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Published: January 28th 2008
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on the way to the highlands..
..a lorry had tried to squeeze through the shell garage, taking the sign with it! Hello,
The first part of the journey leaving Penang for the Cameron Highlands, we had to walk to the free ferry to get across to Butterworth, where are coach would be waiting for us at 10.30am. The guy who we bought the tickets from said, the pier was only 10 minutes walk from our hotel. However, we finally reached it after 25 minutes of walking, Rob with 16kg on his back and both sweating like mad. We got the ferry after trying to get on with the cars, before being re-directed upstairs where passengers got on. Oops! We sat waiting for our coach which, was apperently stuck in traffic. 30 minutes later we got on and headed for the highlands.
The bus journey took 7 and a half hours in stead of the 4 hours we had originally been told. First we were on a nice air con bus for roughly 5 hours, then we had to change to the most battered (non aircon) schoolbus we had ever seen for the last 2 hours. It was very slow going up the highlands although not that steep it just slowly winded its way up, making regular stops to drop school
another touch up session..
..all over asia people sem to be touching up the temples to keep them nice, this is the temple in cameron highlands. kids off. This making starting again often difficult, to the point we thought we might have to seriously all get out and push it! Black smoke chugged out the back of this thing. All the way we hung out the windows to keep cool, but as soon as it stopped and no more air was blowing through it was near unbearable!
Eventually, we got to the top, to Tanah rata, one of the 3 main towns you can go to. It was large enough with several guest houses, restaurants and shops, although it would only take 5 minutes max to walk one end to the other. We were chuffed to get a nice room for just 35 ringets a night (approx 2.25 pounds each a night!) Its the cheapest place we have been to for ages. As we only had one full day, we booked up on a tour for the following morning and our bus to Kuala Lumpar for the day after. Dinner was also ridiculously cheap and so nice with it, only 1 pound for a full meal!
The next morning we were woken by the guest house owner to get up for our trip -
the temple statues..
..it would be so cool to have this many arms! our alarm hadn't gone off, so we got ready in a hurry! The company we went with were called CS travel and they had really nice new minivans and driver/guide in a uniform. Not many like this we can tell you! First, we visited a rose garden where they had all different exotic flowers and of course huge roses. After we went to a temple that was rebuilt just 30 years ago, thanks to donations from locals and singaporeans, as the guy building it was from singapore. It was ok, but we have seen so many now, they don't impress as much unfortunately. Next, we went to a butterfly farm, where we saw all sorts of over large insects and butterflies. We got to see the native Malaysian butterfly which is massive. Its black with a bright green stripe across it.
Just a short ride away, we went to a honey bee farm, where we watched workers harvesting honey from hives, you could then buy it if you liked. Then, we got to go to a strawberry farm. In the highlands strawberries grow all year round because of the ideal climate. The highlands are 6666ft above sea level so
koi carp..
..its like their trying to say something?! pretty cold at times. They are grown above the ground in coconut husk, not soil. No strawberries are exported at all, they are all sold to locals and tourists. We tried dried strawberries, strawberry jam and then you could buy fresh strawberries, strawberries with ice-cream, strawberry milkshake...anything strawberry!! After our fill of strawberries we got to visit the one thing we had been dying to see; the tea plantations.
We went to a company called BOH tea which is very popular in Malaysia. We looked around the factory to see how tea was made and then got an excellent view of all the tea growing, it was really impressive. 2076 acres of it and it all belonged to a scottish family who had owned it since 1929. Of course we sampled a nice cuppa too. The workers didn't handpick the tea anymore they used machinery to trim the top leaves off. The top harvesters can harvest up to 200 kilos a day earning themselves 44 ringets which, is only 6 pound 50 for a hard days labour! Our trip had come to an end after 4 hours of sightseeing for just 4 pound 50 for everything, so we had
at the orchid and rose garden..
..these are blue orchids,very cool. the rest of the day free. We were really impressed with the tour company.
Other than what we had seen on the tour the only other thing to do here is to hike the highlands and admire the view, so one full day was long enough to get a feel for the place. The following day we were off to Kuala Lumpar on a '4 hour' bus journey.
Until next time, party on..
Rob and Han
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dodge
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food
just to let you know i,v just eaten all the roast potatoes!!!!! all looks great with you two . dodge