Have a little faith in Cameron Highlands

Cameron Highland's view

We can't believe it is February already.  A short month of 28 days, and by the time I am posting this, I only have 26 days of the month.  Lots of planning to be done and thinking.  However, my friend and I spent one night and one day in Cameron Highland.  Estimatedly 3.5-hour drive from KL which turned into 5-hour drive due to Chinese New Year traffic.

We arrived around 8.45 PM at Tanah Rata bus station.  The station is located pretty strategically.  The Cameron Highland town is actually explorable by feet.  The have markets, restaurants, shops just along the road and every corner near the bus station.

We had our dinner at the nearest mamak stall before we went uphill to our guesthouse Father's Guesthouse.  The guesthouse is located behind the Twin Pines construction building.  It was rather hard to find it at night, but we managed anyway... after 3 times of phone calls to the reception asking for direction.

The guest house is decent and nice.  It has warm ambience.  They close the guesthouse around 10.30, so it is safe too.  We were assigned to the bunk bed at the dorm, which was pretty interesting because we met many travelers from other countries as well.  One dorm bed costed RM. 20

The dorm room

Exterior of the guesthouse

We woke up the next morning quite early, around 6 AM.  As a first-time trekkers in Cameron Highlands, we were expecting a clear guidance to all the trails there is.  I believe there are 13 trails.  Each trail has different level of difficulties.  The full map was sold at the reception desk or tourist information desk around the town, the receptionist suggested me to take pictures of the maps on the walls because apparently they are all the same.

So, we decided to either go for trail 9 and trail 5.

trail 9

trail 5

We asked several travelers around if they have taken trekked those area before.  A gentleman from Scotland said that he had explored them all and gave us a cue that there is a trail just behind our guesthouse (which we did not go for).  He told them that we can hitch-hike for any car whenever we finished the trekking, once we find the main road.

Ok the plan was to go for the trail 5, but since we were lost at the town and seemed to find the way to Robinson Falls or trail 9 instead.  So we did take a short walk there for an hour.  We have spotted the Robinson  Falls and then we decided to go back and visit another trail which was is located next to the country pines.  From now on, we do not know which trail we should go for, we just trekked and trekked.  There is a hanging bridge.  But at this trail, we met people... we were so happy that we met faces.  We spent almost 3 - 4 hours covering the jungle.  Then we also visited a strawberry farm.

Robinson Falls

The trek

Strawberries at the farm

At noon, we were having our lunch at a restaurant, "Rosette" near Pos Malaysia office which serves kicking herbal duck soup, fried beef noodle and scones.  We also wandered around the town and find localities shop that sells jam and many liquors.

Menu at Rosette, the price was quite OK but pricey compared to
the mamak food.  It feels like having a meal at OldTown
but anyway we are in tourist town so we expect this...

local jams, selling 1 for RM.3

Liquor, anyone?

My verdict

Compared to KL, Cameron Highland is a perfect retreat from the city.  The weather is nice and the people are lot more attentive and friendlier.  You got to meet with travelers, seeing different faces... it feels meeting diverse population from my SEA trip again.  This is my first time traveling to Cameron Highlands in one day, so, I have yet to learn and master all the treks and attraction.  I was not fulfilled with this trip, so definitely I'll be coming back and cover all the treks and mossy forrest!

For those who are keen on visiting Cameron Highlands and want to trek this website help!