Cameron Highlands retreat

During the Raya holidays, my family and I went to Cameron Highlands for a retreat. It was indeed a huge family retreat, because my cousins, grandparents (maternal and paternal), uncles, aunties all gathered there. It had been quite a while since we planned something large scale, so I was really looking forward to it. We started our journey at about 10am in the morning and reached around 1.5 hours later, where we were greeted with traffic jam! Seriously, not a good time to go to Cameron Highlands on holiday season.

After going through the hustle and bustle of the town, we finally found a place to buy fresh vegetables for our steamboat activity that night.

Some market in Brinchang

Since it was almost lunch time, we decided to have lunch before heading to our accommodation in a bungalow. This was where we ate:

A chicken/duck rice shop in Brinchang (near night market)

The crowd was simply amazing. There were so many people in the shop that we had to wait for tables to be cleared. When we finally had our table, we ordered their specialty Roasted duck, of course.

Old cucumber soup

Roasted duck

Well, the food was not too bad but a tad oily. But the company was more important… eating with a big group of people was rather fun.

We then headed to our bungalow, which was called Fair Haven. The place was very old but still well-maintained. At least, all the basic necessities were available. And most importantly, it had an amazing view!

View from the back entrance of the house

Well I think the views were enough to offset whatever downsides of the bungalow. And weather was cool but rather damp. Rained almost every day, which was not good news for outdoor activities.

Can you spot the golf course in the distance?

The first night we were there, we had BBQ just outside the house, facing the brilliant view. Thank goodness there was no rain in the evening, so our BBQ went on rather smoothly. That is, until 2 hours later, then it started to drizzle. Fortunately, we had a front covered porch where we could move to. Check out the delicious BBQed meat that we had!

Look at what rain did to our pit…

Most of the time, we were either just eating or playing mahjong or sleeping! I am positive I gained at least 2 pounds from the 2 nights there. Needless to say, the trip definitely served its purpose to renew my enthusiasm in life, to refresh and rejuvenate me.

Now it is time to get back to work…