Cameron Highlands Day 1

We went on a road trip last week to Cameron Highlands, Taiping and Penang. That explains my absence and yes you might say..finally! At long last, my family vacation has come true. It was a real family road trip with my parents in-laws, brother in-law, sister in-law, four pre-schoolers and two cars on the road. I'm glad we all survived the trip. LOL.

The kids armed with their 'bantal busuk', having buns during the journey.

Our first stop was Cameron Highlands where we stayed for 2 nights at Parkland Apartments. We used the old, winding road up to Cameron Highlands which is the Tapah way because hubby wanted some waterfall experience. :P So we stopped by Lata Iskandar waterfall. You can't miss it because it's by the road side. There are even steps that you can climb beside the waterfall to view the waterfall on a higher ground. The children got to play in the water for a bit until I got paranoid and told them to stop because the rocks were rather slippery. By the way, it took about two and a half hours from KL to Lata Iskandar waterfall.

Lata Iskandar Waterfall

The waterfall at a closer view.

Elizabeth was thrilled to play in the water until her jeans got wet.

Joseph was also thrilled to play in the cold water and didn't mind his jeans getting wet.

We climbed up some steps to get an even closer view of the waterfall.

The kids enjoyed looking at the gushing water and feeling the breeze of wind at the waterfall.

 We continued the journey up through the winding road. It can be quite challenging sometimes when we encountered heavy vehicles or when the road get slightly narrow. Thank goodness I was not the driver, otherwise I'll get so stressed up. Elizabeth experienced some motion sickness. Luckily she did not throw up. We stopped by Lakehouse Hotel to take some pictures because of the old english cottage styled architecture. Then it began to rain and pour so we decided to check in Parkland Apartments and rest for a bit.

Lakehouse Hotel.

Another view of Lakehouse hotel. They have a compound over looking a lake.

Sultan Abu Bakar Lake. It's a man-made lake.

Enjoying the cool weather and view.

Another cottage up a hill. I'm not sure whether it's part of Lakehouse Hotel.

4 cutie cousins standing in a row. 1 refused to look at the camera.

When the rain stopped somewhat, we couldn't wait to continue exploring. So even when it's drizzling we went to Cameron Valley Cameron Bharat Plantations. It's not difficult to find also because it's along the main road between Ringlet and Tanah Rata. If lost, you can always rely on GPS or road sign board. We walked down to the tea plantations and also later to sip tea at the Cameron Valley Tea House while absorbing the superb view of the tea plantation. It made me even more excited and can't wait to visit another tea plantation the next day.

Cameron Valley Cameron Bharat Plantations.

Zoomed in and I spotted a small waterfall and a brook.

Those people living in those houses are lucky. Even if they have stress, they just look out of their window and their stress will be forgotten. :P

The 3 older children knows how to enjoy and treasure the view except for 1 who is more interested in playing with a water feature in the tea house! (hint:Joseph)

Elizabeth in Cameron Valley Tea House.

Yours truly wants a picture with the tea plantations too!

The fathers bringing the children down to stroll along the tea plantations.

I hope you're not getting bored with my never ending pictures of tea plantations I can never get enough.

Yours truly with Joseph this time. I still can't get him to look at the camera.

Of course a trip to Cameron Highlands wouldn't be complete if we didn't visit a Strawberry Farm. So we went to Big Red Strawberry Farm in Brinchang. In all the excitement and with the cool weather, I bought strawberry ice-cream 'potong' for everyone but forgot to snap a picture of it. It costed only RM1 and it was some sort of a thrill to have something cold in a cool weather. LOL. I also tried the strawberry milkshake which was a tad too sweet for me. It wasn't the strawberry season so we're not lucky enough to spot red strawberries. There were many unripe ones. Besides farming strawberries, they also grow vegetables and cactus there.

Big Red Strawberry Farm.

Vegetables also grown here. They look so fresh and green!

The walkway along the farms.

 

More vegetables!

Two 'strawberries' :P

A scary looking cactus plant which somehow reminds me of Medusa. It doesn't come cheap too.

Cactus in all sizes.

Strawberry plants grown on pots. A lot of unripe strawberries seen here.

One of the few ripe strawberry spotted.

Arrgghh those rides again that lured the kids.

In just split seconds, I finally managed to catch him looking at the camera.

Strawberry milkshake was a tad too sweet for me.

We wanted to go to the big 'pasar malam' in Brinchang at night but it was raining cats and dogs so we had to cancel our plans. :( So we had dinner in OK Tuck Restaurant. The food was quite good.

So there goes my day 1 in Cameron Highlands. I will blog about day 2 soon. You know after spending some time in Cameron Highlands, Elizabeth asked me..

Elizabeth: Mummy, I want to go to Cameron Highlands(whining). How come we haven't reach there?

Me: This is Cameron Highlands lar.

Elizabeth: This is not Cameron Highlands lar. Cameron Highlands is not like that.

Me: This is Cameron Highlands lar! You want me to show you proof? (showing to her a signboard with the word Cameron Highlands on it)

Elizabeth: But Cameron Highlands is not like that lar. I want to play on the rides.

Then it suddenly dawned on me that she thought Cameron Highlands is the same as Genting Highlands.

Me: Omg. That is Genting Highlands. Cameron Highlands is not the same. This is what you get in Cameron Highlands. We are now in Cameron Highlands.

-_- Took her a few good minutes to get over it.