I usually prefer to book cheap or budget stays in Cameron Highland but since I got my retirement money early this year, I’ve decided to look for a more premium stay like the Strawberry Park Resort.
Note to self: leave very early in the morning if you’re planning to visit Cameron Highlands or otherwise be prepared to go through one hour of traffic, yes you heard that right. One hour of traffic just from Kea farm to Brinchang. Coming back from Eid celebrations in Kelantan, I took the Gua Musang - Lojing - Kg Raja route to get to Cameron Highlands this time around. It was smooth sailing from Lojing up until Kg Raja then traffic started to get worse gradually from Kea farm to Brinchang proper.
Located on top of a hill in Brinchang, the Strawberry Park Resort looks really beautiful and tranquil. There’s no other settlements or crowded buildings around so you feel like you got the entire resort to yourself. Check-in was smooth and quick. We got a room with a jungle view at the back of the resort. It’s not the most breathtaking view with some trees and hilly jungle but it’s quite alright. It’s an apartment-like accommodation with two separate bedrooms and one shared bathroom. The living room leads you to the balcony where you can sit on the chair while enjoying the view.
In the evening, we braved the traffic for a while, 20 minutes to be exact which is not bad considering the one hour crawl earlier to go to the popular Brinchang night market near Golden Hills. I’m not sure whether it's Eid season but there were not many food stalls open and the ones that were open were crowded to the max. We bought some snacks and strawberries and stopped by 7-11 later on. We were planning to have lunch at some restaurants in Brinchang town but it was already 9:30 PM and we were afraid that by the time we get past the dreadful traffic to town, all the restaurants would already be closed. That’s when we decided just to order some pizza via Grab Food for dinner. Which proved to be a grave mistake because one hour later the app said there were no drivers to send us the pizza (a likely story). Thank god we grabbed some cup noodles earlier at 7-11 otherwise we’d all go to bed hungry that night.
At least the breakfast buffet more than made up for last night. It’s no Shang-ri La for sure but it’s good and decent. We had the usual nasi lemak, kuey teow, popias, sausages, cereals, noodles, porridges, muffins and toast among others. After breakfast we took a stroll around the resort, enjoying the plants and flowers in the gardens and some views from on top of the hill resort.
Overall I would give Strawberry Park Resort 3.5 stars. The facilities were okay but the environment was certainly very beautiful. You should give it a visit at least once when you’re in Cameron Highlands.
After check out, we meant to visit the usual Boh Tea plantation and café in Sungai Palas but Waze said it’s one hour traffic that way so we ended up visiting the new Centrum shopping mall instead. Despite the hype, Centrum is just so-so in my experience. Aside from Pak Leh’s restaurant, there were no other proper eateries to choose from. If you don’t count Starbucks, Baskin Robbins and Family Mart as eateries that is. And we can’t eat at the lone chinese restaurant there. It’s great if you want to buy some snacks or provisions for your travel but other than that, the place is completely forgettable.
Other than Fraser’s hill and Genting Highlands, Cameron Highlands is the only other cool climate holiday place that we can visit in the peninsula. Over the years, traffic has gone from bad to worse and you can only have the local town council (that’s you BN fools) to blame. I don’t see any plans to improve the traffic route, build new roads or anything. That said, it’s the only affordable cool place for locals to visit if you can’t afford to go overseas. It’s a pity that you will have to take into account the horrible traffic when visiting the area.
