A couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us from the Volkswagen Malaysia Club embarked on a weekend holiday at Cameron Highlands. We managed to book a bungalow at Tanah Rata which was located very close to the bus station. In total there were about 30 of us but not all of us squeezed into the bungalow.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, I missed the convoy heading up to Camerons on Friday afternoon so I decided to take a drive up at night. Thanks to heavy rain, the journey was not an easy one. Besides having to avoid heavy traffic coming out of the Klang Valley, I am really thankful for the Guthrie highway which provided me an easy avenue out of the NKVE and straight towards Rawang. I initially wanted to stop at the Rawang rest area to fuel up and grab a quick dinner but thanks to the hordes of people camping there waiting for the rain to subside, I decided to continue on ahead.
By the time I reached Tapah, the rain had already subsided. After a quick bite at KFC, we then departed onwards to Simpang Pulai. I decided to try out the new route up to Camerons, instead of taking the usual route through Tapah, there has been a lot of reported landslides on the old route through Ringlet.
The new route via Simpang Pulai is a much safer route especially if you are travelling at night. The roads are newer and the uphill roads have dual lanes at quite a fair bit of points. Do note that the route is very winding so if you are going on a spirited drive especially at night, make sure you use your high beam lights throughout the drive. There are a number of very misleading sharp corners. Traffic up this route wasn’t that heavy, I think I only encountered like 4 trucks on the way up.
This route will bring you through Brinchang and then towards Tanah Rata.
Upon reaching at our destination at Tanah Rata, a quick shower and a quick change and I was ready to join the gang for some “games”, which involved cards, and lots of yawning away. Heck it was already 3am at night!
The next day we went out for scones and tea at the Lord’s Cafe. Now if anyone asks where are the best scones in Cameron Highlands, I would definitely say, “The Lord’s Cafe” at Tanah Rata. The jam that came with the scones were heavenly and I can definitely say that we all enjoyed ourselves at the place and even some of us brought back a huge number of scones for loved ones.
After scones we had more food by sipping tea at the Cameronian Valley and enjoying the view. None of us wanted to drive towards the Boh Tea plantation especially since we had so many owners with lowered rides and none of us brought a Touareg!
When night came, we started it all off with a barbecue and chit-chat which went on all the way till late at night.
The one thing I never did like about Camerons is that the traffic there is really crazy, because of the one way in and one way out, whenever we did pass Brinchang, we would get stuck in insane traffic. Heck on the way back, I was stuck for 40 minutes and over that 40 minutes I probably drove about 100m. I made a quick u-turn and then used the older Tanah Rata route back home. Overall it was a fun trip up Camerons and definitely would love to do it again when I have the time!
