A Night In Cameron Highlands, Back To Equatorial Hotel Again

From Penang, we made our trip to Cameron Highlands. On our trip to Cameron Highlands last year, we tried the access roads from Sg Koyan and also Tapah route. This time around, we used the Simpang Pulai route. For those who cannot stand the Tapah winding road, Simpang Pulai can be a better choice as it is less winding (and less scary too!) but for me, Simpang Pulai route was a yawn fest and Tapah makes me wide-eyed the whole journey!

Comparing the three routes, I think the least vomit inducing route is the Sg Koyan route, but if I'm not mistaken, it yet to be fully completed. Got to check with my younger brother who was also in Cameron that day, coming from our hometown in Raub using the Sg Koyan route.

Just like our trip last year, we chose Equatorial Hotel to stay for the night. Zaini and I have this tendency to return to places we like hence the return visit to Equatorial. And we made a return visit to the same farm for a bit of strawberry picking and buying fresh fruits and vegetables too! We are loyal, us. :D

Our trip was before the year-end school holiday rush, so the lobby area was quiet and  not yet packed with guests. However, despite that, the rooms at Equatorial Cameron Highlands can be rather hard to get.

I tried to book a deluxe room for our stay but all deluxe rooms were fully booked so we decided to try their Senator Suite as the rate difference between the two room types is not that much; just about RM100 or so.

Checking-in was a breeze. It was rather nice and ego-boosting to be greeted by name at the reception even before the staff looked at my ID. But then, was I really a bad guest to be marked and recognised by face? LOL

Anyway, not only the reception (whose name I didn't manage to get) was friendly and warm to us, we were also met by a really friendly Front Office Manager and the Duty Manager too. Raymond & NurAzlin, sorry if I weren't all that chatty that day and was rather in a hurry to get to our room. I needed to use the loo badly! Thanks for the breezy check-in process. I felt like a VIP! :D

Our Senator Suite was really spacious. It had a separate living room and two TVs so parents and children (i.e. us vs Raimie) need not bicker about which TV channel to watch. The bathroom was huge, with a seperate shower stall, tub and toilet area. There's a shower head in the tub too so two people can take a shower at one time here. Love the shower here.The water pressure was awesome!

If you book a superior room at this hotel, your room has no balcony. A deluxe room has a balcony and the Senator Suite we stayed in has not one, not two but three balconies! Pity the night was really cold due to the rain otherwise it'd be nice to sit outside enjoying the night breeze.

There is one thing about toilets in Malaysian hotels, that if you are privy to reports on guests feedback/complaints, you would almost always read Muslim guests complain about; the ability to wash after using the toilet. If there is no access to water pipes nearby the toilet, this small pail  provided in our room at Equatorial Hotel is rather essential for us. None were provided at Traders Hotel that we stayed in the day before in Penang, making washing up after doing my "business" a hassle. A toilet without an access to water  and only have toilet paper is not appreciated by us Muslims, you know. So putting this in was much appreciated.

If I have to gripe on anything about the suite, it's the incovenient placing of the sockets. To use my notebook at the writing table in the bedroom, I had to unplug a lamp in room so it was a choice of a really dim room or sitting on the sofa instead. Same issues with the sockets for the kettle. Zaini and I had to move the mini bar cabinet a bit in order to plug-in the kettle because the sockets was located behind the cabinet. Rather inconvenient, don't you think?

Why did I spend time sitting in front of my notebook during my vacation? Equatorial Hotel Cameron Highlands provides free wi-fi access to all suite guests. For those staying at Superior or Deluxe room, currently there is a promotion of RM14.95 for a day's use.

I'd  have no problem spending the day cooped up in our suite but we didn't travel all this way to laze away in our room. The evening was spent walking around Kea Farm and the next day was at a vege farm. That, on my next post.