Maxwell Hill Accomodation - The Nest (Bukit Larut)

I have been to almost all highland in Malaysia except Maxwell Hill.
After much pushing by Viv, finally we are here during this Hari Raya Haji holiday!

Maxwell Hill only accessible by Jeep from the Maxwell Front Office, heard from the people from the same jeep, the ticket for the day was sold out at 8:30am. So to avoid disappointment, come before 8am during holiday season.

We choose to stay a night on the hill at one of the bungalow - The Nest.
The Nest booked the jeep for us and we just need to go to the office to pay RM7 per person and get the ticket before the agreed time.

The jeep journey took about 30 minutes to reach the drop off point on the hill. They ask us to stay in the Jeep and they will send us to The Nest.

After another 3 minutes drive, the driver drop us at middle of no where, with a staircase in front of us. We hike up, and up... I almost thought this is not the right path. After 10 minutes, a very homey bungalow house appeared behind the trees, on top of this small hill.

Uncle Lim and his wife welcome us with a great smile. :D

They are preparing the lunch while we taking pictures and walk around the house.
The house is very big with 4 bedrooms and big hall. It is well maintained consider only the old uncle and aunty have to take care the whole house. Do not expect luxury stay but it is clean and do not have the moldy smell.

We are the only guest on that day so we get to choose our room, we took the room with more sunshine, and aunty sent the clean bedsheet after a short while and we make our own bed.

They have room with mixture of double bed and bunk bed too (which we took) but I forgot to take picture before we mess it up.

We watch the birds chirping and time passes by. At around 1pm++, the lunch is ready. The lunch is home cook and they are extremely delicious! I love it!

After lunch, we walk 15-20 minutes down to the Maxwell main area. It rain heavily when we walk and the small umbrella we brought save us from total wet (although half wet)!

Maxwell Hill is lack of maintenance by the authority. Lots of bungalow stay abandoned, and the cafe is closed. What a waste...

It has big area of land, the weather, the great view... some improvement should be done and it will make the place so good.

We then back to The Nest. It is so good to just relax, read, retreat and do nothing in a cold weather with lots of greenery. The night is very very cold and we just hid in the bed. :D Surprisingly I felt a one night stay could be better than a day trip for Maxwell Hill.

Maxwell Hill is just merely an hour plus drive from Penang, it is really good to come by here to enjoy the cool air. :)

How to go to Maxwell Hill
From South - Take North-South Highway and exit at Taiping/Cangkat Jering Exit 146 Toll.
From North - Take North-South Highway and exit at Taiping/Kamunting (U) Exit 148 Toll
GPS: N 4 51.643 E 100 45.566

Jeep Up to Maxwell Hill
Ticket: RM7 for return trip


The Nest 
Contact: 019-5279788
Price: RM70 per pax for one night (inclusive of lunch, dinner and breakfast in the next morning)
Bring your own towel, toilet rolls and toiletries.
(I am not sure The Nest can cook for day trip visitor also, but feel free to call Uncle Lim for inquiry)

Short Trip to Kellie's Castle, Ipoh 怡保

On one boring November afternoon, we suddenly decided to have a short trip to Ipoh.

Around 3pm, we reached our first destination - Kellie's Castle, probably the only one castle in Penisular Malaysia. It has a mystery legend behind, like all the leftover castles did. You can click on the link for more details.

We take away the Ipoh's famous Aun Kheng Lim salted chicken (宴琼林盐焗鸡). 4 of us, finish the chicken in less than 15mins. Feel so 狂野 to eat with hands... :p

Salted chicken

Next, we were plan to have a dinner and back home already. However, we determined for a detour to temple after the visit of the haunted castle. One of the cave temple caught our attention because we saw a staircase leading up to a hill while we were driving on the old road from Kellie's Castle to Ipoh town. I can't remember the exactly location. But it's on the same trunk road where there are lots of pamelo selling on road-side.

The staircase we saw from the main road

The cave is named as Guan Yin Cave (觀音洞). The temple itself was closed when we arrived at 6pm ++. However, the other sections for this place still open for public. As we walk deeper to the temple's compound, we found that this place is actually a combination of multi-national and multi-races wishing altar.

Write down your 甜言蜜語and hang it there

It looks like a themepark that presents wishing ritual or method as their theme. From conventional to cultural, from spiritual to modernization. You get too see what's the wishing process and try it on your own! There are explaination notes for each wishing section.

黐孖筋

Wish Making stepping stones

We could not finish all the sections as the sky was getting darker. We went to Lou Wong Nga Choi Gai (老黃芽菜雞) for dinner. Its tender chicken and kuey teow soup used to be very very tasty. However, this is the second time it disappointed me. Some says, the boss had handover his shop to those foreign workers for daily operation. It just wouldn't work man... Guess we will try out other sprout bean chicken next time we are here.


芽菜雞 & 沙河粉

How To Go Kellie's Castle:

1. Drive along North-South Highway. If you coming from North (Penang), exit at Simpang Pulai Toll. If from South (Kuala Lumpur), exit at Gopeng Toll. Around 2 hours drive from both way.

3. Exit at Simpang Pulai Toll, turn left towards Gopeng. 

4. Look for a main junction to make a right turn that leads you to Batu Gajah/Kellie's Castle. Take note on signboard.

2. Probably there's no clear and specific signboard around. Keep looking for signboard in this priority sequence:

- Kellie's Castle

- Batu Gajah

- Gopeng

3. If you are from north Penisular, and you found yourself in Gopeng town, you are mostly overshot the junction to Kellie's Castle.

Address: KM 5.5, Jalan Gopeng, Batu Gajah, Perak.

GPS Location: N 4° 28.525     E 101° 05.262

Entrance Fees:
Primary School: RM2.00
Secondary School: RM3.00
Adult: RM4.00

How To Go Aun Kheng Lim Yim Kok Gai (宴琼林盐焗鸡):
It's located in Ipoh town. Lots of websites already mentioned it's location. So I'll just say look for McDonald as your landmark. You are very close to it if you saw McD.
Address: 24, Jalan Theatre, 30300 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
Price: RM16 per bird (Take Away Only)