Travel-Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

For years people living in Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia, have been escaping the heat of the tropical climate by taking a trip to the Cameron Highlands, the highest point in Malaysia by car and therefore, the coolest!  During the day, the temperature rarely rises above 25 degrees Celsius or 77 degrees Fahrenheit and at night, the temperature can drop to as low as 12 degrees Celsius or 54 degrees Fahrenheit.  It’s great!  So over Memorial Day weekend, my husband and I did just that…we escaped the heat of KL and ventured north to The Cameron Highlands.

Not only is Cameron Highlands known for its cooler weather, but it’s also famous for the BOH Tea Plantation and its many strawberry fields.  So during our visit, we were sure to stop by these special spots as we sipped tea and ate strawberries wherever we went.

You can purchase the BOH tea online, but check out your local grocery stores this weekend…they may carry it there as well.

Here is a picture of one of the strawberry gardens.  It reminds me of being little and visiting my grandparent’s house…they grew strawberries, among many other fruits, in their backyard in Florida.  It was so fun to just pick them off the vine ready to eat.

We opted for the strawberry sundae and strawberry waffles instead!

I even tried Strawberry Juice…yes another fresh fruit juice!  It was absolutely delicious, but definitely sweet.

Here’s a recipe I found at Strawberry-recipes.com:

Ingredients:

– 1 cup frozen strawberries
– 2 cups water (tap water or mineral water)
– 4-5 teaspoons sugar

Directions:

Pour frozen strawberries into a blender and add water.  Blend until smooth…keep adding water if you like it not as thick.  Add sugar to your liking.

Okay, so this part of our trip had to have been the best part, well for me, anyway…something I wasn’t even going to do until last minute.  I actually walked into our hotel, Cameron Highlands Resort (after we checked out), set up an appointment and afterwards we walked outside into the car and started driving home to KL.  What I decided to do was have a massage, but not just any massage…it was a Fresh Strawberry Escapade massage!!!  Boy, what an experience!

It began with this…a Strawberry TEA BATH.

Literally, I climbed into this bathtub and didn’t know what to do with myself.  They gave me bath salts, limes (still not sure what I was supposed to do with these), tea bags to soak over my eyes, headphones to listen to music and a washcloth as I lied in the bath and watched T.V.  It was heavenly and very strange at the same time!  The strawberry pieces kept floating around me in the bathtub and I thought, “Well, this is never going to happen again in my life, so I might as well do something fun with the strawberries” (now, don’t be dirty, haha).  I just decided to play a game to see how many I could grab in my feet and squish between my toes.  It was actually hard…yeah I have a difficult time relaxing!  Then I took a couple more and put them under my armpits and rubbed some on my elbows…I know kinda weird, but oh well, at least I would hopefully smell of strawberries the rest of the day.  ha!

Fifteen minutes later, I was interrupted and taken to the next step in the strawberry experience, the Strawberry BODY POLISH.  They lead me up to the massage room where I was literally covered in this mixture…

Then my body was wrapped in about three layers of some aluminum foil, towels and plastic…snug as a bug in a rug.  The moisture seeped into my skin as I grew a little heated under the towels.  Then my nose started to itch and I couldn’t move my arms so I tried to think of something else as the smell of strawberries consumed the room.

The last part to this experience was the Strawberry AROMA MASSAGE.  It was super relaxing, as you can tell from my sleepy smile on my face.

My time spent at the spa was very interesting.  Hey, I figured when in Cameron Highlands, do the Strawberry Experience and DO IT RIGHT!

We made it back to KL safe and sound, but not without a souvenir.  I have no idea when or IF I will ever wear these out in public, but I just had to have them!  My husband and I laughed after taking this picture and agreed we did not want another strawberry for a long time.