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.