Pasar Malam Brinchang". It is quite invisible as it is only made of steel and the words are kinda faded. This is the place where they have the night market and sell all sorts of street food including vegetables.

Tapak Pasar Malam Brinchang. It is not the building but the thin steel structure in the picture. It is quite invisible.

To get to the Taman Agro Tourism, turn into the road and drive few hundred meters. Then there will be a sign showing you the way to the place. When you turn in, it leads to a narrow road up the hill and then you will reach the place which has free parking in front of the entrance. Strawberries are not the only attraction there and the strawberries doesnt actually feel like an attraction to me. The strawberry plant doesnt look attractive and there are so little strawberries on each plant. They have a cafeteria which sells like 40 different strawberry items such as strawberry cake, strawberry pie, strawberry waffle, strawberry whatever that you can put strawberry on it. You can also pick your own strawberry from the plant for RM25 per basket. Then inside there are cactus farm and they also sell cactus there. There are lots of variety of cactus there which are quite interesting.

The Big Strawberry at the entrance

Grape lining the top making a shade

40 different strawberry menus on the cafeteria

BOH Tea Centre
The next morning we went to the BOH Tea Centre. This is where they plant and harvest the tea. We were here for the breakfast and there are quite a number of people here for breakfast too. The main reason is for the breath taking view of the tea plantation. The prices of the food are not cheap but I guess the food is not the main attraction. The direction to BOH Tea Centre is easy because there are many directions on the road guiding you there. But when you start going up the hill to the tea centre, the road is very narrow and is used for two ways. The drive also have very sharp corners where you cannot see if there are any cars coming from the other direction. So you have drive very carefully up the hill. 

When reach the tea centre and parking, the sign showing you the way to the tea centre.

After parking, need to hike up the hill to get to the tea centre.

Entrance of the BOH tea centre.

Many people lining up at the cafeteria of the tea centre for breakfast.

The aneh doing BOH tea tarik. Got the nice BOH tea smell and teh tarik.

Many delicious food for sale.

More delicious food

Display of the tea machine.

History of BOH tea in display along the place.

Tour of the tea plantation.

There's nothing much to do at the BOH tea centre. The main highlight of the place is the breath taking view of the tea plantation. Then you can also join the tour to understand more bout BOH tea and how it is process if you are a tea lover. A great way to enjoy life having breakfast at the top of the hill looking out towards the hill of teas.


Bee farm
After BOH tea centre, we visited a bee farm selling all sorts of bee products. It is located just below of the BOH tea centre. WHen you drive down from the BOH tea centre, somewhere along the main road you will notice the big Bee farm. In the bee farm, you get to buy honey and stuff like that for cheaper price because they produce it there. And then you can also visit the bee hive and there is a bee maze for you to explore. The maze is claim to be biggest hive maze in Malaysia!!

Bee farm! Can be notice easily at the main road.

Different levels to the hive maze and bee farm.

The largest hive maze in Malaysia!

I didnt get to enter the hive maze because it was closed. Not sure if we were there too early or closed on that day. We visited the bee farm and there are alot of bees flying around their hive. A bit disappointing because I thought the hive was like seen on cartoons and televisions. The round hive where it hang on the tree and fall down alot of bees will fly out. But in the bee farm, it is a box and the hive is inside the box.

Many bee hive in the box.

Many bees around the bee hive.

The bee farm is a good place to visit especially if you also plan to get some natural honey. Other than honey, they sell other products such as royal jelly honey, etc. The bee farm was a short but interesting tour to see how bee hive are managed. Im sure the hive maze will also be an interesting place. Unfortunately I didnt manage to enter.


EQ Strawberry Farm
If your intention is not to pick strawberries, then dont waste your time here. We didnt pick strawberries so there really nothing for us to do. There were a few shops selling stuff and then the strawberry farm which you cannot enter unless you pay to pick strawberries. However I do notice that the plants have more strawberries compared to the Big Red Strawberry Farm. For strawberry picking experience this might be a good place. It is just a couple of drive away from the bee farm.

Entrance of the EQ Strawberry Farm

More strawberries available for picking

Lavender Garden
This is the last place that we went to and there were lots of people here. The place are decorated very nicely and can be seen even at the entrance with the big strawberries. It is easy to locate this place since the front is flashy and located along the main road up to Cameron Highlands. You will never miss this place since there is only 1 road up to Cameron Highlands unless you drive with your eyes close or sleeping.

Entrance of the Lavender Garden

Posing backside for the camera

Inside, they have many kinds of lavender there and many kinda of flowers. Among the places that I have visited in this trip, the Lavender Garden is the most beautifully decorated place with many flowers growing. Here is actually the total opposite of the Rose Centre. The Rose Centre has million of leaves with few spots of flower while the Lavender Garden has millions of flowers with few spots of leaves. However both have different concepts and I enjoyed both places. There are also strawberry farm at the top but compared to the EQ Strawberry Farm, the strawnberries are less. The only thing that spoil the whole place are the millions of steel pillars within the flowers. The steel pillars make it almost impossible to take good pictures of the place. Even the flower scenary looks crappy with so many pillars around.

This bright purple flower is Mona Lavender

This boring looking plant is Lavender.

The colourful flowers from top down. Notice the ugly looking pillars spoiling the picture.

Flower garden at the top. Notice the ugly looking pillars spoiling the picture.

The strawberry farm. Notice the ugly looking pillars spoiling the picture.

Small castle house at the top.

That is all I have for the trip to Cameron Highlands. There are many more places in Cameron Highlands to visit and so far I have only covered a few main attractions like the Rose Centre, BOH tea centre and Lavender Garden.