Ascend Up to Cameron Highlands (Continue)
After travelling some time up the scenic windy roads, you will reach this sign board before a fork road.To go to Cameron Highlands, take the right road.
The town that we are going to is Brinchang.
Take the left and you will end up on the Gua Musang road, away from Cameron Highlands.
Lost
After we took the right turn and travelled in a convoy, it started to drizzle.
I don't know what to expect of the Cameron weather, so I stopped to put on my rain coat.
By the time I have finished, the convoy had already passed by me. I figured I could catch up as the convoy wasn't pressing at a fast pace.
After I rode alone for some time, the convoy was still not in sight. Then I reached another fork road. It says Left to Brinchang and Right to Raja. At that time, I didn't know that the convoy was heading towards Brinchang. So I stood at the fork and faced a tough decision.
Do I take a gamble and take one of the turn? But what if I guess wrongly?
Or do I wait at the fork and hopefully the convoy would discover that I was lost?
Even though I had never won a single 4D or a single lucky draw for all the numerous diner and dance that I had to go, I decided to take a gamble. I took the left turn, which turned out to be the correct guess.
I rode and rode for at least 15min. I passed by more towns. But the convoy was still nowhere in sight. I started to panick. So I stopped to ask the local people along the road, "Have you seen a group of motorcycles pass by?" I was sure people who not fail to notice a convoy of 10 over big bikes right? If the answer is Yes, then I'm on the right track. If the answer is no, then I must have taken the wrong turn at the earlier fork.
I asked someone at a posh hotel called Hotel Equatorial, thinking that Simon must have booked us into this nice looking hotel. The person I asked replied he didn't notice. Like that how?
I decided this guy is blur. Exited the hotel and rode further down. Stopped by the bus stop and ask this girl there. Even though she looked blur, she replied "Yes". I was ecstatic, so I proceed along the same direction.
As I rode and rode for another 15min, I still see no convoy in sight. Could the convoy have turned off the main road and into one of the buildings or hotels? Or the girl was too shocked seeing a man in a full face helmet and armoured jacket riding a big motorcycle and anyhow reply. Doubt start to creep in.
I then asked the next local. Answer is "Didn't see". Har? Contradicting answer with what the girl say. So the score is now 1-1. So I asked the next local. "Don't know". Is this 2-1? Or no count. Die lah like that.
Then I asked the next local, where does Singaporeans like to stay in at Cameron? The answer is Rosa.
So I turned into this Rosa Hotel. It's quite tall and nice looking. But there is no sight of the convoy. Worse, I cancelled my handphone's autoroam some time ago.
I jumped off my bike and asked the hotel manager at the conceige for help. I asked to borrow the phone to make an international call. The hotel manager is very helpful but he said must pay and the phone rate is expensive. I said never mind.
I called this Simon and thank goodness he picked up my phone. He doesn't sound surprise to hear me. He told me to proceed along the same direction as before and I will see a Super4 by BBernar.
I asked for the hotel's name that they were in. Simon said he doesn't know the hotel name. How can this be?
The phone bill for this short call came to 7 ringgit. I paid the hotel manager and said don't need receipt and moved off.
As I rode out for another 5 min, I still see no Super4 in sight. Could Simon misunderstood where I was and given me the wrong direction?
Before I start to panic and have to make another call, I saw BBernar's Super4 and he waved me in. I suddenly feel like I'm in a movie that I am shipwrecked on an island and suddenly see a plane passed by. I am saved at last!
Accomodations
Having been to Hotel Equatorial and Rasa Hotel, I would not really describe the place that we are going to stay in as posh. This is what it looks like.They are apartments, like mini-condos in Singapore. Each unit has 3 bedrooms. You can sleep 2 person per bedroom. There is a hall with TV, with channels like our SCV. There is a dinning table and a kitchen. There are 2 toilets.
Most importantly, there is hot water shower that really work, in both toilets. Without this, I think it's quite hard to shower in Cameron Highlands unless you are those type that will do diving in winters and under the ice cap.
This is a view of the living room in our apartment. There is a balcony.
The sofa is to be my bed as well at night.
But I have no problems falling asleep on it.
Maybe it's because I am those type that the airplane haven't takeoff I already fall asleep. zzzzzz.
The accomodation may not be posh but sufficient. In exchange, the price is cheaper. I pay for S$30 per night. It doesn't seem that cheap when converted to ringgit. But wait till you hear the rates for Rosa and Equatorial. They are like 200 ringgit per night and they can be quite full.
Now I understand why Simon cannot tell me the name of this apartment. Because until now, I also don't know. There is no sign anywhere that says the name of this place. The owner has a rather unique marketing style.
Map of Cameron Highlands
Out of the misfortune of getting lost, I got to better learn the structure of Cameron Highlands the hard way. I also gotten a mini-map from the Rosa Hotel brochure.Cameron Highlands consist of a few towns strung together by by only one main road.
After the first fork road (Gua Musang, Brinchang), is the Kg Raja town. Followed by the Brinchang town, which is where most of the tourist activities and the only petrol kiosks there are. After that is the town called Tanah Rata.
I think our apartment is located somewhere near the place marked as Smoke House.
First Day Activities
Simon brought us to this Strawberry farm.
I learnt for the first time that strawberry does not grow on trees. It is a crawler. So the fruit just lies on the floor.
This is what the strawberry farm looked like.
The thing that interest everyone the most there is not the strawberries. It's the ice cream or more accurately, icycle pops. Pin pang. Sng Bao.
It caught our attention because there is this Indian man standing in a shop selling souvenirs rambling something like "Ice Kleam Ice Kleam, Satu Satu Ringgit, blah blah, Ice Kleam Ice Kleam, Satu Satu Ringgit".
It's quite cheap. Only 1 ringgit per stick. It sounds crazy. Why would we eat a cold ice cream in an already cold place?
As illogical the idea is, one by one we bought. It has strawberry and sour plum flavour. And it is rather delicious. In no time, everyone was having a stick in their mouth.
I bought 2 bottles of strawberry jam. There are samples for tasting. I find the taste quite nice. I also bought one bottle of dried strawberry. Altogether it cost 20 ringgit.
After the strawberry farm, we went to a Bee farm. In cameron, there are plenty of farms.
I imagined that I will see plenty of bees flying around and perhaps clustering all over the body of one of the bee farmers. But I was disappointed. The bee farm has many boxes, the size of a shoe box, resting on top of a stick. I think the bees stay inside these boxes. I saw a few bees flying around. But if you don't tell me this is a bee farm, I wouldn't have guess it.
Strangely, the bee boxes are not further enclosed in some net or green house. They are simply left in the open. Wouldn't the bee farm owners be afraid the bees will sting the tourists? Wouldn't the tourists be afraid they will get sting and they still go?
If this is Singapore, surely the bees will be kept enclosed. If not wait someone write letter to ST forum to complain.
At the bee farm, they sell honey to tourists. I was advised to buy honey and honey comb at the pasar malam where we will be going later.
First Night Activities
We went to Brinchang town at night to makan. Simon brought us to this place to eat steamboat.
It is quite apt as it was rather cold at night at Cameron. The pork cooked in beer is especially nice!
After dinner, we went to the parsa malam nearby. It looked a bit like those in Singapore. But they have interesting food stalls there.
Indeed, there was a stall selling honey combs. Honey comb is the hexagon structure that contains the honey. I bought one of those and bought another bottle of honey. I know Singapore NTUC can buy honey. If everything also buy from NTUC, then I got nothing left to buy at Cameron liao. Then it doesn't make one feel quite like a tourist leh.
After that, I buy some snacks. The fried sweet potatoe ball is very sweet and nice. Yum yum. 1 ringgit for small pack and 2 ringgit for big pack. I bought a small pack, tasted it is nice and bought a bigger pack. I shared it around with the tour mates and recommended it.
I didn't know it then, so I missed the fried quail. The fried mushroom is also supposed to be nice.
After we are almost done with shopping at the pasar malam, it started to rain. Almost all of us were not wearing rain gear or waterproof jackets. The rain at Cameron different from Singapore. It may not be heavy but you wouldn't feel like running/riding through the rain. Maybe because Cameron is already cold and the rain is also cold one.
By the time we walked back to where our bike was parked, the rain got even heavier. Our bike also did not contain our rain gear because we had dismounted our luggage boxes into the apartment. So we stayed under shelter of one of the shops.
We were partially dam from being caught in the rain and we don't know how long the rain would last. In the mean time, we went to buy bottled mineral water. 5.50 ringgit for a 5 litre bottle.
Just as we waited enough and decided to ride under the rain back to our apartment, the rain slackened. So we were able to ride back to our apartment without becoming wet chickens.
Sleeping First Night
The group was split into two apartments some distance apart. I stayed with the one that has DeusExMachina, Tarus, TTo, Mokamoka, JJusti and BB. They all stayed in the room. So the hall is empty and I can have the whole hall to myself.
After being caught in the rain, I was so relieved that the hot shower works just fine. At night, the weather can get really cold. So bathing reminded me of my NS training at Taiwan.
I think most of us were tired from the ride since 4.00 am. So by about 10 pm. everyone retired to their rooms.
The apartment got no air-con one. It doesn't need one because the air at Cameron is cold. But the apartment also got no heater. So I worry at night would I freeze in the hall.
I opened my 12.50 dollar sleeping bag. I wonder if it will keep me warm. Amazingly, it is rather comfortable and I feel just nice inside it. I had a very good sleep on my first night.
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