Cameron Highlandst

Took a short breakaway last weekend (real short one, just over the weekend, 2d/1n).  Before I find any time to update, it's now weekend again.  Gosh...  at this rate, I think 50 or even 80 not gonna be too far off.  Before I know it, I'll probably be at retiring age.  Mad crazy.

The short weekend away was good.  After two weekends of staying put in town, it's time to start moving again.  Lols... Like the birdpark tickets, I bought a promotional voucher from a friend when they participated at the recent travel fair.  :)  I think it was RM175/night (approx. US$60) for one night accommodation at Strawberry Park Resort.  The recently renovated/revamped rooms were really cozy and nice.

A short info on Cameron from Wikipedia: 

The highlands got its name from William Cameron, a British surveyor who was commissioned by the then colonial government to map out the are in 1885.  It was the late Sir Hugh Low, a resident of Perak, expressed the wish of developing the flat terrain as a "sanatorium, health resort and open farmland".

The highlands is one of Malaysia's most extensive hill stations which covers an area of 712 square kilometers.  It was first developed by the British in 1920s.  The temperature seldom soars above 25deg cel during the day and during the night, it can sometimes drop to as low as 12deg cel.  It has 3 main townships - RInglet, Tanah Rata and Brinchang, which nestled at an altitude of more than 1200m.

Yeah, this is the same place I went for the treasure hunt event with a bunch of friends August last year.  At that time, we never get a chance to go sight seeing around the highlands.  Just treasure hunted from KL all the way up the hill, spent the night, and back to KL the next day.

This time round, went with the husband and he was sport enough to check out all the flower nurseries with me.  The plants were all so pretty.  I wish I could bring them all back.  Lols... 

Of course I didn't.  Seriously, how many can I buy?  Actually, it is more like, how many would survive in our non-highlands weather?  I just bought some small cute ones.  Not too many.

I've been to Cameron quite a number of times and have tasted their strawberries before but this time round, they were never quite like what I've tasted all those times.  I always remember Cameron's strawberries as tiny and super sour.  I was quite surprise when I found some huge ones at the market there.  Even more surprise when they were all juicy and yummy when I bite into them!  Nice!  

We went to quite a number of flower nurseries.  Not exactly looking for anything. Just look see look see.    Basically that's what people do when they go to Cameron highlands.  Buy flowers, plants, vegetables, eat... lols...Yeah, I ate non stop.  Now that I work, I need the energy.  So it's absolutely alright to indulge!  :p

We were recommended by Florence to visit this Time Tunnel Museum while we were there.  It was really nice.  Feels like walking down memory lane.  The husband and I was so excited when we spotted and antique/classic stuff from 'our' time.  Lols... Yeah, our time.  

Sometimes when I thought about my childhood days, it doesn't feel like so long ago.  But when we started seeing these stuff from our childhood on display here, oh boy.....!  It looks like it was from a LONG time ago!  Hahahaha... Anyway, it's worth visiting. Just RM5/entry.  

Went for and early steamboat dinner.  Couldn't resist steamboat on cool weather like that.  There were many of them.  We simply picked the shop with the most customer.  One can never go wrong that way! Right?  The extra long funnel (if that is what you call that long thing) was because this particular set is using charcoal instead of running on gas.

After dinner we took a walk to their famous weekend night market nearby.  There were more goodies there.  This man is frying sweet potato balls.  I was so tempted to get some.  Unfortunately we were simply too stuffed.  Still, we bought some other food stuff - fried crab (super yummeh), apambalik (some kind of malay flour stuff), sweet corn (must try)!

The weather was rather nice throughout our stay until it began to pour while we were there in the market.  Though there were lots of umbrella for sale, we simply refuse to get one.  No, it was not expensive.  Just about RM10 each.  And rather wait out under all those canopies with chattering teeth.  Lols... I think the feeling of not-wanting-to-own-another-umbrella were rather overwhelming.  Especially not one with loud huge strawberries print (which we will never use again)!  

Next morning, wanted to bring the husband to Boh Tea Plantation (which my friends brought me the last time) for breakfast.  We got lost for a little while and ended up having lunch instead at the same place we had dinner the previous night before heading to the plantation for tea after getting better directions from the lunch waitress.

Though the tea & dessert were horrible, the experience was good for the husband.  He loves the place.  We also get to see how tea was processed.  Picture above is a tea grinding machine which was used since the plantation was set up a long long time ago and is still being used now.

Everywhere we walked, the air was filled with aroma of tea.  Nice.  Just a pity that the tea served at it's cafe doesn't taste anything near the aroma!  Personally, I feel they should outsource their cafe to more serious cafe people who serve freshly bakes yummies like scones with fresh cream and strawberry jam, variety of pastries, cupcakes and etc instead of some soggy sandwiches, spongelike cakes, tasteless tea which they are charging RM0.50 for refill of hot water!  *shaking head*  Can see it was a half hearted effort.  

Visitors still throngs the place despite of the overly priced yucky food.  It's the environment that matters.  What a waste of superb location and beautiful set up. *Sigh* 

We head back home after that.  Though just a short getaway, it was good.  Rejuvenating enough.  The beauty of traveling not in a group.  Easy going.

A Drive That Turned Out To Be A Day Trip - Ipoh

Last last weekend was Penang.  And last weekend, was Ipoh, Perak ~  Just a day trip though.  The guys had planned it weeks ago.  It was supposed to be Malacca initially (changed to tomorrow).  Not sure why the change.  Either way, it will still be good for me.  I am missing 'dim sum' in Ipoh!  They have one of the best dimsum I ever tasted!  And no, we are not joining them for Malacca tomorrow.  We are just too tired and needed some rest desperately!

Dressed in a simple short dress and slipper, dragging along my camera and a shawl, groggily, I got into the car  last Sunday morning at about 7ish and continued zzzz while the husband drove.  I was under the impression that one of the guy in the group needed to test his car, thus the trip.  And so, I expected that we would just drive 200km there, have dimsum breakfast and be right back to KL again.

Wikipedia:  

Ipoh developed into one of Malaysia's main cities around the turn of the 19th century due to the booming tin mining industry.  During the British colonial era, Ipoh was Malaysia's second city for administraative purposes.  There are several notable buidings from the British Colonial era such as the railway station and the town hall.  70% of Ipoh's population is of Chinese origin. 

There were altogether 16 of us in 5 cars.  We arrived at our first destination at 9:30am - Restoran Yoke Fook Moon, for our favourite dimsum breakfast.  The place was packed to the brim with the weekend crowds.  Taste wise, hmm... I thought it was tastier the other time we were there. :(   I wonder, could it be my tongue was still asleep?  Lols...

I thought we were good to go home after our little dim sum escaped.   Little did I know it was a whole day eating trip o.O. 

After dimsum, it was the Ipoh White Coffee at it's Original Coffee Shop.  All 16 of us, adult and children alike, were packed to the back alley.  The coffee was awesome.  Probably cause the weather was super hot.  An ice cold white coffee would be a real treat!  

Comparatively to all the Ipoh White Coffee outlets here, this one in Ipoh tasted slightly better.  Less heavy if you now what I mean.  

Half boiled eggs' pot, coffee pots, gas cylinders at the back of shop, nearby where we were seated, baking under hot sun.  To all my blog friends over in 4 seasons countries, don't be deceived by this nice ray of sunshine.  It is REALLY hot.  Not just some sunshine with cool breeze.  It was easily 40 deg cel.  Blazing hot!

Some flats nearby.  Packed like sardine.  So packed that I can hardly breathe just by looking at it.  

After coffee, it was the 'Perak Cave Temple'.  Despite of having been in Ipoh numerous times, never once had I visited any of these cave temples.  There are plenty of them in Ipoh.  

The husband and I donated a piece of roof.  It was hillarious when the temple operator asked how to write our Chinese names.  Yes, we can write our names, can read some characters too.  We simply just don't know how to explain to another person how it is written.  Lols.... After some chicken & duck talk, we finaly got it right!

The ceiling inside the temple.  Natural formation of a cave.  But I think it might has been smoothen over the years.  The edges were simply too squarish to be natural.

We also lighted lotus candles. :)

Check out the inside of the temple.  Rather interesting right with images of Buddhist god painted onto the wall of the natural cave.  Though it was super hot outside... inside the temple, it was so cool and nice.  As if there was an air conditioner! Such a relieve for all of us who had been baking under the hot sun the whole morning!

A temple dog enjoying the cool floor.  :)

This shot was taken from inside of the temple facing out.

It was more food after that.  A trip to Ipoh would not be complete without a meal of it's famous Ipoh Beansprout Chicken Rice.  Sorry, no picture of the food for this one.  Cause I thought the presentation of the food were not so nice.  We didn't go to Lou Wong but the one next to it.  I still like the other one near Excelsior Hotel.  Unfortunately they only open in the evening. :(

The other famous thing in Ipoh - pameloes.  Somehow, the pameloes from this city is really nice and sweet.  Not just pameloes.  Even their beansprouts were extra fat and nice.  

And their soya bean milk too.  Though has a funny name - "Funny Mountain", it's extra delicious and yummy.  Not only were there a long line of people queueing up right outside the stall under the hot sun, there were also a long line of cars queueing up outside as if it was a drive thru counters like that.  Madness huh?  

They said it was the Ipoh water.  Spring water that is.  Even their girls are fairer and prettier.  Really.  So if next time, someone walked up to you and ask.. "Are you from Ipoh?".  Take it as a compliment.  Ipoh are know for it's pretty girls!  :)  

4D3N in Bandung (And I took only about 70 photos!).

We were just preoccupied most of the time - taking off clothes and putting them back on again and again.  Who have time for photographs???  Hehehe....  I am talking about trying out all the clothes that we were going to buy.  What were you thinking?  Dirty dirty.... lols...

As usual, a trip to Indonesia will not be complete without a shot like this one ;).  We became instantaneous millionaires!  Lols...  I tell you, the zeroes really drives me up the wall each time we have to pay.  Can't they just print the last three zeroes in smaller font or something, or better still, removed them totally.  It is so confusing.  IDR100,000 = RM35 = US$11.50.  At one time, we overpaid a rude cab driver by IDR500 and thought it was a big deal.  Only to realize later that it was only like RM0.20.  Lols.. no wonder the taxi driver was rude.  Hahahahahaha~  He must be cursing us stingy girls!  Lols...

Believe it not, I met Superman at the boarding area when we were departing for Bandung.  He was standing there with one notebook bag hanging on his shoulder, another hand luggage by the side, sms-ing.  I couldn't resist and blurted.. "Really can fly one arr?" and he replied "Yeah, but I am taking a break".  *faint*  Lols....  Seriously, until now, I couldn't quite comprehend that.  Why?  Hahahaha...  The irony of it, why would superman goes on a plane?  Superman can fly right?

The flight took about 2 hours and we were talking throughout.  The air stewardess must have thought we were thirsty with all those talking and gave us a complimentary mineral water!  Hahaha... Though it was just water, but when it is complimentary on Air Asia, it is a big deal!  Terri & I jokingly came up with a 2 minutes test after that.  Meaning, either one of us will drink first.  Then the other one will only drink after 2 minutes to ensure it is not spiked.  Lols...  We are just being silly...:p  

We arrived at Bandung about 10am local time.  The weather was rather cool.  Found out later that Bandung's weather was actually cool most of the time.  We can shopped all day, hopping from one outlet to the other without breaking a sweat despite of walking under hot sun!  Come evening, it can get pretty chilly.  And the rainy nights while we were there doesn't help at all.  Luckily we brought a thin sweater each.  But then again, we can always buy another there (which of course we did) ;)

There was some hiccup on way to our hotel.  The cab driver too us to the wrong branch, Amaris Cihampelas instead of Amaris Cimanuk.  Was a little disappointed initially cause I read many reviews stating that Cihampelas is the place to be for shopping.  But as it turned out, it was a blessing in disguise after all.  Let's put it this way, Cimanuk is like Bangsar and Cihampelas is like Pudu.  Get it?  It feels a little dodgy in Cihampelas.   

Decided to explore the surrounding after dumping our bags in the room.  Requested for a map from the receptionist and he pointed to a map on the wall.  The one and only map they have.  We went like... "Huh?".  It was not even a map to begin with.  Just some illustration of the whole Bandung City...crazy right? 

We managed somehow to venture out to Riau Street (one of the more popular shopping street). Found a decent restaurant and shared a Bandung's fried rice and a dunno wat (picture above) for brunch.  I can't remember it's name.  Taste wise, ermm, let's just say not to our likings.  :p

Our shopping basically start right after that.  We practically went MAD.  From now on, you will realize that there is not even one picture taken of the shopping spree.  It was indeed a shopping spree.  So spree till neither of us have time to take photos.  Lols... This was taken 4 hours later, with shopping bags piling around my feet.  We saw this very clean cart passing us with freshly made goodies.  Couldn't resist and bought some.  It was indeed yummy.  But then again, we were famished.  Anything would have tasted yummy!

That evening, we had dinner at this little restaurant near our hotel - Warung Nasi Ampera.  We had a roast chicken wing, some cucur udang thingy (prawn crackers), vege and otak-otak (fish paste).  Again, taste wise, not to our liking.  Mind you, their otak-otak is white in colour and it's texture is like biting into a medium hard fish ball!  :p  In total, it cost us less than RM20 (US$7).  We find eating in Bandung pretty cheap!  For that 4 days, we probably spend less than RM200 on food.  But then again, we were eating bird's food la... (sandwich, cup noodles & such).  :D

Day 2 & 3, we have arranged for a driver to take us around.  We both hate our driver cause (1) he is not attentive, (2) not helpful, (3) wherever we want to go, he make it sound like very far and troublesome :(.  But then again, we were comparing him to Meko, our driver in Bali who was super efficient.  :p   

We went shopping on Day 2 to Jalan Dago and Jalan Setiabudi and we immediately fell head over heels with Rumah Mode.  Seriously super place to shop.  Plenty of big names like Guess, Armani, CK, Desigual.  Good environment too.  :)  Towards the end, we were super tired but still drag on... :p  I asked Terri... "Do you feel your feet so painful as if it gonna break and yet, you still wanna shop on cause you don't wanna missed out on any good deals??".... we both just laughed... hahahaha!  We went for foot reflexology after that and for just IDR75,000 (RM27), we get 1 hour of pampering on our feet and when it was over, we felt brand new again!  That good!  Lols...

That's our room which have a wash basin smacked right in the room.  Cool huh..? Hahahaha.....  The moment we opened the door, I went like.. "WTH?"... hahaha... but it was ok la.. in fact, we love it there so much that we were looking forward to going back to the same hotel again.  Though the room is small, it was clean and extreme cozy with all the necessary; cable tv, free wifi, room slippers, toiletries & etc.  

Our loots on Day 2!

Day 3, we wanted to do some sightseeing.  Initially plan was to go to this place called 'Kawah Putih' (white crater).  Our useless driver kept saying that it is very far away, not worth going, nothing much to see and the weather is bad, the road is narrow, yadda yadda yadda.  We ended up going to this other volcano crater called "Perangkupan Perahu" (topside down boat) despite of many negative review read on the internet.

En route up the hill, it was drizzling throughout.  There were stalls set up along the road selling colourful hammock like these.  I think they are hammocks.  Or are they?

Arrived up at the crater about 1.5 hours later.  First stop, the toilet. :p  Right outside it, there was a cart selling noodles.  Yucks.  Right outside the toilet?

That's the crater which we travelled 1.5 hours to see.  Seriously, I don't know how to appreciate it.  Nothing much to take picture of too.  It is like, get off the car, toilet, go to the edge to look down the crater, take some mandatory touristy photo and that's about it.  Seriously, not worth going.

There were also stalls selling knick knacks there.  If you ask me, nothing interesting at all.  In the picture above, the little girl in pink was smacking butterflies with a towel o.O  Whatever happened to little girls are made sugar and spice and everything nice...:p  The little girls here smack butterflies. o.O

Bottles of volcano ash/sulfur can be seen being sold along the street there.  Apparently they can be used to cure acne, skin problems and god knows what else.  Any taker? :p

Souvenir t-shirts.

We head on to Kampung Daun (a famous eating place) for brunch.  The journey took us approximately 45minutes.

Kampung Daun is famous for it's setting.  Each table is set in a private gazebo and all these gazebos are spread out in a vast piece of land beautifully landscaped.  We were lucky enough to get one that is set by a little stream.  The weather was cool, the gazebo was cozy with sound of rushing water in the stream, somewhat rejuvenating.  Nice!  If I am not mistaken, I believe they have some gazebos that are set up the hill overlooking the beautiful scenery of that district.

Terri & I was so tickled by their menu.  'Sop Buntut' (Ass Soup), 'Sop Buntut Goreng' (Fried Ass Soup).... hahahahaha...

'Mie Tek Tek' (boobs noodle)... hahahahaha....

We ordered gado-gado which tasted funny...,

a tofu thingy which also tasted funny....

and a bbq fish with sauce which was the only one that agrees with our palate.  It basically tasted like teriyaki fish. :p

I ordered a hot cappuccino cause I like the flower design they made and I actually went to the extend of verifying it with the waitress if their cappuccino really have a flower design on it just like how it was on their menu and she said yes.

I wonder what was it that they served me when my cappuccino finally arrived.  Where was the flower??? :(  I felt so cheated.  

Along the way up and down to Kampung Daun, cute little flower nurseries lined both sides of the road.  Cute probably cause of the way they arranged the plants.  Very neat and nice.  Spotted this yellow orangy lily and wanted to get it for a lily crazy friend but didn't cause no one was there to tend to us.  :(  I can just grab one and run, but, but.... ermm... doesn't sound quite right, right?  :p

It was more shopping after our little excursion... hehehe...  the mind wasn't really at the crater earlier when we were there anyway.  Lols... We were both like can't wait to get out of it and quickly back to the malls. :p Picture above was the cafe where we would enjoy our cuppa after a shopping session. :D

My loots on Day 3. :)  I tell you, I was like super happy that day.  Lols...  Bought quite a number of shirts for the husband.  It's about time to clear out some of his old shirts (which he never allow me to and which I've to do it very stealthily!).

Check this out!  They are all mine!  Not exactly all mine but my loots alright.  Some are for the husband, some for family.  :)... A total of 33 pieces.  Mad crazy right?  I learned later from Terri that according to her cousin, 33 pieces over 4d3n is considered pretty inefficient.  Wtf?

There were so many super cute kiddy clothes too.  This may seem a little crazy, nevertheless I bought two.  Lols... I just couldn't resist.  Lols...  Terri & I kept going "this is so cute... that is so cute....aiyoooo......"... hahahahaha..... 

Terri was surprised that I managed to stuff everything into my small luggage bag.  I just replied I am no doubt my mom's daughter.  Cause mom is pretty good in packing up her luggage too.  Lols...  Anyway, I make sure my stuff are all packed neatly for just in case I need to open up my bag at the airport.  Definitely don't want strangers to peek into my untidy bag with undies all over the place :p  My instinct was right in the end.  My luggage was overweight and I need to transfer some weights into my backpack. :D

Do you know that I was conned by Terri that we would go to Bandung in empty luggages except for undies and toiletries and buy everything else there.   I thought why not?  It would be adventurous and fun! Luckily I brought 2 sets of clothing for change.  That woman, brought everything.  Bluffer!

That basically wraps up our little excursion to the shopping land.  It was no doubt a good trip for both of us.  We had so much fun together and bought so many pretty things.  That would last us for awhile till our next shopping trip.  Oh, we each bought 3 boxes of the famous Indonesia Layered Cake too.  Not  sure exactly whey we bought so many.  Was cursing about it after we placed our orders.  Otherwise we would have more money left for more shopping.  Hahahahaha....  Unbelievable I know.  Lols....

Now you know why I was bursting with excitement.  *whispering* "Bandung is really good for shopping"!  Don't tell anybody ya...!  Shhhhhh......!

Tips for Bandung based on our own experience:-

1) Taxi counter is on the left side as you exit the Bandung airport.  Approximately IDR40,000-50,000 to anywhere within Bandung City.  Somehow, from the hotel to airport, cost us only about IDR25,000.

2) Driver cost: IDR450,000/day inclusive of car, petrol, parkings.  Basically everything.

3) We feel not worth to engage a driver for shopping trip cause he would just park at one place while we hop from outlet to outlet on foot.  Not useful.  Afterall, we can deposit out shopping bags at entrances of outlets. No need to worry about heavy bags.  Just grab a cab at the end of the day to head back to the hotel.  More economical.

4) You should start shopping at Jl. Riau first (as we find the prices there are cheaper) before moving on to Jl. Setiabudi and everywhere else. That way, you will be able to gauge the prices of stuff.

5) Rumah Mode on Jl Setiabudi is the place to be if you are into brands.  Plus their stuff are nicer too.

6) Be careful when picking out branded stuff.  They have the tendency to mix fakes among the real ones to make them real.  For example: GUESS & GUE55.  

7) Bring a thin sweater for the cool night weather.