Cameron highlands

We boarded the coach at Kuala Lumper for the 4.5hrs journey to Tanah Rata which is in the mountains and founded by the British in the 19th century as a hill station so the colonialist could escape the insufferable heat of the humid lowlands where the British used to plunder the Malaysian tin deposits. The bus driver who we affectionately labelled 'Lurch' on the account of his huge stature and deep sunken eyes was another trainee grand prix driver who had to settle for driving buses instead. We never get travel sick but the road up to the highlands is extremely twisty and fast so he decided it would be amusing to throw the bus around every bend at break neck speed causing our stomachs to somersault inside us making us feel sick. Anyway we crossed ourselves and again asked God to deliver us from this endeavour safely and in return we would be good people from now on.

The view from our hotel balcony at Brinchang

From Tanah Rata we jumped in a taxi who took us to our hotel in the next town which was better than we expected and was on the top floor with a balcony and a view of the highlands. It rains alot in the highlands which is why the British probably liked it so much and this was the case on the first day. So we walked to a nearby strawberry farm as strawberries are considered an exotic fruit here and only grow in these cool mountain areas. It was really surreal there as it was packed with Malaysians (being their holiday season) and the whole farm was made up like some tacky amusement park in homage to the good old strawberry. We purchased the obligatory punnet of the delicious red fruit which we later gorged on and went on to explore Brinchang which was a compact tourist service town with no particular charm but turned out to be a great base for us to start our excursions from.


 


Next day the weather was perfect, cool and crisp with wispy clouds and bright sun. We hiked across the jungle to Tanah Rata which took about an hour passing a nice waterfall and then stopped for lunch in town. Then we walked down to another waterfall which was bigger called Robinsons Falls which was in the middle of nowhere and we did not meet another person there or back. By now it was getting really hot so we hiked back to town and then back to the hotel exhausted.
Next day was another perfect day weather wise but Kathy was still rubber legged from the day before so I decided to venture out alone to go and climb a local mountain point in the jungle. I hired a taxi to take me to the start point but he got totally lost which was unbelievable as it is such a small place, this ensued into an argument about payment and me departing the taxi miles from my desired destination and one very upset taxi driver. Anyway I made the best of it and climbed another mountain nearby which was a 2 hour extreme scramble to the top in the jungle and surprisingly at the top met 2 Spanish girls who had worked in Northern Ireland and Scotland. I stopped and chatted to them for about an hour as they were very entertaining with their stories about their time in the UK.  I then pushed on to the next mountain through the jungle. I did not meet anyone else on this stretch as it was very remote up in the cloud line and eventually found my way  back to the hotel


A typical Cameron jungle path


Next day Kathy was back in the saddle so we rented a motorbike as we wanted to go to the highest point in Malaysia 'Gurung Brinchang' and to an intriguing place called the Mossy Forest. We had loads of hassle to get an agency to rent us a bike as they said it was dangerous up there as the road surface was poor. Undeterred we did eventually find someone stupid enough to rent us a bike if we left a deposit. This bike was undoubtedly the worst bike we have ever hired. An old Honda which was so underpowered it barely took us up the steep incline to the top of the mountain and at stages I thought we would have to get off and push it! But it did eventually make it to the top but the engine was unusually hot when we arrived and I feared it would not make it back to base. So we left it to cool down and walked to the Mossy Forest which is a top tourist attraction as it is 2000 meters up in the cloud forest so very atmospherically wet. Unique to Malaysians maybe but to us it was the same as walking through Epping Forest on a damp autumn morning. But we enjoyed the walk and when the cloud broke it exposed great views of the jungle valleys below. We then went to the mountain top viewpoint which was uneventful as it was in the clouds but we did have the place to ourselves and it was like a scene out of sleepy hollow with the jungle backdrop and the fog swirling around us.
The road was in bad shape but no worse than some of the 'good' roads' in Indonesia so we scrambled down the mountainside, poor Kathy bouncing around on the back seat as she tried to stay on. Just then and unexpectedly the heavens opened up and the rain come down, so we unpacked our fashionable rain ponchos (much to the amusement of passing drivers!) and descended to a tea plantation which turned out to be closed on Mondays!

The latest motorcycle fashion apparel.

When we got back to the hotel, Kathy disembarked and I went to return the bike to the agent but decided to see how fast it would go on the open road and ended up at another tea plantation which had amazing panoramas and a nice tea shop. Just when I arrived the rain came down in biblical proportions so I was trapped for half an hour in the tea rooms until it subsided for half an hour so I returned the knackered bike back to the agency and luckily they did not check it over so I got my deposit back. Overall it was nice to have the cool air of the highlands but the rain soon dampens its appeal for sightseeing so after 5 days we got minibus tickets to take us to a patch of primary untouched jungle called Taman Negara which is our next stop.

Tea for two?