Just arrived in Penang yesterday arvo after a long (5hours or so) busride from the Cameron Highlands, and am close to dying because it's so hot here! Bus left 45 minutes late and broke down after only 2 hours...Welcome to South East Asia:-)
I went to Tanah Rata, one of the two major villages in the area, initially only intending to stay for a day. I ended up being there 4 nights, and could have well extendrd that for another few days, wouldn't I have felt a little pressed for time.
The Cameron Highlands is "Tea Drinking Paradise", and a great place for the exhausted traveller to relax and unwind, and to recover from the heat ever present in the city of Kuala Lumpur and in the rainforest, at least at this time of the year! The Highlands are some 1800m above sea level.
The highlands are a collection of rolling hills where the tea industry and vegetable farmers established themselves as far back as in 1929. The British used South Indian labour to work on the plantations, nowadays they are mainly Bangladeshi workers. Many of the South Indians are now in their second generation and run the factory tours or work in shops or behind hotel receptions. Needless to say that most of the restaurants and hawker stalls serve South Indian food which can get as hot & spicy as you can stand it:-)
"Green" is the predominant colour of the landscape here as there are farms, plantations and tree ferns as far as the eye can see. And for your information: the slender figure with the bright scarf over the head and a basket on the back which you will see moving up and down between the tea plants is usually a MALE tea picker...:-)
The lush scenery with its winding roads between the hills almost reminded me a little bit of home. I wish I could ride a motorbike!
I stayed at 'David's Lodge' which is a hostel a short stroll from the main bus station in Tanah Rata, set back a 2 minutes walk from the village's main street "Il Besar". It's a lovely place! There's a beergarden at the back where travellers start to mingle after a day of jungle trekking and/or visiting the tea plantations and fruit farms, where travel stories and advice are exchanged in a relaxed atmosphere while sitting around the bonfire that gets lit every night. And if you're lucky there will be someone playing the guitar and you can sing along! I could have stayed forever!
I booked a day-tour together with 6 German guys whom I had met on the way to the Hill Stations (had totally forgotten how nice it is to have a conversation in my native language...thanks boys for making me feel 'home':-)).
The first stop was at the butterfly farm which was more interesting for the insects it hosts (e.g. scorpions, giant beetles, different types of mantises, snakes, geckos, lizards etc.) than for the butterflies I'd say.
We then got a ride up to Gunung Brinchang, which at 1,800 meters is the Highland's highest peak, for a stunning view over the surrounding land. Next stop was the local giant "Boh Tea" where we could have a quick look at the tea factory and got a taste of the tea produced by this tea estate (most tea bags for sale that I've seen in the supermarkets and 7-Eleven shops are Boh-branded...).
After lunch which was soup, rice and some vegetable and/or fishcurry (I think? :-)) we visisted an Orang Asli settlement and got a quick introduction to the way these indigenous people hunt (small animals such as monkeys) using a blowpipe. This is a simple weapon consisting of a small tube for firing darts which are usually tipped with a poison. The wielder blows into one end, forcing the dart out the other.
Then the real adventure started, i.e. a 2 - 2.5 hour jungle trek that led us to the world's largest flower, namely the "Rafflesia". It can reach a diameter of over 1m and may weigh up to 10kg when it's in full bloom. It flowers for about 7 days, and stinks like rotten meat when it dies. This is how it got its name, as it translates to "corpse flower" or "meat flower". The vile smell that the flower gives off attracts insects such as carrion flies, which transport pollen from male to female flowers.
Even though the climate in the Highlands is much cooler than in Taman Negara, trekking in the jungle was a very wet and sweaty experience once again. I was deeply grateful for the little waterfall and -pool whose path we crossed on the way up! However it's impossible to stay dry for not even a minute...hence no towels are needed:-) The way back was much quicker as it was all downhill.
Our guide then took us to the night markets in a nearby village, but I think he was the only one who was enthusiastic about it. Everyone else was exhausted and just wanted to go back to the hostel and crash!
The following two days I spent sleeping in in the mornings, reading in my "Discovery Channel" travel book about Malaysia (which has prooven to be an excellent 'buy' - I can only recommend it!) during the day (lying on the sofa in the front garden area, or in the swinging bamboo chair), and drinking beer & wine chatting to other travellers around the bonfire in the evenings.
Awesome, awesome, awesome!
