Sunday, July 01, 2007

Weekend escapade : Cameron highlands

Location : Ipoh & Cameron highlands, Malaysia
Date: Fri-Sun, 22-24june 07

A 1300km road trip in all, 3 ppl (JL, WR & i) in Yaris. The car performed well, with no problems on the mountain roads.

Day1:
A 7hr drive to ipoh, n a dip in e tambun hotspring.

The hotspring is piped in from a nearby source, to the premises. The hotpool was nicely done up n there was quite a crowd of locals. Surprisingly, the water did not smell of sulphur, we wondered if it was filtered.
Not enough time for Sunway Tambun waterpark, we had a glimpse of it, not so big, but in natural limestone surroundings. There is a chillout restaurant-bar with live music right there too.

Night, my uncle & wife brought us for the famous Ipoh "Kai-see Nga Choi Horfun" (aka flat rice noodles with chicken & beansprout). The noodles were very smooth & delicious.
This was followed by a trip to taste White Coffee in Greentown, the most hip area in Ipoh.
My uncle is such a cheerful & generous character, my friends had a happy time with him too!

Day2 :
A drive up cameron highlands, with stopover at Lata-iskandar waterfall. What a refreshingly cool dip!
The journey to our accomodation, was an adventure! It was deep in the tea plantation, up a windy track up a hill. We had bbq dinner, and night-walk (joined a church group of 4 families). It was funny, the folks made praises to the lord and songs up on a remote tea hill :)
The stars were twinkling, & a half-moon shone from above.

Day3 :
Early morning, we drove out to Raju's strawberry farm and visited a market. We loaded up on lots of fresh flowers! Along the way down, we stopped for kampung durians, steam corn, and medicinal herbs.

The drive home was long, we arrived Singapore 10pm !



A few notes:
* BEDBUG Mns dorm - JL & WR encountered the bite of bedbugs. Oops, better bring sleeping sheets & lots of lavender oil next time.
* MNS chalets have superb views. Basic with shower & cooking stove. For nature lovers.
* Most interesting thing i came across : Learnt from my uncle how lian-gao (sticky pudding) is made, takes 14-26hours of steaming & charcoal refuel, where white sugar is transformed to a red-brown color. HMMM, Alchemistry! A piece of lian-gao sells for Rm2-3 only.

Each person
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Petrol: S$25 (RM55)
Engine oil: S$25
Expenditure : S$110 (~RM240 for accomodation, food, misc, a little shopping)
Accm @ heritage ipoh=rm90/pax, @cameron mns-dorm=rm10/pax)

Total: S$160

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