My Trip to Cameron Highlands

I never thought I'd get another chance to savour the cool fresh air and feel the peaceful serenity of Cameron Highlands again until Salmiah invited me to accompany her to a seminar sponsored by her employer at this popular mountain resort. I can recall that the last time that I went to Cameron Highlands was about two years ago when I accepted the invitation from my younger brother, Rosman and sister, Rosnah to join them and their family for a barbecue by the side of a stream at Tanah Rata. But that was a day trip. This time, it was for four days and three nights. We stayed at the Equatorial Hotel, standing at 1,600m above sea level and located about 4 km from Brinchang town.

We left Ampang at about 4.00 pm that day (Tuesday, 19 May 2009) and took the North-South Expressway. We stopped for awhile at Rawang Rest and Service Area to fill up the petrol tank and perform the "solat asar" (prayer). We then made our way to Simpang Pulai Tol Plaza, preferring to use the new and better-constructed road to our destination, instead of using what I thought was a less-safe winding road from Tapah Tol Plaza. We reached the hotel at about 8.00 pm. We could have reached it earlier if not for the drizzling rain, which slowed us down after we encountered it about 10 km from the Tol Plaza.

As soon as we got out of the car to check into the hotel, we could immediately feel the cool and refreshing air of Cameron Highlands. However excited we were to arrive at this place, we didn't venture out that night, preferring to rest in the cosy hotel room after the long drive. We settled down for the night after we had our dinner at the hotel's Coffee Room.
The next morning we had buffet breakfast and I managed to meet some of Salmiah's working colleagues. I also met Najeeb, whom I first met many years ago when he was formerly working in Perlis. Now he is attached to Langkawi.

After breakfast, Salmiah went to her seminar and I took a walk to the nearest farm to buy myself a half-kilogram of freshly-picked strawberries (RM15.00), six (6) pieces of large "jagung mutiara" (pearl corn) at RM10.00 and a packet of sweet potatoes at RM2.00.

After Salmiah finished her seminar at about 4.15 pm, we took a drive to Brinchang town and stopped by a Malay restaurant to have the famous Cameron Highlands vegetable soup. It was really delicious. It contained an assortment of vegetables and boiled with seafood. On the way back, we stopped by some roadside stalls to look at some of the fruits and vegetables there. We compared their prices from stall to stall so that we would know where to buy after we checked out from the hotel two (2) days later.

We brought along an electric steamer with us and used it to steam-cook the vegetables. Whilst Salmiah had dinner in the hotel with her colleagues that night, I steam-cooked two (2) pieces of pearl corns and two pieces of sweet potatoes for my dinner. The delicious strawberries became my "snack" throughout the day. Come to think of it, if you want to look after your diet and slim down your body, this is a good place to do that, where vegetables and fruits are your everyday meals.

Most of the time in this cool and tranquil place, I spent my time reading a book about Khalifah Abu Bakar As Siddiq. He was the first "Khalifah" (Muslim ruler) after Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had passed away. His character and leadership qualities is an example for a leader of any country to emulate, so as to make this world a better place to live in. Why I said so was because this God-fearing man was very concerned only about the welfare of the people under his rule.
Ever since he embraced Islam, he spent most of his cash and properties towards helping the Prophet (PBUH) to introduce and spread Islam to the Arab countries. He bought out and freed at least five (5) Muslim slaves, who were tortured by their former masters for becoming Muslims.

Immediately after he became the "Khalifah", he announced to the people that the fact that he was chosen as their leader, did not mean that he was the best among them. He said that if he did the right thing, they should support him and if he did the wrong thing, they should correct him. The weak among them would be strong to him for he would support them and the strong among them would be weak to him because he would take away from the strong to support the weak.

Initially, he carried his things to the market to do business as usual, until one day along the way, he encountered Omar Al-Khatab, who asked him, "Where are you going with those things, ya Amirul Mukmnin?" ("Amirul Mukminin" means the ruler of the people).

Abu Bakar replied," To the market to do business as usual."

Omar said," But you are a Khalifah, you shouldn't be doing this?"

"But I've to earn my living, haven't I? How am I going to feed my family if I don't have an income?" replied Abu Bakar.

Omar then brought him to meet Abu Ubaidah, who was the Keeper of the "Baitul Mal" (Treasury), who then determined how much salary Abu Bakar should get as the "Amirul Mukminin" (President/Prime Minister). His salary was only a meagre sum, just sufficient to feed him and his family. Only after that did he stop going to the market to do business.

Abu Bakar stayed about 3 km from Medina and during the first six (6) months as the Prime Minister, he walked back and forth to Medina to lead the five-times-a-day prayer in the mosque and also to administer the country. He seldom took a horse or camel unless he had to travel long distance, preferring to walk instead. He didn't have any bodyguard with him and preferred to walk alone everywhere.

He did everything with his own hands and preferred not to seek for help. For example, when he was on a camel and something fell down, he himself would pick it up, refusing to let anyone else to do it for him.

When he died, he left behind only one (1) dinar in his savings.

I had the opportunity to finish reading the book about him and his achievements with all the free time that I had in this popular mountain resort.


Now back to my stay in the hotel. On the third day, I ventured out of the hotel room to have a look at the swimming pool at level 5. There was nobody at the pool. I walked to the edge of the pool to touch the water. It was cold and not heated up as expected in a cold place like this. I then walked down to level 4 to have a look at the gym, but it was locked, with a sign asking guests to get the key from the reception if they wish to use the gymn facility. I then went down to level 1 and observed that apart from the business centre, which was closed, there was also the karaoke room known as "Singalot." The Coffee Room, where breakfast, lunch and dinner were served, was also located on Level 1. There was also a table counter, which provided a tour service for those interested to visit Cameron Highlands in more detail.


After Salmiah finished her seminar, we decided to take a walk to the nearest vegetable stalls to buy two (2) packets of mushrooms of different variety, a packet of tomatoes, a bunch of asparagus and two (2) packets of fresh strawberries. That night, whilst Salmiah had steamboat dinner with her colleagues, I had steam vegetables for dinner, which consisted of an assortment of mushrooms, tomatoes and asparagus. You should try it sometime, it was appetisingly delicious!
On Friday, 22nd May 09, the day for us to bid farewell to Cameron Highlands finally arrived. Salmiah's seminar ended at 10.00 am that day. Since the checking-out time was at 12.30 pm, we decided to do our "shopping" first before we checked out. We packed our stuff and shove them in the boot of the car and drove to the places that we had scouted two (2) days earlier and bought some corns, strawberries and an assortment of fresh vegetables.


When we had finished shopping, we went back to the hotel to check out. Salmiah invited me to join her for lunch because most of her colleagues had decided to leave early and skip the lunch. Only one out of the five lunch tables was occupied that day.

After lunch, we left the hotel at about 1.45 pm. We decided to use the same road that we used on the way up. When we reached the foot of the hills, we stopped at a Petronas station to fill up the petrol tank and perform the "solat jamak takdim" (2 different prayer times conducted together). After that we entered the North-South Expressway at Gopeng Tol Plaza and drove non-stop to reach Ampang at about 5.15 pm.

Finally, it puzzled me how the corns didn't taste as sweet or the strawberries as delicious as when we had them in the mountains. Could it be because the hotter weather at Ampang had adversely affected their taste? I would be glad to share your experience regarding this matter if you had been to Cameron Highlands before and bought the corns and strawberries.