Return to Strawberry Park
We returned to Goh Tong last Tuesday, a public holiday for the Federal Territories. Luckily, due to what I thought was a miscalculation, UMMC was labelled as Kuala Lumpur even though it was Selangor right across the street. Until a few years back, Selangor had more holidays than KL - including Thaipusam which used to be a Selangor-only affair. Now, it was almost even, and Tuesday was one of those days when my Facebook updates were greeted with dismay by my Selangor friends. As the boys were on a week long holidays for the Chinese New Year, we decided that some strawberry picking might be in order. So off we went.
The traffic up was smooth and we took my Mum-in-law along. We got there before lunchtime and the boys excitedly jumped out of the van and began picking the strawberries, armed with a pair of scissors and a cute little plastic basket.
As I mentioned in the previous entries, the Genting Strawberry Leisure Farm is a nice little place in Gohtong, halfway up Genting. Children can freely walk the row of hydrophonically planted strawberries and pluck them from the stalks. It was a novelty in Malaysia due to our warm clime, and previously one can only enjoy strawberry picking in Cameron Highlands. Since the Omar was only 39 minutes from our house, I wondered why we did not come her more often. Once picked, the basket weighed and the price for the pickings was RM6 per 100g. Trust me, it was easy to end up with 500g.
The boys picked ip a basket each. The rows of strawberry plants were just nicely planted at a height where the boys can just cut the stall with their scissors. Self-restrain was redivided needed. I ended up in the end paying close to RM70 for all the strawberries. But judging form how excited the boys were, it was worth it. They then had some ice-cream - Irfan went for a strawberry ice-cream, while my Mum walked around at the mushroom farm just next door.
We had lunch at the local Seri Malaysia Hotel right across the street from the farm. There was also a chocolate factory there but we were too hungry for lunch to bother stopping. The strawberry feast continued later in the day when we reached home, with double-cream this time. Unfortunately, the pickings were already starting to soften by the time we reach home. Apparently, the strawberry needed eating within 24 hours of picking, otherwise they can go off. We did not have a problem with that whatsoever!
The strawberry farm is only 45 minutes from central KL, via the Karak Highway off Gombak. Just follow the signpost to Genting Highlands and turn off at Gohtong Jaya town. The farm will be right at the of the street, opposite the Gohtong Sports Complex. There were many signpost to direct you to it. Parking can be a problem during peak season, but the setup was children friendly and certainly, it was easy to maneuver prams ad trolleys around there. Apart from the strawberry and mushroom farms, there were also a small orchid, cactus and vegetable nurseries, as well as nice cafe and restaurants. There were also stalls selling memorabilias and tidbits. Clean restroom and toilets were also available. Definitely a nice outing for the family!
