Blogs from Malaysia, Asia - page 742

Imagine a warm English autumn day. Broken clouds dot the sky and the warm sun is diluted only by a slight chill on the breeze. That's pretty much the climate up here in the Cameron Highlands which is perhaps why there's quite an English feel to the place. Restaurants in the town offer cream teas and tours take you to strawberry farms (actually nothing more than a greenhouse full of gro-bags) and tea plantations. Now there's nothing more English than tea, I'm sure you'd agree, and although we don't grow the stuff back home, they certainly do here - by the valley-load. On our long, winding journey up through the mountains, we passed a couple of tea plantations and it all looked rather interesting so today's adventure was to head for the nearest one to us ... read more

Ok, time for another batch of fab photos to make you jealous ;-) This time it's the lovely Cameron Highlands in Central Malaysia. Great place but we didn't rate the Cameronian Inn all that highly. Ho hum. Enjoy :-) ... read more

WOW! The Cameron Highlands - what a relief!!!!! Not only had we survived yet another maniac's bus driving but the temperature had dropped a good few degrees and the humidity had gone! We could actually breathe the air without feeling like we were gasping through a blanket! Man were they gorgeous! We were nestled not quite in the clouds, surrounded by rolling hills, tea plantations, vegetable farms and all in all lush green-ness! Something you don't really realise you miss til you see it again! We stayed in a place called Tanah Rata, which is actually quite a bustling little town, with some fantastic restaurants (Kumar's) and a great guest house (father's guest house - very reasonable dorm and a much needed hot shower!) Day 1 saw us braving a Jungle Trail - Can you believe ... read more

Today we travelled to the second of our destinations in Malaysia: Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. I was really excited about this leg of the trip as my step-dad, Edmond, went to school here way back in 1959. We took the bus from the long-distance bus station at 9.00 am but the bus left 45 minutes late. For 25 MYR each, we discovered to our surprise that we were on a VIP bus like the ones in Thailand - big comfy seats and good air-con :-) The journey took about 4 hours, the majority of which was spent winding our way around hairpin bends and up into the jungle-clad mountains. The roads were excellent although the traffic on them was prone to speeding, making for some hairy moments on the way. All credit goes to ... read more

Mid-autumn / mooncake festival fell on Ocober 6 this year. Kuching city's Carpenter Street had been a hive of activity for a week as every evening, the street ( part of Heritage Walk ) was closed to traffic and bright red lanterns were lit. Stalls had been set up and the new arch at the entrance to the street next to the General Post Office saw dozens of people having their pics taken in front and under it. All in all, I think I have just about seen and tasted nearly all the new flavours of mooncake that were available - durian, mango, buttermilk, red dates, green tea ( I love this one ! ), besides the usual traditional ones filled with lotus seed/bean paste...still, i love the Shanghai mooncake best - the price has risen ... read more