Pot of tea, sir?

STATS: Day count=10; Illness count=0.5 (blister healed, cause fixed with a small piece of duct tape; Bad shoulder sunburn in force and stubbed big toe. All Chris’ ailments – Em has escaped all these so far); theft count=0; rip-off count=0 (discovered that cheese slices are expensive, so previous rip-off no longer counts); tourist screw-up count=0.5 (no change); photo count=140 (be afraid….)

What links tea bushes, strawberries, bees and orchids? I have no idea, but the Cameron Highlands is ‘famous’ for all these. Apparently. As we were asked by some locals in KL: “Why would you want to go to the highlands? It’s cold there”. And indeed it was. I would hardly class 25degC as “cold” but then if you are used to the 30-35deg in KL, I guess it is!

The highlands were cool. Both colloquially and literally. A very pleasant change from the heat of KL. We stayed in Tanah Rata, basically a few dozen shops on the main road. Hostel (pictured)was nice, set away from the main road, very cheap and a bigger room than we had in the KL hostel. If I could have caught one of the local cats, I expect I could have just about swung it in the room without it hitting a wall.

We shunned the organised trips to the local farms (of various types – bees, flowers, vegetables…) because, hey, we’re travellers and can sort out our own trips! Plus the thought of paying money to visit a big allotment didn’t inspire enthusiasm. So we decided to follow a (vague) trail through the forest – good fun trying to clamber over fallen trees avoiding the drops into the valley below. We emerged hot and scratched one and a half hours later, just as it started to rain. Here (as I suspect all around Asia), when it rains, it really rains! We sheltered for a few minutes in a honey bee and strawberry farm which had, rather unsurprisingly, honey bees and strawberries. That kept us amused for about 5 minutes and then we bought some honey and strawberry (with honey) jam. Well, when in Rome….

We must have looked pretty pathetic walking back the 9km to town along the windy road in the pouring rain, as a kind gent in a pick-up stopped to let us clamber into the back and drove us (at reckless but great fun speeds) back to town. Result!

The following day, after getting sunburnt (it may be cooler, but the sun is still strong up here!), we got the local bus to a tea plantation. Well - “to a tea plantation” is a bit incorrect as it dropped us 2km away from it. Another walk but this time an easy one with great views. It appears that tea is far more interesting than it looks. Well, I learned stuff about how they make it, even though we got there too late to see the factory working. Drinking tea and eating sandwiches on the veranda overlooking the plantation felt very colonial. I have decided I need a white linen suit to really re-live the Empire. I’ll get one in time for India!

Once again we must have looked desperate on the walk back to the bus (which we didn’t think we would manage to catch – they only come every 2 hours and it was a 12km walk back to town…) as another kind couple stopped and gave us a lift all the way back – dropping us off right outside our hostel! I like Malaysians – they are kind to people in need!

We decided to move on – while it is nice in the Cameron Highlands, there’s not really a lot to do there (unless you want to visit more tea plantations and bee farms!), so we got the bus to Penang – a small island just off the west coast of northern Malaysia. After being dropped off at a different bus station from the one we expected – this one being about 15km further away than we wanted to be – we were proud of ourselves for not hopping into a taxi (as pretty much everyone else on our bus did!) but found and caught a local bus to town. Found a decent enough hostel – back to rooms without cat-swinging possibilities and intense heat and humidity. Been here a day and a half so far – will update on all the exciting things that have happened here next time. I wouldn’t want you to think these posts are too long! And of course, I have to leave each chapter on a cliff-hanger in true Dan Brown style….

I’ve changed the ‘potentially planned’ route into Thailand. Rather than head straight for Bangkok we thought we’d stop at a few places en route. Phuket is one possibility (not sure I will like it there, but we’ll probably give it a try) but at the moment we think we’ll try Trang first. Expect we wont head there for a couple more days yet though.

I leave you with a question: Why do you think the vast majority of moped riders around here (and there are a LOT of them) wear a light jacket or shirt back to front over their clothes as they ride their mopeds? Rain or shine, and in intense heat when you would think they value the breeze! Feel free to suggest reasons. If I find out the real reason, I’ll let you know…