Colmar Tropicale French Theme Resort
KM 48 Persimpangan Bertingkat,
Lebuhraya Karak,
Bukit Tinggi,
28750 Bentong
Tel# +60 9-288 8890
What do you do when you're too bored staying where you are but don't want to go from one hot spot to another? Bukit Tinggi has been on my radar for awhile now but it was only until recently that I got the opportunity to visit it. Coincidentally, the sudden haze and hot spell gave more the reason to make that day trip during the weekend.
Departing after a late breakfast, the drive from PJ via Kepong took slightly over an hour. It's the same highway that goes to Genting Highlands. Once you reach, there's a counter where you have to pay upon entry. RM13 for each adult, you could obviously get few to hide in the boot as they only see the number of passengers in the car excluding the boot. If your friends (or worse still, date), ask you to hide or stowaway, maybe you should have better judgement of people next time.
The main area of Bukit Tinggi is centered around the French themed hotel. You can park inside the hotel itself without any additional charges. Oh, just for the record, this is the Bukit Tinggi in Pahang, not Klang.
The resort does have that French flair but the entire place did feel slightly rundown. I don't know if I had too high of an expectation but the place felt washed out =\
Two rows of shops with rooms upstairs, the ground floor is converted to commercial lots, housing restaurants, souvenir shops and some arcade game. Yes, the kind you pay with tokens and sit on stationary bikes or cars. Why would anyone go all the way up there to whack mechanical moles is beyond me.
What's a French resort without a French restaurant? The menu was not cheap but certainly not enough to make you feel like an obvious tourist trap.
Hospitality lounge but I think that's the code name for reception area.
At least their washroom has nice lighting. My hope of a cold, or at least chilly getaway was foiled since it's not remotely cold, there was no wind. My consolation would be that at least the air was not smoky.
The bridge that connects the
chateau to the rest of the resort.
It was a Saturday afternoon and the place wasn't sprawling with tourists. There are scheduled performances (some magic show me thinks) but there isn't much to see here.
The whole grounds which isn't accessible on foot unless you want to make the trip into a hiking/torture journey. Of which, go to a gym.
From the outside, it looked rather impressive. It hid the disappointment inside quite well.
Since the place is quite sprawled throughout, there are shuttle buses between the various spots if you don't want to drive around.
The second (and only other) spot we went to was the Japanese village. With a golden Zen hand and lotus in the background, the warning notice board felt only slightly ominous. Little did I realize that was the beginning of a horror story.
For starters, you need to walk up a flight of staircase. Followed up by an uphill walk, at least it wasn't steep but it's still quite some distance especially when you don't have proper walking gear (my new sandals suffered terribly from this excursion though I felt it more like an execution at certain points). Although called the Japanese tea garden, the actual Japanese tea house which has the tea ceremony is
not included in the initial entrance fee. Top up another RM 20 (or so) to experience it and another RM 20 to rent
kimono. It felt like quite a rip off so we enjoyed the free view of nature instead.
The (free) garden at least had quite a number of flowers to feast your eyes on. I suppose those with green fingers would be delighted. Me, the green eyed monster enjoyed it too.
This one is rather common even in Klang Valley.
Also another common flower which looked like some vegetable. Gardening is something that my father liked and tried to instill in me but the combination of soil and dirt and insect was a difficult one to enjoy.
I particularly liked this particular flower.
Another for the album.
A variation of lily which used to be planted in the building where I once worked. How do I know? Well, the security guard gave one of it to me one fine day.
Are these bluebells? I know those are sunflowers in the back. This was supposed to be a postcard shot but my photography skill is crap, just like myself.
I can't tell if this is weed or proper flowers. Either way, still pretty. Perhaps, that's how best to describe me, a beautiful mess.
Something not so pretty.
A very tall and straight tree.
The garden has trails that goes into the jungle but don't worry, it's not a long trail. Though they did put signs about monkeys...
After much walking, you reach the
exhaustion zen point. Again, it's likely that I may have overly hyped it but the garden wasn't worth walking to.
Sure, there were rocks and moss and grass but to call it a Japanese village is overboard.
It was refreshing and relaxing after all the walking.
There are few other spots e.g. animal park, adventure park that we didn't cover because it started raining which made it humid and so much worse from all the walking and sweating. If you are looking for a relaxing getaway, this isn't one of it.
Comments
Post a Comment