Friday, January 01, 2010

Bukit Tinggi - Good for Day Trip


Entrance gateway welcoming you to Bukit Tinggi Village, Bentong.

Bukit Tinggi, Bentong, lies off the East Coast Highway north of Kuala Lumpur. The village lies to the right if you are coming from Kuala Lumpur, roughly about 50km from city centre. If you are driving from KL, look out for the signboard that says Bukit Tinggi and Selesa Hillhomes. Go off the expressway to your left and you will come to a T-junction. Take the road to your right and go underneath the expressway into a tunnel and you will emerge at the otherside of the expressway.


Village view, Bukit Tinggi. There is a steep incline of about 25 degrees for the roads. Make sure you are fit to walk.

Roads of newly built restaurants and hawker stalls will greet your eyes. Keep driving till you come to the bend in the road where it moves uphill to a settlement. This is the Bukit Tinggi Village. You should park your car at the foothill and walk.


Plenty of hawkers selling fruits and local vegetables. Try their watercress. Young and crunchy. Passion fruits are plentiful too. And all are quite cheap.

There is nothing much here, except for a reservoir tank and a police station. It's a small Chinese village where you can get cheap food and vegetables, particularly local fruits like passion fruit, guava and jackfruit - believed to be grown here and in Janda Baik.


Ever seen red bananas? Plenty in Bukit Tinggi.

Bukit Tinggi is famous for their cheap food, but many restaurants are now run by foreigners employed by locals. On our trip here recently, we refused to stop at the traditionally crowded ones. We spoke to locals and were duly informed that the food of these are no longer prepared by their original owners. And could be quite expensive because of the crowd.


Cheap food found here in Bukit Tinggi. Service good, too.

We stopped by a small restaurant, ordered a plate of fried watercress (speciality here), asam cuttlefish, wild boar curry and steamed towfoo. The bill came to only RM40. Would have cost at least RM60 downstream at the more popular restaurants. If you are going here, and wish to try their speciality - freshwater fish - please confirm the price first. They can cost quite a bomb depending on the season.

Vegetables are also very cheap - three bundles of various vegetables cost only RM5.


Steamed/boiled groundnuts. Good to eat, healthy too.


Gourd vine with its yield.

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