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Published: February 10th 2007
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After a hard day watching body piercing and coconut smashing, it was off to the cooler climates of the Cameron Highlands for a few days. We've travelled on a full range of Malay buses to date from the super luxury to the speeding - the bus to the Cameron Highlands was neither and there seemed considerable doubt as to whether it would actually make it up some of the climbs to get there!
It was approximately 5 1/2 hours before we alighted in the town of Tanah Rata - the hub of the Cameron Highlands. Tanah Rata apparently translates as flat lands, but it was a relative term after a 2 1/2 hour climb from the nearest major centre, Ipoh. One of the few totally accurate statements we have found from the SE Asia version of a well known guide book states that you will be met from your bus by laid back guesthouse touts...and so it proved. We'd already made a provisional choice on our preferred venue, so we allowed ourselves to be persuaded by the relevant tout and we were whisked away in the minibus. However, he took us to their "new" (and obviously more expensive) guesthouse. We
were initially puzzled by the lift in a 3 floor guesthouse in a small town and it was only on external inspection that we saw the words "retirement home" painted on the second balcony. It transpired to be just what John had been looking for the last 5 years, so we checked in...and very comfortable the ensuite facilities proved to be!
The weather in the Cameron Highlands was very different to anything else we've encountered since leaving Tasmania - it is positively freezing on a night, even cold enough to induce the fleece out of it's new position in the very bottom of the rucksack. The lack of humidity was a blessing after the last couple of weeks, although our excursion into the surroundings was somewhat blighted by a lack of visibility.
When in Rome and all that...when in the Cameron Highlands - take tea! We went to the BOH Tea Plantation, which has apparently been in the same ownership of a family of Scots since 1935. BOH apparently means "Best of Highlands" having been renamed from Tiger Tea some years ago. Whether it was the "best" or not, it was very nice and was accompanied by some
Old Smoke House
A little piece of the Home Counties pricey scones, a tour of the tea factory and a sit on the terrace overlooking the tea terraces. It is actually quite strange looking over the tea terraces when you've only seen them on a packet of PG Tips in the past. We later moved on to strawberry roti breads during our highland visit, which are more price competitive.
As part of our wander round, we went up to the top of Mount Brinchang - some 2000 metres above sea level. It obviously wasn't the greatest day for the summit with all the low level cloud around, but everyday can't be the perfect weather day or you'd wait around and never see anything.
The overall initial impression we'd derived before getting to the Cameron Highlands was that they would have a more "British" feel to them. Whilst there are a liberal supply of fine old Edwardian houses in a state of disrepair, rose gardens and the golf course, Tanah Rata certainly wasn't what we expected. It has to be said mind, that every old Land Rover in history seems to have gravitated to spend it's final days in the region.
Whilst we were totally oblivious to the
Mr Kumar
Our man in charge of tandoori chicken in Tanah Rata - preparing to delve into his tandoori oven fact before we arrived, Le Tour de Langkawi cycle race was due in town (or more exactly Brinchang) the following day. It is by rumour a big event in the cycling calender of SE Asia, so we thought we had better check it out and walked the 5kms to Brinchang in search of the excitement of the finish of the 133 km Day 3 stage. After what seemed like hours of waiting (and continual mis-information about where exactly the cyclists had got to on the stage, the time of arrival in Brinchang etc), the first rider emerged at 4.30 pm to a horde of puzzled Malays and a few backpackers.....Anthony Charteau of Credit Agricole was named King of the Mountains for the record. As we'd come up the same route in the bus previously mentioned in this piece, we're surprised they got there at all!
We spent the remainder of our time in Tanah Rata just chilling out (as they say in backpacker terminology), sampling some of the local strawberry produce and appointing our man, Mr Kumar, in charge of tandoori production for the duration of our visit.
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