Last weekend my parents came up to Kampar to bring me to Cameron Highlands for a weekend retreat. Why they had that spontaneous idea I don’t know, but all I knew was that I was going to have an extremely boring weekend. The weekend was initially reserved for going to the waterfall. Unfortunately, my aunty came. Then my parents suggested going to Cameron Highlands (no relations here). Then, Kar May and Apple’s boyfriends decide to come. Whereas Jeremy and friends were going to Ipoh on Saturday. Well, guess it’s a good thing my parents are coming then.
For a youngster, Cameron is an extremely boring place. Well known for only its cold weather, veg, flowers and tea, there is nothing a bored teenager can do there. Plus the ride up was excruciatingly long and windy, other than the usual villagers and stray dogs, there was nothing else but greenery. I swear, the greenery is enough to make me throw up.
Well anyway, my parents made the smart move of not booking a place to stay. Usually we’d stay in Equatorial, which is at the highest point of Cameron. Since it was quite a way up, my dad suggested we stop by this place we used to stay in when I was very small. Well, the place is very high class now that all the rooms are priced at USD, not RM! Craziness. Anyway I saw Michelle Yeoh and her boyfriend there, but I didn’t take a picture with her.
We went up to Equatorial anyway. Place was fully booked. Shocking. We found a newly opened place nearer to the town, its name is Hotel Titiwangsa. If you ever go to Cameron, please don’t stay there. For starters, they have this ridiculous rule that a room with a king sized bed cannot be resided by more than two people. What the fuck?! A king sized bed would be enough for the three of us to sleep on. We wanted the room with only one king sized bed, but the nitpicking, snack-eating receptionist told us it’s not possible. Such arrogance she has! I was freakin’ pissed by then, so I asked her in a very loud voice, “Are those the rules?”
Fortunately, they are, or so she said. I wasn’t convinced because she said it in not a very decisive way. Therefore we had to take the room with two king sized beds, which was a freaking waste for us.
Oh wait, don’t go. I have more complaints. The bed was cold and hard. There wasn’t a box of tissues to be seen anywhere. And the toilets!! Do you know how absurd the toilets were?!
Usually hotels have a nice, well spaced bathrooms with a bathtub and a big sink, right?
Not this one. For some uncanny reasons, this hotel has two, I repeat, TWO toilets in one room. Small ones too, I might add. The size of one toilet is half the size of our Westlake bathrooms. One toilet has a toiletbowl. Another toilet has a showering area and an extremely small sink.
Decorations for the room were also extremely disgusting. Bad choice of plastic flowers (please-lah, Cameron is full of cheap, nice, and FRESH flowers! Don’t be so stingy!), bad design and colour of vase, bad choice of picture on wall. You know what picture they hung on the wall? It’s a picture of the road leading up to Cameron, with two cars on the road! Ugly ugly.
Sigh. Okay, enough about ugly hotel rooms. After resting for awhile, we went up to Brinchang in the evening.
In Cameron, the nicest things there are their plants. Great photography subject too, so obviously I took lots of pictures.
Don’t ask me the names of the flowers. Other than roses and cacti, I know of nothing else.
My mother.
Later we decided to drive down to Tanah Rata, where the streets are a slight trendier and it’s filled with angmohs. There’s even a Starbucks there for gawd’s sake! I didn’t drink no Starbucks though. My parents find the price absurd. :(
In Tanah Rata there’s a lot of quaint restaurants, some located in upper shophouses. There’s another thing that intrigues me; why are there so many banana leaf restaurants there? There’s one in every row of shophouses. Perhaps it’s the spicy food that keeps people warm, the same way like steamboat does.
Anyway, we went for a drink before our dinner. I was being like the ultimate innocent daughter; when my mother asked me to try her punch, I asked her, “Does it have alcohol inside?” Meaning, if there is, I am doubtful of drinking; not the other way round. I ordered some mango and blackcurrant smoothie, whereas my dad had beer. Bad choice for me; I was freakin’ shivering after my drink.
We asked the waiter to help us take a picture.
Dinner was at another restaurant later. I was cold, so I ordered Assam Laksa. Although it was nice, I kind of regretted not ordering spaghetti, cause my dad did and it was so delicious! I can’t put my finger on it, there’s a taste in it that feels different than the other spaghettis I’ve eaten.
The next day we went somewhere near Equatorial. Forgot the name. It’s another market, but kind of boring. There’s a souvenir shop there, which sells the ugliest home decor:
I’d never buy these ugly, plastic, dust-collecting things and hang ‘em on my wall.
Oh yeah. I forgot to mention. Cameron Highlands is also really famous for its strawberries.
You see them everywhere in abundance.
