Malaysia - the Cameron Highlands

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Hello 😊

In my last update, I'd just got back from my rainforest trek.

Sunday 15th August - Taman Negara to the Cameron Highlands
I managed to stay awake for about 10 minutes after leaving Kuala Tahan but then was so tired I slept most of the journey to the Cameron Highlands, only getting up for the lunch stop. I woke up properly in the Cameron Highlands to an amazing view down into a valley of tea plantations. The rest of the journey was so pretty, there were loads of greenhouses with bright orange flowers in, nice trees, lots of nice colourful plants and trees, the whole place just looked nice. As soon as we got out the minibus we noticed it was immediately cooler, I'd even say it was cold. We were staying in Tanah Rata, one of the main towns, at the KRS Pines Guesthouse which I'd definitely recommend as they lady running it is lovely (very organised and helpful and friendly and she was happy to wash my horrible stinking jungle clothes for me, which I felt embarassed about giving her, they came out very well). We went out to have a look around the town and it felt very fresh and alpine like; Mum said it looked in the pictures like North Wales and I'd agree, the scenery did remind me of North Wales. And it was cold like North Wales, I had to put my cardi on! We sat down and had something to eat and had a wander around then I tried to make some phonecalls home and then headed back where Maff and Em had got me a Starbucks (seems random to have a Starbucks in the biggest tree growing area in Malaysia) to warm me up. We had a nice rest and didn't go out anywhere that evening; it was tipping with rain and I just needed a lie down. It was so chilly I had to get The Peru Jumper out!!!! I read for a bit and then pretty much passed out asleep at 9.30pm, I was so tired.

Monday 16th August - Cameron Highlands
I woke up early with a migraine, it was BAD. I was annoyed as I'd had a few recently, not sure why. We got up at 8am to go on a 1/2 day trip around some of the quaint little places around Tanah Rata. We had breakfast in the guest house which was lovely (beans on toast and proper tea!) and then were picked up at 8.45am. In the minibus there was us 3 and a family of 8, Koreans we think. We had a really nice Indian driver; we found all of the Indian Malaysians really really lovely, so helpful and friendly. Our first stop was a Chinese Buddhist Temple, which was interesting as it was different to the ones I'd been into in Thailand and Laos, they seemed prettier and more intricate. This one was nice though, just more brash and bright. You can see a difference in the faces of the Buddhas. It was nice to visit the temple, there was singing coming from somewhere which made it sound really spiritual and there was a nice view of Brinchang (another town) from the car park! Our second stop was a Rose and Cactus Centre where there were loads of pretty flowers (not so many roses though which was a surprise considering the name) and spiky cactus's set in beautiful gardens. I liked the flower called 'Ladies Shoes' which looked just like ladies shoes! The best bit about the place though was the amazing view, out over a valley of flower and vegetable gardens. I was up there for quite a while on my own and it was lovely to look out over the view when the only sounds were the birds and traffic in the distance, it was so so peaceful. We also found bats hanging in there, which was pretty cool. Our 3rd stop was a Strawberry Farm (is this sounding like Guernsey Mum & Dad?!) where we had lots of various strawberry things (I had milkshake, Emma tea and Maff cheesecake and some other sort of cake) and then we went out to a tea plantation to take pictures of the amazing view. We couldn't actually visit the tea plantation as it was a Monday and closed (the tea pickers don't work on a Sunday, so there is no tea to process) but our guide said you couldn't actually go around the factory anyway, am not sure if that's true. The view was AWESOME though! The tea plants make interesting shapes on the landscape, I'm not sure how to describe so you'll have to get on Facebook to look at the photos. There are two main tea growers in the Cameron Highlands. The one we were looking out over was owned by a Scottish family called Russell. They started the plantation in 1929; they do export some of the tea but 80% stays in Malaysia. 7000-10000 kilos of leaves are picked per day, 100 kilos makes 20 kilos of tea (the waste is used as fertilizer) so the leaves make 8000 cups of tea a day (I haven't done the maths, it's what our guide told us). The tea pickers are all immigrants, mainly Bangladeshi, Nepalese and Indonesian. They are paid 22c (about 5p) a kilo. The tea is ready to harvest when it is bright green. It started raining heavy at the tea plantation so we didn't stay around for long. We moved onto the Butterfly Farm which didn't have many butterflies (and those that were there looked a bit battered, might be something to do with people keep trying to catch them, what is wrong with them?!!) but did have loads of interesting insects. For example a HUGE Rhinoceros Beetle, lots of types of Praying Mantis, a Bull Frog, a Leaf Frog, some snakes and a Scorpion that Maff allowed to be put on him! There was also a Chipmunk, had not seen one of them before. Our last stop was the Bee Farm, which we didn't really look around due to the rain. There was another nice view though. And I learned something....a Queen Bee lays 2000 eggs a day?!!!
We were dropped back at the guest house after lunch where I spent a bit of time on the internet and Maff and Em booked a hostel for Kuala Lumpur, I managed to avoid the stress of that, they made it look easy! We headed out for something to eat (I had to put jeans and The Peru Jumper on I was so cold) so we went and found tea and scones, although Maff and Emma had cake instead of scones. The Malay tea is nice but as they sweeten it it tastes very different. We went looking for face masks but couldn't find one without whitener in it then I went and had a foot massage. It was a Reflexology one which i was a bit concerned about as I had the worst migraine of my life after the last one, but as they didn't focus on the bit of my foot that relates to my head it was OK. I was just drifting off to sleep during it when this woman started shouted in the massage place about not being given the discount she was promised. The shouting went on for ages! It turned out that she'd misunderstood what they said; all in the place were really p*ssed off with her, think she should have paid for some of our massages as she ruined them. After the massage Maff and Em came with me to get Indian food, as I'd been craving Poppadoms and Naan Bread. The food was amazing, Em and I really enjoyed ours but Maff struggled as didn't feel very well. It wasn't like Indian at home, it didn't feel so unhealthy and wasn't full of salt and MSG. The Naans were made fresh and not greasy at all. And the Poppadoms were amazing, I think the waiter got it in the end that I was loving them as I kept ordering more. After dinner I tried to ring some people again but again had no luck! Then we headed back, packed and chilled out. I had a funny noise in my ear, which signaled a bout of deafness coming on! It was so so cold whilst going to sleep though, had to sleep in The Peru Jumper again!!!

Tuesday 17th August - Cameron Highlands to Kuala Lumpur
We were up at 7am to have breakfast and get the bus to Kuala Lumpur. It was a bit of a walk to the bus station so we started off early and came across a man in a pick up offering us a lift; turns out he ownedthe bus company and had heard some people were coming from our Guest House so he came to pick us up! He said he likes to offer a good service. It was really nice! And then whilst sat waiting for the bus I needed to pee but there was no toilet in the bus station, so one of his employees walked me to a restaurant to go to the toilet! I think that's a great 'Customer Experience' (you might only understand that if you work with me)! We were very impressed with the bus when we arrived (the company is GT Express, if you go use them); the seats were very big and comfortable. In the first 10 minutes of the journey we must have descended most of the way to Kuala Lumpur (Tanah Rata is 2000m above sea level). We had a bit of an incident whilst going down....a lorry came round a corner on the wrong side so our driver had to brake quick, he then stalled and then couldn't get the engine to work. We had to freewheel down, we weren't sure if the air brakes still worked without an engine. He pulled over part way down to try and start it again but it wouldn't start so we freewheeled all the way down to the bottom. When stopped he got his toolkit out and eventually got it started. We moved on and into a petrol station where the owner with the pick up was waiting to make sure everything was sorted bless him. At that point we were on a flat bit but when we started going again we descended further and further and further down really windy roads with BIG drops at the side; that drop was usually filled with big trees which made it less scary. The view was awesome and there were lots of little stalls on the side of the road and little shack houses perched on stilts (one had an amazing view of the valley!). I tried to take some good photos but I didn't get any good ones. Once we'd descended all the way the journey was a bit flat and boring. I spent most of it stressing about when to drink water as there was no toilet on the bus. Just as I decided it was safe to drink some we pulled into a service station. It was a mission to find a toilet there! We walked around the whole place before we found some signs. I find it interesting in Malaysia how you always seem to come across the men's toilets, then the prayer rooms, then the women's toilets. The toilet was nice, but I upset the toilet attendant, am not going to explain why!

I slept the rest of the way to Kuala Lumpur, a nice city that I'll tell you about in my text update (I'm nearly caught up....).

Lots of love Xx

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