Tanah Rata (Cameron Highlands)

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Mon 16th:
So up early we get, check out of hotel and trek about and a half miles to the City bus station (It's all very confusing as they have about 5 or 6 different bus stations here). We pay the 7.90 RM and book the bus to Tanah Rata (stopping briefly to try some Malaysian snack type things for breakfast - Note it's a strange medley of food here, but with historical input from Indian, Chinese, Traditional Malay, British, Dutch and Portugese cultures it's no wonder the food is so diverse, the language is also a mixture of all the above aswell.).

We're soon going to take a photo of us with our bags on, they're about twice the size of other backpackers and twice the weight too.

So we arrive at Tanah Rata about 1.30pm, some guy offered a free transfer to a hotel, which sounded reasonable and had a pretty good write up in the LonelyPlanet guide (not that they're to be trusted on anything.). It's a nice enough place, shared bathroom but clean with flushing loo's and a washing machine so you can wash your own clothes.


After settling in and sitting down for ten minutes over a brew with some homemade scones and fresh strawberry Jam (Malaysia is great, one thing that stayed when the brits left was tea, and it's really good here, seeing as though it'd grown less than a mile away) we decide to check out the town centre.


Tanah Rata is just like one of the old country towns in Yorkshire or Lancashire or somewhere like that, You kind of expect some Nora Batty type to come strolling out of a teashop with her see-through raincoat and one of those tartan things that people used to carry shopping in. It also has a load of food places, Indian (Both Hindu and Muslim), Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), British (It's even got a proper pub with darts, pool table and Fish'n'chips!), and of course Malay food - aswell as every variant mixture you can imagine. The buildings here are weird aswell - imagine mock-Tudor black and white beams, with Dutch style window blinds and all the frilly roof corner bits like a typically Chinese building.


We decide, and it was a hard decision, to eat at a Tandoori place. The Tandoori is cooked right by the door in massive clay-vases for hours and tasted really good (It was only 7 RM aswell). At that place we met dome French sounding girl that tells us about a good bar in another Hostel, so we drop our dirty laundry off at the clothes-cleaning place and decide to nip in to this 'Daniel's lodge.' place and see. When we get there to our surprise we see the French sounding girl is actually the barmaid there, and the place is empty. Feeling obliged to buy one drink we do so and start chatting to the girl. Turns out she's from Andorra (Between France and Spain), is called Marie and works not only at the bar, but also at the Tandoori place we first met her at. After a while a few other people turn up (Mostly French) and we have a small chat. As we find out this 'Daniel's Lodge.' and another one close by have a bitter rivalry, as a result the Daniel's lodge one got a bad write up in LonelyPlanet - bed bugs, rude staff etc. Several of the French people staying there didn't have anything quite as bad to say about the place, but still it seems that it had obviously had quite a bad effect on the hostels number of guests. So adter a short while we drank up and left, back at the hostel we book a trip for tommorow.

Tue 17th:

Again another stupidly early morning (Up at 6am - again, we're both really in need of a lie-in by now), and we start our half day mini-adventure (The Country Tour - 20 RM). Although before we actually leave we stand around chatting to a German guy about Merrell walking trainers and the somantics of the English langauge (He wanted to know if he was pronouncing Visibility correctly). Turns out the guy is from southern Germany just by Austria, can't understand the Austrian-German dialect or the North German one. He's been coming to the same place here every year for 15 years to escape the coldest parts of the year. We also find out he's in his 70's! and is still doing 15km treks daily!, not a great advert for smoking being bad for you.

So back to the tour:


First stop is a Chinese Buddhist temple, It's nice and everything, but by now we're a little templed out. Although the girl from Lancashire that workd as an English teacher in Thailand (The kids here are on holiday now) was loving it.


Second was the Rose Garden (Which had a 4 RM entry fee), worse than the Thai's and Cambodian's combined in torturous stairs, but it was a nice place with great views of the hills and lots of pretty flowers to look at. Both our legs are aching, both out of breath (Point to add here - we got here yesterday, it takes a while for your blood to adjust to altitude, it's not completely fast food and lack of excercise). We did feel sorry for this old Japanese woman on the stairs though, by the looks of it her husband has come for the cheap golf and she's in a place with no good shops in sight and having to climb a million stairs with bad hipd. Rose garden pretty much describes what it was, the pictures do the rest.


Third stop was a Strawberry Farm, which are odd here because they don't grow them in the ground, they're in coconut husk baskets because if they touch the ground then they are dirty. The details may seem hazy, but please bear in mind that our driver/guide had a strong Indian Malay accent and had (By the sounds of it) been taught English by someone with a broad Welsh accent and a lisp. So there we had breakfast, Matt had Belgian waffle with fresh cream, chocolate sace and fresh strawberries. Leanne opted for the fresh strawberries and cream. This was after we had sampled the dried strawberries and fresh strawberry jam (Strawberries, Sugar, Lime juice and nothing else)

Fourth stop was at the Butterfly Garden and Farm (Which had an admission charge of 5 RM). This place had loads of animals, we saw a 3 horned Rhino beetle, man-head beetle, Some snakes, Scorpions (which the female half of a Portugese couple was very brave in holding in her hand), Stick insects (One with a missing leg - It was 'armless enough), Cat-eyed Gecko, Some lizard things and finally a big enclosure of several butterlies.

The butterly enclosure was quite pretty, although a lot of people looked sad that there were some flutter-by's with broken wings or just plain dead. Leanne wondered around looking a bit special, smiling at the pretty flying insects and Matt competed with a Chinese-Canadian girl for prime photo-taking spaces.


Fifth stop (And the main reason we picked the tour) was Boh Tea Factory. And yes, the tea was proper Boh, and yes the selected leaves were Boh Select. The first part was basically a short tour round the factory and explaination of how tea is produced and how some Scottish dude (W.A.Russell) came to set the operation up. Then we basically walked around a shop and then sat having nice proper tea in an open air cafe whilst overlooking the highlands covered in teaplants. T-shirt weather but a slight chill and a mist in the air. Very fresh.

Our last stop was the Bee Farm. The name gives it away. Lots of pretty flowers and some huts with bee's in. There's a picture of it, 1000 words and all that.


So we get back about 1pm ish and decide that we'll do a trek straight away (Basically if we keep moving at a pace in Malaysia we can get ourselves a few extra day and probably squeeze and extra place in, like Melaka for example)

We grab our Mac-in-a-sac's, fleeces and after consulting the trail route posters in the hostel and using LonelyPlanet for reference we set off on course for route 9A (A short 3 hour jungle hike).


After walking past the MARDI hospital we realise that the turn off on the right just before it was the one we were supposed to have taken. LonelyPlanet days go past MARDI and it's on the left. After that slight hitch we get on the right path and walk. It's quite a nice walk, we pass Robinson falls (A waterfall), and get great views of farms and the highlands. At times the path was a bit sketchy and jumping, crawling, sliding, holding on to branches were neccesary measures, but it was worth it.

That particular trail (9A) Basically makes a giant wide horseshoe shape round a river, skirting the side of a valley. At the end of the trail we came out onto a farm and after being momentarily disorientated decided that we'd get the bus back.

After waiting for 15 minutes or so we asked some kids nearby if the bus came by here and they said yes. It was strange to see that the kids (2 lads aged about 10 or so) were hitchhiking, but it's a really safe kind of place here. Kind of like England 50 years ago with better weather, better food and more friendly people. Anyway, before our bus came a taxi with a passenger already in it pulls up and offers a cheaper rate back to Tanah Rata (6 RM each), so we jump in.

Then once back, were straight off out again, first to pick-up our laundry (6 RM for 3 Kg, washed and dried). and then again for dinner. We can't decide at first, there's far too much choice for a small town, so we nibble on some mini banana fritters and Curry Puffs (Like a somosa but shaped like a mini-cornish pasty) and decide on Tandoori but at a different place, which was even better. After that it was internet to update the blog, and booking a ticket to Gua Musang at Taman Negara park - at an extortionate (85 RM), then bed so we can get up early, yet again, for our bus.

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Photos

View from our Trek.
Jungle trekking in the highlands. Boring fact - Below an altitude of 4000m there are Forests, above that they are called Jungles, that's the difference.

Chinese-Buddhist Temple
Interior detail.

Leanne at the rose Garden.
Looking pale.

Tunnel at the Rose Garden
This is the poor Japanese woman struggling to walk down it.

Strawberry Farm
Where we enjoyed fresh strawberry's with chocolate and cream and a belgium waffle with strawberry's and cream

Brew?
The tea drying out.

Boh Tea Cafe
Great views.

Bee Farm
Bee's.

Robinson Falls
We saw this on our jungle trek

Comments

[Diyana]

robinson falls
I also saw it when I passed this juingle trek...not only you..