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December 3rd 2006

Published: December 21st 2006

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Monkey Business

T L

Tea Pickers

And on to the Cameron Highlands... Named after the English Gentleman who mapped the hills in this area and opened the door to a flood of other British folk to come and build their dwellings here. Consequently, a lot of mock tudor, thatched roofed and stone built houses still stand in the green pastures of this cool, temperate climate. On this occasion the Brits were right, as the cool climes still attract many a Malaysian holiday maker or city worker, trying to escape the heat and noise of KL, at the weekend.

Before jumping straight into the Cameron Highlands we had to stop at the fascinating temples of Perak and Sam Poh, built inside huge limestone caverns just outside of Ipoh. These huge Karst caves filled with massive Buddha idols are simply breathtaking, as is the walk to the top of the Perak complex which leaves you gasping for breath in the midday heat to offer up views across Ipoh to the highlands beyond. After finally giggling at the monkey antics of the primates outside, we headed inland on the hill road to the Cameron Highlands.

As well as a golf course and strawberry and vegetable farms, the climate

Sungai Palas Boh Tea Estate

is also perfect for growing tea. We can romanticise about the first Tamil and other South Indian peoples who upon migrating to Malaysia, tried their hand at growing familiar crops and found black tea to be a winner. Today, it's mainly Indonesian workers who cultivate and pick the crops for the benefit of tea labels such as Boh, but how Malaysia came to be a world player in growing this foreign crop is probably due to the privately owned estates that you see from the roadside. The same goes for the native Brazilian rubber trees and the palm tree specimens from West Africa, which now put Malaysia on the map as the world's largest producer of palm oil. Although the workers sometimes use machines to pick the tea leaves, on steep hills they use scissors to select the chlorophyll-green, young leaves. Seeing the workers, donned with headscarves, straw hats, and wicker baskets carried across their stooped backs, makes you realise how much effort goes into that quick 5 minute cuppa we have each moring before we even begin to function. Needless to say, after visiting the Boh tea factory, we sampled a very fragrant, house blend with a scone and

Propa Boh!

For real, aye

jam.

As we had such an early start there was even time to follow one of Cameron's treks. We opted to walk down from the highest mountain in Malaysia which is over 2000 metres but only takes 4 hours to walk down to the base. We started with a bit too much confidence as we soon realised that the Malaysian monsoons had impacted on the terrain and we would actually be walking down a mud chute. Bruised coccyx aside, we had a lot of fun slipping and sliding through the mud.

After all the fresh air, we rewarded ourselves with a meal at the very Olde English, Ye Olde Smokehouse restaurant. As the taxi driver said, it is one of the most expensive restaurants in Malaysia, but all we heard were the words; roast potatoes - beef - yorkshire puddings - custard - custard - custard. mmmmmm. We've been away for 8 months, I am not sure what Abi's excuse was!

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