Kuala Lumpur-Cameron Highlands 600 km Test Drive (Part 2)

"Strawberries galore!"

"Welcome to Cameron Highlands!"

Updated from Century Pines Resort :

"IMHO, Century Pines Resort looks good externally but indoor lighting was a tad dark"

"Nice crafting as decorations"

If any of you are interested in joining me and my family at Cameron Highlands now, you would do well to bring a brolly or two over... because it is wet with a capital C. I remembered the cool temperature, the mist, the hospitality but I probably forgot the rain.

"Scenes like this are common back at the English countrysides"

Haha, this almost feels like back in UK again- minus the grey skies and beautifully-groomed horses. Wifey may just pester me for a trip back to our home there; but I shudder at the thought of the 14-hours flights that we used to take to and fro UK and Malaysia a few times annually, over the last few years when we lived there.

"Tackled the slippery winding roads beautifully"

Back to the Forte, it's just as well that we reduced the 17" sports rims' tyre pressure to 32 psi because at the previous setting, the ride would have bopped up and down like a rodeo's saddle. The roads to and fro the few places of interest that we visited at Cameron Highlands were peppered with stones, pebbles and sand; and I am glad to share that the Forte was well-engineered to battle these elements without breaking as much as a drop of sweat.

At one point at a sharp gradient, the vehicle in front of us stuttered to a halt and started slipping backwards; but thank goodness to the responsive tiptronic, we quickly revved and overtook it from the side.

"The Golden Sunset- breathtaking!"

"Hills and hills of tea plantations"

"Strawberry Park Resort's beautiful architectures"

The places of interests here included Boh and Cameron Bharat tea plantations, vegetable and fruit farms, strawberry parks, butterfly and insect gardens, aborigine villages (try the one at Batu 24- the orang aslis are real friendly) and flower nurseries. Most are situated towards Brinchang, as we now found out- so there have been quite a few trips up and down our hotel at Tanah Rata and the aforementioned places of interests.

Updated from Hotel De La Ferns :

"De La Ferns is fairly new and we like the hospitable staff"

"Nicely-lited corridors"

"Room's not as big as Century Pines Resort's but there was magic in the air (at night anyway- wink!)

This hotel was suggested by one of the personnel whom we met at the earlier hotel; and we decided to try it out since the room rate was comparable and it was nearer to Brinchang. We had steamboat at the hilltop (although there was a steamboat restaurant too right next to the hotel) but perhaps the food was less than thoroughly clean, as wifey and myself had stomachache some time later. And that happened after we reached back the hotel; and wifey sent me out again to get some contact lens solutions, toothbrushes and toothpaste. I drove out to Tanah Rata and all the shops were closed. Okay, and my stomach was rumbling somewhat then. 

U-turned to Brinchang and the shops were also closed by then (Note to potential visitors: The shops in Cameron Highlands close quite early at around 8.30 pm so be sure to get your necessities purchased earlier). My stomach was closed to protesting heavily, French-style; so I had to drive downhill to the hotel like nobody's business. At certain stretches, I would have normally engineered a slight drift in my other cars; but in the Forte SX, the car was pretty planted on the tarmac and the whatever-abbreviations-in-charged-of-security seemed to be doing their jobs well.

And just as well too, as it ensured that I reached the hotel in the nick of time to sprint to the toilet. And you wouldn't want to know what took place next, would you?

Conclusion : All in all. the Forte has performed well in its 600 km test-drive to and fro KL-Cameron Highlands, and best of all, its fuel consumption (that would be another story coming soon!) has been nothing short of marvelous. I would give this ride an 8/10 for its overall achievements while under-going the test-drive. The excellent turning radius has enabled short and abrupt turns along the tight spaces to be executed like how it would be in cars costing twice its price tag; so the Forte has really fortified its reputation further!