Added some pictures on 31/12.
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In June school holiday, we made a trip to the east coast of peninsular Malaysia. That time, we were in a group of three families drove up in three cars. All of us enjoyed the trip very much and had planned for another trip even before we returned back.
Note: The previous trip log is
here.
Thus in this year end school holiday, the same Wong, Tee and Teo families is again set out on a trip up north. This time, we go on the west coast and our destination is Cameron Highland and Port Dickson. This is a true 游山 (tour to the mountain, CH ) 玩水 (play the water, PD) trip hor.
We planned to take the Simpang Pulai way up to Cameron Highland. Beside the road condition is easier to drive, it's also more scenic and we could stopby some vegetable farms along the way. But more importantly, hee hee… its because we could stopby Ipoh to hunt for some good food there. Slurp slurp….
So here we go…
Day 1 (15/12/07)We set out early in the morning at 6:30am going by the second link. There was moderate jam at second link in Singapore side because we met a convoy of cars from AA and Safra arriving there ahead of us. The checkpoint clearing was slow as almost all cars were full of passengers. It took us over one and half hour to clear Singapore side. Luckily, it was all cleared on Malaysia side and we were on the highway by around 8.30am.
We took a leisure drive and had a break at Pagoh R&R. Thought of taking some breakfast there, but it was terribly crowded, again because the convoy group was ahead of us. We gave up and move on to Ayer Keroh (Restoran Jejantas) for breakfast instead. It was totally different here. No crowd. We could have our breakfast free and easy.
After that, we move on straight to Ipoh. On arriving at Ipoh, we charged all the way to a shop selling salted chicken as we heard a lot that the chicken there are selling out very fast. The shop name is “Restoran Aun Kheng Lim” (
N4 35.683 E101 05.006). There is no eating in as the shop only sells salted chicken, nothing else. So we grab some and “ta pao” away.
Then we move on to “Low Wong Taugeh Chicken” to have our late lunch. This is one of the most famous "Ngar Choy Kai" aka "taugeh chicken” shop around. The taugeh in Ipoh is very famous for is short, fat and crunchy feel. Overall I found it a bit salty to my taste, but not bad lah. There is another shop opposite “Low Wong” which is also selling the same “Ngar Choy Kai”. The shop name is "Onn Kee" and it’s also famous. Will try next time and see whether it is also so salty. Hope it's not.
The above mentioned shops are all nearby each others as shown.
Note: If I didn't indicate coordinates such as for "Low Wong" and "Onn Kee", it means those are already in the maps.
After taken “Ngar Choy Kai”, we move on to check in at the hotel. We stay at the "Ritz Garden Hotel", which is just two minutes drive from "Low Wong". The room rate is cheap for RM110 only per night. The room is a bit small but it’s clean. So not bad for a night stay.
After a short break, we went back to the same place as "Low Wong" because behind it, there is a shop selling local foodstuff such as biscuits, Kai Chai Peng, and such. My wife and wives of the other two families were all too happy because they could buy back a lot of tidbits to give away back home. My wife is the champion, sapu two bags full of stuff and when I got to know the bill amount, I almost fainted. The name of the shop is Yee Thye Cake House & Confectionery (
N4 35.666 E101 05.060).
Next, we move on to Tesco for some light shopping. You know what, we planned to have our own steamboat in Cameron Highland. We brought our steamboat cooker – no joke!! So, we grab some stuff for the steamboat mah. And of course some beers and red wines.
As we had salted chicken waiting for us back in the hotel, we just "ta pao" some extra food to go with it. It happened that we notice there is Nasi Kandar Pelita here in Tesco Ipoh (
N4 37.012 E101 07.100), we “ta pao” some nasi kandar. And yes, the Nasi Kandar is good, the curry smell is superb. Shiok shiok.
Day 2 (16/12/07)After a long drive on day one, Teo and Tee families opt to wake up late and plan to had simple breakfast in the hotel.
My wife and me beg to differ. Since we’re all the way up in Ipoh, we must try out more food. We end up in a shop famous for its curry mee (or laksa as we call it). You can find the shop is the map. The name is – “Xin Quan Fanq”. The laksa here is different, it also has extra “liu” to go with it.
Look at the “liu” in the bowl on the left, it has eight layers of it. Let me count –
1. Ngar Choy (taugeh),
2. chicken intestines,
3. chicken liver,
4. Chicken meat,
5. prawn,
6. Pig head meat,
7. Char Siew,
8. Roasted pork. And a small bowl of curry gravy to go with it. Yum yum ….
After breakfast, we packed up and move on to Cameron highland via Simpang Pulai. Indeed the road to Cameron Highland is easier to drive here, and there is beautiful scenery along the way.
We go all the way until we stop at the self-pluck vegetable farm (and the name is just “Self-Pluck Vegetable Farm” in the map). It’s altitude is about 1440m. It's pretty cooling there. Can see the cloud just above our heads.
Here were can pluck the vegetables ourselves.
we pluck carrots..
these are our result
sweet corns…
For our steamboat.
The lady told us that this is the first generation strawberry. They grow in wild. It has "no heart" i.e. hollow in the inside. But its quite sweet to eat.
I think some kids have never touched an earthworm before.
This is their first time.
The kids love this place and definitely enjoyed it.
Next, we move on and stop at Kg Raja for lunch. I didn’t pre-plan which restaurant to go. Just drive and look around when we reach there. End up, we settle for “Lai Fatt Restrnt” for its convenient of parking.
We brought along vegetables that we’ve just plucked out and ask them to cook for us. The end result is – super fresh and delicious dishes.
Ya the vegee is cooked in two different styles.
Plain fried...
and sambal chili...
Again, it's super fresh. But, can you imagine the vegee are like this just 1 ~2 hours ago...
many leaves at the outers layer are thrown away.
After lunch, we visit to Boh Tea plantation and their visitor center at Sg Palas. We make sure to make it to visit on the day we just arrive as the next day is Monday and the visitor centre is close.
The road to the tea plantation is horribly narrow.
We've to stop, get down from car to access and guide cars passes through the narrowest point when both ends are having few cars trailing, making it impossible for either side to reverse and give way.
Look at this mark, some cars must have had a big scratch squeezing throught here.
And, finally here it is. Sg Palas Tea Plantation.
There is a café hanging half way in the air…
And we were sitting there enjoying our tea and coffee.
We have a late check in to the Equatorial hotel. We took up a three-room apartment like this.
Our apartment is on the fourth floor, it's good, clean and spacious….
On ya, we met the same AA and Safra convoy group there. There were also staying at Equatorial.
That night we leave the kids playing in the apartment while the parents are out for steamboat dinner.
We went early for steamboat at “Golden Win Steamboat”. Its only RM13 per head.
We brought self plucked vegetables for them to cook and ordered extra and “ta pao” some fried noodles and fried rice back for our kid.
There’s little problem here. As we have 6 kids and a maid, we “ta pao” three dishes, fried meehoon, fried mee, and fried rice. Three person portion each. End up they gave us three packets each of the dishes. Total of 9 packets! Each Packet is so big portion that is good for two persons to share. Ha ha, we paid RM78 only for the steamboat there but need to pay another RM60+ for the “Ta Pao”. What a miscommunication.
to be continued.......
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for those pictures and a welcome trip back home for a safe journey... 
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. But they have some other plants beside strawberries for us to view
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