On the Mountains : Cameron Highlands (Final Part – Brinchang Town)

(Day 1)After visiting a few places (Check out : Part 1) we checked in at the Country Lodge in Brinchang at around 5pm. The price was quite affordable at RM98 per night. Had a good hot water bath and relaxed for a while before going out to visit the Brinchang town. The hotel is very near to the town so we chose to walk instead of driving. First place was the Handicraft Centre opposite Pasaraya Jimat and my wife bought some souvenirs and a Strawberry balloon for my son. Just walked around the area to get the feel in the town. :P It was quite cold as well and we stopped for dinner. One thing to note is the food there is expensive but not tasty at all. Took some photos of the old buildings in the town and headed back to hotel as it started to rain. Good thing to note is, it only rains for about 10 minutes each time then it stops. It rained quite a few time during our stay here but only to a maximum time of 10 minutes. And there will be no indication that it is going to rain. It just rains.. :P

(Day 2)The next morning, while it was raining we headed to one of the Vegetable market along the roadside.Suddenly, when I saw outside the shop there was fog outside.It was a scene to enjoy. It was as if we were in the middle of the clouds. So white and so cooling..

End of the Journey

After a few visits in Tea Plantations and a few other places (check out my post : Part 2 ) it was already around 4.30pm and we decided to end our journey in Brinchang and head back home. This time we used the Tapah road as wanted to experience the dwindling road over here.. hehehe.. This road definitely takes longer than the Simpang Pulai road. We made a quick stop at the Cameron Valley Tea House to buy some Premium Tea and Green Tea. On the way down, we stopped quickly to snap a few pictures at Lata Iskandar Waterfall. I still remember this place during my last visit which was roughly 18-19 years back. That time there were a lot of people having fun in the waters. Now, there were a sign board there that warns us that the water is polluted and we should not swim or drink from the water. Sigh....sad sad sad... Took us roughly 2 hours to reach the bottom of the highland and another 2 hours to reach our home in Kajang due to traffic jam in KL.. Altogether, this was an enjoyable and adventurous experience for both of us and would definitely go there again in future!

Check out my other related posts :

On the Mountain : Cameron Highlands (Part 1 : The Farms)

On the Mountain : Cameron Highlands (Part 2 : The Tea Plantations)

Enjoy the photos below :


If you have visited Cameron Highlands before, what do you think about the food over here?
Do you like the photos? Please leave your comments.

On the Mountains : Cameron Highlands (Part 2 - The Tea Plantations)

Location:

~ Bharat Tea Plantations

~ Sg Palas BOH Tea Plantations

(Day 1)The Bharat Tea Plantations in Brinchang is one of the smallest tea plantation in this area (The biggest one for Bharat Tea is after Tanah Rata, I believe so). I didn't know that until we saw the Sg Palas BOH Tea Plantation. That was HUGE! (I'll save that story for later). My son was super excited and started walking around the tea trees by himself. He fell down a few times but still did not give up. hehehe.. Spent around one hour over here before leaving to the next destination which was the Orchid Farm which was unfortunately closed during our visit.

(Day 2)The next morning, we packed our things and checked out from  Country Lodge and got ready for another journey in Cameron Highlands. Our first stop on second day was in Sri Sentosa Restaurant for breakfast. Then, we moved on to Sg Palas BOH Tea Plantations. This place is approximately 5000ft above sea level and the dwindling small path to reach up there can be challenging to some. As for safety precaution, we had to horn at some of the corners to let incoming cars know that we are coming!! :P The road a super small and you can't even see if car is coming at the other end at some of the corners.. The most adventurous drive in my life so far... Unfortunately, the tea factory closes on every Monday and we happen to go there on a fine Monday morning. Damn...

There is a Strawberry farm on top where we can pluck our own strawberries. While busily taking pictures inside the farm, one of the workers there approached us and gave tips on strawberry plucking. He said the bigger they are does not mean that it will be sweet. The smaller ones which is reddish would be very sweet he said and he asked us to pluck one of the small red strawberry and eat it. Oh my, it was very sweet. Then, he asked us to eat one of the one that we have plucked ourselves...Big, but it tasted sour. A very good tips indeed. The Bangladeshi worker (already 7 years in Malaysia) was quite helpful and helped us to snap some memorable pictures.

Later on, we continued the journey to the top of the mountain to see one of the most breath taking sceneries, surrounded by tea leaves as far as your eyes can reach. On the way up, we stopped at a few places at the roadside to enjoy the breath taking sceneries.Parking is always an issue as the road are super small and only at a few places there is enough place for you to park 3-4 cars. Luckily we went the during normal days and not public holidays. If not, for sure the place will be packed. There is even a Hindu Temple on top of the mountains. Did not go inside as it was closed.

We spent almost 2 hours at the top enjoying the sceneries and stopped a few times along the roadside to catch a glimpse of the magnificent sceneries. We were speechless. This plantation is a must visit if you come to Cameron Highlands.

Check out my other related posts as well :

On the Mountains : Cameron Highlands (Part 1 - The Farms)

On the Mountains : Cameron Highlands (Final Part - Brinchang Town)

Enjoy the photos below :


I simply loved the greenery locations and the adventurous path to the top of the hill. How was your visit? If you haven't visited this place, would you visit Cameron Highlands after reading my blog?
Leave your comments below.

On the Mountains : Cameron Highlands (Part 1 - The Farms)

Locations:

~ Avant Chocolate Factory (along the Simpang Pulai route)

~ EefengGu Apiary Farm, Brinchang

~ Butterfly farm, Brinchang

~ Rose Valley, Brinchang

~ Big Red Strawberry Farm, Brinchang

(Day 1) Found a perfect parking spot and parked my car there. (What else would you do when you find a empty parking lot??). The moment I opened the door, fresh cool breezing air whizzed inside the car..WOW!! The location is in Avant Chocolate Factory in Cameron Highlands. Our first stop on the way to the top. (That was unintentional, but I can't stop admiring T.Rajendar for his capability of mouthing rhyming dialogues).

We chose to use the Simpang Pulai exit to enter Cameron Highlands as I was told by my colleague that the road there is better, bigger and faster than the Tapah exit. We reached the Avant Chocolate Factory within 45 minutes (I believe I drove at max speed around 50-60km\h only). We visited the chocolate factory first and bought some chocolates and dried strawberry (a.k.a tho belly as my 2 years old son calls it).

There was a small vegetable and strawberry farm, flower garden and some animals over there. Don't forget to see the huge rooster in the cage. When I say huge, it is REALLY REALLY HUGE!! One chicken can feed up to 3 families, I believe. I did not manage to take the picture as it has quite far inside the cage.

Our next stop was the Bharat Tea Plantations. A separate post is coming up for Tea Plantations as I feel it won’t do justice if I post it as a part of the visit. The tea plantations definitely deserves another post.

After that we went to the EefengGu Apiary Farm (www.eefenggu.com) which is actually a bee farm if you don't understand what Apiary means. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, Apiary means: a place where bees are kept; especially: a collection of hives or colonies of bees kept for their honey. This is a must-go location if you want to see the bees up close as the bee hives are setup in open place and you can just walk and have a close look. Of course, there is a warning there that you should enter at your own risk even though they claim it’s safe to enter. :)

The next stop is at the Butterfly farm. There were 2 Butterfly farms side by side. We were a bit disappointed as there were not many varieties of butterflies over here. Almost 85% of the butterflies were the Rajah Brooke Butterfly and a few other species. But, the consolation was the rare insects that I have never seen so closely in my life such as the huge grasshopper, leaf insect, stick insect and the leaf frog. The butterflies were everywhere and it even made us think if it is real as it just sits at the trees without moving at all. Unfortunately, we did not manage to visit the other butterfly farm due to time constrain. That was our last visit before we check in to our hotel - The Country Lodge in Brinchang at around 5pm. And again another separate post will be coming up soon about the Brinchang town with photos, of course.

(Day 2)We went to the Rose Valley and its costs RM4 for adults. Roses where everywhere and the colourful scenery is a must watch. They even had peacock and a huge white rooster. To our dismay, the camera battery was totally drained and I totally forgot to charge the battery the night before. :( Took our lunch at one of the bakery near Brinchang and the workers there was kind enough to let me charge my battery there.

Once we had our stomach filled, we headed to Big Red Strawberry Farm. Out of a few strawberry farms that we went, this was definitely the biggest and cleanest. You can pluck your own strawberries or tomatoes there. However, you cannot enter the strawberry farm unless you want to pluck the strawberries. This is unlike the strawberry farm that is located on top of Sg Palas Tea Plantation. When we were there, a local Malay drama shooting was in place. We could recognise one of the senior actor but there rest were new to us. Make sure you pay this place a visit!

Please checkout my other related posts as well :

On the Mountains : Cameron Highlands (Part 2 - The Tea Plantations)

On the Mountains : Cameron Highlands (Final Part - Brinchang Town)

Checkout the photos below :

Any interesting places that I have missed to visit? Do let me know in the comments below.

A Journey in National Zoo (Part 2)

Well, we meet again for the Part 2 of our journey in the National Zoo during the Labour Day. There was some interesting event that took place just as we neared one of the animals there. I believe its a species of cow with the long horns. Can't really recall the name. A calf was just born and the zoo keeper transferred the calf to a separate cage just beside the mother. Not so sure why they did that but the mother was damn pissed of with the zoo keeper and was it started "shouting" (not sure what they call it) and created a tensed moment there. We didn't stay there for long to know how the story ended, though.

There is one bird which was not in the cage and was eating papaya near some bushes. This bird was not afraid at all as we closed up to it and even when I moved my camera close to it to get a macro shot, it still did not fly away from us. Perhaps, it was so used to humans there that it didn't even care. :P

Towards the end of the journey, my son got a bit tired but was still energetic as we saw the elephants. Elephants was the last animal there as we got nearer to the Exit. Huge and Beautiful. That's what I can describe about the elephants.

As we were about to leave the Zoo, I bought my son a giraffe balloon and he was very happy playing with it. :P

Had to wait at the long queue again as it was quite packed at the car park exit. Need to pay the parking fees before we exit. Overall the whole journey was exciting and enjoyable.

One thing to comment is, get your own water bottles before you go as the drinks there are damn expensive. Canned drinks are priced at RM2.50 at the vending machines and RM3.50 at one of the stalls there...And normally you can buy a 1.5l bottle for RM3.00 at normal shops outside... The Zoo management should have some brains to price the foods and drinks there at an affordable price..

Enjoys the remaining of the photos here :

A Journey in National Zoo (Part 2)

Checkout the video of a Hippopotamus entering the pond to cool down itself.



Have you guys visited the National Zoo recently? What do you think about about the animals here or about the price of the food sold here? Is it reasonable?
Please comment below.

A Journey in National Zoo (part 1)

It was a fine Monday early afternoon when we arrived at the entrance of the National Zoo and we had to make one big turn to find a parking lot there. The reason?? It was a public holiday due to Labour Day which was carry forwarded to 2nd May (1st May falls on a Sunday). And to make it worse, we had to wait at entrance for at least 10 minutes as the whole parking was almost full. What a way to begin the journey :P Anyway, once we were in the parking lot managed to find a parking lot quite ealisy.Thank God!

Entrance fees was RM20 for adults with MyKad and free from my son who is just 2 years old. It was not crowded at the ticket counter and managed to get the tickets instantly However, we struggled for a while at the entrance to find a nice cap for my son as it was very hot that day! A lot of choices there and we settled for an orange Zoo Negara cap instead of all those animal caps which we doubt would make him wear if we go to other places. Suprisingly, he wore the cap throughout the whole journey as normally he does not like to wear cap.

We chose to walk instead of using the train or whatever you call it. You know, exercise laa at least once or twice a year.. :P FYI, as a history lesson for all, this is only the second time I am visiting the zoo and I am now 31 years old!! The first time was in 1992! WOW!! A gap of 19 years!! hehehe...

And the zoo was huge and we managed to visit most of the places there except for the Butterfly farm inside(separate charge of RM5). My son was pretty much excited and he was running everywhere and and had to force him to hold our hand for his safety reasons. His first visit to a zoo was when he was 1 year old in Taiping Zoo and at that time he was not very keen to look at the animals except for few of them. But this time was different.

The first animal we saw was a few different species of monkeys. The funny part was there was one smart family that was feeding some peanuts to the monkeys and the father told them that they should not feed the animals there and then he himself started to feed them. He kept on repeating the same thing while saying that they should not feed them. Too bad that I did not see any zoo keepers there if not would have complained to them.

It turned out to be quite an interesting journey as we pass through each of the animal though some of the animals were just lazing around perhaps due to the hot weather. Or maybe they were plain bored staying in the zoo and want to go back to the nature. Who knows? One lesson I learnt from this journey is to get a new lens ASAP. The kit lens is not enough to zoom far to capture the animals quite far from us especially the tigers and lions. Well, forget about the lion as it was just sleeping when we were there.

Unifi!! When my area will be covered??? Still waiting for you......
(Update : I already upgraded to Unifi in December 2011 and so far no complaints about it)

Ok, see you guys soon in my next post..till then, enjoy the photos below :

PUTRAJAYA :Magnificent Putrajaya Mosque

Before I begin the current post, I wish to thank Mr Rajkumar Kopalan for introducing me to Lightroom. Not that my room is dark and he helped me to purchase a new Philips bulb to make my room brighter..It an application called Adobe Lightroom which helps us to edit the photograph to look magnificent. :P

Note : All the photos below and future edits will be done in  Adobe Lightroom. Goodbye PhotoTools 2.6. You have been very helpful.

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After Floria Putrajaya in 2010 and then Hot Air Balloon Festival in March 2011, now comes the next set of photographs to show the world the beauty of Putrajaya aka the Government City...hehehe. Hoping for a different government coming next general election in Malaysia but well, that is a different story and I don't want to blog about politics in my blog. :P

Actually, these photographs were taken on the same day during the International Hot Air Balloon Festival 2011 as the Putrajaya Mosque is very nearby.

If you guys have never been there before, make sure you pay a visit to the mosque as it is one of the most beautiful mosque I have ever seen in Malaysia. Before this, the most beautiful mosque for me was the mosque in Kuantan. Check out this site: http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/Malaysia/West/Pahang/Kuantan/photo277729.htm

Next to the mosque is another awesome architecture from dunno who, Perdana Putra which is the Prime Minister's Office. It's damn huge. There is a lot of beautiful and creatively designed buildings, landscape gardens, bridges, light poles etc in Putrajaya and hopefully I will be able to cover them one by one in future. This is just the beginning, more to come.. Enjoy the photos below while waiting.

I bet you love the architecture of the Mosque and Putrajaya as well.

Which place should I visit in Putrajaya next? Depending on your comments, it could be the next place!

PUTRAJAYA : International Hot Air Balloon 2011

Aaaaa....a blog post after a long hiatus....almost 3 months after nothing written. Not that I have nothing to write, just been pretty much lazy to edit the photos...

And thank you to all readers as my blog just slightly passed over 4000 clicks :P

Still have 3 more sets of photos of different events to edit and I have just finished editing the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Putrajaya that was held in March 2011..And its May now.. :P

I managed to go there on 2 different days, once in the morning and the other one during the night with my wife and son. Started the journey from lake in Cyberjaya and took some photos. Unfortunately, I am still using the 18-55mm lens so, could not zoom into much details from there.. just took some landscape photos before heading towards PICC (Putrajaya International Convention Centre) as I saw some balloons heading towards there.  Just parked the car along the roadside without thinking about Encik Polis Trafik because there was a few more cars parked in front of me and started taking some photos of the "Clown Balloon". Before going to the next pit stop, managed to take some picture of PICC and the bridge opposite it.

Then, moved on to Precint 2, and luckily enough managed to get close with the "Jungle Balloon" or whatever they call it. The owner was deflating the air from the balloon. I think he's packing up early as it was just around 9am when I was there. Later on, moved on to main spot where festival was held.

I was there for another hour or two snapping pictures of the balloon and the crowd before calling it off for the day as it was getting hot. :P

On the next day, decided to go there again with my wife and son during the night. My son, Kavinash was very exited as we approached Putrajaya as was shouting "Balloon! Balloon!!" all the way until I managed to find a parking...It was totally crowded..Didn't really expect that as during the day is was not that packed..People were everywhere...and all those DSLR, compact cameras and mobile phone cameras were busy clicking here and there.. :P

And soon, I joined the crowd to snap some photographs. Still new to photography and was not so sure on how to take the photograph of the balloon during the night as the outcome was sometimes blurry. All the balloons was on the ground and lighting it up now and then to show the beautiful balloons under the fire.. It was purely amazing!

After around two hours there, decided to leave the crowd as the event was about to end and we didn't want to be stuck in traffic jam if we waited any longer. As we walk towards the parking, the event ended with fireworks display which simply lasted for at least 5 minutes.

A day and night well spent... :P

Enjoy the photos below :

To those experts of Hot Air Balloons photographers, what do you think about these photos?

Please share your comments so that I can improve myself.