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Published: March 17th 2007
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We got up on Wednesday & checked out; we got the ferry to Butterworth which turned out to be free which was a bonus & were at the bus station in plenty of time. We had to wait for 2 hours for the bus which left at 10.30am; we stopped in Ipoh for lunch & arrived in the Cameron Highlands town of Tanah Rata at 3.30pm. We got a lift to a guest house which was recommended in my book & got a tour of the place. We secured a room for the three of us in what can only be described as an army bunker from the war. We had some food & a few beers & played cards, (Uno & Presidents & Arseholes) in our room.
On Thursday we got up, had cold showers, (nothing new for us but it is cooler in the Highlands, especially first thing in the morning so was a bit of a shock to the system). We had breakfast & decided on our plan of action for the day. We borrowed a map of the area & the trails from Reception & headed to Trail 9 & 9A, we would have walked straight
past the beginning of the trail if it wasn't for a man shouting "Nine, Nine!" from the other side of the road & pointing us up another hidden walkway.
We had a great walk through the jungle, past Robinson Falls, about 1.5km's to the trail, the trail itself was 2.6km's. We finished the trail & walked down the road where the buses were supposed to go from, back to Tanah Rata. We asked two different people where the buses went from & both told us different things, a taxi offered to take us but we thought the price was a bit steep so in the end we decided to walk after 20 minutes & no buses.
We started walking & saw a sign saying 9km's to Tanah Rata, it was all uphill & was hard work in the sun. Several people stopped & offered us a lift which Rich wanted to take but as we reminded him our Mom's had always told us not to get in a car with a stranger! We stopped about half way up at a tea plantation & had a cup of tea & some biscuits with a fantastic view over the Highlands
& the tea plantation. Just as I thought the road couldn't possibly go uphill any further we turned a corner & there was another big incline, Rich just turned to me & said "Where's the next teashop?"
When we got back to Tanah Rata I insisted on hugging the sign & Claire took photos, we got back to the guest house at 4.30pm & had another ice cold shower, this time I was grateful it was cold! On Thursday evening we met an English couple called Simon & Michelle & another European girl called Tina, (my memory is getting as bad as my Dad's as I can't remember where she was from). We played cards until the early hours, I put myself to bed about 1am as Claire & I were going on a trip the following day. Claire & Rich followed shortly afterwards, Rich got into bed & started talking rubbish, the following day he blamed it on high altitude drinking as he had only had about four beers, (although they were big bottles).
On Friday Claire & I got up were collected for our day trip; our guide was a man called Kumar who Simon &
Michelle had said was really good; he was a local conservationist & was really passionate about the Highlands & the plants & animals in the area. Our first stop was to go in a mini van up through the town of Brinchang & up through the grounds of the Boh Tea plantation, (Boh stands for Best of Highlands Tea). We stopped to admire the early morning views & Kumar explained the process of producing tea in the Highlands & answered our questions.
We went to the top of Mount Brinchang & climb up a tower to get fantastic views of all the Cameron Highlands. Kumar took us on a walk through the forest, through the canopies & explained about the plants & trees we passed & what they were used for, medicinal purposes, healing qualities & other things. It was really interesting & there were some really nice people in our group. A German couple, a lady from Nottingham who was telling us about how she had climbed Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, (Borneo), a French Man & two Italian guys.
We went to the Boh Tea Factory & watched the processes the tea goes through to become the
stuff we drink. Claire & I went to the teashop & purchased some on Kumar's recommendation where the German guy almost knocked over a 7 foot high stack of tins of tea which would have been like something out of a film. We had some lunch & a cracking pot of tea on the terrace of the conservatory with great views, as Claire said it was "Proper Boh."
Kumar dropped Claire & I off at the Butterfly farm where there were hundreds of butterflies flying around in a glasshouse. In addition to the Butterflies there were snakes, lots of bugs, scorpions, (not even in a proper cage!) & loads of other stuff. We walked out to find Rich outside, he was just coming in & hadn't got out of bed until just before midday so we said we'd see him later.
We walked to a strawberry farm where we wanted to pick our own strawberries but when we were told it was four times the price of just getting the strawberries they had picked we just brought their's & sat on a bench munching, they were really good strawberries! We started walking & saw a sign that said
Tanah Rata 8km's so decided to walk home as it was good exercise & was all downhill.
On the way home we passed a man & his van whose bricks had all fallen off the back & were partly blocking the road, he was picking them all up by himself; being the good Samaritans we are the tow of us helped him put all his bricks back in his truck. The man thanked us & offered us a lift but again, we don't take lifts from strangers. We had a very pleasant walk back into Tanah Rata, passing through Brinchang & a few other small towns. We followed a sign for Parit Falls when we were almost back in town & passed the waterfalls, which were more like a sewer sadly.
We came out on the main road & walked back to the guest house. When we got back we found Rich reading his book, (he had got the bus home, lazy boy!) One of the best bits about our walk home was that as the people are so friendly they were beeping us from their cars as they passed us & waving, we waved back as if we knew them, it was nice.
We had a home made curry when we got back which was just what was needed after another long walk& we watched a film. Claire was on the phone & Rich & I were playing cards when a crazy bug flew at the light, knocked itself out & then played dead for about 10 minutes before getting up & flying off; all the bugs here in the Highlands seem to be three times the size of other bugs & I think something actually stung me on my face in the night. We ended up playing a massive game of cards with about ten other people which was good fun, we had to use three packs of cards; I always like meeting other people & hearing about where they have been & where they are going. We had a fairly early night & got picked up at 10.30am on Saturday Morning to get a mini bus to Taman Negara, the National Park.
Malay people are so friendly & welcoming, I am surprised, (maybe I shouldn't be), by the Indian influence on Malay culture & also how people of different religions & ethnicities mix in close proximity without any conflict, (that I've seen or heard about), compared to at home where there are lots of violence & conflict because of religion, ethnicity & background.
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Andy
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The Shire
Blimey that was a long one! Good stuff tho. Great pics, it looks like lord of the rings! XX