The Stunning Cameron Highlands

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The Cameron Highlands is located amongst the peaks of Banjaran Titiwangsa on the west coast of Peninsula Malaysia. At 1,500m (5,000 ft) above sea level it is the highest area on the mainland, enjoys a cool climate, with temperatures no higher than 25 °C and rarely falls below 12°C year-round, hence why it was a popular retreat for the ruling British.

The highlands were named after William Cameron, who was a surveyor for the British colonial government and was mapping the area; incidentally, he forgot to mark the highlands on the map - surely a somewhat embarrassing thing to have to admit! It wasn’t until 1920’s the location was confirmed, development as a hill station only occurred when Sir George Maxwell who held the post of Senior Civil Servant visited. The Indian tea planters, followed by the Chinese vegetable growers joined the British ruling class and so became the Cameron Highlands.

We arrived in Tanah Rata 10am on the bus that departed Georgetown at the ungodly hour of 6am. We checked into the Twin Pines guesthouse which was cheap - at RM25 per night, it was the ‘ronson’ of guesthouse - does what it says on the tin, it was a cell containing a double bed with a window onto the hall and shared bathroom, in all fairness, it was perfectly acceptable, it was clean, the bathroom was clean, the owner dude was friendly and very nice and to emphasise the main underlying fact it was CHEAP!

We ventured out for some breakfast and to our delight there were numerous Indian restaurants - reminiscent of the lovely food in Georgetown. After breakfast we set about doing a ‘jungle’ walk to see some waterfalls. Waterfall one was really poor, if you removed two or three rocks the waterfall would have simply been called the stream. We continued on our trail and arrived at the watchtower, in typical G&T mode the bloody thing was closed to the public for repairs, sensing a great view, we ignored the sign and proceeded up this steep trail. Instantly, we see why it’s closed the whole tower smashed up and bent over - a previous storm must have destroyed it. Our map, purchased from our guesthouse, looks like the routes have been drawn on by a toddler, sceptical of what our guidebook tells us that “it makes sense once you are on the ground”, but it really does, as clear as mud! We decided to cross the watchtower and continue down the path. On this particular path which is known as path 6 - to actual walkers of the trail, path 6 doesn’t appear on our map or in the guidebook. Path 6 is littered with destruction, fallen trees, what looked like the after effects of landslides - a regular occurrence in these parts we later learn!

The jungle trail along this part is very over-grown and dare I say jungley…… We were scaling over tree trunks, turning precarious corners hoping that whatever caused the previous landslide doesn’t decide to do it again, continually questioning whether this is in actual fact a trail or were we sinking deeper in to the Malaysian jungle. After what feels like an hour and 50km, actually it was 2km; we stumble on a sign saying something un-pronounceable beginning with P is 1.38km to our left, so we follow it. The path continues to get more isolated, more overgrown and we can hear something bloody big jumping around in the trees. The path continues up and then down, thankfully, the authorities had put police don’t cross tape at ‘junctions’ where the path wasn’t instantly obvious. We arrived at our required crossroads where we find path 5 which lead us back to Tanah Rata, another kilometre or so and we arrived covered in mud and sweat and headed for the Lords café to devour a cream scone with fresh butter, homemade strawberry jam and fresh cream and some local Cameron Valley tea, G uncouthly has a hot chocolate!

We ventured out for dinner and for the princely sum of 7 ringgit - 1 pounds 30 pence of the Queens English we had a huge plate with curry, dhal, some spicy mint sauce and a huge piece of Tandoori chicken and a massive naan bread, we sunk a few large Tigers each then headed back to our cell and slumped into bed exhausted!

The next day after a good 12 hours of sleep, we went to visit the tea plantations, we got up leisurely around 9:30am, devoured a breakfast of scrambled eggs, baked beans and toast before setting off on our 5 km walk to the Bharat Cameron Valley Tea plantations and tea house. The walk there was all downhill and the scenery was stunning. Upon getting there we took some photos and T had a cup of tea before we spent half an hour or so watching the Malay tourists take photos of each other whilst performing some crazy poses around the tea plants, it was really funny to watch. We then descended into the plantation down towards the stream and a shaded seat and enjoyed our surrounding for another half hour before having to scale back up the hill to the main road. On the return walk, back up the hill for 5km we were talking about returning to the little café for a scone and a cup of tea, we arrived at the café and low and behold it was closed (Being a Sunday and named after the maker himself, we should have guessed) How dare the café staff have a day off! We stopped for scones at anther café but they were not as good, but there was a silver lining the Lord’s café would be open tomorrow, so that cheered us up. After a few hours of rest we went out for dinner at the neighbouring Indian place to where we ate the night before, spreading the wealth and all that, T enjoyed a massive mutton curry banana leaf plate - this a selection of food in T’s case it was mutton curry, dhal, green bean thing (very tasty no idea what it’s called!) cauliflower and rice with poppadom served on a banana leaf, again for 7 ringgit, G enjoyed a dhal curry and roti for 4 ringgit, all washed down with a couple of Tiger beers for hitting the hey.

Our time at Tanah Rata was turning into somewhat of a routine, we would leisurely get up, have a breakfast of scrambled eggs and baked beans on toast, have massive walk somewhere and on the way back to our gaff we stop off at the Lord’s café for a cream scone and tea, followed by a tandooori /banana leaf plate and a few Tigers then bed. Our last day in the Cameron Highlands was no different; we set off after breakfast to the neighbouring township called Brinchang, we decided to walk through Brinchang and head north through Key Farm and on to the Sungai Palas Boh Tea Plantations. We arrived in Brinchang, there was not a great amount to do here on first glance and we were glad we’d stayed in Tanah Rata. We were trying to time this elusive bus so after 4.5 km walk to Brinchang we were going to catch the bus up to the tea plantations and walk back dropping in on a butterfly farm on the way back, but this bus never arrived so we continued walking, after 10km we arrived at the turn off to the tea plantation and in large black letters on a massive sign was - ‘closed on Mondays’, after checking the day our suspicions were correct today was in fact a Monday!

We continued up the path in the hope of at least getting a descent picture for our efforts and we were rewarded, there was the tea plantation in all its glory, the sun shining on the plants creating a carpet effect - which supports the local tourist board coining the phrase ‘the green carpet of Malaysia’ in one of its brochures. After about half an hour or so of taking the view and the silence we decided to head back, conscious of the fact we have 10 km or so to walk, when a green coloured bird fly’s in between G and I, the sound it made was remarkable, it was a real whoosh… Similar to the sound of a fighter jet or missile!

On our way back we dropped into the butterfly farm, something G was really looking forward to, for me (T) its sounds a strange kind of farm, farming butterfly’s, are they for sale? Do they eat them? Who knows!!! anyway in we went and my word, I (T) haven’t seen butterfly’s of the size that were in the farm, they were huge, some were like small birds, they also had some strange looking snakes and massive beetle and general bugs, spiders and even scorpions however, a lot appeared to be dead. Out the back they housed some rabbits, hamsters, ducks also more bizarre animals such as stick insects.

The final 10 km beckons and off we went glad it was almost all downhill, as soon as we set off the bloody heavens opened and it pissed down, for practically the whole 10 km, no sight or sound of this local bus or taxi’s for that matter. After about 30 minutes of walking in the rain we spotted a bus but it didn’t appear to be running, the driver was sitting there chatting to a chum and didn’t say anything when we enquired if it was the bus to Tanah Rata, so we carried on, then rain really came down, so we took shelter in a shop doorway with other people hiding from the rain, not sure where all these people came from or what they were doing, so we stood with them until it eased off. Still conscious of the distance left to walk and that it was now 16:00 we set off again, typically as we were out of reach of the shelter the rain came down again. We made it to another shelter when we see the bus that was parked up the road go past with all the people from under the last shop shelter sitting aboard, there definitely won’t be another bus for at least 1 and a half hours so we set off yet again in the rain!

True to form when we eventually arrived back to Tanah Rata we stopped in at the Lord’s café for, yes you have guessed it a cream scone and tea - a well deserved one may I add. After a quick shower and a rest we once again did what we’ve done every other evening here and had a yummy Indian followed by a few Tiger beers.

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