Ye Olde Smoke House is located in Tanah Rata, a short drive up hill from the local town, Brinchang. The lovely bungalow cottage built in English Tudor style will charm you in its colonial ambience. Upon reaching the place, you will be greeted by a beautiful view of the smokehouse. Vast English gardens surrounds the provencal house and beautiful plants frames the architecture.
Upon entering, the service is warm and welcoming. The staff are well versed in English and will make you feel at home immediately. You are directed to your room which has no room number, but a name instead. So make sure you remember your room name. The rooms are scattered between floors, each floor just 3-4 steps away from each other.
This was our room during the stay. There’s a real fireplace! A sofa in the living room with a tv. And bathtub in the toilet. The usual are available – fridge, safe box and lo & behold – WIFI is available!
The smokehouse is famous for their scones, so make sure you try them after 11am.
Apart from the rooms, you will see sofas. Sofas everywhere. Fireplaces. Mantelpieces. Wall decorations. If your family is sleeping, no problem.. walk out and sit on the sofa right outside your room. It really feels like home. The exuberant use of fabrics in the interior design makes the stay so cosy and welcoming.
Below, you will discover a dining area. Food is available all day long, I had my dinner here. It was a memorable experience. I was just sipping red wine on a sofa, reading my book in my iPhone and was ushered to the table when my dinner was ready. The staff is very easily found and you won’t feel unattended. Oh, there is a vintage, rickety piano at the end of the hotel. It was my favourite hangout.
I could imagine a gathering of dear friends around that piano. Ok, thats abit getting into my personal dream. Well.
The garden is spacious and well taken care of. Benches and tables are available at every 300 meters. If you take a walk outside, you will stumble into their bbq restaurant just next door. At night, the chef cooks up a storm and you are welcomed to join them for a night of good food.
I would definitely recommend this place for your vacation. The rooms are around RM 400 for non peak season. Pretty reasonable, it includes breakfast. If you are looking for a good relaxing vacation, this is the perfect hotel for you. The only difficulty lies in leaving the hotel to explore the town as the hotel has a motherly way of keeping you at home.
When Erin and I were at Cameron Highlands, we stayed at Smokehouse Hotel. It is the most beautiful place ever! Have you been there? The ambience is amazing. I will share more review and photos later. I think I am gonna do more accommodation reviews from now on. Is love travelling!!
Today, it’s all about their food.
All accommodation includes breakfast. We chose the muffin and big breakfast set. The menu is kinda confusing, cuz it states the price and they ask us to choose a set from the menu. Turns out the price is not applicable to guests. It would be better if they just omit the price entirely when it comes to serving guests.
Anyway, despite the color of the muffin, it is actually a wonderfully baked soft muffin. You get to eat breakfast while the local birds join in the chatter and fly in to provide entertainment. They rustle about the tables and fly away whenever someone walks near them. It is a peaceful and beautiful sight to behold.
The rest of the menu is very english and you can expect your food to be very well cooked.
This is my dinner during our stay. I basically ordered the most exuberant item on the menu, which is the Beef Wellington. Homemade and freshly rolled puff pastry encase the finest tenderloin of beef. The tenderloin is rolled with liver pate and mushroom pate before it is stuffed into the pastry. I took a good long 2 hours to finish my meal with their red wine. The dish comes with garden vegetables and mushroom sauce.
The beef is cooked just right and the combination of pate made this meal a very heavy one, especially when there paired with root vegetables. Definitely suited for the hearty eater.
You do not have to stay there to enjoy their good food, I heard they serve the best scones in town. That is available after 11 am and their kitchen is open til late. More on the stay there in my next post!
No. 64, Jalan 59 Off Jalan Pekeliling Tun Abdul Razak,
39000, Tanah Rata, Pahang
05-491 1215 smokehousehotel.com
From Singapore back to KL we stopped at Malacca for some food. Unfortunately, most of the restaurants are already closed. Everytime I visit this place, I have the feeling that the whole town is specially built for tourists.. like Bukit Tinggi. Lol On the contrary, its a genuine historical town with lots of opportunities for photo taking and admiration for the heritage.
One thing I absolutely love about city life is that almost every street and corner is bustling with life 24 hours. You see cars on the road even when it is 4 am and people hanging out in cafes or mamaks at wee hours at night. In small town like these, not only in Malaysia but in other countries as well.. most of the shops operate only a fraction of hours in a day. At night it can be a little lonely for me.
That’s our dinner. It came with 5 rice balls and I shot KY an incredulous look. 5 balls of 4 cm diameter rice for dinner? Are you kidding me? And of course, being the food blogger that he is, he gave a look of superiority and wager that it is actually a feat to finish all 5 balls.
Ya, it is just like 5 sushi. If I can eat 15 sushi at one go. I can definitely do this. To my surprise, the meal is actually very filling. Some sorcery that I do not comprehend.
It was all cuz of Snow Patrol. That we headed all the way to Singapore. And also all the way to Tioman. Before the concert, one must make sure he is properly fed and hydrated. Being Malaysians and unsure of where to go, we wandered away from Fort Canning Park and walked into the nearest restaurant we saw.
If you came across a restaurant with a name you cannot pronounce or read, walk into it. Spontaneity has rewarded me many times and only failed me once. And of course, the best ones are those without a signage.. those are particularly good for bowel relief.
This French restaurant looks expensive, feels expensive and sound expensive. Never mind the taste and smell. We were greeted by a brown man with impeccable english that hints at a slight French accent, so KY claimed. He turned out to be a Malay. Why don’t we have them like that here?
Here, the best service I get is a “Ah moi, makan apa?”. At Le Bistrot Du Sommelier, I got a bunch of flowers from the waiter, his name is Faizal. Claiming it is a bunch of artichoke, he then go on to explain how it will be cooked and what wine would go well with it. I was thoroughly disappointed that at the end of the conversation the artichokes are actually NOT for me. He took it back to the kitchen and I was left utterly confused something like how a child would feel after being offered a forbidden cotton candy.
That’s KY’s main – Joue de boeuf au vie rouge. We only have time for a main. Would love to do the whole set and spend more cash than we had initially exchanged before coming to this country. In a new found restaurant, one only orders the safest dish. Nothing adventurous. Just to test the waters and of course, colours were flying out of an 8-bit unicorn game once we laid eyes on our dishes.
We have had pretty dishes. Plenty of them. Pretty dishes that tastes as good as it looks? Maybe once or twice.
Our dishes were delicious and the evening perfect- impeccable service.. beautiful presentation..clear blue sky and on top of the world. That’s my Tartare de boeuf up there.
Would definitely recommend this place and revisit this restaurant again with a full wallet.
Recently, we went to Bali for KY’s birthday. I used Tripit to plan for our holiday, it is also the first holiday I have ever planned. Thank god everything went awesome. Our first destination was Kuta, the epic crowded tourist spot that both KY and I had grown to detest in just a day.
Surfing galore in Kuta
Basically this scenery repeats itself like 20 times across the beach. It may look all picturesque here but it is pretty much destroyed by the population of tourists here. Regardless, the beach here is really beautiful and the most beautiful we have seen in Bali.
There is art everywhere, even in the streets.
Just outside our hotel, among tight road alleys are workers chilling by a graffiti wall. Later on, they went on to drill some longkang just outside this area. Btw, the people here aren’t so privy about safety. They are all living life dangerously and also very friendly too.
Heh Heh, look who's here
In the seaside mall called Discovery Mall, there are pubs just by the seaside that are equally as beautiful. It is no wonder that tourists fell in love with this place at first sight. We did too, but I guess this is gasp* too mainstream for us.
Lunch at Waterbom Park
We went to Waterbom Park at Kuta. It was awesome!!!!
Watch this video and look out for 30 seconds. You will not regret it. This video is shot with our handy GoPro but we didn’t manage to sneak it into the most terrifying ride called Climax.
Low tide beach in Sanur
We then moved to Sanur for KY’s diving trip. I was expecting a prettier and emptier beach but it turns out to be a low tide beach. Still beautiful but not on par with Kuta’s beach.
Walking off to the sea..a common situation
Due to the low tide, we had to walk out pretty far to the boat that will take us out to the sea.
A long way more to the boat
Look at this boat. I don’t think it can ride the waves anymore when it is stuck ll the way out here.
In the boat prior to diving
On the way to al the dive spots, I was very very confident that I could snorkel alone when the rest go diving. So confident. In the end, the shocking cold temperature of the sea scared me and my fear of the ocean stopped me from doing that. Even when the manta rays were just so close nearby! The dives were very successful, everyone managed to see what they came for and even I, on the boat saw Manta rays and Mola Mola too.
Don't get this hair braiding
The day before this, I thought I would get my hair braided and avoid the calamity of tangles during the dive trip. However, there are other issues to worry about. The bare skin that is exposed due to the braiding caused my scalp to peel. Ouch.
Biking in a small town
For our last destination, we went to Ubud in Bali. It is the most inspiring and beautiful place ever!!!!!!!!! *Falls in love* I have a road trip video that I have yet to edit.. I’ll do that soon.. it is a documentation of our ride up to the highest mountain and down to the most beautiful lake in Bali!
