During our recent trip to Perak after we visited Belum and Ipoh, we stopped over at the Perak Agrotourism Resort (PATRO) located at Sungai Galah in Tanjung Tualang…

This beautiful agrotourism resort was actually launched in May 2016 by His Royal Highness Sultan Nazrin Muizzudin Shah and combines agricultural and tourism elements on 670 acres of land…

Our first stop was of course at the Lakeview Café where we were warmly welcomed by the PATRO team and offered refreshments.. some lemongrass mint and lemon concoction which was just delightfully refreshing on a humid day… and cold towels…

We were then treated to a sumptous local lunch of rice, ulam, sambal, kangkong belacan, udang masak petai and patin masak tempoyak…

Once our tummies were delightfully filled, we were taken on a little tour to visit the chalets PATRO has to offer… There are eighteen beautiful suites and villas which any discerning person would be delighted with as both the exterior as well as the interior of the chalets are simply beautiful and eye catching… They are clean and modern and comes with en suite bathroom, airconditioning and a very comfortable bed…

For Muslims, they also prepare sarong and sejadah for usage..

The suites and villas are all beautifully appointed and what makes them even nicer is that they are all just by the lake…

I was feeling sorry that I wasn’t sleeping there in the chalet… ah well, maybe next visit… I was on the other hand headed on a little back to basics adventure and camping or rather glamping in PATRO’s Tube Camps which was located on the other side of the farm around another little tin mining lake…

PATRO has about 20 of these little Tube Camps which comes with cosy queen sized beds and air conditioning…

The only downside was the bathroom.and toilet was a short walk away… which was ok during the day but a little daunting past midnight for scaredy cats like me… but we manage to drag our partners /room mates to the toilet when we had to go… lol.. Another little challenge we had was the bathroom was a traditional community bathroom and sarongs are provided… which means you are encouraged to wear your sarong, make sure it is tied securedly and enjoy taking nice cold shower with others doing the same as they do not have any separate bathrooms… For the overly shy, they decided to just have a quick shower in the toilet with the bidet, which is not quite so comfortable…. hehehe.. if you are asking me, I did both.. shower using the bidet in the toilet and then eventually in the common shower area…

Once we had made ourselves confortable, we headed out for some activities PATRO had to offer.. such as Paddle Boat, Kayak, Cycling….

… I was just so thrilled getting on the ATV…and we went revving our engines and hurtling into the woods just using our instinct and following the trail…

We also did some horse riding at the stables… and it was here that I fell in love with Patty, a beautiful ex race-horse from New Zealand who has since retired and is being taken care of by the kind caretakers..

When we finished our activities.. we were exhausted so we headed back to our tube camps to shower and change before going back to the Lakeside Cafe for a pretty yummy dinner and then playing games… there were chequers, congkak, but we opted for the more modern Jenga and monopoly while some of the team members decided to test their vocals on the karaoke… There were definitely plenty of squeals of delight and laughter around… as well as mock moans and groans from others…

The night seem to move fast when we were having fun and when it was midnight, we all were sent on buggies/lorries/train back to our tube camp….

We started our day with breakfast and coffee of course after getting ready at the appointed time before we began our Farm tour…

For city slickers, this is probably an amazing opportunity to get a little feel of the rural kampung life…

We started with some basic chilli fertigation lessons.. before attempting to pluck some chillies…

Then we moved on to making salted duck eggs…which was pretty interesting since we had to roll and pack a washed duck’s egg in red mud and salt concoction, followed by burnt padi tops the thing that covers the rice.. 2x

Then we visited the sting-less bee farm and got the opportunity to sip fresh honey straight from the beehive using a straw…

We ended our activities with the chef showing us how to make duck egg masak lemak and the interesting signature drink we had… and another yummy lunch…

PATRO is owned and managed by the Perak State Agriculture Development Corporation (SADC) at A15, 31800 Tanjung Tualang…

..and we certainly had an amazing adventurous and fun time there yet a very comfortable stay.. Note to self… make things more cosy and comfortable next trip with a 4 star villa stay….hehehe…

Thank you Gaya Travel Magazine, Tourism Perak and Perak State Agriculture Developement for the opportunity…

For more info check out www.patro.com.my

https://www.facebook.com/PATROResort/