So we were leaving Kuala Lumpur for a few days to head north into the Cameron Highlands home to many of the countries tea plantations. It was another long journey this time about 4 hours and we had booked another "VIP" coach the previous day. We arrived at the bus station to find that we were going to get to experience the loose use of VIP as this coach wasn't a patch on the previous one. Covered in rust and dents we both had reservations about it getting us there in one piece. As soon as we sat down we realised the chair we had been allocated was not properly fixed to the floor so every time the bus went around a corner the entire chair seemed to sway about giving the sensation that we were on a boat. Where there is a boat there is always a risk of sea sickness so for the entire journey we just had to keep watching the horizon as every time we tried to read we would start to feel a bit grim! With only about an hour of our journey left we departed the highway and headed into the rolling hills of the highlands. The road was carved out of the cliff and as such we had to snake our way round and round all the time climbing higher and higher. With every turn of a corner our chair was swinging more and more into the aisle and seemed to be getting worse at one point Michael even predicted that we were going to completely detach and sail away. Imagine the shock when on a particularly steep corner there is a loud crunch and the entire chair us and all break loose from the floor and lands on the poor woman behind us before sliding into the aisle with us still clutching to our seats. Not one to miss a deadline the bus driver didn't even slow down let alone stop to allow us to get up off the floor. If it hadn't been so funny it would have been embarrassing as everyone was just watching us rolling around on our chair on the floor. They were probably wondering the same as us, how the hell were we going to get up with the bus still swinging violently around corners every couple of seconds!? Eventually Michael managed to get to his feet and find another seat at the back of the bus and so with great difficulty under the pressure of an audience I managed to drag myself to the back leaving the poor old couple behind us in shock with part of our seat on their knees. We couldn't stop laughing in shock at what had just happened and after a few minutes to calm down I was able to survey the damage. Two broken nails and the near loss of the top part of my pinky were the only casualties however that was quite enough for one bus journey and I don't need to tell you how relieved I was when we arrived particularly as a Chinese woman at the front of the bus had started throwing up in the bin due to the drivers manic approach to public transport. We had already booked our accommodation, another lonely planet recommendation and true to their word there was a minibus there to collect us from the station and transfer us to the guest house. It was a lovely property on the top of a hill surrounded by beautiful gardens and a fantastic view out over the mountains and surrounding farms. We had a garden room which as its name suggests opens out onto the pretty gardens. We left our things and headed down to the town in search of lunch as we were both starving. The town of Tana Rata where we were had one street housing all the shops and restaurants all serving Indian, malay and thai influenced foods. As usual it is so hard to choose where to eat so out of sheer hunger we picked a small Indian style restaurant about ½ way along the main street. To cut a long story short it was a very good choice and we were served big silver platters with lots of different Indian dishes, nan bread and rice. It was absolutely delicious and even better given our hungry state but that aside I still think its one of the best Indian meals I have ever eaten and it was certainly the cheapest with the entire feast and drinks costing us the grand sum of 3quid! After lunch we had another walk around the town before heading back up to the guest house just before the heavens opened for the familiar 2 hour downpour the area allegedly gets every day around 5pm!
The next day we were booked onto a day tour to visit one of the regions tea plantations as well as some of the other local attractions. Unfortunately the whole theory of it only raining in the evenings wasn't the case today as it was raining and cold but we were determined not to let it ruin our tour. The first stop was a Rose garden to showcase some of the roses and other rare flowers that can be grown year round in the Cameron Highlands. Because of the fairly constant weather conditions in the area there area no seasons and as such many of the produce and flowers can be grown year round. There are a huge percentage of roses and other flowers farmed in the area and exported all over Malaysia and this garden was to allow visitors to see all the pretty flowers including the "worlds ugliest rose" the green rose. Whilst the weather wasn't great the flowers were lovely and the views to the surrounding countryside from the lookout at the top of the garden were fantastic and well worth the hike up the treacherously slippy footpath. After taking in the sights and smells of the gardens it was time to move on to our next stop a local strawberry farm where we could see how the strawberries are grown as well as sampling some homemade strawberry jam and some dried strawberries. Being the traditionalists that we are when it came time to choose our purchase in the shop we opted for a no frills punnet of freshly picked strawberries and they were as you would imagine delicious. The next stop was for us the highlight of the tour, a visit to Boh tea plantation to have a tour of the factory where the tea is processed and then a sample some of their best tea in the canopy café. The factory itself is surprisingly small with what appears to be very basic equipment and it was hard to believe it was the no 1 supplier of tea in Malaysia. We had a tour where we were shown the entire process from picking the leaves right through to the finished dried tea leaves of varying grades with the larger leaves going into the quality products and the rubbish stalks and fine powder goes into the tea bags. After the tour we had a wander around the shop where they had some free samples of iced tea and loads of boh embossed things for us to buy. After a quick look around the shop we headed straight to the café and ordered their top grade tea leaves in a pot for 2 with instructions to let it brew for 2 minutes before pouring it. We managed to get one of the tables out on the verandah which overlooked the tea plantation and the view was absolutely fantastic. The clouds had parted and the sun was shining turning the green of the tea leaves into the most beautiful emerald colour. As far as the eye could see there were fields and fields of tea plants all lined up in perfect rows climbing up the steepest hills and dotted in amongst the tea were tiny people with huge baskets on their backs collecting just the tips of these huge plants. Our tea was delicious however I thought the tea bag variety was nice so I am obviously easily impressed but perhaps with my new found knowledge of tea I will buy myself a wee teapot when I get home and try it the old fashioned way? We spent some more time enjoying the surroundings and taking copious photos before it was time to get back on the bus and make our way to the butterfly farm and insect gallery. We started with a guided tour of some of the insects including a rhino beetle which was bigger than my hand with a shell of steel, leaf insects which rather freakily look exactly like leaves, a giant cricket, the worlds biggest moth and when you see the photos this guy was HUGE. The man conducting the tour would just open the cages take out these bugs and then ask who wanted to touch or hold them. We were all pretty brave and had a go a holding everything we were given but the scariest one was when we got to the cage holding the scorpions, real live poisonous scorpions and having never seen a real live one before I was keen for a closer look. Not for one second was I expecting to be offered the chance to hold him! The only reservation I had was the little red poisonous barb that he still had on his tail and the only reassurance was that he was a pretty docile chap unlikely to strike!! Feeling brave I put out my hand and had the scorpion placed in my palm and was pretty surprised how easy it was to have him so close. Michael got out the camera and feeling all confident and brave I attempted to turn my hand to face the camera. Just as I did the wee b***** suddenly arched his back and pulled up his tail looking like he was ready to strike! You will see from the resultant photo taken right at that moment that I look anything but cool, calm and collected! Next it was Michaels turn and despite being really scared of scorpions he was a cool customer and overcame his fear with ease. Neither of us could believe we had done it and we were happy to just walk past the tarantulas in the adjacent cage. We were next introduced to the butterflies and in particular the native Malaysian butterfly black in colour with a bright green stripe of velvet running across its wings. I think we both agreed that the butterfly farm came a close second to the tea plantation and being able to hold a scorpion was a great achievement for us both. The next stop was at a honey bee farm which was a little strange as we were just let loose to walk around all the bee hives with no guide or commentary so it seemed a bit pointless and given that I hate bees and wasps with a passion I couldn't relax the entire time and with only a tiny free sample of honey I was happy to get out of there before being attacked by any of the bees! Before our final stop at one of the many temples we pulled in at a produce markets and our guide gave us a quick run down of some of the fruits and vegetables that grow in abundance in the Cameron Highlands as well as introducing us to a couple of fruits that only grow in the Cameron Highlands are only consumed by the nearby towns. The two fruits were called love fruit, a small red fruit a bit like an oval tomato and to eat it you bite off the top and suck out the seeds and flesh from the inside?! The flavour can vary from very sweet to very sour so it's a real hit or miss what your going to get when you bite into it! The second fruit was a honey pear or cameron pear and it can either be peeled, cored and eaten or munched with the skin on like an apple. We decided to take a few love fruits and a honey pear to try later with our afternoon tea as we were intrigued by what they might taste like, plus its only fruit so how bad can it be? The final stop was the temple an over the top and grand structure adorned by all things gold and Buddha with only a few tourists milling around it was a nice change from the usual hoards that normally flock to the temples. We were able to have a look around and get some photos in relative peace and quiet. By lunch time that was our tour over and we had both thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We had been shown many of the things that are the backbone of this community where farming is a massive percentage of their bread and butter. The tea plantation was fantastic and one of the prettiest places we have ever visited and was without a doubt the highlight of the day. After the tour we were dropped off in town and feeling pretty hungry headed off in search of lunch and found ourselves stumbling into the delicious Indian from the day before and whilst Michael opted to try something different I couldn't see past the thing I had the previous day.
The next day rather than go on another tour we decided to head off on our own adventure and go trekking through the Malaysian jungle and whilst we would be on our own there were some predetermined trails so we weren't just heading into the jungle with no way to navigate our way out. There were plenty of treks to choose from and one particular one that caught Michaels eye was a hike to the top of Gunung Beremban the second tallest mountain in the Cameron Highlands. It sounded good to me so without much thought or research we packed up a lunch, our rain jackets, plenty of water and headed off to find the start of the trail a good 2km walk from the guest house. Rather disconcertingly none of the trails were marked from the road so we took a good 2km's of wrong turns before we eventually found the start of the wooded trail. We had about 500m of flat walking and little did we know this was going to be the ONLY flat walking we would do for the remainder of the day as within minutes we were starting to climb!!! To cut a very very long and fairly traumatic story short this mountain was 1812m tall (a figure not given to me before I signed up for this boot camp) that's taller than any mountain in Britain and is a good 600m taller than Scotland's tallest mountain Ben Nevis. However where you would take an entire day to get up and down the gradual slope of good old Ben Nevis the climb to the top of Beremban could be done in a mere 1.5 to 2 hours which basically means a near vertical climb from start to finish! In the beginning it was tough but exciting because we were in the Malaysian jungle on our own climbing a mountain and the trail as it was called was an almost non existent path through fallen trees, up and sometimes down mud slides, crossing small streams, swinging from tree trunks and branches in order to keep pushing forward to the top. I cant really figure out why but the trail took us up one very steep hill before making us climb perilously down the other side before making us then climb up again in order to get to the top. After 90 minutes of constant clambering and hauling through the jungle I could feel a tiny niggle in the back of my mind that I had maybe bitten off more than I could chew, even Michael was starting to feel the strain on his legs from all the climbing it was exhausting and there seemed to be no end in sight. Having not even reached the top we hadn't allowed ourselves to think about getting back down which was going to invariably be more difficult than the climb given the poor condition of the track. After what felt like an eternity of the hardest climbing I have ever experienced we finally reached the top and I have never been more relieved in all my life. After a brief rest and some lunch we had a moment to enjoy the view from the top before it was time to find the path back down. It was just as we suspected, very challenging and slippy and there were quite a few instances where the only way down was on you bum. I have rubbish balance so poor Michael had to be my support the entire way down and I think by the end he was glad to get to the bottom! Feeling extremely weary but very pleased and proud of ourselves we stumbled back to the guest house for some well deserved tea and scones. It was only once back at the guest house that we looked into our climb to find not only was it the second tallest in the Cameron Highlands it was only about 500m smaller than the tallest mountain in Malaysia, what an achievement but maybe something we should have looked into before we set out!
The next day believe it or not we decided to take in another jungle trail, this time something a little easier. A longer trail overall but more on the flat as we are not complete gluttons for punishment. After a delicious and hearty breakfast at the guest house we packed up our things and hit the trail. This time we were going to visit Robertson Falls and then take a walk along a jungle trail that would take us past some local farms and houses. We arrived at the falls within an hour and got our photos before heading into the jungle. Much like the previous day the trail was very unkempt with lots of fallen trees and branches blocking our path at every turn but it was challenging to work our way round the path and even when we thought we had come across an area we couldn't cross there was always a way all be it not the most dignified! The track took us round a giant loop of jungle passing lots of farms and plantations before spitting us back onto the road about 3 hours later. Following another busy day of walking there was only one thing for it, back to the guest house for more delicious Boh tea, freshly baked scones and homemade strawberry jam!
We had thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the Cameron Highlands, the whole place was surrounded by such stunning scenery and to be away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a few days was a refreshing change. Having looked forward to seeing the tea plantations we were not disappointed by how vast and beautiful it all was it was just a shame that our time here was almost over.
The next couple of days were spent organizing ourselves and our visas in preparation for our flight to Saigon in Vietnam.