Tanah Rata to Taiping

20th May 2023

Today we descended from the cool of the Cameron Highlands to the normal Malaysian heat.

After a hearty breakfast we started the journey down from the highlands and were very fortunate to travel most of the way without anyone in front or behind us so we made good time.

Arrived at Kuala Kangsar where we had intended to visit a few interesting places. It took ages to get to the first stop because a bridge had collapsed (ironic) so had to find a way through a residential area on roads designed for a bicycle – so narrow.

Finally arrived at the Victoria Bridge, a relic of British rule, it is an old single track bridge very much reminded me of the bridge near Oatley in Sydney.

Construction took three years and was completed in 1900, it was blown up in WWII but repaired by the Japanese. It was replaced by an adjacent concrete bridge in 2002.

Nearby was a snack bar type of place so we had a Durian Chendol each.

Next we drove to the Galeri Sultan Azlan Shah only to find it was closed for major renovations so was only able to take a few picture outside its walls.

We also knew from its website that Muzium Diraja was also temporarily closed so decided to push on to Taiping and our hotel. We arrived about 3pm which was actually perfect for checking in.

In the evening went to the food court next door to the hotel for some food. To be honest I was not particularly impressed by the local food, it wasn’t very spicy and it was all like Chinese soup – I am not fond of soup of any kind.

Tanah Rata

19th May 2023

A day to write off. On the way to breakfast came across a massive moth or butterfly in the hallway, upon our return someone had trodden on it.

Had intended to visit a couple of waterfalls but for various reasons the roads to them were blocked off!

Ended up spending some time in the local park and walking round the local soccer field.

Later some shopping for some clothes to save on washing and had lunch at a place in a relatively new shopping centre which for years had been a concrete skeleton after the Asian Financial Crisis. The meal was quite nice and fairly cheap in a newly opened restaurant near the Old Town Coffee shop, it was basically a Nasi Lemak with calamari and shrimp crackers but OK none the less.

In the evening had a Paper Thosai at the usual Indian restaurant with Teh Tarik the cost was RM18 for the two of us ($6)

Have to pack tonight as we are on the move tomorrow.

Tea and Butterflies

18th May 2023

After breakfast decided to visit the Cameron Valley Tea rooms a few km north on the way to Ringlet. Have been a few times before but it has changed and is probably now twice the size since our last visit.

The view over the valley is lovely as it is all the tea plantation.

There was a misunderstanding with the girl when I ordered my tea which was entirely my fault, Mary wanted Durian Teh Tarik whereas I wanted ordinary tea, the Indian girl said, “Black tea?” I said, “No, with milk” and ended up with Teh Tarik. Oh well… The scones were nice though.

Drove back through Tanah Rata past Brinchang to the Butterfly Gardens, it too has expanded since our last visit with far more plants and animals. The animals were not to my interest – rabbits, guinea pigs, sheep and goats but some of the plants were very colourful.

That evening we went back to our favourite Indian Restaurant, this time I had Roti Canai with egg and onion while Mary had the Indian Banana Leaf Rice (far too much vegetable for my taste)

Ipoh to Cameron Highlands

16th May 2013

We both had a breakfast of Nasi Lemak before packing for our trip to Cameron Highlands. Checked out of the hotel at about 9.15am to visit the Qing Xin Ling Culture Village.

Drove there using my Tom Tom Satnav, I have to say that the South East Asia map “points of interest” database is very poor compared to the Oceania and European equivalents on this device. More times than not you have to look up the place on Google then enter the address in the satnav just to get close to where you want to go, it does, however, make a valiant effort at pronouncing the street names.

Anyway, on arrival discovered that they had a different entry fee for Malaysians (RM12) and Foreigners (RM20), naturally I was outraged. Winking smile

After a couple of hours at the Culture Village we set off for the Cameron Highlands, it was a fairly slow journey as we kept getting stuck behind trucks but were still able to arrive in Tanah Rata before 2pm. As it was far too early to check in we stopped in the town centre for a Teh Tarik and Roti Canai as a snack for lunch. By then it was after 2pm so we made our way to the hotel for check in.

In the evening just as we were going to drive to town for an evening meal it absolutely belted down with rain. We decided to give the hotel restaurant a try. It turns out to be a buffet for RM30 per person. The food was Malay and not really much choice, basically rice, a fish dish, a chicken dish, bean curd plus some not very exciting salad, for dessert there was watermelon, cantaloupe and tiny pieces of fruit cake. Certainly not good value in my opinion.

BTW when I first got down to the restaurant I had to quickly return to the room to get my jacket, I was cold.

Cameron Highlands

18th to 21st September 2018

Drove a couple of hundred kilometres to spent a few days in the cool of the Cameron Highlands. The temperature at this altitude is lovely and cool (17’ to 21’C) after the 32’C heat of the plains.

This is my fourth visit to the Highlands so it was not an unknown quantity and as a touch of nostalgia stayed at the Heritage Hotel in Tanah Rata, the same hotel as on the first visit 12 years ago.

Because this is a tea growing area there are plenty of Indian restaurants with Tandori Chicken cooked in a kiln being a speciality. The area also grows strawberries and flowers as well as a variety of cool climate vegetables. It is interesting to see how these nurseries cling to the side of some very steep slopes with fascinating offerings such as “Self Plucking Strawberries”.

Cameron Lavender Gardens

The first visit was to the Cameron Lavender Gardens a large flower nursery and tourist attraction.

Boh Tea Factory

Another nostalgic visit; when we came 12 years ago there were visits to the actual factory where the tea was ground, dried, fermented and packaged but that doesn’t seem to be possible now. The tea rooms then were new and spacious, on this visit those same tea rooms were crowded though the tea and scones were still fine.