Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

November 18th - 22nd 2011

We left Penang by bus and made our way to the Cameron Highlands. The further along the journey we went the more twisted the roads were getting and the blue skies turned more misty and overcast like we were heading up into the clouds. We got to our final destination which was Tanah Rata one of the main towns in the Highlands. We looked around the town and tried to find some cheap accommodation but everywhere seemed a bit pricey. One hotel owner was lovely and pointed us in the direction of a really cheap place to stay so we headed there and booked a tiny attic room with shared bathroom facilities for 20 ringgit a night, one of the cheapest places we have stayed so far!It consists of a mattress on the floor and just enough space to put our big rucksacks, and that's it!

We went out and explored and found two cheap Indian restaurants next to each other competing for business so we ate in one of them. We also discovered that as Tanah Rata is so high up it actually gets pretty cold so for the first time in a long time I was back in my jeans the only trousers I have bought with me on the trip. We booked a morning tour of the surrounding area for the following day and settled into our tiny room for the night.

One of Craig's Indian dinners

We got up for our morning tour and met the guide and his 4X4. We picked up the other passengers and made our way up the hills to a 'BOH' tea plantation. The landscape was picture perfect and the guide explained to us the hard life that the tea pickers have. Most come from India for 5 years in order to support their families. They work 8 hours a day for 6 days a week and have to pick so much tea to make it worthwhile. We took some photo's of the landscape, tea plants rippling over the hills for acres and acres before moving on to the entrance to the mossy forest. The guide took a handful of common moss and tossed it in the air to show how light it is and then squeezed it tight to allow all of the water inside to gush out, it was unbelievable just how much water the moss holds and explains why it is so important in the ecosystem of the forest.

Tea plantations

The guide then led us into the forest and warned us about the mud and deep boggy patches, a British guy on the tour was wearing brand new white trainers and you could hear him moaning and cursing every time he got a speck of mud on it, bad choice of footwear! In some parts the mud was so deep and at one point I got caught out and my entire left converse got covered in dark composty mud, fortunately they've seen a lot worse on this trip so I wasn't fussed. We eventually came to the mossy forest part of the trip where the floor is bouncy due to the moss and it's growing on everything, the guide refers to the area as that of the world in the film Avatar.We climbed further and reached the highest peak and took in the views over the forest below.

Views over the forest

We then went to the BOH tea plantation headquarters and watched how the tea is turned from green leaf to drinkable tea leaves and sampled some cake from the on site cafe in the modern glass cube it is housed in with views out to the rows of tea plants. The last stop of the day was a butterfly farm. The butterflies were a little few and far between but it hardly cost anything to get in and we also saw turtles, snakes and insects. As we left the heavens opened and we dashed back to the car for a bumpy ride back to Tanah Rata.

Butterfly

Mossy forest

The following day we went to MARDI which houses plants, flowers, vegetables and strawberries one of the highlands most famous exports. We tried strawberry juice and ice cream and wondered around the farm taking in the beautiful orchids and roses on display.

On our last day we went for a walk and stopped at a nice cafe to sample the cream tea. The tea, scones and jam were nice but the cream was from can so we were disappointed having been used to traditional clotted cream at home! Dinner was at the Indian, the portions of naan breads are so big that I had been living off of them as they come with three dipping sauces, a lentil dahl, a minty sauce and something else which was a bit too spicy for me so I left well alone! We enjoyed our time in the highlands and it was lovely being somewhere a bit chilly for a change as we've had months of sun and humidity. The following day we were off to Kuala Lumpur.

Cream tea in Tanah Rata