Cameron Highlands

The day before Chinese New Year kicked off properly on the 14th February and we were in danger of getting stranded somewhere, we headed for Tana Rata in the Cameron Highlands, which is about a four hour journey by minibus. We were joined by an Australian girl who managed to mildly upset our fellow passenger, an Iraqi, by saying she thought he was from Pakistan 'as the accents are so similar'! I really wanted to 'mistake' her for a New Zealander but didn't get the chance ;) She was trying to get him to translate the Arabic tattoo she has on the back of her neck and she wasn't liking his translation much. There was a Chinese couple, an Indian lady travelling alone and a couple from London, but originally from India. We had a really good rest stop at a place where we got good coffee and loads of fruit stalls - not like Welcome Break at all!

We'd started to worry that we wouldn't find a room in the Highlands at all, after the first five places we tried were fully booked. Cliff finally managed to book a room at the Hillview Inn at a hefty price - all hotels double their prices for Chinese New Year, what a swiz. It was an old place, but servicable and clean but the owner was very grumpy all the time despite our constant smiles and bouncy demeanour! Perhaps she was just fed up with happy tourists?! The temperature in the Cameron Highlands really drops and although I was laughed at by Cliff and Liam for taking a cardie with me for dinner, I really did need it. We'd booked an all-day tour for the following morning so it was an early dinner (Indian) and an early night.

We were collected the next morning by Bala, our driver and guide, in a rough looking land rover with horns on the front. After about 20 minutes on the road we went off road completely and got to see what land rovers can really do (apart from the obvious school runs in the UK). Bala said that there were around 4000 land rovers in the Highlands. We climbed up what only can be described as a sea of mud, up into the rainforest. The pictures we took really do not do it justice, I honestly thought we would have to get out and push at some points and there were a couple of hairy moments when the edge of the 'road' was very close, with a huge drop.

Once we'd reached the top, we met another guide called Ali, who led us on our jungle walk, after making us all very fetching crowns of ferns. The climb was quite steep and rugged in places and there was a very Indiana Jones type bridge of bamboo to negotiate, which looked on the brink of collapse. We trekked up to see a Rafflesia flower that had begun flowering a few days before. These are flowers that take about 10 months to eventually flower and then die within a few days, so the guides are constantly on the look out for new ones about to bloom. We were lucky to see a couple of these.

On the way down we stopped at the waterfall and had a lovely swim in the pool. Cliff got a couple of really tiny baby leeches on his hand. Yuch. But the swim was great and just what we needed after all the trekking in the heat.

After another trip in the land rover, back down the hill, we made our way to the Orang-Asli village. The Orang-Asli are the aboriginal people of Malaysia. We had a short visit here to see the use of the blowpipe for hunting and Liam bought one. I found the experience there all a bit sad really, the villagers obviously get a cut from the tour company who bring people out there, but still it felt intrusive to be wandering about their village, even though there was practically no interaction between us. This was my least favourite part of the day.


Next stop was the Boh tea plantation - fantastic views were to be had here of the tea bushes and there was a short factory tour, after we'd enjoyed our second cream tea since we arrived in the Highlands. Bala, our driver then took us out amongst the tea bushes and revealed that because they now use machines to pick the leaves instead of by hand, the quality has deteriorated (mainly because the machines pick everything, poor leaves, spiders' webs, etc). That put me off the lovely cuppa I'd just had at the plantation.

It was then onto the Butterfly Farm. I don't know if we'd been spoiled by the one we'd visited in Penang, but this one was pretty poor. It seemed quite run-down and practically half of the butterflies appeared to be dead. There were also some tanks with reptiles and insects, again, it all looked in need of a refurb. There were however two pretty cool stag beetles, fighting for supremacy (in Liam's words).

We finished off the day with a trip to the strawberry farm, where we indulged in strawberry milkshakes and sundaes. Practically all the shops in the Highlands stock everything you can think of in the shape of strawberries and all sorts of clothing (hats, gloves, scarves, the lot). A bath mat in the shape of a strawberry even started to look good, until I remembered that I don't own a bathroom to put one in.