2017 Trip to Malaysia (Day 3: Cameron Highlands)..........Part 4

Vegetable Farms in Cameron Highlands

2017 Trip to Malaysia (Day 3: Cameron Highlands).........Part 3

Fresh Air, nice weather, green mountains, simple home style cooked food....

After visiting Tan's Camelia Garden , we spent the day in Cameron Highlands exploring gardens, mountain trail and nice food of course.

We went on the Jungle Walk number 3, which is more family friendly.















Following the trail walking, we visited a nearby Strawberry Farm.














Visited the Kea Farm Market, near Brinchang Town.
The stores sell mainly the local produce such as tomatoes, corn, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, sweet potatoes, beans, flowers and toys.









In the evening, we returned to Brinchang Town, where we had our dinner. There were many restaurants, many of which family-owned.

Our favourite dishes were mixed vegetable with tofu and meat in claypot, stir fried pumpkin and other stir fried local vegetables (long bean, Chayote leaves (Chinese name is 龙须菜) and omelette. There are also various meat dishes such as black pepper venison, sweet and sour meat, lemon chicken and many more.





Steamboat eateries are everywhere.






Brinchang Town Center.




Stir Fried pumpkin


Stir Fried Chayote Leaves


Mixed Vegetables and tofu in a claypot.


Stir Fried beef with ginger and onion.


Simple onion omelette.

Hotel Jasmine - where we spent our nights

View of Brinchang Night Market, from our hotel room

2017 Trip to Malaysia (Day 3: Cameron Highlands).........Part 2

On our way to the vegetable farms, we passed by the famous Smokehouse Hotel, Cameron Highlands.

Snapped a few photos for souvenir, though we did not stay there.

2017 Trip to Malaysia (Day 3: Cameron Highlands)..........Part 1

We visited (by chance) a fascinating garden, owned by the Tan couple. Their lovely green haven is hidden in the Town of Tanah Rata, next to a forest trail.


'Tan's Camelia Garden'


The entrance doesn't look like much, but further in, a mini paradise awaits.........

2017 Trip to Malaysia (Day 2: Cameron Highlands)................... Part 2

...... continued from Part 1

After a hearty Dim Sum meal Ipoh, we started our ascend up Cameron Highlands.




First stop - the Cameron Lavendar Garden

http://cameronlavender.com/
Tringkap, Cameron Highlands, 39100 Pahang, Malaysia.

2017 Trip to Malaysia (Day 2: Ipoh - Cameron Highlands)...............Part 1

Saying goodbyes are never easy. We bid grandma and relatives well and set off from Kuala Lumpur at about 8.30 a.m. It was a smooth ride on the North-South Expressway. Took us about 3.5 hours to come into sight the famous caves of Ipoh outskirts. 

Ipoh was once an important town for the mining of tin. Big houses and grand mansions can be seen in the city and older parts of the city area. These were once the residential area of the rich immigrants from the north who made a successful living out of tin mining industry and other related businesses.

2017 Trip to Malaysia (Day 1: Kulai - Mantin - KL).........Part 3

...........continued from Part 2


After we finished the "photo shoot" at Sekolah Menegah Mantin (Secondary School), we drove a short while along the narrow and quiet lanes of the small town.






We also visited the old houses where my mom and family once lived, including the one where I lived as a baby...



The house where I spent my childhood (baby-hood actually)....

see it below... nothing has changed much, even though it's been 30 over years.......... seeing the house after all these years really brought back endless memories...



Dad carrying me beside his first car

2017 Trip to Malaysia (Day 1: Kulai - Mantin - KL).........Part 2

Continue from the earlier post.....

We had our lunch, and went on to my mother's old school. There was not much change (according to her)  in the physical building structure; the only obvious difference from 40, 50 years ago (wow!) was probably the use of CCTV and computers and some minor renovations. We took some nice photos for mother, while my children ran off having fun in the field and deserted corridors (it was holidays).

2017 Trip to Malaysia (Day 1: Kulai - Mantin - KL).........Part 1

Today is the first day mid-year school holidays. We woke up at 4.30am (yes, A.M.) just so we could beat the long queue that is bound to form at the Tuas Link to Malaysia. We are going to spend a few days in KL and Cameron Highlands. Cameron Highlands used to be my yearly family trip... well, when my sisters and I were much younger then, still schooling, to be exact. There were 3 of us then, back in Malaysia, as our youngest sister was not "conceived" until we shifted to Singapore some decades ago.  

Now, for the first time, I am bringing my 2 curious pre-teens to Cameron Highlands, just so I could tell them stories about my younger days' trips, the adventures of forest hiking and the mountains of tea plantations.


Breakfast stop at Kulai

Traffic was smooth at the customs, so our efforts to rise early did not go to waste:) As we did not had any food before leaving, we decided to drop by Kulai to have some nice local breakfast. I am not unfamiliar with Kulai. It is one of the bigger towns in southern part of Johor State in Malaysia. In fact, Kulai was where my paternal grandparents lived. When I was little, we would take long, tiring 7 hour trip from Kuala Lumpur to Kulai to visit them during Chinese New Year and school holidays.

Carrot Cake

Bought a lot of carrots, thinking of making some carrot juice. However, changed my mind and made this carrot cake instead.



Thanks to my sister Elizabeth who shared her recipe with me. I reduced the sugar from the cake and modified the cream cheese icing slightly.

Ingredients A:

100g sugar 

3 eggs

150g corn oil 

Ingredients B:

164g plain flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 ½ tsp cinnamon powder

1 ¼ tsp baking powder

Ingredients C:

200g grated carrots 

55g chopped walnuts (I crushed it with a cup)