Cameron Highlands is known as the most extensive hill formation in Malaysia, and is a real English summer heaven. Cameron Highlands is located at Pahang, near the Kelantan border, and shares part of the area with Perak, covering 712 square kilometres, an area as big as Singapore. According to history, this place was found by Sir William Cameron in 1885. In today times it consists of the villages of Tanah Rata, Ringlet, Brinchang, Bertam Valley, Tringkap, Kuala Kerla and Kampung Raja.
Flowers at a flower farm
Cameron Highlands offers a salubrious climate with daily temperatures averaging between 17 and 23 degrees Celsius. Like an eternal English summer heaven, Cameron Highlands was once the vacation spot for officers and their families during British rule in Malaysia, and has since evolved into a bustling tourist destination and temperate agricultural center: flowers, tea, fruits and vegetables are grown there, and thanks for the wide choice of accommodation for visitors, Cameron Highlands is the best retreat for those who love a touch of amazing nature in the hilly area or peninsular Malaysia.
Cameron HIghlands tra plantations
Cameron Highlands has always been part of my traveling dreams, and this desire is perhaps due to the fact that I was born in a very natural area and I am always looking for natural places when I plan any trip. It took me years to finally get to visit Cameron Highlands, and by the time I finally managed to make up my mind, I had so much knowledge of the place thanks to the various information I have gathered about the place during the years.
It was raining heavily when my friend and I started our trip. I can still remember the clouds and the mist that covered the sky, and since I was only wearing a plain t-shirt and pants that day, I felt so cold; steam came out of my mouth when I talked! From my car window, I observed old cottages by the roadside where Orang Asli, the aboriginal people, sold honey and other locally made products. It was getting late that day so we decided to drive directly to our hotel at Tanah Rata.
Cato at the Boh tea plantation, Cameron Highlands
After checking in, we took a walk to the town. People wore thick clothes to protect from the low temperatures, and the whole place reminded me of some old English movies. It was getting really dark; we filled our hungry bellies at a simple Malay restaurant enjoying the scenery around us, and later headed to a massage shop where we had the luck of being served by a native, warm and amicable person of local origins from Pahang. Back to the hotel, we snugged under the bed covers to make us warm. When booking a hotel in Cameron Highlands, you certainly do not need to worry about air conditioning.
The morning after we woke up early, we breakfasted and were ready to follow my wish list of places to visit. Since Cameron Highlands is most famous for its tea production facilities, the first stop was at the Boh Tea Farm, a British-owned company with huge tea plantations and a reception center where you can sample different qualities of tea and purchase fresh tea to take back home. I bought some for mum, since she loves tea so much. Next we drove to a nearby plantation called Bharat Tea Plantations, passing along several vegetable farms on the way.
A visit to a market is a must at Cameron Highlands, and Ringlet is a hub of Malaysia‘s vegetable farming and international flower farming sector. With this in mind we headed to Ringlet market where I bought roses and lavender. Ringlet, located at an elevation of 1,135 metres above sea-level is a very unique town: it feels much like a trading area for commercial activities, with its old style shops that cater for local folks; Tudor-style houses dot the town surroundings.
Strawberry Farm
Our next stop was at the apple and strawberry farm in the Tanah Rata area. Cameron Highlands is a major production center for these two fruits, so I took the opportunity and sampled some at the farm. At the Rose Garden, I loved the various blooms of roses, carnations, chrysanthemum, dalias, geranium, fuchsias and gladioli. And as I love lavender, I insisted for a tour of the Lavender Farm. Known also as Lavandula, this amazing wild flower sports a bright purple colour and is used to produce a wide range of products such as make up, skin care, tea, medicines, cakes and perfumes. The flowers at the farm grow in terraced hill slopes, offering a dazzle of colors for visitors to admire and photograph.
The famous Cameron Highlands lavender
Unfortunately, due to the extremely rainy weather, we regrettably had to cancel a stop at the Enchanted Forest, known as Mossy Forest. Brinchang is actually one of the easiest access spots in the world to a mossy forest, with a tarred road reaching right to the peak of the ridge.
That’s all I can share with you about my trip. As you could read, even though we only really had one full day, we could visit lots of attractions and fully enjoy every single one of them. Cameron Highlands is amongst the most beautiful places I have visited so far, hence I plan to make another trip there someday in the future. So, for those who want a full experience holiday and wish to feel like in an English summer heaven, visit Cameron Highlands and I promise that you will not regret it.
What to see and do in Cameron Highlands:
1. Butterfly farm
2. Visit to a market
3. Buy fresh flowers
4. Rose Garden
5. Bees Farm
6. Lavender Garden
7. Agro Technology Park Mardi
8. Strawberry Farm
9. Tea Plantations
10. Brinchang Mossy Forest or Enchanted Forest
11. Vegetables Farm
12. Have a massage-reflexology
