This is part one of my awesome birthday road trip. It is the first destination - cool, scenic Cameron Highlands. Part 2 will be about delicious food heaven, Ipoh. So read on for interesting finds and dines.
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| Smokehouse Resort where we had dinner on the first day |
The road trip started just after lunch. We departed from KL around 12pm and joined the North South Expressway to reach approximately 4pm. The road on the highway was not eventful but I had a roadtrip playlist prepared! Music from the 90's mostly.
We had Alanis Morissette, Boyz 2 Men, Coolio, TLC, Backstreet Boys, Natalie Imbruglia and Oasis amongst many others and one hit wonders like Breakfast at Tiffany's! I was singing along to just about every song.
Anyway, once we reached Cameron, the roads started to go uphill and were really winding. Liam enjoyed the drive up and down Cameron because of the winding roads. When we got there, we checked into our nice Air BnB in Tanah Rata. It was a sweet place.
It was not very cold at first when we arrived as the sun was shining but over the next couple of days I felt it getting cold at night and in the morning. Liam was being a hero and wearing a sleeveless shirt.... he loves the cold while I need to bundle up. At night he insists on leaving the glass door open so I would bundle up in a blanket!
We chilled a while then headed out for dinner at Smokehouse. We had a Western style dinner and it was really yummy and ..... expensive! The total came up RM200+ and I felt it was a birthday splurge. I had a rack of lamb, Liam had a mixed platter and we shared cheese cauliflower and a creme brûlée. It was kinda overpriced but when u think of the surroundings of the place where they had a gorgeous flower garden, a mock fireplace and good service, it is not so bad.
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| My rack of lamb |
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| Cauliflower with cheese |
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| Liam's mixed platter |
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| Creme Brûlée |
After dinner we headed back to the Air BnB and binge watched Netflix while planning the next day. We had some snacks we brought and pigged out.
The next day we first went to Boh Tea Plantation. It has a factory and a cafe. We had high tea there. We had Earl Grey tea which was so yum. And ate a sausage roll and 2 slices of cake. There wasn't much to do at Boh Tea but we ate and went to the lookout point.
We hiked up to the lookout point and we both were unfit and struggling to reach the top. We took some pictures on the way up too. Lots of selfies and poses. Haha. Once we reached the top there was a beautiful view and it was all worth it. We could see the tea plants on the sides of the hills. Very scenic. We chilled at the top for a while then made our way back down and bought some tea for friends and family from the souvenir shop.
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| View on the way up |
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| View from the top of the lookout point |
After Boh, we went to Big Red strawberry farm. We looked at some pretty flowers for sale there but didn't buy anything as we do not keep plants. Any plant we inherit will die. I prefer to let my mom be the one with green thumbs, and I clearly am not.
Saw some beautiful African Daisies, my favourite flower. There were some lettuces and succulents for sale too. Also saw some live animals like rabbits and geese for sale. They looked cute but I am not sure if they are for eating. The vegan in me thinks that it is good to see your food alive and know where it comes from. I am no longer a vegan, but I do try to eat responsibly and locally.
Then we went to the snack bar and ordered a bunch of strawberry themed food. Strawberry ice cream, a strawberry slurpee and strawberries with whipped cream. It was all for fun and no nutrition. We bought a pack of strawberries too. The strawberry picking was not available as it is seasonal. Seems like after the morning session there were not enough strawberries left for another session.
After the strawberry farm, we went to the pasar malam in Brinchang. It was so packed and luckily we went early as there was no more parking already. We parked really far away. And it was jammed. We ate nice fried veggies. Like below. They are veggies like mushrooms and beans fried in tempura or some kind of batter. Quite yummy. Also, we bought some veggies like siew pak choy, sweet corn and sweet potatoes to bring home. They were very cheap and superior quality to the veggies in KL. The siew pak choys were fat and really sweet. Bought more strawberries too and they were cheaper here than at the strawberry farm. Liam bought me a bouquet of African Daisies.... so sweet!
We ate dinner at home, cooking Maggi in the hotpot with pork balls and siew pak choy. Felt sick after eating so much junk food so we decided to eat clean back at the Air BnB. After that we binge watched Orange Is The New Black season 7 as it came out on the 26th July. My birthday present from Netflix.
The next day we checked out at 11am and tried going to a famous food joint called Cameron Valley but it was packed. No parking. By then it was Saturday and a weekend. So we just left.
It was super jammed coming down. We took the route through the mountains going to Ipoh. We were on winding roads for a super long time, much to Liam's delight. He had so much fun driving on winding roads.
Anyway that concludes the Cameron trip. A lovely getaway. Next stop... Ipoh! Omg we weren't finished after Cameron and still had Ipoh! I was psyched! Was looking forward to it and played some more 90's music on the way there. I had never been to Ipoh before, funnily enough. It was nice!
Will continue with our Ipoh adventures in my next blog post!
Labels: celebration, eating out, travel
