Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Cameron Highland/金马仑高原

星期五的晚上,我和朋友Y一起作夜车前往金马仑高原。我们到金马仑的时候,已经是早上了。我们没有时间洗脸,刷牙,就直接参加了当地的半日游团。第一站是玫瑰山庄。玫瑰山庄是一座小山头,整座山头就是一个大花园,里面中有各式各样的话,很多是我第一次见到的,如:凤仙花,秋海棠是以前听说过但从未见过的,还有的是那里所特有的,如蓝色蝴蝶,女人的鞋子。这里给人的感觉很像韩国的香草园,但更大,不如韩国的洋气,干净,整齐,但也鲜花处处,令人赏心悦目。
接下来我们又去了茶园,漫山遍野都是茶树,却有心旷神怡的感觉。据说这茶园自从1929年就有了。是一种很出名的BOH Tea。
最后参观了一座中国庙,这庙果然跟中国的没区别,也有四大金刚,观音等等。本来下午打算去农庄的,钱都交了,可Y说不舒服,只好取消了,回旅馆睡觉。一觉醒来,才发现被子的中央竟有一滩淡淡的血迹,Y说这像是有人在这里吐血而死留下的,好恶心哦,其他的东西也不像干净,看来在马来西亚最少也要住四星级宾馆才行。食物也不怎么样,中餐是套餐,三个菜,一个酸甜鱼,一个姜葱鸡,一个炒生菜,量很小,要不是Y不舒服,根本不够吃。晚餐时火锅。服务人员解释说金马仑的天气比较冷,所以这里火锅较流行,可这里吃火锅没蘸酱,那不是成了水煮菜了吗? 不要以为这里东西便宜哦,每一样便宜货,草莓--还是在草莓园买的,5马币200克,橘子7马币一公斤,金马仑苹果--跟普通苹果完全不一样--5马币一公斤。不便宜吧?味道嘛,草莓与新加坡的似乎差别不大,橘子还可以,至于金马仑苹果的味道嘛,就见仁见智了。
晚上我们去逛了夜市,同样的东西也不便宜,我买了一个玉蜀黍,2马币。感觉脏脏乱乱的。
总的来讲,这里值得推荐,风景无限美,*****,干净程度**,食物美味程度**。
我们每人付了189新元,在牛车水定的票,本以为在新加坡定的票,车会比较新,结果新车只开到边境,就换了马国的车,感觉很上当。算来算去,觉得还是去马国定票比较便宜。车费可以节省一半。至于旅馆嘛,我看随去随有,不难。

Last Friday night, my friend Y and I went to Cameron by Coach-Bus. It's already next morning when we reached there. We had no time to wash our faces or brush our teeth. We joined a local half day tour. First stop was the Rose Centre. It occupies the entire hill. There were various types of flowers. Some I had heard of but never seen before. Some flowers were only seen locally, such as, the blue butterfly and lady's shoe. It gives us a feeling that it resembled The Herbal Land in South Korea. It's bigger but not as fancy, clean and tidy. Nevertheless, flowers still make people happier.
Next we visited a tea plantation. It is said that this plantation belongs to a Scotsman since 1929. It produces a king of very famous tea called BOH tea.
Later, we visited a Chinese Temple which, looked exactly like the temples of China.
Originally we planned to visit a farm there and we had already paid in advance. Y suddenly felt unwell. So we cancelled our trip, got our money refunded and went back to our hotel to sleep. After I woke up, I found there was some blood stains in the centre of my quilt. Y said it looked like someone had vomited blood before they died. It really made me feel sick. It looks like in Malaysia you should make sure that you in at least a 4-star or above hotel. The food here was also not that great. It was just a routine lunch that included sweet and sour fish, ginger, spring onion chicken and fried vegetables. Dinner was a steamboat. The staff told us it was very popular to have steamboat since, the weather there was quite cool. Unfortunately, there was no dipping sauce to go with the steamboat. So, it looked to me like it was nothing more than boiled vegetables.
Nothing was cheap there, including the agro-products. Strawberries were -- 5RM/200g, which tasted not much different from Singapore's oranges at -- 7RM/kg. The Cameron apples were 5RM/kg. This one is a bit special, because the Cameron apples have a unique taste unlike any other apple in the world. As for the taste, well, I guess trying one piece was enough to experience it.
At night time, we visited the local Pasa malam (market) there. Again this was not a cheap experience. I bought one sweet corn at 2RM and it looked a bit dirty here and there.
Generally speaking, view here is fantastic. ***** Environment ** Food **
We paid $189 each at a travel agency at Chinatown. We thought since we booked in Singapore, the coach would be new. In fact, once we reached the boarder, they changed to a Malaysian coach. We felt we had been cheated. It's better to book in Johor Bahru Malaysia. It's only cost half of the price. As for the hotels, I guess they won't be too difficult to find.