Trip to Cameron

     Just did a short vacation trip to Cameron lately with my family. It was  a fruitful trip, not in terms of returning with another luggage full of shoppings, but rather all the members returned recharged. Though we had a very hectic schedule, as the trip was just a 3 days 2 nights event, with almost 2 entire day spent on the road.  However, it was fulfilling as the traveling group were of the same mindset to optimise the one and a half day spent on Cameron itself. Enclosed a recap of some of the sites we had visited.

    We started off the trip from Singapore check point at almost 8am and having just stopped for restroom breaks only every 2-3 hourly. The journey took us about 10 hours (Including a breakfast and a lunch stop for about 30 mins to an hour each). It was about 6.30pm when we reached Cameron, having taken the old route which did not turn out to be too challenging (At least no one threw up) , as we were fortunate to have an experienced driver that managed to make the winding route tolerable.  We had a quick steamboat dinner at one of the restaurant and the group scurried off for night marketing (Pasar Malam in local context).  We only managed to check in hotel past 10pm for the first day at Heritage Hotel. 

    On the second day, we were greeted by the fresh cold air (About 19-20 degrees celscius) and a beautiful mountainous view.

    We set off about 9am after a horrendous  breakfast in the hotel (Which turned out to be a war zone for food supplies), then headed off for the rose garden plantation.

Cameron : Lady's Heels

    One of the interesting flower we encountered was the "Lady's Heels" (Picture below). It's a cluster of red and yellow flower hanging down the vines. One could barely relate the flower to a pair of heels. However, when it's plucked and layed down, we  saw the resemblance. Don't they look like a pair of dainty heels?



After the flower plantation, we had to give the butterfly park and the vegetable plantation a miss, as one of the group member strongly recommended visiting the Boh Tea plantation, and we eventually understood the reason for change. We had to jam pack into a smaller bus, and went through a bumpy winding route which lasted about 15 minutes from the  flower plantation, and were finally rewarded with a picturesque view of neat clusters of tea plantations all around us!

We were told that there are several tea plantations residing on Cameron. However, Boh Tea was the oldest and most established plantation at Cameron. Thus, it was highly recommended to us, and indeed it was worth the visit.





We were puzzled for a long while, and someone eventually popped the question "Why is it that we do not see anyone picking the tea leaves?" Indeed the only people we saw treking through the plantations were visitors. Subsequently  we learnt from the Boh tea production showcase and exhibits that processes have been semi automated. Tea harvesting on gentle/flat terrains have been improved using machines, and even fertilizing has been sped up with the help of planes.  Wow talk about technology, agriculture has indeed changed!

Well, so much for the tea plantations, we then headed for the strawberry farms. Unfortunately, we had a hurried stop at the plantation enjoying the strawberry picking, as the farm was closing just as we arrived. However, the children and I had a great time running up and down the slopes picking the organically grown fresh strawberries. Well, they didn't really turn out sweet like the  Korean Ginseng strawberries, but anything that's self picked definitely tasted good.

On the last day, we stopped over at a waterfall to take some snapshots before heading for KL then home. The little ones were delighted to see a real natural waterfall, and definitely any opportunities to alight from the bus to enjoy the cold air is appreciated.

Unfortunately , we did not bring a good camera and had to give some of the sites a miss due to the limited time. However, Cameron is definitely a very refreshing location to plan for a holiday, something different from the usual commercialized holiday sites,  a good and educational change for the little ones.

Who says there's nothing to do on Cameron? Ha !