Dear Travel Diary, 08..08.15 05:00

I suppose I must out of respect name this blog post; The Energy of Life. These last two days have not quite been the holiday that you would expect, beaches and relaxation. In fact, they were quite the opposite. Although these past days have been 'Energy' consuming trekking in some of the highest mountain ranges of Malaysia, the Cameron highlands and our guide have intrigued me yet again.

Jason Chin, our Malaysian/English/French ruthless environmental conservationist tour guide made the 6 hour trek the most uplifting for me so far. Approx 10 years ago, Jason had the bottle to go to the international media and defend what he and most local communities believe to be sacred to the Cameron highlands, the forest!!! I was exhilarated to hear Jason fantasise out loud about what he would do with the money if was lucky enough to win the lottery. "I would buy 5x5km of this forest, conserve it and enforce a trust on it so when I die people know this was my little pet and ensure it will remain protected". How passionate is that! Such a great guy who I hope will stay in touch even if it is to advise me on how to remain under 55kg when I am older; a weight he has never been able to exceed since birth.

What's more, his lesson on the forests energy and the ability for plants, animals and all other kingdoms of life including fungi to have a sense of awareness (easily proven) & consciousness (not so easy to prove but studied by hopeful African scientists) was so uplifting. Actually, I believed to some degree what he was trying to explain including the idea that there are almost no limits: we can be good or evil as humans because we have choice; no institutional limits, not academic limits, no political limits, no economical limits if we return to the forest as our ancestry suggests. The only limit ............ "The financial institution". To even live in the forest we need to own it which is ridiculous to be honest. Moving on.

Cameron highlands was cool, literally. About 10'C less in temperature than the south, this area of Malaysia opens up to some great plant species, mossy forests, and shy animals including gibbons, White & black bear and panthers should you be unlucky enough to creep up on them. Also up here, I learnt about the variety of teas you and I have drank white, black, yellow, green, lemon. They all come from one plant only, it is the way they are processed that determine there final taste. (BOH tea is still owned by a Scottish family since the 1920 when the Indians, acquired Intel from the Indian and then of course, the Chinese became curious and ended up mass producing Chinese tea). Pretty cool right, I think so!

Anyway next stop, further north to Langkawi and then returning to Kuala Lumpur to actually take the trip up Petrona's twin Towers now we have booked in advance.

Speak soon
Jak xx

P.s. Grandma, you would love the Cameron highlands for the tea and the walks.