PD and Cameron

PD is just so depressing these days. I don’t know what’s the big fuss about that place anymore. It used to be about the beach. But now the water is like green slosh and the beach is filled with litter. Thank goodness I was only there for less than a day. And that was more than enough. My mother was just there to officiate a function (yes, she’s pretty high up there now) and meet few important people handling the training aspect of medical officers in Negeri Sembilan. We stayed at Tiara Beach Resort and I was pretty content since, judging by the name, we at least get to stay at the seaside. But to my absolute dismay, the word ‘Beach’ actually refers to the its man made beach pool. It’s even in their tagline – Biggest man made beach pool in Malaysia! Yippie-ka-yay, whatever. I mean, who gives the fuck? Especially when the actual thing is only a few hundred metres away? Besides, it’s not like their ‘man made beach pool’ is anything to be impressed by. It’s just a big pool with sand, instead of concrete, surrounding it. And there’s definitely no waves in sight. But still it doesn’t bother as much since I had no time to go to the beach anyway. We arrived at around 10 pm and scheduled to leave before noon the next day. But I was looking forward to a nice relaxation in a well-furbished air-conditioned room. Well, the room has air-conditioning but it wasn’t exactly well-furbished. The room has no carpeting for crying out loud! At all! What kind of hotel room doesn’t have any carpeting in it? I’ll tell you what kind – the dodgy ones. But the worst bit was the telly. Not only did it not have Astro, the only clear receptions are TV1 and TV2. It’s even worse than in Kelantan! And I was bitterly disappointed because for that reason I missed Football Focus, the season finale of Supernatural and the 1st day of Matchday 3 of Champions League football. I was so bored I went to bed not long after unpacking. As I said, thank goodness I was there for less than a day.

As for Cameron Highlands, well, that’s a different story.

The last time I went up there was probably more than a decade ago so you can imagine my excitement after such a long absence. And I was also eager to drive up the hills as I wanted to find out for myself whether the journey from Tapah is as treacherous as its reputation had acquired over the years. There’s a new alternate route to Cameron but you need to travel further up PLUS to Simpang Pulai and then turn back up the hill. But where’s the fun in that? To make things more challenging it was about 6.30 pm when we pushed off from Tapah and it was slightly raining. Since it’ll take more than an hour to drive to the top, the later part of the climb would be pretty scary. And it was.

The road leading up is an endless combination of sharp hairpins steep slopes. I could barely go above 40km/h for reasons, one, safety and two, trying to keep my mother from nagging me about dangerous driving. And for that, I have never been tailgated as much in my whole life. I was overtook by a 1.3 Iswara whereas I was driving a 2.4 Accord. It was kinda funny though ‘cause as if the Iswara was moving in slow motion as it fully revved its engine but resulting in very little acceleration as it moved up past by me.

As the journey went on, visibility became poorer and the light reflecting water puddles didn’t help. Even the usage of high beam offered little advantage because of the hairpins. If only I was driving an S-Class where the headlamps turns along with the steering wheel. That would really help in seeing the vegetable trucks running down in the opposite direction beforehand. Speeding like mad.

But when we finally reached Tanah Rata it was so worth it. On the dashboard the thermometer read that outside temperature was 17 degrees centigrade. I had set the car’s air-conditioning unit at 23 degrees. It felt comparatively warm once I parked the car Hotel Heritage’s parking lot and opened the door and stepped out. God, it was wonderful! It was like the whole world was being air-conditioned. And the sensation is quite different from Genting. Genting has a superficial feel to it. You step out in a multi-layered parking lot and the first thing you hear are the sound of vehicles moving and amusement park rides. At Cameron there’s just silence. And the trees. And the wind blowing in your face. It felt more civilized. More calmer. More discreet. Much more pleasurable. And the other thing about Cameron is that everything there tastes good. We had dinner right after arriving and yes, we were a bit starving, but even the vegetable soup was incredibly tasty. It was full of flavour. I usually reserve those kinds of comments for a good steak but look at me now. I had seconds if you believed it. My mother couldn’t have been so proud.

As we made our way to our room, first thing I did was to switch on the TV and I gave out a satisfying laugh as soon as I was able to locate ESPN. Champions League night is on! With that I also managed to catch a replay of Football Focus and Sportcenter, and life could never been better. And another thing I notice is that hotels there don’t need to put air-conditioning in their rooms. Or the lobby. Or the coffeehouse. They really save a lot of money. Even with all the windows shut, it still pleasantly cold. My mother would disagree about the pleasant part. But for once, there’s nothing much she can do about it. I was so happy.

With minimal sleep after staying up watching Chelsea beat Schalke, I still woke up pretty early the next day. We had a lovely breakfast and I stepped out of the hotel lobby afterwards to get some fresh air and I’ve never felt so alive. It was probably 18 or 19 degrees outside and how I wish every morning at Gombak could feel as good as that. Then it was time to explore Cameron. And by exploring, my parents meant by going to Kea Farm. It’s the traditional spot for buying fresh vegetables and flowers. My mother goes there every time she visits Cameron. It was exciting at first for me to see stacks of vegetables, assortment of flowers, sweet corns and strawberries, ready to be sold. It was like a factory sale but with vegetables.

Speaking of strawberries, here’s a tip that I got from my mother’s colleague the next time you want to buy them. There are actually two kinds of strawberries that are usually put on sale. The big ones the size of golf balls and the small ones. Normally, ill informed people, like myself, would get the big ones because that’s what we usually do when it comes to buying fruits. The bigger the better. Value for money, as they say. But, once you put one in your mouth, they taste sour. Sounds familiar? Actually, that is how it’s meant to be. The big ones are meant to taste sour because these are the ones that are meant to be consumed with whipped cream and chocolate dipping. The sourness is meant to compensate the sweetness of the latter condiments, you might say. If that’s how you plan to eat them, then fine, buy them away. But, if you want to eat them raw, get those little ones. Those are the sweet ones. You don’t put the small strawberries on sundaes and such. You put the big ones for presentational impact. And there you are. We just don’t lambast women here at It’s a Guy Thing, we even give out handy food tips.

Back to Kea Farm, after a few moments spending walking around the area I suddenly got bored. Actually, I had sensed it coming. My mother, meanwhile, was enjoying herself buying all those broccolis, cauliflowers and asparaguses. Sure enough, I’ll be the one that has to eat them once they are served on the dinner table back at Gombak. You see, apart from the cool weather, there is nothing much for a bloke like me to look forward to on Cameron. Earlier at the hotel lobby, I checked out about the other attractions that they offer and they include tours strawberry farms where you can pluck the strawberries yourself (big deal), honey farms and orchid farms. Alternatively, if agriculture is not your thing, then there’s adventure by jungle trekking up to Mount Brinchang, the highest point on Cameron. Or go through the trail where Jim Thompson, the Thai Silk King, mysteriously disappeared. Oh, and there’s the tea plantation. Do you know that BOH stands for Best Of Highlands? I read that in an article somewhere. And Cameron Highlands got its name from an English map surveyor who discovered the place back in 1885 named William Cameron. He went down and told his friends about this awesome place he had found and they decided to go there and grow stuff. Here we are today. First, food tips, now, history lessons. This is such a useful blog.

Anyway, the tea plantation is about 10 km downhill and, although it doesn’t sound very far, but believe me, 10 km of twists and turns, it becomes perceptively far. And let’s not forget I was the driver.

We went back to KL by the third day and rightfully so. My excitement being on Cameron Highlands was getting thin very fast. I visited the towns and they are still small and everything closes shop by 8. They do have a Secret Recipe branch up here though, which really impresses me. Man, those cakes enjoy one heck of a ride coming all the way from down under.

I was glad to be finally headed home because the truth is I was missing Astro and the internet too much, and Cameron just doesn’t have enough to keep me distracted that long. But one drawback was to see the temperature reading outside beginning to rise as I made my way down to Tapah.

So, what have we learnt here? Don’t go to PD. PD – avoid. However, if you like fresh vegetables, flowers and strawberries, go to Cameron Highlands. And try to stay at the Cameron Highlands Resort. I hear they serve excellent English scones during tea time.
As my next journey takes me to another place, people! Cheers!