Steamboats

Steamboats are everywhere, so you just gotta have some. It's great to have something hot when the nights are so cool.

We settled for this shop called 'Silverstar' at Brinchang town.

RM 20 nett per head.

Top up fish balls RM 10.00 (!)
Additional mushrooms RM 10.00 (!)
Tea RM 8.00

Total Bill RM 128.00 (5 pax)

We had 'yin yong' meaning half tom yam soup and half chicken soup.

Do I recommend this place?

Most absolutely NOT.

The tomyam portion wasn't tasty. Quite bland.

We discovered later that it was expensive in comparison to others.

The restaurant is on the left side of Hotel Chua Gin (see pic below). The word 'Silverstar' is probably too small to see..

I hurriedly snapped this picture because we were just driving past this shop.

The next night, as we didn't want to get caught in the jam again just looking for dinner, we decided to settle for any restaurant within walking distance from the hotel.

So from Equatorial Hotel, we walk towards the right and lo and behold we saw Jin Jin Restaurant. It was just about 100m from the hotel road junction.

The restaurant is not visible from the road, it's situated at the basement, so we had to walk downstairs before this sight greeted us...

Hmmm.... not bad. The ambience was pretty nice.

And their steamboat is only RM 17 per head!

This steamboat I would recommend! The tomyam was more flavourful, and their chicken soup was not just any chicken soup. It was herbal chicken soup. It had the aroma and flavour of yok chok, kei chi, tong kwai, etc.

Their prawns were big and fresher too! Delicious... yum.

Although there were 5 of us, we only ordered for 4. But we still had leftovers, coz their helpings were pretty generous! So take note, if you have 5 adults, order for 4 would be enough.

Our bill only came up to RM 93, and it was more satisfying.

Remember, Jin Jin restaurant at Brinchang, just next to Equatorial Hotel.

Traffic Jam?!

The last time I came to Cameron Highlands was more than 20 years ago...
What traffic jam.... no such thing then.

But now....*sigh*... check this out.

We travelled from Tanah Rata back to Brinchang, which is less than 5 km... and it took us 1.5 hours!!!

Problem is all the farms and touristy spots are along the main Cameron Highland road, so tourists slow down to look, slow down to park, slow down to look for parking...

So this is what you get..

Being bored in the traffic jam, I snapped a picture of the supposedly famous Cameron Highlands Resort. Think it's suppose to be the best resort in Camerons. Can anyone confirm this?

I don't know coz I never stayed there.

I even had time to catch up with some news on the newspaper while 'driving'.

Scones and Tea, a must have!

The RM 733.70 per night in Equatorial Hotel comes with a food credit of RM 180. You can use this for any of the restaurants in Equatorial Hotel.

So we were forced to patronise the restaurants at Equatorial Hotel.

We chose the 'Coffee Shop'.. at the ground floor the main Equatorial building.

We sat at the terrace, overlooking the lovely trees and gardens outside. The air was fresh and cool. It was simply lovely! Ahhh.....

Here's what it looks like if you peer over the terrace balcony.

Another angle taken at the Coffee Shop from where we sat.

The caffe latte was interesting, different layers of colours.

Of course, we just had to have the Cameron Highlands signature scones and tea. So we ordered a set here.

Theirs were walnut and raisin scones, served beautifully...

Look at that... scones with butter, jam, strawberries and cream! Oo la la.

The whole set cost RM 20.70 nett.

The scones here were a bit crumbly but it tasted quite ok.

And their apple pie was oh, so heavenly! The pastry just melts in your mouth. One of the best apple pies I have ever tasted!

Cost? Er... forgot to take note of. Think it's around RM 14 after tax.

They served the apple pie with ice cream and whipped cream topped with slices of apple. If you wish to order this, you'd have to remind them of the ice cream. That's because we came back again the next day and had the apple pie again, but this time they didn't serve with the ice cream! There's no consistency!!

At that time, I forgot that I had taken this picture the day before, I could have showed them the picture and insisted on my ice cream! Coz the vanilla ice cream was also quite creamy and yummy.

We also had a strawberry cheese cake..... very interesting presentation, I must say.

I think the price was something like RM 13++, can't really remember.

Another angle of the cheesecake.

The cake was rich and delicious, but I think Secret Recipe's cheesecake still win hands down.

I ordered a Beef Hor Fun...
Very normal and nothing spectacular. Beef was super tough....

On the last day, we went to Rajoo's Strawberry farm. We noticed that they served scones and tea and waffles too!

This is how their waffles set looked like. It came with a cup of tea.

It was simply delicious! Cost us RM 6.00 per set.

And we also decided to try Rajoo's Scones and Tea set.

The scones here were superb!!! And it was cheaper too! RM 12 per set.

Lovely....oh so lovely! Yummy.....

If you wish to check out Rajoo's strawberry farm and try their delicious scones and waffles... they're located just opposite Equatorial Hotel's resort.

You'd need to drive uphill to enter their farm. The Indian couple there (I presume must be Mr and Mrs Rajoo, were very pleasant and friendly).

Managed to quickly snap a shot of the farm (the road leading upwards on the left is the entrance to Rajoo's strawberry farm) as we were driving away.

Strawberry Galore!

Naturally, when you are in Cameron Highlands, you've just GOT to pick strawberries right...?

Absolutely.

While looking for a decent strawberry farm to go to... we passed one with this sign...

Errr.... did I read it right? Something doesn't look right here...

Saw the sign again at the other side of the building.

SELF PLUCKING????

Since when do we pluck strawberries?

We only pluck feathers, hello?

Anyway.... driving along... I just got to take a picture here.

Ahh.... look at Equatorial Hotel in the background, looks grand huh... right atop the peak of Brinchang.

Hang on.... I want be in the picture.

There.... it looks more complete. You think?

Looks very Cameron Highland -ish.

Then we saw another farm...

Ahh.... that looks more like it. PICK your own strawberries.

So eventually we did stop at one of the farms, to check out the strawberries. Don't think the farm we stopped at was EQ farm... can't remember which one already...too many!

Where are the strawberries?

There's 1....2....

some odd shaped ones...

Interesting sign before you are allowed to pick your strawberries.

NO EATING WHILE PLUCKING.
Errr... did I say 'plucking'? I meant, 'picking'. Duh.

Anyway, there was BAD NEWS for us.

We were not allowed to pluck....er, pick any strawberries!!!

The strawberries weren't in season!! Apparently, strawberry picking season is only around March and April.

Darn.

Double darn, I forgot to snap a picture of the "Sorry, strawberry picking is closed for now." sign. So that you'll believe me.
Guess I was so disappointed I forgot to snap a picture of the sign.

Well, let me warn you, ladies and gentlemen. If your sole purpose to go to Cameron Highlands is to pick strawberries, DO NOT GO in December. Coz there's when I was there. Try March or April, they told us that's when the strawberry picking season is.
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So what to do? Have to buy their already picked strawberries.

Ok.... looks yummy indeed.

What? RM 25... for a pack of 36?!
This looks worse! RM 15 for 15 strawberries!

Sigh.. you would think that you can get cheaper strawberries by going to Camerons. NO frickin' way! They really know how to take advantage of the tourists there. And the locals are not spared. The price of the strawberries are more or less the same as those imported ones.

I won't be surprised if they imported some and sold them here... well, they did say that it's not the strawberry season.

Well, anyway, we just HAD to HAVE some yummy looking strawberries, so we bought some.

Don't they look awesome! You just got to have some with the whipped cream. Some farms serve them with cream like the Rajoo's strawberry farm we went to the next day. You need to pay like RM 2 extra for the cream but it just tastes so much better.

Other variations of strawberries...

Dried preserved ones.

Tastes quite ok actually.

You can also get pure concentrated strawberry juice. This concentrated strawberry paste (I call it paste coz it looks more like a paste when I tried to pour some out into a glass) is also great for cheesecake toppings!

Did I mention that you can find many strawberry items?

Strawberry brollies, strawberry lollies, strawberry bags, strawberry handphone pouches....

oh, the list goes on and on...

My sister-in-law.... rambang mata.

Strawberry bags and strawberry key chains....

The big strawberry you see here is a strawberry knapsack.

This was taken at the Brinchang market, plenty of stuff to see. You just got to take a look. They also sell fruits and vegetables, honey, juices, etc.

Basically, they sell these stuff everywhere, you can't miss them.

Later on, we went to Tanah Rata for lunch. Stumbled onto this SRI BRINCHANG Indian Restaurant (strange, it is located in Tanah Rata, but called Sri Brinchang..)

There were many people here, so naturally we thought the food should be good.

And guess what? Check out the menu! There's also Strawberry Naan!

Found the item on the menu?

And there's Strawberry roti canai too!

I had a strawberry lassi... and after taking in a few gulps, I remembered that I wanted to take a photo!

thus, what you see here is my quarter drunk strawberry lassi.

We actually saw the guy making the strawberry lassi. He put in a generous number of strawberries, like 10 (hey, I'm not kidding) and a little bit of yoghurt and blended it all in.

If there was more yoghurt, my lassi would be heaven. Cost me RM 4 only for my lassi which I think was worth it considering how many strawberries he put in.

The Breathtaking Views

But the one thing that I can't complain..... being in this hotel, is the amazing...breathtaking views!

This is the view from the balcony.



Looking lower down....


A bit to the left.......

A bit to the right.....

Darn... some construction work going on there.... ! Oh heck.

The views of the vegetable farms were simply marvellous anyway.

Equatorial Resort, Cameron Highlands

YES, this is the hotel that we'll be staying in. Picture taken from a picture....ho ho.

Equatorial Resort, Cameron Highlands.

RM 638++, thus it is really RM 733.70 per night!

For a 2 bedroom apartment.

Let's see if it's worth it.

That's the 1st room with the king sized bed...

There's a balcony just outside, so you can actually climb in through window to the 1st room.

The bathroom for the 1st room...

This is the other room, twin sharing..

And this is the view from the room..

The kitchen ....

with bare cupboards..

More bare cupboards...

The dirty rusted stove....




The living room, where you can access the balcony...

What do you think? Is it worth RM 733.70 per night?

And check this out.....

Hmm..... initially I thought that they won't replenish after the 1st day and that any replenishment would cost us RM 5 nett (!) but I think I was mistaken. This note meant that if we want any extra coffee or tea, then it's chargeable. Correct me if I'm wrong.

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Anyway, I think RM 733.70 per night for this 2 bedroom apartment is an absolute RIP-OFF!!!

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Here's why I think RM 733.70 per night is a rip-off!

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1. We didn't have nice comforters, it was the old fashioned guni -sack-like blankets.

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2. The walls were dirty, they badly need repainting.

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3. The kitchen was empty. Why bother with a kitchen then? No utensils, pots, etc. for cooking. The stove wasn't even working.

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4. The shower wasn't strong, the water flowed in a sparse pathetic way.

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5. The water in the toilet cistern took forever to fill up..

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6. The carpets in the cupboards were grotty and dirty. (Hotel personnel, if you are reading this, please check! You think people don't look at the flooring of the cupboards? It's disgusting, I tell you)

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7. The sofa bed (oh, yes, there was a sofa bed in the living room) was hard and uncomfortable.

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8. Inefficient hotel service.... SIGH.