My First Time to Cameron Highlands (Part 1: Accommodation)

Cameron Highlands is about 4 hours drive from KL. For those who yet to know Cameron Highlands, it's a place well known for its cool weather since located 800 -1603 meters above sea level. Apart from its tea estates (BOH tea plantation), the plateau is also noted for its orchards, nurseries, farmlands, waterfalls, rivers, wildlife, mossy forest, golf course, museum, smoke house and its aborigines (housed along the way to Cameron Highlands).

I never been there till last February. There are 2 routes to this place. The first route is nearer but the road condition is not good and narrow. Before this, I also heard from others the road is full of twists and turns. For some turns, we have to be careful as only one vehicle can pass through and therefore need to take turn for the cars on the opposite lane to get through also. Well, we decided to take the second route which is via Simpang Pulai. I never been to the first route but the second route is like a highway. And we never encounter the condition where the road is too narrow for 2 cars to pass through together.

We planned on 3 days 2 nights at Cameron Highlands since that was my first time being here. We stopped over at Ipoh for lunch before continued our journey. We started the journey about 9am and reached Cameron Highlands about 4pm. We spent 7 hours on the total journey. We wasted lot of time on the road towards CH. 

The climate was cool. The air was fresh. The first thing we did when arrived was to find our booked homestay. The name of the homestay was called Gerard's Place. Well, we really researched quite some time through booking.com and finally found this. Overall, the guests' comments given on this property were great. 

Survey on other property in Cameron Highland for our stay

My friend was not agreed with me at first for this place as he was keen to book on another property called Kea Garden Mini Chalet that was RM100 per night. The rate was affordable.

Kea Garden Mini Chalet picture in booking.com

Kea Garden Mini Chalet in reality -lower than a standard man's height

We accidentally found this place when buying the strawberry and corn at the market nearby. Kea Garden Mini Chalet is really "mini". One has to bend down a bit to get inside. The mini chalets are staying close to each other. I guess there was no privacy for the guests who stay. Imagine if the couple comes with baby and crying all night long? This will really set us crazy! But the place is really beautiful with the colourful flowers decoration at the yard.

p/s: All this was just my two cents. 

We booked on wrong weekend!

Booked wrong weekend - total refund by booking.com upon agreement by the owner

We booked on wrong weekend and requested refund on that. Luckily they agreed to return our money. We actually did not expect that as this was our fault too. I was not sure on booking.com rule if we need to cancel 24 hours after booking to ensure 100% refund. But I came across some properties on the website are not allowed to refund the payment.

Booking again for the correct one with higher rate

We booked again on the following weekend from Friday to Sunday with the same room type. The room rate increased from RM245.97 to RM268.32. The difference was RM22.35. The extra charge was perhaps the higher rate on Friday compared with Monday. 

Commentary on Gerard's Place

Gerard's Place is the name of the properties owned by Gerard. He has few units at this place, 2 units at ground floor, another one at second floor plus the last one at other block further away (if I not mistaken as told by his staff at the reception counter). The place does not come with lift. Luckily our room is at ground floor which just few stairs stepping down from the corridors. Gerard's Place is in apartment style that equipped with basic amenities. Water heater, fan, free wifi, TV, refrigerator and kettle. They also provide bread and jam for our breakfast. To ease us, they even put the mineral water bottle at the table top. We just paid the money to the box provided if we need it. So that we do not need to drive all the way down to the convenient shop to buy the water.

To our surprise, our "house mates" for that 2 nights were all foreigners. The other unit at the next door too also occupied by foreigners. This place is cool. My body was trembling by the cool breeze blew in through the small window at the bathroom while I dressed up. That explained why the room is not equipped with air-con. LOL

The day time temperature is about 25 Celsius, and night time could achieve 16 Celsius or below. 

The balcony of our unit.

My room was in queen size bed. We had a seating area and a long table by the window. In front our bed was a wardrobe. This is the only room comes with attached bathroom, while the other 2 rooms they have to share the bathroom outside.

Heritage Hotel

Facing us on top of the hill was the 5-stars ranked Heritage Hotel. Ample parking slot available here. I think I would book here again for my next visit. That's my sharing about our staycation at Gerard's Place. Stay tune for my post in Cameron Highlands!