Road Trip to Fraser's Hills

It's the year end school holiday, this year during the X'mas holiday I was up in KL as usual. Nothing new on this trip except that the congestion expected on X'mas eve, the day I began my journey was not there. It was a smooth trip up. KL is as usual is congested for the holiday period with all the shopping going around.

I made a trip up to Fraser's Hills for a night stay before coming back home. This little known place is quite a gem for relaxation, that is if you can find a decent place to stay. Prior to the trip, booked accommodation which I thought was a good deal at Faser's Silverpark. It cost only RM 105 inclusive of taxes for a 3 bedrooms apartment. More on that later, how to locate this hill resort?

Quite easy, from KL head for the Karak Highway, which joins Selangor to Pahang. Travel for about 40km or so and look out for Raub turnoff, then it's about 60km or more to the hill station. The turnoff is just after Genting and Bt. Tinggi. The ascent up the hill is relatively easy, there is no steep incline although the road is narrow and twisty. I rate Genting a much more difficult ascent due to the steep incline althought the roads are wide and are one way up and down. The route to Fraser's is by most the narrowest and winding when compare to Cameron and Genting, fortunately traffic is almost non existence.

The final ascent up to Fraser is via a 8km stretch or road controlled by gates to regulate traffic know as The Gap, this is the narrowest road passable to single traffic only. The odd hours are open to traffic for going up and the even hours are for going down. The Gap is not so bad to navigate, even though you have several 45 deg incline on the turn. The journey takes about 2 hour from KL.

The weather was a plesant cool 16-18 deg on my visit there, the place is literally for chilling out. Going back to my accommodation, the Silverpark is located at the highest point on Fraser Hills. I sense something wrong during check-in when the receptionists handed me the bath towels. I was then directed to the apartment and the outward apperance is really run down, we were allocated on the top floor apartment and there is no lift and so we have to climb three flight of stairs. The apartment is large enough for a family of six but unfortunately it don't really meet my or for that matter any Singaporean's expectation. The furnitures are in tatters, looks dirty and in one of the room, the bed is just a matteress, placed on the floor not even a bed frame.

It took us less then 10 minutes to make a decision to abandone the apartment and checked out of the place and seek other accommodation. Fortunately since it was a weekday, finding alternative accommodation was easy. We end up at Shazan Inn, and got ourselves connecting rooms at RM145 each. Certainly not 5 stars accommodation but much better then Silverparks apartment.

Overall Fraser's Hill is the less hectic place to be to enjoy the cool clean fresh air to Genting's. Night life is non existence, but my kids manage to occupy themselves with indoor games such as table tennis, futsball and snooker. Daytime activities consists of hikes in the numerous trails, archery which we gave a try and cost RM8 for 10 arrows, easy to master but after you shoot your last arrow, your arm goes numb. There are many sights to see, but we had to checked out of the hotel and make it for the 2pm down hill trip back.

The desent from Fraser's Hills is about the same as going up. Driving an auto, all I have to do going down is to pop it in the lower gears and I almost never use my brakes! I estimate that the most I use only about 5% of the brakes for the downhill journey, word of cautions 95% of my passenger end up giddy for the downhill ride!

I would recommend this place at least a 2 nights staty if you can find decent lodging. This is one of the last unspoilt hill resort in Malaysia, not too over commercialize and still hold it's charm.

any pics to browse bro?

stoned wrote:any pics to browse bro?

No pictures here bro, if you want to browse can visit my family sites at Shutterfly, just look for the KL & Fraser Hill tab, be warned ther are over 300 images! Enjoy.

Hope ur car doesnt gv u much of troubles otw der...

starstruck96 wrote:Hope ur car doesnt gv u much of troubles otw der...

Actually it does give me a slight fright , the engine oil warning came up flickering once I reached the GAP, but after stopping and turning off the engine for a few minutes everything seem to return back to normal and the warning lights did not appear again. The following morning, battery monitor throw another warning indicator that my alternator was not charging my battery, but after the engine warm up, everything is back to normal again. I can't explained the warnings, could be due to the stress of reaching Fraser's hill or could be the cold weather...

intermittent warning is a sign of future probs...(touchwood)
hopefully u can fully resolved the minor probs b4 the bigger ones comes along...
anyway ive been havg ABS light on for the past year..so far so good...everyting running fine...

starstruck96 wrote:intermittent warning is a sign of future probs...(touchwood)
hopefully u can fully resolved the minor probs b4 the bigger ones comes along...
anyway ive been havg ABS light on for the past year..so far so good...everyting running fine...

Most probably dirty or faulty ABS sensor, but it's wise to get it check soon... situation is not the same now, must think of safety of your baby also.

juz a Q...having the ABS lite up will affect in my upcoming Inspection?
brO iKon...the last time u went in for inspection...u go on stock airbox?will OP spectre pass the mandatory inspection?

starstruck96 wrote:juz a Q...having the ABS lite up will affect in my upcoming Inspection?
brO iKon...the last time u went in for inspection...u go on stock airbox?will OP spectre pass the mandatory inspection?

I think they will not check the warning lights, as they will perform testing on the brakes itself. As mentioned before, air intake modification will not affect your inspection, unless you are using Turbo, then again some people with illegal snail can still pass inspection.

Ok..point noted.thks brO...