Cameron Highlands Bharat Cameron Tea Plantation

September 2011 (Continuation) - Backdated post

There are basically two major tea plantation companies in Cameron Highlands. There is BOH Tea of course. The other is the Bharat Cameron Tea. The tea plantation for Bharat Cameron Tea is much more accessible. There are two that we encountered during our visit there recently. One is located after Brinchang before we reached the Equatorial Hotel. The tea house is modest and the plantation is much smaller. The other is before Tanah Rata and can be seen on the main road leading down to Tapah. This is definitely much more impressive and the tea plantation, much larger.

We made a stop at both tea plantations. The first was before we reached our hotel on the first day. The other was on my second day after we visited the Boh tea plantation.

Zipping a cup of hot tea while enjoying a delicious scone in the cool weather that we don't normally get in KL is definitely a welcoming change. There is such a care-free atmosphere that all the work stress and worries seemed so far away (at least for that few precious moments). Looking at the vast piece of green landscape that goes as far as the eyes can see brings such tranquility to the soul. I must said that I can not help but to be amazed at God's marvellous creation.

(This is the Bharat tea plantation located before Brinchang if you are taking the Simpang Pulai route to Cameron Highlands)

(This is the Bharat Tea Plantation located after Tanah Rata on the way down to Tapah. Located by the roadside, you just can't miss it) (2 workers working on the tea plantation. They are dwarfed by the sheer vastness of the entire landscape)
(Ryan getting bored and started fooling around with his water bottle)

Cameron Highlands Steamboat Dinner

September 2011 (Continuation) - Backdated post

Any visit to Cameron Highlands is not complete without at least a steam boat meal. There are plenty of steam boat restaurants in Brinchang and I'm sure most of you would have had at least one when visiting Cameron Highlands. We were not sure which is good but we know that we preferred one that uses charcoal rather than the electrical steamboat pot. Parking at Brinchang could be a nightmare and we were lucky that we went on a weekday instead of a weekend or a public holiday. Even that, we have some problem looking for an empty parking space. Hence, the restaurant that we chose was the one where we found a parking right in front....It turned out to be quite nice and pleasant experience...Price is reasonable.

(Ryan getting impatient waiting for the food to arrive)
(Ryan getting excited over the steam boat pot with the tall funnel)
(Mother and sister getting the steam boat ready)

Cameron Highlands Water Crest Valley Restaurant

Sept 2011 (Backdated post) - Continuation

We took the route from Simpang Pulai to Cameron Highlands and hence we will hit the top above Brinchang on our way to the Equatorial. It's a much more pleasant drive as compared to the windy road from Tapah with lorries driving like maniacs and overtaking at every opportunity.

On the way to Brinchang and about 5 minutes away from the Equatorial Hotel, we came across this restaurant which I have read from the internet. Known as the Water Crest Valley, they are actually water crest farmers with a restaurant that served water crest recipes as well as steam boat.

(A view of the water crest grown here)

After checking in, being hungry and lazy to explore other places, we drove back to this restaurant for our lunch. The food was like home cooked meals, delicious and the price is reasonable. In fact, we actually went back to this restaurant for one last lunch before going home.


(Tasty meat patties) (Stirred fried fresh mushrooms)
(Omelet)
(Chicken fried with water crest)
(Water crest)
As we finished our meal, the storm clouds were brewing and I managed to catch this shot with the dramatic clouds against the clear blue skies...

Cameron Highlands Boh Tea Plantation

Sept 2011 Continuation (Backdated post)

Visiting tea plantations and having a cuppa amidst the cool weather is the one thing that everyone who travels to Cameron Highlands should do. (Unfortunately, this is the first time I doing it as all my previous trip were either visiting vegetable farms or playing golf)

I must say that it is a rather pleasant experience especially if you are going and doing it with your loved ones. We visited three plantations in total, two belonging to the Cameron Tea while another is the Boh Tea Plantation located just before Tanah Rata.

Going in from the main road leads to a windy narrow road which took almost 20 minutes. Was apprehensive as our 7 seater is not exactly a small car. But the journey is well rewarded with a cool breezy and cozy place for a warm cup of tea.

(The family enjoying a cup of tea together...Priceless)
Boh Tea Plantation has a Look Out Point which is a hill which will take approximately 15 minutes steep climb to reach the top. So proud of Ryan that he took up the challenge and walked up the entire journey. (Coming down was another matter...daddy has to carry!)

The view of the plantation while climbing up the Look Out Point
Fooling around with her favourite `ku cheh' (my youngest sister) at the top of the Look Out Point.
This is an excellent pose by this little rascal. I placed him on this concrete bench and teach him this pose and the result was fantastic. In fact, he was telling me to do the same pose when I had my picture taken with my wife ...

More pictures in the next post ...keep following ...

Children's First Trip To Cameron Part One

Sept 2011 (Backdated post)

(View of the Boh Tea Plantation located just before Tanah Rata)

My mum has been staying with my sister for a couple of months now and she expressed the desire wanting to go back to Kampar to visit my grandmother who is still there. We volunteered to drive her home and took the opportunity to arrange for a short 2 nights at Cameron Highlands. This trip is going to be the `first' for several reasons and we were all very excited about it.

- First outstation trip for Chenya.
- First Cameron Highland stay for both the children.
- First travel together as a four member family (besides the maid)
- First travel together with my youngest sister (yes..we don't get to travel that often together)
- First outstation trip for our recently acquired 7 seater.

(View of the Cameron Tea Plantation located after the Boh Tea Plantation but before Tanah Rata with an excellent look out point where you can have your tea looking at the vast plantation)

We have not been to Cameron Highlands for a couple of years now. When we were a couple, we used to travel there for short stay and we have stayed at the Old Smokehouse a couple of times (absolutely loved the experience), the Equatorial and the hotel directly opposite the golf course (now taken over by YTL). We loved the steamboat dinners and the golf rounds we had with the nice cool weather.
(Attending to some messy business before getting down to enjoying the meals)

Staying at the Smokehouse is out of the question as it is way too expensive since we have 5 adults and 2 children. So, we opted to go back to Equatorial again where the rates are more affordable. (Verdict: the hotel is pretty run down now as compared to when we were there years ago. For the price of which they are charging, they should have done some form of refurbishing)

The trip up was pleasant and exciting as we could comfortably put all 5 adults and 2 children with the loads of luggage into the MPV. (Wise decision to buy this rather than the smaller Estima though a little more costly). I was rather surprised with the performance of the car going uphill with the load.

And activities in Cameron Highlands... (what else??)

- Visit and having a nice cup of tea at the different tea plantation. We were at Boh Tea and the Cameron Tea plantations on different days and the experience was relaxing and the view absolutely stunning.
- Steam boat with plenty of fresh vegetables for all dinners.
- Leisurely English breakfast at the Old Smokehouse (yes yes..we must go there because we absolutely adore the settings). The most expensive meal!!
- Lunch at the Water Crest restaurant where food is simple but delicious.
- Strawberries picking where Ryan was totally excited.

All in all, it was an extremely pleasant trip and travelling together with my family, my mother and youngest sister made it even more memorable. As we left the mountains, our thoughts were looking forward to our next destination in a week's time ....Bali Club Med ..(more of that in the next post) ....

(A lonely tree sitting right on top of the Look Out Point at the Boh Tea Plantation)

More pictures coming on Cameron Highlands holiday....don't go away ....hahaha

His First Harley .....

Yupe...Ryan got his very first Harley Davidson and boy, is it cool or what ....

With Chenya's arrival, and only one maid at home, it would be near impossible for the maid to take care of both the baby and Ryan at the same time. We couldn't find a reliable baby sitter that we could trust and after much consideration, we opted to sent Ryan for a full day care center instead of half a day for the following reasons:-

- so that the maid could take care of Chenya without having to worry about Ryan
- so that Ryan could get some form of discipline instead of just watching TV all the time at home.
- so that Ryan could have some proper meals as he is just refusing to eat his proper lunch at home.

We were quite worry that he would not be keen and would kick up a fuss about it. Surprisingly, he cope very well and all the teachers and care takers were very impressed with him. We wanted to give him a cool surprise !

He used to have an electronic car given to him when he was one year old but have since been out of order. He was asking for a truck. We could not find a truck but we thought a motorbike would be cool. We search around and finally found this company, PedyPak which post some pretty interesting selection of battery operated vehicle in their website. This monster was among one posted but the online price was RM599! We were thinking of something below RM400. We called and were told that we could visit their warehouse located at Pandamaran Port Klang to have a look at the models currently available.

Using our GPS, we located the factory and we were offered this `monster' at a cool Rm430! We took it and Ryan was one happy boy that afternoon when he saw it in the car when we went to pick him up from school.

Actually, this is a cool place if you are looking for similar toys because they are a major importer and distributor and also provide spare parts like batteries etc in the event should you need repairs to be done. Check it out at www.pedypak.com

Pig Trotter with Black Vinegar

This is another popular confinement dish and we absolutely adore it. Try my hand preparing this dish yesterday and it turned out reasonably good. At least my wife appreciates it and I guess to me, that is more than enough.


I was reading from Health Freak Mommy's blog of this kai lan dish that they tried at Steam Room Restaurant at Viva Home Mall. It definitely looked refreshing and I tried preparing the same thing for dinner last night. Verdict: Definitely a refreshing idea to prepare Kai Lan and taste good too. On top of that, extremely easy to prepare and absolutely healthy.

Confinement Dishes

With the absence of the confinement lady and since wife is still on her maternity leave, I have taken over the kitchen to whip out some confinement dishes till she goes back to work. We have bought two confinement recipe books when we had Ryan. The recipe book has proven to of value again this round....

Some of the dishes cooked are :-

Black Bean Soup with red dates, wolfberries, black dates, ginger and pig's tail bones
Salted Baked Chicken Drumstick with tong gui and wolfberries.

Chinese Herbal soup cooked with black chicken. Herbs include pak kei, wai sun, red dates, wolfberries and yuk chuk and dried scallop..

Braised chicken drumstick with mushroom and ginger ...

Lemon Grass and Shallots soup cooked with Chicken Drumstick ...

Stirred Fried Liver with Ginger and Black Pepper

Young papaya soup cooked with pig tail's bone, wolfberries and red dates....another must apparently for mommies who have just delivered and are under confinement ....

Pork Ribs cooked in sweetened black vinegar and ginger ..

Chicken drumstick steamed with ginger, wolfberries, red dates, chinese wine and essence of chicken

Chenya Baby portraits.....First attempt

I have always been fascinated with those cute and pretty baby pictures that I often see from the various website ...and I have always wanted to try my hand taking some of those pictures with Ryan..Unfortunately, with only a straight forward point and shoot camera then, it was quite difficult to get the results that I wanted.

With Chenya now and with my Nikon, I am eager to give it another try.

So, on her day when she was exactly one month old, we dressed her up, took out my camera and start shooting away....

This is first series of those shots. We will be attempting more shots in the near future probably with different props....

Celebrating Chenya's Full Moon

Well..so much rambling about the confinement lady.

Time to move on with our lives. Time flies and the first month came to close. Before we knew it, it was time to plan and celebrate Chenya’s full month party.

We were initially planning a modest party but as we start inviting, the list seemed to grow longer and longer. Before we knew it, we were hitting the 130 pax mark! So, we ended up with catering for a hundred pax and engaging a `lok lok’ van for 50 pax! From our initial two simple tents, we ended up setting up a total of five tents for our friends and guests.

We were really impressed with the cake that we have for Ryan’s recent third birthday party. Hence, we called Joanne to get her to design a two tier cake for Chenya. She came back with a brilliant idea of a rabbit garden party (since little Chenya is born in the year of the rabbit). We simply adore the cake.


We decided to hold it as a lunch instead of dinner since it rains almost every other evening besides August which is the 7th month in the lunar calendar is the ghost festival and hence, we felt it would be better or more comfortable for the guests to attend a lunch then dinner at night.

It was a pretty successful event and we were glad that there so so many friends and relatives sharing our joy and joining in the celebration...

Confinement lady - A nightmare from Hell (Part 4)

Continuation from Part III

When we engaged confinement ladies, we expect them to be a knowledgeable professional with years of experience handling new born and mommies who have just delivered. But seriously, how many of them are really that knowledgeable and is the knowledge that the claimed to have proven or are they just so mid wife's tale......

We have bought a whole new range of Chico BPA free baby bottles for Chenya before her arrival and of course we were excited to pass them to the confinement lady to feed baby Chenya when she arrived.

Barely 2 days into job, Mdm L complained that the nipple holes were way too small and baby Chenya were having a tough time feeding. She insisted that we get her nipples with bigger holes. We went hunting but Chico outlets are difficult to find unless you are prepared to go to shopping complexes that I really don't have the time. Hence, we opted for Avent 4 month old nipples as an alternative. Mdm L seemed to be happier with it but complained constantly that baby Chenya is vomiting milk after feeding. She claimed that Chenya's stomach is `too shallow' and hence can't take that much. She insisted that 2.5 oz is sufficient.

When Mdm L left, it was our turn to take care of Chenya and to feed her. No doubt, the Avent 4 month nipple works wonders and Chenya did finished the milk in no time but we realised that she was not sucking but literally `drinking' since the flow was too fast. At times, we noticed that she literally had to stop to rest because she was just too tired. And we noticed that she vomit quite a fair bit after each feeding. The moment we changed the nipple back to the original one meant for new born, she vomited less and seemed to be enjoying her milk more. Of course the time taken to feed her is much longer as she now has to suck for milk.

Why did Mdm L insisted on a faster flow nipple? Because it is much faster to feed and get it done with. Once we switched to the original nipple, we are able to give Chenya 3 to 3.5 oz per feed without much problem and less vomiting. `Shallow stomach' theory? We dare not even mention this to our paed when we brought Chenya for her regular check up.

So, are all advice given by confinement ladies sound? You will have to be the judge to that.

Another thing we find that confinement ladies would always insist. Firstly, they would insist that we give the baby the pacifier whenever they cried. Honestly, we are seriously against it because we are afraid that the children will be so used to it that it becomes difficult for the baby to rid the habit later. We were adamant that Ryan would not have to use it with our first confinement lady and we shot down the idea the moment Mdm L brought up the subject. Why? Because the pacifier is obviously an easy way to pacify the baby. The problem is after they left and we have to deal with a baby addicted to the pacifier....

The second thing that we have seen confinement ladies likely to suggest was to allow the baby to sleep on the bouncer (sarung). We are again seriously against this idea because we really do not wish to have a baby that can only sleep in a bouncer and not the baby cot. Can you imagine travelling with a bouncer because your baby just can't sleep on a normal bed? The moment Mdm L brought up the subject, we shot it down and she was not at all happy about it.

The question that I tend to ask after this experience is that are confinement ladies really that knowledgeable and will do what is best for the baby or do they recommend methods that will best suit them for the next 28 days?

Well, so much for the confinement lady. We were truly glad that the confinement period is finally over and we could resume our normal life without the intrusion of a stranger in our home....

Would I consider a confinement lady if we should have another baby (not that we are going to since are are pretty sure that we have enough)? I certainly don't think so. In fact I think I could be a better `confinement lady' after going through two confinement ladies (and one from hell).....

And one last thing....she actually opened and counted her `ang pow' the moment we gave her in front of us!!! The ang pow although has become customary to give at end of her service is but a token of appreciation.....but Mdm L has obviously been led to believe that that form part of her charges and I am absolutely certain that she would question us and ask for more if we have given her something below her expectations...

Confinement ladies are certainly not cheap and they behave as if they are queens the moment the come on board.....

Confinement lady - A nightmare from Hell (Part 3)

Continuation from Part 2 ....

Confinement ladies have this tendency to try very hard to differentiate themselves and distance themselves from maids. It is as if they are trying very hard to position themselves above the maids (basically, all they wanted to put across is that they are not maids but professional and experienced personnel with the knowledge and experience to handle new born babies and their mommies)....

The first rule which they always try to establish the moment that they arrived is that they DO NOT and WILL NOT cook for the maid as well! The first confinement lady we had for Ryan tried to establish that but she was still reasonably friendly with our Indonesian maid. Mdm L stressed this as well. We have no problems with that and we took the extra precaution to warn our maid to stay out of her way for at least a month to avoid conflicts. BUT CONFLICTS there WERE APLENTY and this was when they could not even understood a word each other were trying to say....

One morning the confinement lady BARGED into our bedroom and angrily declared that she wanted to leave immediately. When my wife asked for the reason, she claimed that the maid eat her food! She claimed that the maid took her food in front of her! With a face as black as charcoal, she stormed back into her room, slammed the door shut, locked it with the baby Chenya inside! She basically sulked the entire day.

When we went down to the kitchen, the rice was left untouched (half way eaten) with her vegetables on the kitchen top. When we questioned our maid, she said she could not understand why the confinement lady was so enraged. We asked her whether she took the food from the confinement lady and she said yes but she said did asked! She said, she was trying to be friendly and had asked the confinement lady whether the food cooked was nice and took one piece to taste!

Anyway, in order not to make things worse off and not to stress any parties, we managed to pacify Mdm L and the maid.

Then comes the non stop complaints by Mdm L on how lazy and bad the maid was. She told my wife that my maid secretly crept into the baby's room and play with the baby and doze off in front of her and was caught by me. In actual fact, I was looking for the maid and found her playing with the baby in the baby room. (The maid adores the baby because she reminded her of her own daughter back home). Back stabbing and more back stabbing throughout the 28 days....

On another occasion, she angrily complained to my wife that the maid refused to let her use the kitchen and she is NOT cooking anymore! And we have both a dry and a wet kitchen! We asked the maid and the maid clarified that she merely try to ask the confinement lady whether she has finished using the kitchen because she has to cook for Ryan. Sigh.....So we divided and allocated the kitchens, the wet for the confinement lady and the dry for the maid!!!

The maid is without complaints either....

Every morning she would show me the dustbin of the amount of cooked rice that the confinement lady is throwing away. (The confinement lady refused even to leave the left over cooked rice for the maid to eat or fried but instead prefer to throw them away and she has been throwing away cooked rice for the entire 28 days!!!)

And the maid retaliated by purposely keeping pots and pans or containers that she knows the the confinement lady needs. So, when Mdm L can't find them, she would angrily complained to me or my wife ..."You go and ask YOUR MAID where she keep MY Pot. I can't cook without it!"

I jusy could not understand why they simply could not work together especially the maid is there to help her and to ease her workload. With the maid, she would not have to wash the baby's clothes, the mommy's clothes and the baby bottles. All these were taken care of by the maid. In fact, the confinement lady took all these for granted so much so that whenever she cleaned baby Chenya, she would simply just dump all the soiled clothes at the baby's room door to be picked up by the maid. She doesn't even have the courtesy to take it down to the wash area for the maid to wash....

Everytime, she finished cooking, there is literally no wet or dry kitchen in the house..... there are ONLY two VERY Flooded and WET kitchens!!! And the maid would be on standby with a mop sitting at one corner to wipe it dry the moment she finished her task....

Next...are they as knowledgeable as they claim they are???

Confinement lady - A nightmare from Hell (Part 2)

Continuation from Part 1 .....

Once we got home, the complaints started. Hardly 30 minutes, she came and complained that we do not have enough large pots for her to boil the stuff that she needs. Mind you, I have 2 large stainless pots, 2 medium size pots and 2 smaller ones. And that is besides the TWO medium size slow cookers. She wanted me to buy some extra pots! I told her no way. Use what we have as I am sure that they are enough. And she did manage the entire 28 days with the pots that I have at home without much of a fuss after that....

Next complaint was when I told her that we actually did buy some black beans as I have read one of my confinement recipe books where black beans are used in some of the recipes. She asked me if the black beans have been fried? I was like 'Huh? Fried?'. And she went on and said "How to use when they are not fried?". I was SO very tempted to tell her off ..."Am I not paying you to fry them and cook them? If I have already fried them, why the hell should I employ you?" ...but since this is only the very first day, I was trying so hard to keep my cool...I really don't want to make this an issue, knowing that if I am stressed out, my wife would be stressed out and the last thing I want is my wife getting into a post natal depression!!!

We have bought tonnes of cute clothes for Chenya and this became the second issue. The moment she went through the closet, she came and complaint that they are too many jumpers. She wanted us to get for her, clothes which are easy to wear. We told her that there are and she can used what she wants ...and she went on to give us a lecture of how inconvenient it is to give Chenya jumpers !!! (as if we didn't know)

Next...declaring war on our maid...!!!!

Confinement lady - A nightmare from Hell (Part I)

Chenya is now 1 month old. It has been a pretty chaotic and challenging month, not so much with Chenya but more so with the confinement lady that we got.

Honestly, if you ask me now, I would think that confinement is grossly over rated, overly expensive and more of a trouble brewer than a helper in the time when the least you need at home with an addition of a young little baby.

We had one for Ryan when he arrived. It was a last minute arrangement since Ryan arrived prematurely. We called one of those confinement centres and they arranged for Mdm C. We have heard nightmares before and hence we were already very apprehensive. She turned out OK though not without her share of problems at home.

So, when we were expecting Chenya’s arrival, we made sure that we book her in advance (6 months) ahead and requested banked in her RM500 booking fee (non refundable) and the price has increased from the previous RM3000 now to RM3300. It is as if we had a choice.

2 months before Chenya’s arrival, we called her to keep you posted and updated so that she would be prepared. One week before Chenya’s arrival, I gave her a final call to let her know that we are preparing for Chenya’s arrival on the 20th July 2011. And guess what??

She called back and she said that she can’t make it because her daughter is getting married and she is recommending another replacement! WTF!!!! Obviously it was too late now for us to find another replacement and we really do not want to force her to come since she is going to take care of the baby. Held by ransom, we reluctantly agreed with her assurance that the replacement would be a good one. (where have we heard that before??)

I had to pick her up (Mdm L) from Puduraya. On the way back home, she started laying down her ground rules that she will only cook for the mother and baby and that it is their rule that they will only work 28 days. She firmly made clear the date that she would be leaving and if chargeable if extension is required.

I told her that we have bought most of the Chinese herbs required and she was visibly and vocally upset that the various Chinese herbs were not separately and individually packed (ready to be cooked by the medicine hall). She said that she is NOT used to having to cooking without these pre-packed `recipes’.

I was thinking to myself, if you can only cook with pre-packed recipes, then I don’t need you since I can cook myself. Why on earth would I need to pay RM3300 for someone to buy pre-pack soup? WTF!!!

….to be continued …..

Baby Rabbit Girl

Being chinese, we always associate our year of birth to the animal sign of which we were born under and apparently, each animal brings with her, a unique character.

Well, in my household now, we have a pretty balanced group with the arrival of Baby Chenya. We used to have only one male rabbit which is me in the house and I always jest that I would always loose out in a fight if there is one since there are two rats at home...the big and fiery one, my wife and the little hyper active one being Ryan.

Now, at least, I've got another team member in the Rabbit team...Baby Chenya, the new female rabbit at home...Now, the rabbit team would have a better fighting chance at home...hehehehehehe...

A tender moment with Mommy

With the arrival of Chenya, needless to say, my DSLR has become very handy in grabbing pictures of our little princess on a daily basis. (Mommy's orders: Must have at least one picture a day).

Captured the above moment on day 16. Love the shot as it shows a tender moment between mommy and her child....

Planning now to do some baby portrait in the next few days. Really hope that it will turn out well....