Lady’s Cameron Highlands Travel Guide

Today I want to share my Cameron Highlands travel guide with you. This green, hilly district in Pahang, Malaysia is a great place to get off the beaten path in Asia.

Cameron Highlands Travel

Driving up into the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, the roads become increasingly winding. As my ears pop for the millionth time, I look out the window at the lush surroundings dotted with giant greenhouses.

Many of them are growing strawberries and other produce that can’t take the heat in the country’s lower altitudes.

After a two-hour drive from Ipoh, where I spent the previous night, I arrive at my hotel, the Cameron Highlands Resort. It invited me for a complimentary overnight stay to experience the highlights of the highlands.

The Cameron Highlands Resort has a long history in the area. It’s famous for being a favorite haunt of American businessman Jim Thompson, who disappeared in the Cameron Highlands in 1967.

He left behind a mysterious legacy and a beautiful home in Bangkok that’s now a museum.

In fact, one of my first activities at the resort is to take a hike with the resident naturalist, who guides me along a trail he blazed in the forest near the spot where Thompson disappeared.

As we climb up over roots and past pools of fallen rainwater, he tells me that he met Jim Thompson when he was a boy.

Since the businessman’s disappearance, rumors and stories have become myths and legends.

They’ve given rise to an arsenal of tales that paint Thompson as everything from a drug-smuggling CIA agent to the head of a local association who had an affair with the ambassador’s wife.

At the end of the path, we reach a clearing where Jim Thompson’s house can be seen through the mist.

Whether any or all of the rumors about him are true, he left behind a legacy of intrigue in the Cameron Highlands that won’t be soon forgotten.

When we return from the hike, I relax in my room at the Cameron Highlands Resort. It’s a beautiful space with a view over the neighboring golf course.

Soon it’s time for lunch in the aptly named Jim Thompson Tea Room, a light colonial-style space with pretty wicker furniture and a Western menu.

I have the crab salad to start and then a breaded chicken cutlet with fries. The former is light and fresh, the latter a bit heavy for my taste. Still, it’s a pleasant experience.

After lunch I settle into the comfy reading room, a ready refuge from a sudden afternoon downpour. But I don’t have long to take advantage of the WiFi before heading to the spa for a relaxing retreat.

The resort booked me in for its signature Fresh Strawberry Escapade, a 2-hour spa ritual using the most famous fruit in the Cameron Highlands at its core.

First I relax in a bathtub full of strawberries and tea, a pleasant aromatic experience that sets the tone for the next phase of the treatment: a strawberry wrap and a massage.

The former smothers me in strawberries, yogurt, and oatmeal, then cocoons me in a wrap while my therapist massages my head.

After rinsing off, we move onto the strawberry aroma massage, a much-needed rub down after almost a week of traveling in Malaysia.

My spa treatment is followed by a ceremony that the hotel offers guests who come to celebrate special occasions. I’m invited to light the main fireplace in the Highlands Bar, a lovely event that’s commemorated with a photo.

Afterwards I enjoy dinner in the restaurant with the guest liaison executive. We have a Steam Boat meal, a traditional Malaysian feast.

It’s somewhat akin to meat-and-vegetable fondue, and the hot food is welcome in the cool climate of the Cameron Highlands.

The next morning I’m up early and off to the Ipoh train station after a big breakfast of pancakes. My driver takes me back through the small towns, their roadside stands selling strawberry souvenirs.

Back through the lavender farms, the lush valleys, and the greenhouses of the Cameron Highlands.

As we wind our way down the hills, the air warms up and so does my excitement for the next leg of my Malaysia travels: 3 days in Penang. To be continued…

Want to see more? Watch my Malaysia travel video.

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