Sunny days again

Although I spoke of monsoon. Such south-west monsoon weather in Malaysia are not long lasting.

And today it is back to hot weather in the lowlands. Good for a car wash though. May as well clean up the car.

Funny, I always experience rain after a car wash. And some my friends and family says the same thing. Must be something to do with Murphy's Law!

Wet weather in Malaysia

Is getting cloudy and rainy lately. I guess wet weather in Malaysia and Cameron Highlands is to be expected. It is now the middle of the south-west Sumatran monsoon season and the rain moisture that got pass Sumatra will now be releasing the moisture laden atmosphere onto the Malaysian west coast.

And when it hits the cool mountain range like the Titiwangsa range it will precipitate. So you just might experience a cold wet weather in Cameron Highlands not just the lowlands in Malaysia!

4 ways to go Cameron Highlands

I found out that there are four ways to go Cameron Highlands. Well almost 4 ways, as the latest route is still under construction. I learned it from Kang Travels the last I was up, and some weeks ago it was reported in the newspaper. So in future you can take your pick on how to travel to Cameron Highlands or even make your connection to another holiday travel destinations from those routes!

These are the routes:
1. From Tapah via North-South Expressway
2. From Simpang Pulai via North-South Expressway
3. From Gua Musang
4. From Kuala Lipis which connects to Bertam Valley

The last on the list is still under construction and should be completed by August 2010. Now the east coast people will have an easier route to travel to Cameron Highlands rather than take one big round via Karak Highway to Batu Caves then from there to North-South Expressway and take either Tapah or Simpang Pulai entry!

Now may be a good time

School holidays is over, traffic in the cities is back to a crawl with rush hour traffic a chore to grind through everyday. Well for those who traded one congestion of the cities to the congestion of Cameron Highlands resort, just too bad. I know, I know, your children cannot take time off from their school studies and you just have to schedule some cuti-cuti Malaysia during the school break, so happened everybody thinks the same and what have you? Voila! Traffic nightmare in the highlands. It can't be helped, the roads are narrow and can't be widened anymore to accommodate the tourist.

But wait! How about those of you who don't have a full nest or even those whose children has grown and left the nest? Yes, DINKS, and retirees, this will be the best time to head on over to Cameron Highlands for a REAL relaxing break. No maddening crowd. Perhaps just the two of you, have yourself a romantic dinner, hmmm, a romantic getaway vacation sounds just enticing, don't you think?

Now this would really be great!

Cameron Highlands Blog

Decided to change the Cameron Highlands blog look and feel a little bit. Well actually I was using the old HTML style, but would like to use the new Blogger layout to use those new features. Oh, well since I'm a one leg kick kinda guy, creating this Cameron Highlands travel website writing content, researching and photography, and of course doing web hosting maintenance and design and who knows what!

Fortunately I know how to do it and have learned quite a fair bit ever since starting out on my Cameron-Highland-Destination.com website adventure. It has been a great long 5 years (how time flies!) and I have just renewed my expensive but very good SBI package. And yes, it has been growing steadily and I should believe it is one of the best website about Cameron Highlands judging from the heaps of compliments that I receive from my comments section. Drop me a line would ya?

Meanwhile, it is back to hacking my Cameron Highlands website, so I'll be kinda slow in the article writing department. Not withstanding my first baby was also born so looks like I'm going to be super busy!

Worker Shortage In Cameron Highlands

Seems like worker shortages might spell the end of Cameron Highlands. I hope the government will lift the ban coz this is not good for the Cameron Highlands tourism industry, the tea industry, the nurseries, vegetable farms, and all round causes a bad name for Malaysia. If government is sincere about their efforts to promote tourism Malaysia, they need to look into the manpower problem.

Sure there may be unemployed locals, but are they willing to take up the vacancy? Agriculture is not for everyone, you got a green thumb? But that is not the same. Doing gardening work and actually keep an acre of vegetable growing well without weeds and insects wrecking havoc is not everyone's cup of tea.

There may be vacancies available in Malaysia, but those types of job aren't just suitable for locals. It could be because of social status, like, "die from hunger also don't want to do because how will I face my family/relatives/neighbour/blah blah blah" you know that kind of thing. If you ask me, yep there are certain kind of jobs I wouldn't want to do either. And so it is that we will have labour shortage in certain job sectors, and over supply of employees in other industry because it looks great, hip even and glamorous, because everybody wants to do it. IT seems to be one of them. And when you have oversupply, the pay gets depressed. Grads pay are still the same since the last ten years, but inflation has eroded the disposable income.

Let's hope the government will come to its senses unless they need a stand off just like the sugar, flour licensing issue just so to wake them up to do something positive about it!

School Holidays

How time flies! It is already pass the middle of school holidays. Days are hot and sometimes it rains. Cameron Highlands is no different when it comes to kooky weather. The world climate is topsy-turvy and so is Cameron Highlands. So take your chances and see if the weather in Cameron Highlands is cool or just plain balmy like the English weather. Then you can go for a dainty afternoon tea and scones top up with Devonshire cream and go a bit English.

With World Cup going on, might be nice to hole up in some bistro that has World Cup feature in their nightly watering hole. Perhaps the Jungle Bar at Kang's Travelodge? Or Father's Guesthouse video room? Twinpines perhaps? Or go all snobby and try out YTL Cameron Highlands Resort?

I'll catch the World Cup finals later. Too many things to do. Still have to slog it out at work. But I like the school term break rush hour traffic. It's not as bad and I can get to work several minutes ahead than non-school holiday traffic. Just one of those little silver linings in life to be thankful for!

Budget accommodation

Sometimes people ask where is the cheapest accommodation to stay in Cameron Highlands? Well be careful what you ask for! Because the cheapest accommodation is not necessary where you want to stay! This cheap lodging goes for about RM10-RM15 per night per person. And they are usually dormitory style or room share style.

This type of accommodation is for those backpackers who are traveling on a shoestring. Usually students are just fresh out of college or university and decided to see the world before settling down to find a job, get married and raise a family. Very different from us Asians who normally after graduating would be all raring to go find a job and start earning an income! After all, graduates have just burned a big hole in their parents pocket and to ask for some more pocket money to go traipsing round the world? You got to be joking!

Anyway, for those who are adventure hungry and don't mind roughing it out, budget accommodation like this are just perfect! Easy on the pockets, but a little rough on the luxury part! Hey, that's the spirit of adventure!

So where are the cheap hotels accommodation of this sort in Cameron Highlands? There are four that I know off, namely: Kang Travels, Father's Guesthouse, Twinpines/KRS, and Cameronian Inn.