Fraser's Hill Resort Has Lost Its Glorious Days, But Not Its Natural Splendours

Having determined that we had insufficient time to travel up to Chiang Mai in Thailand, we drove across the causeway on Thursday, 8 May 2008 at about 6.30am. Our destination being Bukit Fraser or more popularly known as Fraser's Hill Resort.

It was fun driving up the North-South Highway for the first time, saved that we had to cope with what we feared most for the trip - breakdown ( one tyre puncture on the way up, and another on the way back ).

Caution: Never trust your tyres even when the condition of the brand new tyres looked "OK". We even had the assurance of the agent's workshop and a Malaysian tyre-shop that the tyres were in good condition.

Advice: Always have 2 spare tyres on stand-by at any one time, and head for the nearest town as soon as you have used them.

Decline any offer of help to replace the tyre along the way. They are most likely to slaughter you. Despite our prior knowledge of such opportunists from newspaper, we were confused and anxious on the first puncture; and ended up paying double on the price for the first replacement tyre. Besides, there was a charge for the labour of replacing the bad tyre.

We finally reached Exit 118 of the highway, and had to make our exit to proceed with the rest of the journey on so-called Federal Roads and Other Roads ( that is, minor roads when compared to the federal roads ).

It was with sheer determination and much anxieties that we reached our destination at about 5.30pm as there was no adequate directional signs to guide us along the Federal Roads and Other Roads for the resort.

It was a big let-down when we finally made it to the top of the resort. Many inns, pubs, cafes, restaurants, etc have already been abandoned or closed down over the years.

We checked into Shahzan Inn after realising that it was probably the best accommodation at 110 ringgits a night. We were probably the only guests around then. More checked in subsequently ( three or so more families ).

The scenic beauties of the early morning hours were simply irresistible for us to commit them to our memories of Bukit Fraser.