The husband and I tied the knot on 9 September this year but due to our conflicting work commitment, it was really difficult for us to plan a honeymoon trip. As ironic as it may sound, it was also due to work that forced us to book a short trip to Cameron Highlands in late November! We booked our package on Thursday, packed our bags on Friday and left on Saturday! Talk about last minute travel! We had Shanghai, Hong Kong and even Japan in mind but we finally settled for Cameron Highlands because we figured that it would be impossible for us to plan a proper itinerary within such a short time frame. Cameron Highlands is very small and besides, it was the very first place that we shortlisted for our maiden trip together last year. Dropped the idea back then after gathering feedback that it’s a boring place. Hey, totally not true! We had sooooo much fun in Cameron Highlands! π I call it a mini honeymoon because it was a short 3D2N stay and we did not even travel by air. However, at the end of this trip, we have come to realize that we didn’t have to spend a bomb on an extravagant honeymoon in order to be able to enjoy ourselves. Really, it’s the company that matters the most! π
This is our fourth time travelling together and we would always wear our Donald Duck couple shirts that misterchewy bought from Tokyo Disneyland on the day of setting off! Easy to identify each other if we ever get lost.. Haha! Ok here’s a brief overview. We kinda celebrated our first monthsary at Malacca. Our second trip together was to Redang with misterchewy’s bunch of fydp friends! And then I joined misterchewy and his family on a trip to Taiwan! Haven finish uploading the photos onto Facebook >_< Ok anyway, we departed Singapore on the day of our 16th monthsary! Had a simple Thai dinner at Golden Mile Complex before boarding the coach at 10pm. Seats were very spacious and we watched a movie before concussing throughout the rest of the journey! We slept like two logs for the next 7 to 8 hours and amazingly, we could hold our bladder for that long too. LOL. We reached Brinchang slightly before 7am and were told to find ourselves some breakfast. Food was cheap and good!
We transferred to a smaller shuttle bus before being driven up to Strawberry Park Resort. Since it was hours away before we could check into our room at about 4pm, we deposited our bags at the lobby and I changed into a pair of jeans while waiting for the tour guide to pick us up. Nice mini waterfall at the resort!
The resort looks beautiful from the outside and we couldn’t wait to check out our room! Some people actually drove up to Cameron Highlands and most of them were from other parts of Malaysia.
Beautiful flowers can be found everywhere around the resort! We were busy snapping photos and the tour guide finally picked us up at 10.15am when they were supposed to reach about 15 minutes before. Claimed that there was a huge jam outside.
True enough, there was a major traffic jam as we were there during the school holidays. A route that would normally take only 15 minutes could take as long as 3 hours now! Scary! Anyway we reached Sungei Palas ‘BOH’ Tea Centre at 11.25am. The tour guide told us to go for the factory tour, look around the gift shop and sit down for some tea and then look for him again at 11.40am. 15 minutes to do all that?! Impossible! Turned out that he went to pick his other customers from the other resorts nearby and dropped them off at the tea centre. We were the last. In other words, the rest in our tour group had about an hour I didnt think it was very fair to us so we just took our own sweet time taking photos and enjoying our food at the cafe. LOL.
The view of the tea plantation from the cafe was breathtaking. Ok la actually I was feeling extremely pissed about the tour guide’s arrangement and when I saw how long the queue at the cafe was, my eyes rolled to the skies. And to make matters worse, the husband got me a blueberry scone when I thought he would be smart enough to get a strawberry cake or strawberry something for me. The first thing he said when he got to the table, “Eh sorry leh I wanted to get the strawberry cake but don’t know why I got you the blueberry scone instead.” -_- Major sigh.
We gave up the factory tour because makan and take photos more important laaaah! Hahaha! π
e day
Second tour of the day was a short trek into the mossy forest where the wonders of nature awaits us. We came across a variety of pitcher plants of different shapes and sizes, beautiful wild orchids and herbal plants such as the famous ‘Kacip Fatimah’.
Little did we know that we the mossy forest is also extremely muddy and yucky. The mud was like quicksand! I was the only one wearing slippers and mud splattered everywhere each time I lifted my feet. It was just too gross and I was thinking that we seriously need to turn back. Therefore, we barely managed 10 metres but it was a wise move! The others came back all dirty and had to rinse their shoes as seen in the above collage. Basically we were just camwhoring while waiting for them.
The tour guide told us that we had more climbing to do at the next stop! I was contemplating if I should take off my slippers but I’m glad I had them on. Some parts of the tea plantation are quite steep and also very slippery as it had drizzled earlier on.
After climbing for 10 minutes, we spent only 1 minute taking photos at the vantage point of the tea plantation because the rain got heavier! Sad. Anyway, it is also called the ‘Giant Green Carpet of Malaysia’.
Look at the dark clouds! Nevertheless, we were rewarded with the spectacular sight of the rolling green hills. If climbing uphill was difficult, going downhill was a bitch. I slided a bit every now and then and each time, I would let out a piercing scream. Sorry I cant help it! The daredevils who skipped their way down were giggling at me, I know. π
Yup and this is the souvenir we got from the tea plantation. LOL!
The tour ended at around 4.30pm which also meant that we could check into our room instantly. I love our spacious studio room and the parquet flooring! Definitely gonna have it at least in our bedroom for our future house! π
We wanted to shop around at Brinchang but it’s really impossible to walk out from Strawberry Park Resort and so, we asked the reception to arrange for a cab. Camwhored in the room while waiting! Hahaha. I think the cab took about 40 minutes to get in because of the jam. Sigh.
The cab looks very cute right?! In baby blue somemore! One of my favorite colors!
Hehe we cabbed to Strawberry Moment Dessert Cafe! Besides the strawberry strudel and strawberry mousse, we also had strawberry milkshake. I personally found the desserts mediocre. Haha there’s free wi-fi. We walked over to Brinchang night market, which was open even in the day because of the school holidays. I think I got a couple of magnets and we then we cabbed back to the resort.
Apart from breakfast, our two-night stay also came with steamboat dinner! Nice!
I packed along my strawberry face masks which I bought in Taiwan. Actually I have many others like macaron, chocolate truffle, etc but of course must bring strawberry one right?! We are at Cameron Highlands after all! Hahaha. Yeah we forgot to buy beer when we were at Brinchang town and misterchewy suggested getting a bottle of Budweiser each from the hotel. 2 bottles cost a whopping 56RM after taxes! Haha we had a really good night’s sleep after drinking! π
Even though our tour on the second day of our trip was scheduled to start at 2.30pm, we dragged ourselves up because the buffet breakfast at the resort’s Jim Thompson Terrace ends at 10am! The spread was quite good! We had nasi lemak, omelette, roti prata, etc.
Since we had more than 2 hours to kill, we kinda explored the entire resort!
Strawberry Park Resort is quite a nice place actually! There’s a lovely garden too!
Day Two’s tour wasn’t as exciting as the previous day’s but we weren’t complaining! We enjoyed getting close to the broccoli, corn, strawberries and other crops at the open terrace farm! Hahaha. Tried the corn and it was really sweet!
Somehow, the farm reminded me of this game called Harvest Moon that I used to play! π
Next up was the cactus farm, just a few minute’s ride from the previous destination.
I thought that the cactus farm would be pretty boring but it turned out to be alright! We saw cactuses of all shapes, sizes and colors. The tour guide told us that there were 3000 types.
Mouth itchy, so we bought cup corn and sweet potato balls to munch on while marvelling at the cactuses. Hehe!
Strawberry farm! This is what I had been waiting for! LOL. Couldnt wait to pick all the strawberries in sight! The tour guide told us that coconut fibre is used to grow the strawberry plants as it does not contain any bacteria.
Also, he took a good look at all the (young) couples and told us that strawberries are a symbol of love. LOL. Cuz strawberries are red, looks kinda like a heart shape, and are sweet and sour just like how relationships should be!
<3<3<3
Guess what is being used as fertilizer for these veggies at the organic farm? Volcanic soil. Plenty of nutrients! Somehow they managed to find out that these flies are attracted to the color yellow and by pasting yellow stickers around, there isn’t a need for pesticide.
Even though we were going to have dinner in like less than two hours, I decided to try the scones with strawberry jam at the organic farm. The husband went for a cup of hot strawberry chocolate. Heavenly!
The flower nursery was another few kilometres away. These flowers will come in time for Christmas and Chinese New Year! They smell lovely too!
Sumptuous steamboat dinner as part of the tour package! I guess that area that we were seated at can be considered alfresco dining. Haha. Eating steamboat in a nice cool weather is bliss! Decided to shop around the Brinchang Night Market before heading back to the resort. Couldn’t believe that the husband when he said he wanted to tabao nasi ayam back! Since it was our last chance at ‘shopping’, I bought all the cute strawberry items in sight. Hahaha!
Although our mini honeymoon trip was a very impromptu and short one, we really enjoyed ourselves to the max! It was nice snuggling up close to each other in Cameron Highland’s cool weather too! π Lastly, I would like to thank misterchewy once again for sponsoring my travel, accommodation and all other expenses for this trip. *Muacks* :333 P.S: I’m never gonna look at strawberries the same way again!
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