Strawberry park although the room has aged but still having the luxury setting & it's also on top of a mountain summit similar to Equatorial although not so high as Equatorial (Which is the highest hotel in CH)

The bathroom of the single suite is super big. Century pine..for sure it's new compare wth others. make sure u dun choose the old wing beside the river stream as this location is noisy not only the stream but also the Morning call.

Wei dun spam here-loh....Wait till ur butt got sack later..

The Q 1 & 2 PM u later-lah OT oledi.

The mountain water..hehe I'm one of those collectors! well not dare to drink. When I asked those guys, come say they drink direct, some cook 1st & some for ritual mandi!..If no rain for few days, u will be screaming waiting for the waterflow that took for ages..i abandoned 1/2way....can't wait 1hr to refill 1.5ltr bottle..

Those restaurants at Brinchang I hv abandoned long time ago.....Super expensive probably 2nd to the Gohtong Jaya restaurants row!! Never eat at berinchang!! Goto Tanah rata, there are 2 reasonable nice steamboats (Mayflower & Hong kong) & also 1 nice BKT although I personaly haven't try...the BKT recommended by 1 MSM guy. All 3 restaurants are in MFM...u check there ho..

U must know where to find food..Those higher than Tanah Rata confirm cut-throat especially those in Brinchang..sumore horrible taste! Those in Tanah Rata is reasonable & having similar to KL price. I liek Tanah Rata Mayflower & Hong Kong steamboat...sumore Hong Kong sometime ada curve..

Someting liek Ahjames avatar-lah. but sometime ada sometime tarak.

Ahjames...itu resort b4 renovated, Merlin Inn ah...veli the spooky loh....Stay 1 nite manyak sound punya... U go & try Hong Kong fish head curry..veli the nais. the curve lagi enjoi.

Going there tis Saturday hopefully the curve still ada..


This post has been edited by stimix: May 28 2009, 12:00 PM

Just to share what I did during my recent CH trip on Saturday & Sunday....I went for Refllesia flower hunting!!

I booked the 1/2 day tour from TJ Tour at Tanah Rata (RM60/pax & RM30/child)..Meeting point at Kea farm butterfly farm. The road trip took me ~45min from Kea Farm to Lojing in Gua Musang Kelantan.

We went wth 2 hired guide (Was told the agent paid RM30/pax to the Temiang orang asli. Dunno true or not ) From the orang asli settlement it's just another 200M away where we detoured into a real unpaved logging tracks!! 2.5km of roller cosater ride, the dirt road stopped at the trail head & thereafter...another 2KM or ~1 hr++ walking in thick jungle towards the refflesia site

Here's the photos from my once in lifetime sighting of the largest flower in the world! This species is the 3rd largest species after the Sumetera & Sabah species.





Here's my GPS tracklogs to the refflesia location in pos lojing:


Based on the GPS reading here's the location in wikimapia which I hv tagged.:

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=4.6354569&lon=10...=13&l=0&m=a&v=2

School Holiday..definitely packed! At RM200 during peak period, you probably getting those so-so hotels such as Rosa Pasadena, Rainbow, Iris House, Star Recency, Titiwangsa, Parkland & more in Brinchang. Or in Tanah Rata, probably Cool point, Cameronian Inn & etc..Tanah Rata is nmore for budget travellers thus you can find much reasonable pricing Inns rather than hotels such as Twin Peak, Julina, KRS & etc..mostly ~RM80 duirng peak & RM60 during off-peak (Wth attached bathroom)

Well, there are two packages actually i.e RM98 (Promotion =RM88 as shown in the picture below. contact no 012-9108111 (Wan Saleh)):


The full day tour (RM88), they will pick-u up from respective hotels ( I think -din chk wth them) but for the 1/2 day tour which they don't really offer but I insisted because I hv been to the mossy forest & also the tea plantation many times already..So they offered me RM28 discount for the 1/2 day tour which ended up longer than 1/2 day!! The starting/pick-up point was at the Kea Farm 1st Butterfly farm which is just ~200m further from Equatorial.

The full day journey started from Tanah Rata at 8:30am but they picked me at 9:30am due to the jam at Brinchang & Kea far (Holiday season now!)

The starting point of the off roiad at Lojing (Pos Brooke area) is at 650M so it's hot but still cooler than lowland. Once reaching the end of the 4WD road, my GPS read 880M. so abit cooling just like Bkt Bendera Penang. Once u started climbing & touching the hill area where Reffllesia Kerr ii colonies located, it's 1020M..so weather abit cooling but still not as cool as CH. Anyway, now is the "summer" mth in Malaysia so expecting higher than usual temperature. Last Saturday to Monday Morning, avg day temperature =23C and night temp =20C. Dawn temperature recorded by me in the early morning ~6am on Sunday =18C nia...During Nov & Dec mth, I have recorded low temperature of 15C b4. & day temp of 19C.

Out of 16ppl in 2 land rovers, only 3 Malaysian (My family-lah) & another Chinese looking couple (Probably Singaporean), others..all Mat Salleh! According to Francis (Our driver & guide wth super fluent England..making my england damn shameful), only ~2-5% of the refflesia tours are Malaysian...haizz...why Malaysian so scare masuk hutan ...This was the part I fell down...damn scary descending down this refflesia hill...My hand still hurt till now..



The river crossing:


BTW, the refflesia that I saw was huge...almost the size of my 11 yr old daughter:


@Kimmie...min 4 ppl required, but they received lotsa Mat Salleh customers ...so they will willing to accept even u are alone..just give hima a call or visit the parent agent here..same pricing: http://www.cameronsecrets.com/Articles/Loc...Rafflesia-Tour/

This post has been edited by stimix: Jun 4 2009, 11:07 AM

I stayed at Rosa Pasadena this time booked in Mar'09 using my left over time sharing point.....well abit regretted bcos room facing Shell station & brinchang main road..noisy! Lucky after 9pm traffic reduced & hv better sleep. However the room is clean & medium sized but bathroom is small.

There are more hotels in CH such as Parkland, Rainbow (Part of Rosa also), Kavy (Budget, Titiwangsa (pretty new), Star regency..Brinchang is convenient as it's near the largest pasar Malam (The only thing I like about Brinchang) Otherwise, for makan, I travel all the way to Tanah Rata...for Mayflower steamboat daily!! Food in Brinchang are expensive & suxx!

In Tanah Rata, there are lotsa budget hotels...such as Twin Peak, KRS, Julian Cameron Inn, Downtown & etc...price from RM60-RM150 depending on season.

Infact all hotels located near main road are not recommended. Noisy...which include Rainbow, Titiwangsa, Iris hse & etc...If u are on budget & dun really mind the room size, go for KRS huesthouse located at the end of Jln Mengtigi Tanah Rata (Entrance near Maybank Tanah Rata. Although very basic & very small wth no TV but wth attached bathroom..but it's very clean & the shared Astro TV outside..sometime/most of the time nobody using & u can enjoy all channels to yourselve.

Sumore walking distance to Mayflower & Nyonya ferrn steamboats....I tasted both..Still vote for Mayflower although the portion is much lesser than Fern Nyonya.

Strawberry park so far the best & quiet resort for me although pretty old. Good choice but not cheap at this time. Actually for real relaxing...my vote is KRS guesthouse... cheap & value for money. Yeah after 9pm road will be pretty empty but once in a while, some mat rempit or screaming lorries will pass-by....I dun like this!

@kimmie..I broke my record in 2007 by going there almost every quarters & sometime detoured from PLUS highway jam just for Mayflower steamboat. Stopped doing this in 2008 during the fuel price hike...The pasar malam opened every weekend..Friday to Sunday...I can see few PaSAR malam stalls fronting the police station opened on Monday Morning too..probably cater for the Holiday

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Added on June 4, 2009, 3:11 pmSurprisingly this species Refllesia kerrii doesn't emit any smell ...Monkey cup no-lah but snake & wild ginger flowers ada-lahThis post has been edited by stimix: Jun 4 2009, 03:11 PM

If no transport stick to Tanah Rata. bcos thjat's where the bus terminal for CH located.

All the hotels/apt u mentioned all located in Brinchang which is 5km further from Tanah Rata. It will be problem if without transport.

As driftmesiter said ..standard pricing but if u click on my above photo, currently TJ tour is running the full day package at RM88!

1/2 day is at RM60 without Boh Tea & strawberry farm...I choose 1/2 day. BTW, this trip is only for those wth stamina or atleast can tahan hiking inside thick jungle as you're required to hike atleast 1.5-2hr (~2.3km from the end of the logging road) before reaching the refflesia site. Alos refflesia is very seasonal, chances is during that week no refllesia blooming...or when u reach there, the refflesia almost dying

When I was there during the beginning of holiday, it's biz as usual on Saturday, Sunday & even Monday morning some of the stalls started early!! just like Kea Farm market

I haven't stay there b4 but from the location, I will not book this hotel bcos it's right beside main road at the entrance of Brinchang....noisy! No idea on condition should be good bcos very new.

geezz..AhJames & Vin_ann copied my earlier big flower story..so baddd...

Aik..I tot someone just posted the review on titiwangsa 2-3 posts earlier?

Driving using the old road no problem-lah...except it's narrow. & windy compare to the new road...The gradient is not so sloppy compare to genting and thuse, dun worry if no power...The toughest highland road in M'sia is Genting. If u can go up genting, CH old road is kacang putih...except narrow & windy.

try these few via google:

http://www.aloharesorts.com.sg/index.php?o...=352&Itemid=739

http://my.88db.com/my/Services/Post_Detail.../?PostID=190109

http://www.cameronhighlands.com/Accommodat...ting/Bungalows/

For me food & quiet environment (Staying far from the main road) =Tanah rata..but for pasar malam, lousy food, noisy hotels & more shops= Brinchang

Starwberry park still remained the best for me...right on top of mountain summit, far away from main road..very relaxing...

This post has been edited by stimix: Jun 26 2009, 07:46 AM

Time tunnel is about 1.5km uphill from Brionchang..1/2way to Kea farm. You can hike but will be very tiring...I have seen Mat Salleh hike up to Gunung brinchang & even travel by foot from Tanah Rata to brinchnag...so I think No problem of hiking up to time tunnel...just 1500m away..

Honestly this is one really good museum...bringing back my memory & also lotsa of old photos of Cameron since 1930 till now...even few ex- british came back & visit this museum contributing their personal photos to this museum.