The Hill Stations of Pahang

The Cameron Highlands, Pahang (CNB 1990)

Of the six hill stations in Malaysia, four are in the state of Pahang. Hill stations are 'cool' in the real sense of the word. You almost forget that you are in the tropics when you are up there. Apart from the Cameron Highlands, Fraser's Hill, Genting Highlands and Bukit Tinggi in Pahang, there are the Bukit Bendera/Penang Hill in Pulau Pinang, and Bukit Larut/Larut Hills in Perak.

Cameron Highlands

M, B, A & furry friend in CH (CNB 1990)

Cameron Highlands seems to be a rather popular hill station and most favoured 'cuti-cuti Malaysia' destination, with busloads of rombongan sekolah (school groups) and organisations making the way there, especially during the school holidays.

What I remember of my first visit when still a student in the 1960s, was just how cold it was at night! If you left your seat a while, then the mist/dew set in. If I remember correctly, our accommodation was at a school and we had to make do with desks for beds! (I will need to confirm this with DFH who definitely has a much better memory of our schooldays). At that time we all took back the almost iconic 'everlasting' flowers; they were then the ultimate memento/souvenirs from the highlands.

M, B, A & Orang Asli (CNB 1990)

Later we had our family holidays there in the 1990s where M drove us from Pulau Pinang, stopping along Tambun for pomeloes, and Taiping for tea at the Lake Gardens. On the way up (or was it down?) we stopped by some Orang Asli homes to say hello and talk to them.

We had accommodations at Tanah Rata, and Cameron Highlands being a 'huge green carpet', we made the customary visits to check out the Boh tea factory and the tea plantations. We also went on to visit one of the numerous vegetable farms, the strawberry farm, and the rose garden.

We even took to the jungle trails, keeping to the 'easier' ones because of the children. The highland jungle flora was quite abundant, and once our trek led us along a river to a picturesque waterfall. One eventful (or should I say non-eventful?) experience was when we were denied entry to the colonial Ye Olde Smokehouse in Brinchang because we were not properly attired (read: one among us was wearing jeans, another had sandals on). Oh, well ... their loss; the Rajah Brooke Restaurant at the Merlin Inn got our custom/money instead.

Ringlet morn mart (MB)

In the morning, there was the market at Ringlet to browse for flowers, fruits and vegetables. Just the place to buy highland produce to your heart's content, before you make your journey down to wherever home is.

In all, Cameron Highlands is a great destination for family holidays although negotiating the snaking, winding roads in the highlands is very dicey at times, and we almost had a head on collision with one of the numerous lorries there. But M handled the roads quite well despite being more used to driving on the 'wrong side', hehehe!

Time and again we read about the 'rape' of the hills by unscrupulous people, although no more permits are being issued to clear the highland jungles for vegetable farming, etc. We hope the temperature up there remains 'cool', so that we may all escape to the hills every now and then.

Fraser's Hill
This is Malaysia's piece of  'Little England', now famous internationally for bird racing. No, the birds do not race, but the bird lovers/ornithologists do! They race (against time) to count the birds ...

My first visit was, when on the way to Taman Negara in 1976, our friend detoured to Fraser's Hill, named after Louis James Fraser, a haulier and tin trader. I only remember the one way traffic up or down depending on the clock, the beautiful waterfall and a most delicious meal at the colonial style Gap Resthouse.

A second visit more recently enabled us to look more closely at the beautiful colonial style bungalows, built of local grey limestone blocks. These include the Sultan Suleiman Building/Bungalow (a Selangor landmark because it is in a sliver of Fraser's Hill that falls inside Selangor).

At the iconic Fraser's Hill clock tower

On the way down, we had little black and white birds flying around the car, accompanying us to almost halfway down the hill. If VVIPs have outriders, then we had outfliers!? It was very surreal, and truly memorable.

We did stop for refreshments at the Gap Resthouse, but it was not the same anymore. Nothing we can do really, because as we all know, change is the only constant ...

Genting Highlands

CR poster

We all know that the main draw to the Genting Highlands is the Casino, where busloads of foreign tourists are taken by tour guides to gamble away their hard-earned money (but hey, I am not judging!)

My first trip to GH (with family and friends) was to fulfill a wish - to see the idol of my teen years, Cliff Richard, perform live at the Arena of Stars there in 2007. As revealed earlier on my posting about CR, I paid a lot of money for my very good seat. But I did enjoy the show, even if CR is a senior citizen (like me, lah!) prancing on a stage. In my seat I could not prance, so I merely tapped my foot, sometimes feet. But there were other senior citizen groupies in the audience who were behaving like hysterical teenagers (but hey, I am not judging again!)

Another trip was on a New Year eve. I drove us up to the Awana Genting Resort where we stayed, and in the afternoon rode the cable car to the top. I have always been fascinated by carousels, so with a friend KN, rode on the outdoor carousel while our children went on the 'faster' rides. Greeting the New Year 2009 there was very much a Bollywood affair, because a few busloads of Indian tourists really made their presence felt.

When we were living in Pulau Pinang, we used to go up Bukit Bendera/Penang Hill to 'cool off'. Now that we live in Shah Alam, the nearest hill station unfortunately, is Genting Highlands. But 'cooling off' here recently is not so nice anymore. I feel that more and more, the atmosphere here is of 'a circus in a shopping mall' (though I know some members of the family will beg to differ!).

A, B & M at GH (CNB 2011)

Bukit Tinggi
Eer... I have not been to this fairly new hill station, but I hear that the Japanese Garden there is full of Malaysian flowers and has a koi pond, and that Colmar Tropicale is a French resort village with Malaysian staff. I hope to find out for myself a.s.a.possible probable.