Hello from The Cameron Highlands

Shortly after posting our entry about Penang, kate and I left on the local bus heading for the picturesque Cameron Highlands, located in mainland malaysia, up in the mountains.

We got on a bus that was held together by nothing more than twist ties and blu tak, and which was driven by a maniac who hadnt figured out how to apply the brakes. 5 hours later we made it to the small town of Tanah Rata in the Highlands.

The town itself is pretty 'sleepy'. the locals here sell either curry or strawberry merchandise, since it seems all the strawberries in Malaysia are grown up here. The other things that the highlands are well known for growing are tea, cactii, cabbage and many root vegetables. all these plantations can be visited and all the produce can be purchased at the local markets. The home made strawberry ice cream was particularly nice! The other thing that you can rely on this neck of the woods is the rain. every day at 12:30pm the clouds move in and it absolutely cracks down until about 5:30 or so (hasnt been great for our tan).

First thing we had to do after getting off the bus was find a room. turns out we settled for a hole in the wall. The place we stayed at was run by a knob and the room was just a walled off bit of the attic, with a complimentary snoring neighbor. We called him Snoreo. Oh, and the mozzies here are big enough to put a saddle on. but hey, what do you really expect for $3.30 each a night?







after dumping our bags, we headed off to a local tea plantation, and let me say it is one of the most amazing things you can see up here. The tea trees have been planted on slopes that seem too steep to navigate on foot, and yet the diligent workers still manage to harvest every leaf. The sight of hill after hill of green tea trees is beautiful, and the air is so fresh up here that its easy to forget that you are only 3 hours from Kuala Lumpur and all the smog it contains.


One of the fun things that draws a lot of people here are the walking tracks that wind through the jungle and connect the various townships and attractions. Given that Kate and I are planning on climbing Kinabalu in a couple of months, we thought we should strap on our hiking boots and give it a shot up here first. Kate, being the ambitious little girl she is, decided that we could walk from the town of Brinchang to the highest point in Malaysia that can be reached by a 4WD. rather than actually using a 4WD to get there, we would climb up the mountain from the other direction, through the jungle... sounds pretty easy. but no. The 'track' consisted of pools of mud punctuated by tree roots and slippery rocks and logs which were all covered in bright green moss. Dont get me wrong, it was beautiful, but climbing straight up the side of a muddy slope at about 80 degrees incline was one of the most physically challenging things either of us have ever attempted. three hours after starting, we arrived at the top, muddy, bruised, and checking for leeches. that was yesterday. today i am only able to move my fingers, so thats why im writing this post since i cant do much else. Despite the pain and permanent spinal injury, we had a great time on the climb and cant wait for the next mountain. Oh, and a big THANKS going out to the lovely little family of 3 from Singapore who rescued us on the way down the mountain road, and gave us a lift back to Brinchang (sorry about the mud all over the floor of your nice new Honda).


Another thing we did while we were up here included visiting a strawberry farm where i posed as a strawberry, fairly unconvincingly. We also went to the night markets in Brinchang, which is the largest town in the highlands. We went to a bee farm, where they had what I could only describe as a petting zoo for bees. We got to see the queen bee, and look inside a hive, all without protective gear, since the guy assured us that these bees were 'friendly'. right. anyway, we got some great photos thanks to how close we got to the little things.

The only other thing worth mentioning is the food. Its fairly staple stuff up here, and the town we stayed in had a lot of indian places all serving the 'banana leaf set meal', which consisted of a curry, some random vegetables, pickles, dahl, and rice. We tried it out, and it wasnt actually too bad. a bit pricey at 7 ringgit, but worth trying. All was well until the next day, when kate was violently ill all day and most of that night. She became very good friends with the local bathroom. i probably could have just paid for a single room that night, since she didnt really make much of an appearance. still more proof that i have guts of iron, and that she is just a big girl. Dont worry, shes all better now. a bit of chilli the next morning, followed by some Yakult, and she was firing on all cylinders again.

From here we are heading to the island of Parenthian, where we will hopefully spend my birthday (yes, thats right. the 7th of June. i accept Paypal.) We may even try and find time to do some scuba diving if we can fit in in between doing nothing and being lazy.

Till then, have fun at work!
//Brendan