Cameron Highlands

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Gosh we have done LOADs of cool stuff since the last blog, when we left KL we got a bus (an economy, not an 'executive', the difference? four seats in a row instead of the luxury of only three.. no we are not sure either) to the Cameron Highlands. The highlands are the home of Malaysia's tea industry and it is so high up that it gets (shock) cold at night and rains every afternoon. we rocked up to a place called Father's Guest House (so called because it is on the site of a religious mission) where the rooms and dorms are in old Nissen (?) huts. We quickly met a new buddy called Patrick, a French Canadian maths teacher, and Chris an Australian /Malaysian on his holidays before heading up to Thailand. With our new buddies we spent spent two days walking about the highlands, climbing through jungles and visiting tea plantations. On the first day we walked along track no. 9 which was a leisurely stroll in the park compared to day two which (track 1) which was a 2 hour uphill scramble through which redefined the term 'path' but it was lot of fun and we got very very muddy. At the top of track 1 we stopped to eat our picnic (coconut rice and anchovies) and stopped to check out the view. Of course there was none as we were well above the cloud level so we went instead for a strawberry icream at one of the local strawberry farms and instead of walking the 15k home we managed to hitchhike with a man from Bristol. The day before we got a lift from some flower delivery men in their big truck, which was possibly the best way to travel after a long walk.

By the way the food at the highlands was a real HIGHlight, with the usual Malaysian mix of Indian resturants and Malaysia food stalls. Starting the day witha a roti (inidan bread) dipped in curry sauce was the perfect set up for a hike through the jungle and a cup locally produced tea became a frequent ritual. The hawker stalls are the best as you get a big old pile of rice and help yourself to various different dishes buffet style and play an interesting game of 'who can eat the most chillis'. Best bit about the stay has got to be having Rachel here to share our adventues, we love her and we are not going to let her go home. After the highlands we got back in the mini bus and headed to the east coast of Malaysia to soak up the rays on the islands, but more about that later.

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Photos

"Get in the back of the van"
Getting a lift home from our jungle treck

Chris at the Boh tea plantation
Along track 9