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Published: April 6th 2010
So, our 2 night stay in Ipoh (pronounced ee-poh) actually turned in to a 1 night stay.
As you could see from the photos on our last blog our hotel was like something out of a seedy film, so we decided to jump ship a day early and head to the Cameron Highlands by bus.
We didnt get to see any of the cave temples in Ipoh as our hotel was located right on the other side of town from the main bus station and the taxi drivers seemed to love ripping us off, so we just walked around checking out all the different stalls and markets. Bit of a let down to say the least, but it was never going to be a town with lots to see so we didnt mind too much, we were just so glad to leave.
We checked out the local Hawker stalls the one night we were there which seemed to be ok, there were alot of prostitutes floating around though and a lot of 'bars' and 'gentlemen' clubs with women coming out looking a bit worse for wear so we tried to steer clear of that area as much as
possible!
We took a walk towards the Old Town, but it was getting late and we didnt want to be lost close to midnight so we took a stroll around the local market which was full of tat and then went back to our hotel.
When we got back to the hotel, I decided it was a bit scary and couldnt sleep - scared of bed bugs and the fact our travel guide mentioned there were alot of brothels in our area and our place couldve been one of them - Phil found my eye mask and I left the strip light turned on and the air con off so I could hear what was going on. After about 2 hours I decided to turn the main light off and sleep with my torch on next to me. I managed to get to sleep in the end, but woke up every hour to check the bed for bed bugs. Luckily there was no sign of them!
In the morning we woke up early, and after a walk around the town and calling a few bus companies decided we would take a taxi from the Shanghai Hotel (price
agreed with the taxi driver by the Chinese man at reception) to the main bus terminal which was a very busy place with lots of Indians coming and going and selling all sorts of snacks out of huge plastic bags.
We spent about and hour waiting for the bus to depart to Tanah Rata (Cameron Highlands), the bus was quite good apart from we had to have our huge backpacks down by our feet which meant Phil couldnt move for 2 hours.
We climbed the mountains and finally began to reach our destination. We rung the bell, very ungracefully got off the bus with all our many bags and began to walk towards the main part of town.
Luckily the temperature up in the Highlands rarely gets above 28 degrees so it was nice and cool when we arrived which was the first thing we noticed, and the breeze!
We found a place to stay for 1 night, as we had arrived a night early and couldnt check in to the one we'd booked yet.
Twin Pines sounded quite nice, and the website made it look nice as well. How wrong can you be! We
arrived to a small reception, were shown our room which was right next to the main cafe bit where everyone sits, the walls were paper thin and the toilet/shower area was disgusting.
We made the most of it, and luckily only had to stay there one night. Plus it was £5 for a double room, so I suppose you cant really complain for that money?!
We both had a bad nights sleep what with various people deciding to sit outside of our room in the early hours of the morning and speak to friends and family on Skype.
The next morning we packed up our things and headed in the direction of Fathers Guesthouse, which was only a short walk up the road. We had breakfast at an Indian place, but didnt fancy curry so the man made us fried egg on toast, coffee and a large bottle of water all costing £1.20.
We trundled up to Fathers Guesthouse, up the really steep long flight of steps (Phil had to carry my backpack as well as his own) and checked in to one of the Nissen Huts.
The Nissen Huts were from the War and
most of them had been knocked down apart from 6, which have been made in to dorm rooms and double/single rooms. All with shared showers and toilets.
The room is very basic, with just a bed and a dressing table and chair but its fine for us as its clean and we dont spend alot of time in the room anyway. The toilet and shower rooms are fine, I imagine its what a place would be like if you went camping.
The Cameron Highlands are absolutely beautiful, the main things to do here are trekking, visiting the local tea plantations/bee farms/butterfly farms/strawberry farms.
We organised a half day tour to take us to the local farms and the Chinese Buddhist temple.
We were picked up at 8:45am and first taken to the Rose Centre. Here there were so many different types of flower and cactus and some not very happy looking Koi Carp swimming around in very shallow water. The photos will let you see all the different types of flowers here, there was also a good view over the Highlands which we took a few snap shots of.
Next on the list was the
Butterfly Farm, which as the name suggests had Butterflies but also lots and lots of insects/bugs/reptiles that can be found in the forests of the Highlands.
Amazing! We saw the biggest insect I have ever seen, a Rhino Beetle - again see pics for all the different bugs etc.
We went from the Butterfly Farm to the Strawberry Farm which was just a quick pit stop to taste some of the delicious produce and have a famous strawberry milkshake, which didnt disappoint.
Our group of 6 jumped back on the bus and we were on our way to the place I was most looking forward to going, the BOH Tea Plantation.
This plantation was started in 1929 by a Scotsman Mr J A Russell. It is still owned by his family today, 3 generations on.
The plantation was amazing and so beautiful, all of the people who work there and pick the tea are housed and schooling provided for their children. It was far away from the main town, Brinchang, so they had 2 small shops which supplied them with everything they needed, a temple, mosque and church.
We took a tour of the
factory where we saw the workers putting the tea leaves through all sorts of machinery at different stages and were told what stage did what etc.
Then we went to the drinking area where we both had a refreshing Green Tea with Lime on ice whilst looking over the stunning scenery.
Next on the list of places to stay were the Bee Farm (Phil was looking forward to this the most), which was a bit disappointing as you just saw the bees flying in and out of their hives and the Chinese Temple which was colourful and interesting for a short walk around.
We are now back at Fathers Guesthouse, and will be walking in to town later for another South Indian meal. We have found a brilliant restaurant where we both tried Roti (a type o pancake with spicy dips) for the first time. They also do amazing banana pancakes, we are both trying to stay away from the Chinese places for the moment, both in fear of a repeat of the tripe soup.
We are planning on doing a short 1-2 hour trek tomorrow on our own and then on Thursday/Friday going to see
the Orang Asli (the indigenous people to the area) demonstrating their blow piping skills and a 4x4 journey through the forest.
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big sis
non-member comment
This sounds much better! That last hotel should be burnt down! Yuk!