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Published: February 18th 2009
Off we set at 8am in the morning bound for the alternative destination (to the one we'd hoped for anyway) of the Cameron Highlands. As we said we had planned to go here at some point anyway, it's just we'd planned it for when we returned in a few months so no harm done by doing it now instead.
The coach journey was very painless and we arrived in the beautiful Cameron Highlands mid afternoon, instantly grateful of the temperature when we stepped off the bus as it was much cooler than we'd been used to in KL. Another bonus was that the hostel we'd intended in staying at had sent down a minibus to collect any new arrivals so we headed on up the hill to Father's Guest House and checked into one of their bomb shelter rooms at the bargain price of RM25 (£5!)
We decided to just check out the small town centre in the afternoon and came across what was to be our favourite restaurant for our few days stay there. It was a South Indian restaurant which offered Tikka Meal deals for RM7, this steel dish consisted of a naan bread, chicken tikka portion,
rice and 3 vegetarian curry sauces and filled you up just nicely for such a cheap price.. yum!
The Cameron Highlands is a popular travel destination, this was proved by the vast number of Western people that flooded the town each evening. For those who haven't ever heard of this place (as we hadn't before we arrived in Malaysia) the Highlands is most famous for it's tea plantations but also strawberries and also jungle trekking. On our first full day there we decided to venture out on one of the many jungle trails around the area. Having had a look in our LP and trying to memorise the maps at the hostel we thought we knew roughly where we were heading and set off....
Our first stumbling point came when trying to find the start of the trail but after taking a divertion to the hospital and asking a policeman we found the start at the Robinson Falls (not signposted at all) and made a start. The first part of the trek for about 100m is really easy.. then it takes a right hand turn and then you start the real walk! The total length of the walk
we chose was about 4km, not far at all but by the end of it we both felt like we'd walked about 400km! The reason for this is that the trek goes up and down pratically vertical hillsides for the whole time. You basically have to climb up tree roots to the top then go down on your bums the other side then up again, and down.. you get the picture. It was really exhausting stuff and although quite enjoyable you didn't really get to see any really amazing sights so we'd probably not recommend that trail for anyone heading in that direction.. maybe others are better we just don't know.
We didn't fancy another jungle trek so had planned to visit the tea plantations the following day, something we'd really looked forward to as we'd seen so many lovely photos and it looked really beautiful. Sadly when we woke up the following day the sunshine we hadn't seen much of in the jungle the previous day had gone and it was raining. We decided to wait up in the hostel and see if it left off and it sort of did around lunchtime so we ventured out to
catch the bus to the most popular tea plantation. Luck was not on our side though and after waiting for the bus for over an hour we didn't see any sign of it turning up and time was getting on so we decided to abandon that plan and walk to another plantation that didn't look so far away. Off we set along the main road and it was downhill all the way with Sophie declaring that she'd seen it on the bus on the way in and it would be just round the next corner.. or maybe the next one.. eventually after about 10 more corners and 3/4 hour of walking she was proved right and we saw the sign avertising the much longed for tea and scones!
We settled down in the cafe to enjoy our (overpriced) Cameron Valley Tea and scone set complete with jam and a very dubious looking cream concoction.. devonshire clotted cream it most definately was not! The scones were lovely though and the cafe enjoyed lovely views of the Cameron Valley tea plantation below.
After enjoying our afternoon tea we ventured down into the plantations themselves. They are open to anyone who
wants to have a walk round but be warned.. they are so steep we nearly went headfirst down the hillside quite a few times. How the people pick the tea all day and manage to stay upright we really couldn't imagine.. they must have some really good shoes on is all we could think. The plantations really are quite beautiful, especially in the low cloud haze cauzed by the rain, the tea bushes roll over and over the hillside and are just how you would imagine them to be.. or more like just how you will have seen on the PG Tips ads! We spent quite a while strolling around and were lucky as the rain had completely eased so we didn't get soaked doing it either. We even managed to spot some tea pickers on the otherside of the valley and really wanted to go over to get some snaps of them but they were quite a way off and it would have taken too long to get there and back so we had to make do with zooming right in to get a really grainy picture instead.
The walk back to the hostel was all uphill which
wasn't half as enjoyable as the walk down, to add to our misery it started to really rain again as we were returning so we arrived back looking very similar to the drowned stick insect we rescued on the way back!
We were keen to get to the beaches so decided to leave the Cameron Highlands the following day so booked our bus to Ipoh for our connection to Lumut where you catch the ferry to Pulau Pangkor...
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