Cameron Highlands - Farm Ville

Farm Visit

Right after our half-day guided tour of BOH plantation, Gunang Brinchang, and Mossy Forest in the morning, we took another half-day guided tour in the afternoon.
This time to visit the farms in Cameron Highlands - another Cameron Highlands icon - and finally ending the tour with a hotpot dinner (one more thing that Cameron Highlands is famous for).


Vegetable Farm

We began the tour with a visit to a typical, small family-owned farm.

Cauliflower does really look like a flower when covered with leaves!

Chinese Farm

This Chinese-style farm is huge and (I think) collectively ran by the village. One defining characteristic of this farm is the bunded fields used to grow watercress. 

A pulley system for transporting goods from the hills to the farm below:

Strawberry Farm

For a fee (can't recall the price), visitors are allowed to pluck strawberries for themselves. 

In fact, entry inside is allowed only for visitors who paid for this right. Since we were not keen, we went to the cafe upstairs instead, haha. 

Anyway, pics taken at the "holding area" before the entrance.

Hydroponics Farm

Cameron Highlands - Call of the Wild (BOH Tea Plantation, Gunang Brinchang, Mossy Forest)

Call of the Wild

Ok, not so wild, we took a half-day guided tour with Titiwangsa Tour ;) (since there is little public transport and no feasible way of getting around)

First Stop: BOH Tea Plantation

Probably the most iconic fixture in Cameron Highlands is the BOH Tea plantation, which is the largest tea plantation in Malaysia. 

At the BOH tea centre, visitors are allowed into the factory to watch tea processing in action.
Unfortunately, we came during the lull rainy season when there is little tea leaves harvesting activities going on. Thus the factory was idle when we visited.

There was a museum of some sorts, and the device below is apparently in used today for efficient tea leaves plucking. This device weighs ~90kg, and is usually operated by 2 pax.

Beautiful cafeteria overlooking the plantation

Coffee please?? (haha) Cafeteria interior:

2nd Stop: Gunang Brinchang

Gunang Brinchang was a bit of a anti-climax. The summit looked like this:

Admittedly, we got in by minibus, and the "trek" might have been more fun if conquered by foot.
Sidenote: I advise against walking up, as the "path" was shared with cars and was pretty narrow.

The view up there is ..... foggy....  (probably just our bad luck, lol)

There's a small observation tower if you're still not completely discouraged, hahaha

Last Stop: Mossy Forest

Mossy forest is so-named for being covered by a carpet of moss on the ground as well as on the trees.
There is a boardwalk to take you through the forest so it's a pretty easy walk.

See the dew gathered on the moss? Apparently the moss could condense and gather water vapor from the air. The excess water gathered will be dropped to the ground forming mountain streams. Thus, even during dry seasons, there will be water streams running through mossy forest and down the rest of Cameron Highlands.

More moss:

Cameron Highlands Town Hopping! Brinchang and Tanah Rata

Town Hopping!

 Cameron Highlands consists of 3 districts: Brinchang, Tanah Rata and Ringlet, each with a small town centre. 

It's a good idea to stop by one of these towns on your first day to stock up on essentials (e.g. mineral water - we bought a 9-litre bottle ;))

Among these towns, Tanah Rata is the largest, so if you're short on time, you're better off just visiting Tanah Rata. 

These towns are quite far apart, but fortunately our hotel (Equatorial) provides 2-hourly shuttle-bus services to Brinchang --> Tanah Rata. 

Brinchang

(Again, don't think this map was drawn to scale!!)

Brinchang is a very small town that could be walked from one end to the other in 15 min.

This traditional town provides only the bare essentials and offers very little that would interest tourists. On Friday and Saturday nights, however, the town would host a large pasar malam (night market). 

Tanah Rata

Tanah Rata, the largest town in Cameron Highlands, is slightly more interesting (and seems to us, better organised) than Brinchang.
Even then, "largest" is relative, and it could be walked from one end to the other end in 30 min.

The town mainly centres around its main stretch of road with shophouses on both sides.

(Some hidden corner)

(Mary Brown fast food with swings for chairs)

Ringlet

We didn't managed to visit Ringlet (mainly cos our hotel did not provide any shuttle bus service to here). 

But from the map, it seemed to be a very small town (bottom left on the map). 

Cameron Highlands (Part 2)

Maps are not drawn to scale!

Cameron Highlands is NOT a small place.

On hotel or promotional brochure maps, the places of interest are drawn to be very close together.
However, do note that these are not drawn to scale!

(Map taken from Equatorial Hotel. A little worn-out, but still (I hope) somewhat readable) 

If you're staying at Equatorial Hotel, the furthest you can reasonably walk to is probably the Honey Bee Farm (item 4, left of hotel on the map) and the vegetable stalls (item 2, right of Hotel on map).

Vegetable Stalls

(I told you it was dangerous to walk along the roads ;) )

(Small eatery)

Honey Bee Farm (Ee Feng Gu Apiary)

Entrance free =)

Butterfly Farm

The main attraction is of course the butterfly farm, though why butterflies are being farmed, we have no idea..

But the farm has other creepy crawlies as well!

(Scorpions!!)

If You Insist in Walking

If you insist on walking, do note that Cameron Highlands roads are not pedestrian-friendly, and you'll be walking along the road shoulders, which is made worse by the many tour buses and cars that like to park along the road shoulders as well. There are also no traffic lights, so you'll have to jaywalk to cross the roads. More importantly, it can get pretty dark at night, so do wear light colours, or even better, carry a strong flashlight!

I don't have the distances, but I do know that the distance from Equatorial to Brinchang town is 4km; from Brinchang to Tanah Rata is another 5km.

(Why did the chicken cross the road???)