CAMERON HIGHLANDS

On Friday we left the jungle early in the morning and traveled via mini-bus west to the Cameron Highlands. The Cameron Highlands are comprised of 6 towns, and as the name implies, are elevated from the surrounding land. The region, situated about in the center, both north-south and east-west, of the country, is probably best known for its tea plantations, but it is also Malaysia's agricultural center. Given the cooler weather, due to the elevation, it is ripe for growing all sorts of vegetables and fruits. In fact, the area produces almost all of Malaysia's vegetables and about 70% of Singapore's.



We arrived into Tanah Rata, which is the town most people visit of the 6 that make up the Cameron Highlands, around 3p. That afternoon we took a walk around to get a lay of the land before dinner. The village is fairly small; more or less a one street town with plenty of shops and restaurants, and most of its residents seemed to be Indian. After cruising the main strip we headed out along the main road, which would eventually connect you to the other neighboring towns that make up the highlands, before turning back as it started to rain. Though, we were rewarded for venturing beyond the main drag as while we were out on our walk we did discover a very tasty treat. Along the roadside a local guy was selling a variety of deep fried bananas. We tried both what looked like a donut hole but was actually banana flavored deep fried dough, as well as an actual deep fried banana. Both were delicious. After our banana snack the rain started to pick up a little so we decided to duck into one of the local shops. We ended up picking up some new pants due to the fact that we both muddied up our only other pair in the jungle and it was much cooler here, though not cold by any stretch.

After making our purchase we headed back up the hill to our guesthouse, which looked as if at one point it was an old manor type estate. We had a great room that opened to a garden and also had its own shower, a nice perk. We actually lucked out scoring this room as we arrived at the same time as another couple who was also interested in the garden/shower room. We decided the only fair way to decide who would get the good room, there were other more dorm-style rooms also available, was to flip a coin. Thankfully K nailed the heads call, which I knew she would, and were set up with the garden vistas and our own hot shower. Combined with the rolling green hills in the backdrop and the architecture of the buildings in town, and Tanah Rata feels very British. It even has a golf course next to an English style pub & steak house. Unfortunately the other thing the town seemed to have in common with merry old England was the weather. At least during our stay it was especially foggy and rainy. As I mentioned back in my Singapore post, after we left Singapore we didn't really see blue skies for a while, and definitely not during our stay in the highlands. Talking to a French woman who we met back in the jungle and would later see again at our next stop at the beach, and apparently we just had bad timing as she was in Tanah Rata a few days after us and had glorious weather. Despite the rain and the dreary skies, the temperatures were still pleasant.



On Saturday we booked ourselves on a tour to see the local sites which consisted of a visit to a Buddhist Temple, a botanical garden, a tea plantation, a strawberry farm, a butterfly/insect farm, a bee farm and a local market. Before the tour, that morning we set out on a walk to the next town over. We made it as far as the before mentioned English pub & golf course before turning back around to refuel with some lunch before our tour.

Unfortunately it rained on and off the entire tour, though it was still scenic even if some of the vistas were obscured by the rain & fog. The highlight of the tour was probably the tea plantation. We visited the Boh Tea Plantation, which is one of Malaysia's oldest and well-known tea growers. After a brief tour and explanation of the tea growing and producing process we got to take in the views of the gorgeous rolling green tea fields. As our tour guide called them, the green carpet giants were definitely amazing. The strawberry farm visit yielded a tasty strawberry milkshake. The butterfly and insect farm was also cool. More so for some of the great insects that our guide was freely letting us hold, whether we wanted to or not including some scorpions that were piled upon a Scottish guy on our tour. As our guide explained, they were only a little poisonous. Not sure the Scot was too thrilled with that reassurance. The butterflies were also quite beautiful, though it definitely didn't feel quite right that they were caged, albeit with a net, not bars. But not exactly the carefree, running through a field chasing a butterfly image that you might conjure up. By the time we made it to the bee garden it was pouring, so we didn't really get to experience the bees and their hives in full force, though we did get a free taste of honey. The local market was also pre-empted due to the rain. Even though the entire day was fairly touristy and it was raining, it was still fun and we did get a good sense of the surrounding area.

Due to the weather, and the fact that we had more or less seen everything we came to see, we decided that 2 days and 2 nights would suffice in the highlands. So on Sunday morning we set out via bus, to continue our journey westward in search of sun, surf and sand on the island of Pangkor situated off the west coast of Malaysia. More on that portion of the trip in the next post.