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Daniels lodge
Cool and fresh in the Highlands, first time for sweaters in a while! Selamat Detang again, this time from the lush green and refreshingly cool Cameron Highlands. Only four and half hours north of KL, up some very steep and windy roads, certainly not made with tourist buses in mind!! (I think it's best not to look!!)
When we arrived it was raining, and we could watch the mizzle blowing across the valley, just like at home!!
We are staying in a hostel in Tanah Rata, the largest town in the area, it is certainly a tourist trap, but the people are exceedingly friendly and helpful, except for the guy in the town's main tourist office!!!" No they don't have any maps of the walks in the area and there are no plans to print more, the largest flower in the world, the Rafflesia isn't in bloom at the moment and if it was, it would be too far to walk anyway!!!" So many negatives in so few seconds, I'm glad most of the people we've met haven't been like this.
We did walk despite the lack of maps, to a couple of waterfalls, nothing to spectacular, but it was good to be walking in the Jungle instead of the city. We almost made
Arnie & Mrs Kumar
This is Mrs Kumar, the Lady boss of our favourite eating place in Tanah Rata. The garlic naan cooked fresh in a tandor was fantastic. it to the top of the highest mountain in the area, along what we found out afterwards was the most strenous route, and we walked to the next town north of Brinchang, along the river bank most of the way.
We took what is called an 'auntie's tour", because it's so easy, the bus picked us up at 8.45am, a big bus with 8 tourists and the smoothest talking guide possible. James looked like an Indian Elvis, complete with slicked back hair and the long side burns!! And when he switched on the mike to tell us not to be late back at all the stops along the way. his voice sounded like pure silk, just so unexpected!
We started off at a Buddist Temple, most interesting part was seeing all the people queuing to visit a monk who had been their 8 years and allegedly has recently received a gift of being able to see what's wrong with you and offers advice and cures. We were only in the Temple 20 mins and in that time the queue of people had trebled, by lunchtime it's usually over a kilometer and a half long! Next on the list was a
Tea Plantations
Tea plantations, the bushes look as if they have just been manicured! butterfly farm, with lots of insects and snakes as well maggie had a 'Scorpian' put on her hand, just 20 mins to see all and then back on the bus to a cactus farm, in reality a garden centre, with lots of beautiful plants and flowers, again 20 mins stop. Next the strawberri farm, (that's how it's spelt in Malaysia.) here we buy a plastic tray of strawberries for 5 rm,(80p) It's not a pluck your own, but lots of the strawberri farms are. Strawberries are available 365 days a year and they tasted very good, only 10 mins here, how long does it take to buy a tray of strawberries and eat them!!!!!
Now the main reason for the taking the tour the tea platation and factory, this was very interesting and another steep climb in the large old bus, and yes, best not to look down over the edge of the road!!!! The tea bushes look like they have been manicured when they have been picked, so neat and tidy. Most of the picking is done by machine now, but there are still the parts of the bush that the machines miss and these are still done by
Tractor & trailer
More tea leaves arriving for the 5 stage process that makes into something that we all recognise. hand, with the pickers carrying the sacks on their backs, just like on the packets of tea!! James warned us that we wouldn't drink tea after going around the tea factory! The tea goes through 5 stages before it's ready to be packed, and when we went inside, the building smelt like silage!!! But I still like tea and have drunk more on this trip than I ever do, mainly because the coffee isn't always that good! he gave us an hour at this stop, plenty to see and do here, including having a cup of tea.
Next stop was a honey farm, not much to see here, but we got to taste the local honey in water, much too sweet for us. We were also allowed to walk around the local market, selling mostly fruit, but some other household neccesities and lots of flowers, we've seen lots of dahlias growing around the area and they plants seem to bloom very well in this climate.
This stop was certainly a refeshing change, but it's back on the road to the west coast and the Prehentian Islands next stop.
Selamat Tinggal (goodbye) Arnie & Maggie
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