Advertisement
Published: September 8th 2009
Boh Tea Plantation
Malaysia's favourite tea.I'm sure you've noticed me complaining about the Malaysian weather so I'm not ashamed to admit that being the cry baby that I am I spent the weekend in the Cameron Highlands, purely because I'd heard that a lot of tourists go there to escape the heat. However, it turned out to be a great move because during the 4 hour bus ride up there I met a bunch of students from Monash uni in Melbourne and made some new friends! (It's truly amazing how many Melbournian's I've met so far. Nearly every 2nd traveller is from Melbourne!)
On the first day we all happened to have signed up for the same tour. We started at the Boh Tea Plantation (apparently Boh tea is Malaysia's favourite). Now I'm not really a tea drinker but I WAS very impressed with the stunning rolling hills covered in neat rows of tea plants. Gorgeous. Next we went to a beautiful rose garden (which had a green rose that looked to me like a tiny cabbage) which had some sculptures dotted about it as well. I noticed that in another garden place later on as well. They even did it at the Ee Feng
The national butterfly of Malaysia
Gorgeous butterfly in the enclosure. Qu Bee Farm we explored later on (the crazy thing about that farm is that you're walking through the bee's feeding ground without any kind of protection. Fortunately it was cold enough that they weren't really up to buzzing around much.)
One of the most interesting parts of the tour was the butterfly farm, but NOT because of the butterflies (they pretty much only had the Malaysian national butterfly which is green and who's name escapes me atm). They had some cool insects which they actually took out of the cages and let you touch or look at more closely. I'm the only one who had the guts to get up close and touch them though. Some people will skwirm at anything! However, I drew the line at picking up a huge scorpion. The demonstrator did though! Crazy man.
The highlight of the day was Sam Poh Buddhist Temple (where suprisingly we were allowed to take photo's). It had some immense golden statues (not only of Buddah though) and some gorgeously painted ceilings and walls. Very colourful.
That night me and the Aussie contingent walked through the rain to the town for the worst dinner I think
Blue Butterfly Flower
A flower named for obvious reasons! It actually is a long handing flower. Such an unnaturally strong blue! I've ever eaten. I made up for it with a nice desert though. And the company was highly entertaining!
The following day Steph and I spent a lot of time waiting for the bus (which only went up and down the mountain once an hour without any defined stops or times). We eventually met our goal of visiting an orchid farm (sadly not the big one we wanted to see because it was closed down last year for poaching endangered species. Naughty). I also went to the Time Tunnel which was filled with old memorabilia and toys etc. I was wrapt to find an old Milo tin. (They love Milo here so much that even McDonalds sells it! Hehe.)
Before I caught the bus back to KL (on the dirtiest bus you've ever seen in your life) I got my very first foot massage. It was amazing. Although it didn't really help reduce the swelling in my feet which I don't know the cause of. Too much walking perhaps?
Advertisement
Tot: 0.347s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 17; qc: 87; dbt: 0.0668s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
KathyH
non-member comment
Cool insects
What kind of cool insects did you touch? Maybe you can post a few photos later. I wouldn't have touched the scorpion either! You seem to be all about insects on that trip - bees, butterflies and bugs. Sounds as though you enjoyed the Highlands more than KL itself, apart from the buses.