Cameron Highlands
“You want to clear your head? Well darling the hotel you are staying is in the middle of nowhere. I promise you’ll be so bored you start counting the leaves.”
It was one of those spontaneous ideas I had in my head at 4 am in the morning whereby I went “let’s get out of here!” I then compiled a list of places I could visit, closed my eyes, picked one and made a phone call.
That lovely people was how I ended up in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia.
I took my trusty old’ Canon G9 which seems to be reaching the end of its metal life as this is how F2.8 looks like…
It has this weird artistic blur effect which is especially prominent on the left side of the image… It’s fine when you stop it down to F8 but F2.8 is extremely very unreliable:( Dear Santa…
Anyways, Cameron Highlands is a really lovely place to visit in Malaysia. 1500 meters above sea level, the temperature (about 16°c) is heaven as compared to Singapore (about 30°c).
Dominated by agriculture, driven by tourism while some parts of town still has an English village feel to it. Did I mention how lovely the weather was?
The first stop on my agenda was to visit the famed Mossy Forest as according to my tour guide yes I go on tours now “The Mossy Forest is so beautiful, it’s like Avatar!”
As I mentioned, Cameron Highlands is driven by agriculture. You can find all sort of organic and hydroponic farms. You can also head to a strawberry farm and for about 60rm for a kilogram, pick you own strawberries! Since there are no CCTV in the strawberry farms, I bet you will have 1kg worth of strawberries in your basket and another 1kg in your stomach! You didn’t hear it from me
Do try out the awesome delicious strawberry jam, strawberry coffee, corn and just about every other fruits and vegetables as they are extra delicious! Pescatarian approved.
Tea Plantation
Besides fruits and vegetables, visiting a tea plantation is a must in Cameron Highlands.
Tea leaves!
I love tea and will take Earl Grey all day, every day so obviously visiting a tea plantation is at the top of my list and what better place to visit than BOH, the leading tea grower in Malaysia.
Earl Grey<3
Besides restocking on your tea leaves; Earl Grey lovers especially, do consider getting the ‘Diamond Jubilee’ blend for 35rm!
It has a white packaging and sits in the middle of the shop so you really can’t miss it. This blend was made to celebrate the arrival of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge’s visit to Malaysia earlier this year. It taste like your usual Earl Grey but its a little more flowery.
Steal from the tea plantation!
There is also a kind of street market going on every weekend which sells really awesome strawberries coated in chocolate and sweet corns! So bring your wallets along!
Besides visiting the trees, vegetable farms and tea plantations, Cameron is one of those places whereby the cell phone connection is a little whacked, let alone the wi-fi.
As much as we preach the importance of human interaction and connection, admit it. We are all social media addicts of some kind who can’t live without our phone.
Emails, Facebook, Twitter would one of the apps you fire up the moment you can feel your hands and reach for your phone while your eyes are barely functioning.
Which brings me to my point:
Social Media Withdrawal Symptoms 101
A guide on how to spot them
1) Staring at your phone willing the usual PING sound followed by the vibration and light.
2) Holding your phone high in the air waving it around like you are attending the concert of your favourite pop star hunting for a signal. When that does not work, you climb up the signal tower shouting “SIGNAL WHERE ART THOU!!!”
SIGNAL! I GOT A SIGNAL!
3) Curling up when you gain a wi-fi signal hissing “my precioussssss”
4) You start shooting flowers.
SHOOT ME!!! SHOOT ME!!!
But really, Cameron is a lovely place with great food and fantastic weather to boot! Brilliant to starve yourself of the social media noise your iPhone battery actually lasts really long in airplane mode, get some fresh mountain air and tea<3
Cameron Highlands part 2 anyone? (:
Speaking of travelling, I’ll be heading to Kathmandu on the 28th of October till the 9th of November for a workshop led by Edwin Koo and just to explore Kathmandu itself!
Which means although I am barely back, I’m kind of travelling again next Tuesday. OMGOMGOMG!!!
I am really excited as Kathmandu has been one of my dream travel destinations since forever!
I have so many things to settle and nothing is really done as I have the misfortune to be down with a 39° fever since yesterday so if this post sounds a little whacked, there’s the reason(:
Life of a Visual Storyteller. We never stop working aye?
Anyways holler if you are in Kathmandu and we could meet up for tea(:
Other than that, I really can’t wait to make some brilliant images<3
Categories: Photo Essay, Malaysia, News & Stuff
