Pretty Fraser's Hill

Pretty Fraser’s Hill

27 -28 October 2012 (One night stay)

If you ask me to describe Fraser’s Hill, what comes to mind is pretty. It really is. You want to know why? Where do I even start – the green hills, the flowers, the colonial bungalows, the landscaped gardens, the mist, the birds, I can go on.

At the public park surrounded by morning mist

All highlands are beautiful. But when I compare Genting Highlands, Cameron Highlands and Maxwell Hill, Fraser’s tops them all. There is something about Frasers that draws you back there – it’s like you are already planning on the next trip while driving back home. It’s like you have discovered this secret place to escape from the hectic city life.

At the famous landmark of Frasers - the ClockTower

I did some research before hitting Fraser’s. It is named after a white entrepeneur who set up a tin ore business at the base of the hill. Louis James Fraser, a Scotsman, ventured to the border of Selangor-Pahang to hit gold in tin mining. He hired Chinese tin miners and used mules to transport tin ore through paths cut through the jungle by his local coolies. Strangely Fraser got lost in the jungle and never was found. After 25 years, his buddy from Singapore, decided to check out the matter and instead found the hills to be the ideal place for British officers to relax, unwind and recuperate. So began the building of the retreat bungalows and hence the creation of Little England @ Fraser’s Hill.

The road ascending to Fraser's Hill



One of the many colonial bungalows

Actually this trip wasn’t planned. We just wanted to go off someplace away from KL. Since it is just a 2 hours’ drive from KL, we went ahead. So I googled for accommodation and checked rates. There are only 4 budget hotels here-actually not budget if it’s a weekend. The hotels are Fraser’s Park (apartments), Puncak Inn (RM199 weekend rate), Jelai Resort (can’t be reached) and Shahzan Inn ( RM189 weekend rate), so we picked Shahzan.

Our room at Shahzan Inn

The garden view from the balcony of our room- tall pine trees

We left KL at 9.30am and reached Kuala Kubu Bharu (KKB) at 10.50am, the nearest town to Frasers. KKB like any other small town was laidback. But the roads were wide and clean and the town was well spread out. Lots of green.

A set of Poori with Tea - breakfast at KKB

We stopped at Umahna’s Restaurant for breakfast. Had poori and tea, Seems there are only 2 Indian (Hindu) restaurants in KKB, the other being Ferozpur Curry House. There are some Indian Muslim (Mamak) restaurants and a number of Chinese eateries. We shopped for sundries and snacks and packed lunch. Prices were more or less as in KL.

SPLASH signage made of rocks at Sg Selangor Dam

The gazebo at Sg Selangor Dam

On our way, we stopped at Sungai Selangor Dam. We checked out their info booth and watched a video on how the dam was built.



Panoramic view of the Sg Selangor Dam

These are model houses that were built to relocate the Orang Asli away from the dam

Info Booth open for visitors includes the history of KKB

Seems the natives (Orang Asli) who had occupied the land at the dam were re-located to Kampung Pertak and Kampung Gerachi. These are the Temuans. Some are employed as guards and cleaners at the Info Centre. I found out that most visitors to this place were expats on their way to Frasers.

The greeting at the foothill

 By 11.30am, we were back in our car and continued our journey. We soon reached the Gap. The road splits into two here. One to ascend the other to descend. So we started the climb. The road was narrow just enough for one car at a time. But the ride was fun – as we were surrounded by the jungle and sounds of crickets, birds and animals.

The Scott Tavern is a restaurant now

We didn’t quite feel the chill yet although the weather was cooler here than in KKB. We moved aside a few times to allow other drivers to overtake us. Some bends are sharp and you have to be careful maneuvering your vehicle.

The garden outside our hotel - see the golf course behind and a heli pad

There were obvious signs of landslide here and there but most have been cleared. I wouldn’t recommend driving up or down on a rainy day.

The entrance to the Food Court

The scene at the Food Court - lots of souvenirs sold here

By 1.00 pm we reached Fraser’s Hill. The first thing you will see is a Hindu Temple of Muniswarar  – a guardian deity of the Hindus. Then you will see the colonial-styled Police Station and the Post Office. As you drive in, you will notice the Clock Tower. This is the centre of town. The park and a golf course are visible from here. So is the Scott Restaurant, which used to be a tavern for British officers during colonial days.

The hotel that we stayed

The many pictures of the bird species found in Fraser's Hill

At Shahzan Inn, we checked in and got the room with a  garden view. A beautiful garden overlooked our balcony. All was okay with the room except for the heater. Only the first person to bathe gets a really hot shower. The others didn’t get the shower hot enough or had to make do with lukewarm water. We tried waiting out a bit in between baths for the water to heat up but it didn’t work. This was disappointing as a hot shower on a chilly day would have been great.

The places we visited were :-

1. Allan’s Water for boating in the lake
You need to pay RM6 per boat for a 15 minutes ride.

At the entrance of Allan's Water

The entry point to the boat - life jackets provided

Afternoon boat ride

2. The Paddock – horse ride and archery. 

The rate for horseride is RM8 for adults and RM4 for children.

The rate for archery is RM8 for adulta (10 arrows) and RM5 for blowpipe for children.

The cowboy at Fraser's Hill - these are retired race horses

Rishi trying his hand at the Blowpipe

Harish too

Not as easy as it looks

3. Jelai Resort – bird watching.

We saw many bird watchers in Frasers. It seems Frasers' is home to 250 species of wild birds. In fact the International Bird Watching Event is held here. You don't have to go to Jelai Resort to watch birds, we just happened to be there when we watched the bird watchers' in action with their high tech cameras. You can go into the many jungle trails to see the birds.

There were many bird watchers at this spot with their fancy cameras

Not bad Rishi managed to catch this bird in action

4. The Children's Park

Mini Golf for children

The rates for Mini Golf

5. The Flower Gardens

The night stroll in the flower garden - near the Clock Tower

Morning mist

6. The Smokehouse

I like the way the creepers envelops the whole place

Guillotine Board right outside the smokehouse - not sure if it was actually put to use

The interior which I found a little gaudy - that's the fireplace

Once the above have been covered, there really isn’t really anything else to do. We missed the Jeriau waterfall as the road leading to the fall was under construction. We skipped the jungle trekking as we didn’t come quire equipped for hiking.

If ever you want to film a scene for a horror house - this should be it

This is how the Gap Resthouse looks like from the outside

It says REST HOUSE GAP - deserted

No entry please - outside the The Gap Resthouse

  

Anyway, on our way down, we stopped at the Gap bungalow. Seem such a waste to see a pretty bungalow left abandoned.

The Ferozpur Curry House in KKB

Back down at KKB, we again had lunch at Ferozpur, and headed back home.

Overall Frasers is worth a day trip or an overnight stay. Unless you are into bird-watching, golfing, jungle trekking or a couple on honeymoon, if you have kids in tow, you will soon run out of things to do if you choose to stay for more than one night..

I can be reached at sivakay2009@gmail.com.