Advertisement
Taking a local bus to the Cameron highlands was probably not our best choice!!... after 4 hours of travelling and arriving halfway in Ipoh we were knackered and decided to bed down for the night. A quick look in the guide book and we headed across town towards one of the very few choices of hotels. The place was a dump, so we looked at another... which was even worse... the rat traps on the landing was the final straw and we headed back to the bus station to carry on our journey.
The walk back across town to another bus station (Ipoh has 5) was hell. Our packs seemed three times the weight in the baking sun. Dripping with sweat and not unsure if there was another bus to continue our journey was a bit worrying. Ipoh is not a nice place and tourist don't tend to stay here... its purely a transit town. Huge dirty buildings line broken tarmacked roads. Rats scurry around bags of rubbish on the pavement and no one smiles at you.
After finding the right bus station (at last) and waking up the ticket conductor we got some tickets for the 6pm bus.
It would take around 3 hours meaning our total journey would now end up being 12 hours. Ipoh bus station was a hell hole. It's dark and dingy and stinks of urine. Tramps walk around the platforms with plastic bags wrapped around their faces, inhaling some kind of substance and looking for left baggage!
Enough of Ipoh!!.. we arrived in the Cameron Highlands late and after being picked up by the guesthouse we were soon in bed and grabbing 60 winks. The next morning we headed out and explored.
The temperature is mild in the highlands. Tanah Rata is the name of the little town we stayed in and its really cute. There's no late night bars (in fact they only have 1 bar) or disco's or nightclubs.. its the kind of place you would find in the Lake district in the Uk.. it made a nice change for us.
Lee picked up man flu and was stuck in bed for 2 days, so nothing to report apart from snotty hankys and really bad fever! (any sympathy yet??!!).
On the 3rd day we booked a half day countryside tour with the guesthouse hoping to see some
of the highlands. Most travellers here do walks up windy trails or mountaineering up steep slopes but with Lee just getting his energy back we took it easy.
The tour was in a mini bus and we joined a local couple, a lady from the Uk and a couple from Germany. Our guide was called Mr Singh who had been doing the job for 30 years.. so you could say he knew his stuff. Our first stop was a Chinese temple which was built from donations from people in Singapore - a wall full of plaques representing each donation. There was also some huge golden Buddhas and relics on show.
Next stop was the 'Rose centre' where we strolled around rose gardens and hiked up a hill for views over the valley. We also took some funny snaps of garden gnomes (see pics). A much anticipated stop off at the strawberry farm was next and we ordered a freshly made strawberry milkshake which was nice. We also stopped off at the butterfly and bee farms where we got to hold some scary insects, but our favourite visit was the Boh tea plantation.
In 1929 a Scottish chap
called J.A Russell built the tea plantation over 1200 hectares of land and is now owned by his very wealthy daughter.(making enough tea for 5.5 million cuppa's a day) We had a factory tour and Mr Singh explained that the workers are imported from Sri Lanka/Bangladesh and India. Pay is around 6 pounds a day for the very fast tea pickers (and it looks like backbreaking work - handpicking tea leaves in the scorching sun).
That night for dinner we went for a legendary 'steamboat'!! Basically its steam/boiled veg.. but you cook it yourself.. in a Chinese restaurant. They bring over a gas cooker complete with canister and wok. A plate of uncooked veg, noodles, a fresh egg and chilli sauce. You take your own time and cook the ingredients as you like and hey presto.. you have your very own 'steamboat' (see pic)!!!
We really enjoyed our time in the Cameron highlands and its been a nice change of scenery and temperature. However we have heard rave reviews about a place called the Perhentian islands which is supposed to be like beach heaven. After missing out on the sun in southern Thailand we decided we were due
some lazy beach days and booked a minibus to take us the next day. Maybe the sun will help with Lee's man flu!!
Thanks for reading!
Lee and Michelle
Advertisement
Tot: 0.124s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 74; dbt: 0.0831s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb