17.7.11: Time Tunnel Gallery

We also visited the Time Tunnel Gallery, which is a museum that housed a collection of items from the past. Entrance fee was RM5 per adult and RM3 for children below 12 years old. My boys, still young were allowed in free. The place brought back some memories.

I remember sitting in a trishaw with my mother around Malacca when I was 6 years old. I didn't realise it was so narrow

 My dad made me a similar wooden rocking horse when I was little. When I grew up, I completely forgot about it and it must have been discarded along the way.

Trying out a water pump. In the earlier days, they didn't have piped water. 

I remember seeing this when I was little. I forgot what it was for. 

Trying their hand out at the telephone in the 1980's. 

Baby walker

Baby chair made of bamboo. 

Playpen?

In the past, a lot of natural materials such as wood, bamboo and rattan were used to make toys. It was much better then, with natural materials. Nowadays, it's mostly plastic.

17.7.11: Big Red Strawberry Farm

In the morning, we went to the Big Red Strawberry Farm. It is branded it as Taman Agro Tourism. It was beside Cactus Valley. We parked near Cactus Valley and walked in, as we didn't know that there was more parking inside and nearer to the strawberry farm and they actually had 200 parking spaces.

Entrance was FOC. 

Koi pond at the entrance

There were cacti there.

It was a large place and we could see beautiful vegetables growing there. So beautiful, so perfect, that I began to wonder if any pesticide was used. I only saw those sticky insect mats that were pasted onto posts there and it had many insects stuck to it.   

Butterhead

My favourite vegetable - green coral. Now I know that those  green corals that I buy in the supermarket comes from Cameron Highlands. 

White radish. Wish I can plant this at home. It doesn't take up much space.

I bought some vegetables. 1 packet of vegetables such as green coral or butterhead, etc was sold for RM2 and 3 packets for RM5. It was a good price.

There was even a place with all these coin-slot kiddie rides. 

The strawberries are not so red anymore.

Small tiny plants sprouting in tiny pots. 

Visitors are allowed to pick strawberries for a fee. Strictly applicable for 10 years and above. 

These bunch of grapes were growing on the canopy walkway above us.  

Tomato plants

Juicy tomatoes

There were also pots of beautiful flowers being sold there. I wanted to buy some potted plants but was afraid that they wouldn't live in our hot climate in KL. 

Looking at the various types of flowers

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16.7.11: Bee Farm Cameron Highlands

We went to a Highlands Apiary bee farm at Cameron Highlands. I read online that there were several bee farms in Cameron Highlands and we just visited the first bee farm that we came across. This bee farm was situated nearer to the foothill of Cameron Highlands. It's not high up at the peak. 

We were greeted by beautiful flowers when we walked in. 

He appreciates flowers

Most of the farms in the area grew strawberries. So did this bee farm. 

Looking at strawberries.

After climbing up a number of steps, we saw the bees. They were flying freely. A sign told us to beware of the bees and it is our personal risk. Hence, we just watched from a distance.

How do the bees make the honeycomb?

We visited the shop attached which was selling honey and related products. They even sold honey in honeycombs. 

Now, I wonder how bees made honeycomb. At first, I thought it was man-made. Then, I googled it up and found this website: http://www.honey-for-health.com/how-bees-make-honeycomb.html . I learnt that hundreds of bees set about building a comb from 3 or 4 different places. The continue building until they meet in the middle and they make the honeycomb without any imperfection. 

Here's an informational video on how bees produce honey that I found on YouTube. 

17.7.11: Overnight in Cameron Highlands

After leaving Trolak at around 1 pm, we headed for Cameron Highlands. The road was winding and narrow. I hadn't realised that it would take quite a long time to reach Brinchang in Cameron Highlands from Tapah.

We saw many land rovers in Cameron Highlands and they had the word CH on it, for Cameron Highlands. We was the following land rover at Tanah Rata.

S asked, "Mummy, why is the land rover so old?"

On the way, we stopped at the Bharat Tea Plantation. Many people stopped to drink tea here and we did the same. We ordered a pot of Cameron Valley tea for RM7.50. I mistakenly thought that Cameron Highland tea would taste better, but there wasn't much difference from any other normal brand of tea. When we reached our hotel, we found that the hotel room also provided us tea bags with the same brand of tea. Lesson learnt.

We enjoyed the scenic view of the tea plantation

We also stopped at the Bee Farm. I will write about it in a separate posting here.

Finally, at 4 pm, we reached our destination. We stayed at Rosa Passadena in Cameron Highlands as it had more attractive rates compared to the other hotels and some people had recommended it on their blogs. However, I was slightly disappointed as the room was smaller than I thought and safety was a concern.

We stayed on the 3rd floor and it was very dangerous for small children, as the windows opened outwards and there wasn't any window grilles in place. How can this be allowed? At least, some personal safety mechanisms should be in place, more so, in a hotel. We ended up closing the windows at night, for safety reasons, compromising on the stuffiness.

I was surprised that Cameron Highlands wasn't as cold as I thought it would be. I had read the weather forecast that the temperature in Cameron Highlands would be around 19 celcius and had expected it to be cold, but when we reached at 4 pm, it wasn't cold at all. Furthermore there wasn't any mist at all, unlike Genting Highlands. However, at night time, it was chilly, when the wind blew. 

The good thing about staying here is that the Brinchang night market was nearby. It is open on Friday and Saturday evenings. At 5.30 pm, we walked out to the pasar malam. It was just a 10 minutes walk away from the hotel. We passed by the colourful Fire Department on the way to the Brinchang night market.

The colourful fire department. 

There were many stalls, any many of them sold the same things. We bought strawberries (3 packets for RM10) and was told by the seller that it could last. E at some that night. He loved the strawberries. However, when we brought them home the next day, quite a lot had spoilt. 

I bought a pair of leggings for only RM5. Toe socks were sold at RM4 per pair and 3 for RM10.  

We had dinner at an organic steamboat restaurant. There were many steamboat restaurants in Brinchang itself. I had never seen so many steamboat restaurants in one place. They had vegetarian steamboat on the menu at RM19 per person, and we ordered it. Ordering for 2 persons was more than enough for us. After enjoying our meal, we came across some cuttlefish in the soup, and then realised that the soup base wasn't vegetarian after all. Anyhow, since I was a flexible vegetarians (flexi-tarian), I didn't mind it, but it is actually misleading to name it vegetarian steamboat, when the soup isn't. The steamboat was delicious, but then my stomach started churning when I reached the hotel, as though I had some stomach upset.

E who is not a picky eater, ate his vegetables - broccoli, carrot and  taufu

S who is more picky, hardly ate and ended up making designs of monster trucks with the plates and toothpicks. 

E followed suit and made a house design with toothpicks. 

S made an ichthyosaur dinosaur. He actually remembered how they looked like. I couldn't remember and finally found the resemblance only when I googled it up. Notice the resemblance with the ichthyosaur below?

Ichthyosaur. Image from: http://www.wpclipart.com