It is really wet in Camerons

Rain, rain, rain in Cameron Highlands! Didn't quite make it back to Greenhill Apartment, so got a bit wet. Baby was alright. So now we could not load up our luggage to the MPV. Fortunately the apartment owner was kind enough to allow us to wait till the rain stop before we load up and move on back to KL/PJ.

Meamwhile we hold up in the apartment and watch some Astro.
Our next stop is to be at water crest restaurant. Will see how the weather holds out.

So wet in Cameron Highlands!

---- [22/8/2011]

The trip was particularly tiring for me and I think I caught a chill from all the rain. Now not only feeling the after effects of tiredness (with body ache and especially my neck ache from the very long drive home), but I think I caught a slight mild flu. Hope my body's antibody will fight it out and not let it slide to a full blown flu. Ah, sometimes you need a break from a holiday break as well!

Raining in Camerons

What a wet trip to Cameron Highlands. It was raining pretty frequent making the weather rather cold. I think tonight the temperature would easily hit 16 degrees Celcius.
Fortunately there were breaks in the raining pattern and we still managed to go some places like the Sg Palas Boh Tea Plantation.
Tonight we will go for dinner at Jasmine Cafe House. My wife said she ate there before. Could be, but I don't recalled with her. So this time will see after we try some of the house specialities.
Would be good to meet up with old friend and have a good time.
Meanwhile it was just plain wet here in Cameron Highlands.

Waking up in Cameron Highlands

Waking up in Cameron Highlands. Temperature in the morn about 23.4 C in the hotel room according to my Casio watch.
Still felt very cold here in Heritage Hotel. Now planning for breakfast coz my dad's Heritage Vacation club don't have breakfast included. I think we will go Uncle Chow for breakfast coz my family has not tried it yet.
As for baby? Will let him sleep with uncle and auntie coz their paid room came with breakfast and they can take care sleeping baby while we quickly take our breakfast.
Good to be up in Cameron Highlands to cool off from KL heat. Kinda off peak this weekend probably due to Ramadhan fasting month.
So go for some chow chow now!

Camerons here we come!

Time to take a break and travel to Cameron Highlands once again! This time round my dad would like to finish using his Heritage Vacation Club points so my parent, Lena, her mom and her sis together with baby will be tagging along. This will be the first time for good old baby to travel to his dad favorite vacation spot in Malaysia!
Yeah! Would be very interesting trip for him and bet his head will spin left and right taking in all the highlands sights!
Heard it will be cold this time right round. The Cameron Highlands's weather is rather wet this time round and there was some landslide with some fatalities. Hopefully by the time we make our way there it will be normalize. Still the weather is rather unpredictable.
I'm making the trip during ramadhan in the hope that it will be low peak so can avoid the holiday crowd. I should think so too judging from the reduced website traffic. Less searches could well mean less tourist during this fasting month.
There is a super long holiday during Hari Raya and Merdeka day combine during the end month of August. Could be crowded then again most people would want to 'balik kampung' to be with family. Still it is hard to say whether it will be a superpeak crowd as some may still want to holiday as an alternative to returning to their hometown.
For now, I will make trip earlier to avoid such peak times. Just want to enjoy and relax with family away from the crowd!
And of course collect info to update the Cameron Highlands Destination website too.
Bon voyage!

Some downtime expected on this website

My website will be down for short periods during the following days. My hosting at SBI is doing some major upgrade so just have to bear with for the better running of the website in future. Here's the info sent to me, you can have look see if you happen to be unable to load up on my main Cameron Highlands Destination website. Cheers!

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Some downtime is needed for some major upgrades to our clusters, deployments of NetApp shared memory, etc.
It boils down to short periods of downtime (for your site this time, NOT for access to SBI! or the forums)...

1) Tuesday, June 21 - Starting 7:00 AM (ET), your site will be down for 10-15 minutes (best estimate), on a rotating basis (i.e., not all SBIers down at the same time). Again, Site Central and the forums should remain up. We'll be all done within an hour.

2) Tuesday, June 28 -- Less than 5 minutes of downtime per site TOTAL, with only 1-2 minutes of downtime at a time. Will require most of the day to finish all blades, etc.

Wednesday, June 29 -- If we were not able to finish everything on the 28th, work continues.

3) Tuesday, July 5 -- Less than 5 minutes of downtime, with only 1-2 minutes at a time. Will require most of the day.

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Planning to make more posts, but kind of too many things to do. Once you have a baby everything becomes heady and the time constraints increases! Still it is a joy to play with good old baby. Future coming in bright and sunny, and of course cool too if heading to the highlands! Planning to bring baby along on one of the trips! He sure need to cool down as do I!

 

Going to Cameron Highlands

Looks like many people is planning to go Cameron Highlands in the upcoming super long weekend! With the Malaysian holidays and school breaks around the corner it is sure going to be a nice crowd up there.

My parents did a good planning and went up last weekend. Hope they had a good time.

As for me, with so many busy things to do, I doubt I will be going up to Cameron Highlands anytime soon. Missed the opportunity to tag along with the Church seniors who stayed in OMH which I think stands for Overseas Mission House. It seems it is a nice bungalow reserved only for Church workers only.

I wanted to show them around CH, but I guess and of course try out the bungalow. I guess I will just have to wait till another time, if God willing. Anyway, they had a good time at the Highlands Restaurant charcoal steamboat with that tall signature funnel. They thoroughly enjoyed it but wondered how they are going to fit in the entire cell members when they go up there again. I didn't have the restaurant number so won't be able to help them to make the booking.

Well, I didn't think of making a Malaysian food blog for my website at that time when I visited Highlands Restaurant.  Well will just have to wait another time to collect the name card and update the web page.

Church Camp @ Genting Highlands

This time round my church will be organizing a church at Genting View apartments in Genting Highlands instead of Cameron Highlands. I think it is a good thing too considering the logistic matter of ferrying the various equipment while just staying for one night only. So Genting Highlands is a good choice since it takes approximately one hour drive from KL.

But my wife wanted a longer break, and taking a Friday off was a good idea. Considered as non-peak, the rates were cheaper at Awana Genting Highlands. If we were to stay on for Sunday night the hotel rate would double!

For additional cost savings we borrowed a Genting World card and booked online and saved off about RM30. Not bad, not bad. Would be looking forward for this break. Looks like this will be a first for my baby. His first highlands trip! I'm sure he would enjoy himself too being such an inquisitive little toddler!

Enjoy yourselves this coming long holiday break!

Cheers!

Wanted to go CH but

I wanted to join my church members who were planning to head off to Cameron Highlands to scout for makan places and make arrangement for their upcoming cell meeting event. I would have liked to stay in the mission bungalow and perhaps even show them some of the interesting attractions and restaurants that i have discovered and of course fellowship with them too. But due to unforeseen circumstances, looks like I will have to give this opportunity a miss. Oh, well. Will see next time.

need to find time to update website

Gah! Sometimes so busy no time to update website. Sometimes it is due to work, sometimes family things, and yet again sometimes just want to relax and end up procrastinating! Ah!

Sometimes when think about the things that need to update, feels overwhelming coz got so much to do!

Ever feel like this? Sure you do! Just got to do it no matter what!

Get a move on man!

When you do your research well

This Cameron Highlands website or blog is thhe best there is. It's culmination of hardwork with a lot of time and effort put to be the best website about the Malaysian highlands.
And when people regard me as a guru and seek you out for advice, you know you are very top on the list. Still there is much work to be done as my website is incomplete!
My church friends was asking about where to have good steamboat meal. From what I gather, Mayflower restaurant is best value for money. They are located in Tanah Rata somewhere opposite the abandon buildings.
If trying something unusual, like charcoal steamboat, head off to Brinchang and look out for Highlands Restaurant or COP organic steamboat.
Anyway i still got many restaurants to blog about so this is going to be a long on going process.
Cheers!

Cameron Highlands Thieves

Whoa! Received this link about a family using a child trying to shop lift this shop in Cameron Highlands. C'mon, is the economy so bad that they have to resort to this kind of criminal activity?



The shop owners were shocked. I'm shaking my head and wondering where this world is headed. Maybe they are taking their cue from the current ruling government, if you can get away with murder, then duit err... do it.

Look, shop owners are struggling to keep their business going. If you feel the price of goods is expensive it is not the shop owner's fault for charging so high. It is the way the economy works. The law of demand and supply; cause and effect. The higher price of petroleum leads to higher cost of production and transportation and raw material which in turns pushes up inflation which is the real thief of everyday person struggling to make their income stretch.

Two wrongs do not make a right. And the government is not doing anything to address the situation and people's real income has become smaller over the years. A graduate's pay 20 years ago and now is still the same or worst, smaller. So the fault lies with the government not doing enough to alleviate the people's situation.

Still that doesn't mean the lay person has to resort to curi-curi Malaysia. Hey this is cuti-cuti Malaysia not the other way round!

Taking a break at Desa Park City

My wife wanted to have a lookee see at some baby stuff at Desa Park City and later I need to get some grocery and Desa Park City got Max Value, a Jusco mini supermarket. So off we go with my mom-in-law and niece in tow. Niece is very happy to go for an outing, for a 2 year old she's been clamouring to go out just about every other day.
It was long wet ride finally arriving at Desa Park City. First thing first, a quickie coffee break, got the buy 1 free 1 using my Citibank clear credit card. I though wife want a drink too turn out she rather go shopping and I ended up with 2 large cup of coffee! Ugh, that was a little too much for me while I chilled out in Coffee Bean.
This place is nice, very upmarket and very much beyond my means to own a property here. My wife likes it very much too, but with a price tag like RM800,000 for a condo, RM2 million for a house, it is way beyond my means.
Besides, I'm planning for a property invesement where at least rental inccome must cover montly loan installament to eventually get a retirement fund going later when the loan is fully paid up. This upmartket area is not the right place for future investment. For living here that would be fine, but for investment, this would not be right.
Anyway, i'm feeling bloated and rather 'jelat' dring 2 cuppa coffee.
Sky is cloudy here. With many people having their evening stroll at the park, some with their little toy dog pets and young girls in their skinny jeans walking about. Nice place to hang out and watch the world go by. Baby likes it too. Head spinning left and right looking at sights.
Sitting here is just so comfortable. But time to get a moving!

Contacts already provided, please do your own legwork

Really how difficult it is to just pick up the telephone and dial the numbers on my Cameron Highlands website? I have already done all the tedious legwork of running around up there in Cameron Highlands sacrificing my leisure time (although I do enjoy the romp) to collect the accommodation contacts and then compiling it and posting it onto my website.

Take for instance the homestays contacts in Taman Sedia. I walked the entire neighbourhood noting down the owner's contact and telephone numbers listed in front of their houses. It took me an entire afternoon to do it. I don't have the time to knock at each homestay owner's door and then do further interviews like whether you got Astro, email account, can speak English or not, hot shower, room condition, how much to it cost to stay, got cats and pets or not, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah

Hello? I may know a lot of things about Cameron Highlands but I'm no walking encyclopaedia. Best way to find out is to pick up that telephone next to your desk or use your handy-dandy mobile phone, dial the number and find out from the horses' mouth!

Easy, yes?

HSBC Smart Privileges Hotel Promotion 2011

While browsing through the HSBC Smart Privileges brochure, invariably I would peek in to the hotel promotion. Guess what? I found two hotel promotions for Cameron Highlands! The Equatorial Cameron Highlands Hotel and Hotel De La Ferns. So if any of you guys are holding a HSBC credit card, you could have a look see look see on the promotion and see if this meets your budget. These are not your budget hotel, so do expect to pay for a good stay. Having stayed in all kinds of hotel so I should know that you do pay for the extras.



Hotel De La Fern HSBC Promotion
Hotel Equatorial Cameron Highlands HSBC Promotion

If this is not your budget then look through my Cameron Highlands hotel list and take a pick at any of the hotels. Yep, there is so many and you wonder which ones to choose. I may not be able to look at all of them but did managed to look see some of them. Now all I need is to find time to post my findings. Wish I got more time to do it. With work getting busy, time getting scarce and bringing up baby and family to care, this travelogue website is going to take some humongous effort to get things going!

Meanwhile you may like to study the brochure which I pick out from HSBC Smart Privilege brochure by following the links above. Or if you prefer, you can head out to HSBC website and look through their e-brochure.

Cheers!

Cosmetic changes to homepage

Decided to do a minor makeover of Cameron Highlands Destination homepage. Not much, still kept the signature earthy brown background with musky blue. I guess this is my website branding colour I suppose. Added the Facebook like panel so now visitors can 'like' and join the Facebook pages. It's been growing too! Social website to the fore! I think I still need to do some tweaking to the home page to make it more functional. But being a one man show with a day job, a baby to take care, several websites to maintain, there seemed to be insufficient time to keep constant updates and tweaking of the website. Thankfully what i have done here has been laudably good and am getting very good traffic. Kinda slow these Jan and Feb month but it is to be expected every beginning of the year when everyone is winding to high working gear. Not any different for me with so many work projects to do. With the Chinese New Year drawing to a close, it is going to be one heck of a busy year for me! Here's dreaming of taking a break to the cool Cameron Highlands! Bon voyage!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Wishing all my blog readers, facebook and twitter friends, a Happy and Properous Chinese New Year!

As the rabbit hops in to usher the New Lunar Year hops in prosperity, good health, good friends and brings the family closer together!

May God smile on you grant you wisdom, blessings and abundance overflowing!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

SMS Greetings turns out to be MMS

Whoa! I'm not sure just what happened! Just received the Maxis bill and saw my SMS text greeting being sent out as MMS! Which means I'm now charge by MMS rate rather than the cheaper SMS rate. Could this beautiful text graphic be the cause? If so, I won't forward it anymore. I'm just going to send plain boring text instead in future.

 ☆。★。☆。★
 。☆。 *。☆。
★。＼ ｜ ／。★
 *GREETINGS*
★。／｜＼。★
 。☆。*。☆。
     *。★。*

I'm tired! Time to retire for the night

I'm dead tired and need to get some sleep! Especially since the night before and uneven sleep. Coupled with long journey, a good night's rest is a must! With the pitter-patter raindrops I should be getting some good shut eye tonight I hope!

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Oh, if you see this gobbledygook, c0866d15b80a4ab990d25eaaea88fda8 , in my feed, just ignore it-lah! I'm trying to get this blog verified with some service. Cheers!

Happy New Year 2011!

Here's wishing everybody in the whole wide world:

A Happy New Year !!!

As the 2010 passes,
reflecting on events both good and bad,
forgive those who wrong us
and ask for forgiveness to those that we wronged;

may the world work together to bring good
though that may be wishful thinking
since there will always be self centered people
we will just have to tolerate with them
as we strive to better ourselves
give unto people who are struggling to better themselves

Reflecting what God has done for me in year 2010
I praise and thank God for all that has happened
And pray that 2011 will be an even better year
As we face old and new challenges

Wishing you all

A Happy New Year 2011 !!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
This is the day Jesus Christ was born, to bring light to the world, to bring hope and a new life to those who accepts Him.

May God bring you peace, prosperity in abundance, health and everlasting joy for the coming year!

God bless you all!

Cheers!