The Cameron Highlands

Tea plantation auditioning for an advertisement

To be fair (although to whom I'm not sure) there isn't much difference between the Cameron Highlands and any overdeveloped touristy vaguely mountainous area - say the Dandenongs (or Blue Mountains, whatever). True, the Dandenongs doesn't have tea plantations, which is to their disadvantage, because a tea plantation is very nice to look at - just as nice as all those ads on television whose art directors got there before me. But, the Cameron Highlands, just like the Dandenongs, does have lashings of devonshire tea. Those Devons - they just went everywhere.

Nice, isn't it.

It's also true that the Dandenongs don't have a wide range of Indian, Malayasian and Chinese food - but then, the Cameron Highlands doesn't have any overpriced hippie arts and crafts. Of course, they do have arts and crafts, and probably it was overpriced, but it did seem ridiculously cheap and some of it was really quite ... nice. We resisted the temptation to buy though, because it wasn't self carrying.

The really big attraction of the Highlands "the hills" is of course that the temperature differential between it and the coast is so great. Likewise the humidity differential. I spent 3 days going around saying "I'm so cold" - but the sucker prices were out on the jumpers rather than the gewgaws so I wasn't going to buy one. For sure I don't need it in Guangzhou. Actually, half of my jumpers in Sydney were bought in the gift shop at Tullamarine when I arrived in Melbourne from Sydney having forgotten precisely what "cold" means in Melburnian dialect. They don't get much wear because by the time I need them again I've forgotten that I own them, and have to buy another on arrival.

Be that as it may, I was quite happy to be cold - the temperature is actually around 22, so it's not actually life-threatening, but after GZ and KL, 22 and low humidity is paradise. We stayed in a gi-normous B&B/guesthouse/hotel which was very nice - a bit damp, but otherwise impeccably maintained and/or painted. We walked downhill to a tea plantation - it didn't look so far on the map, but so much for the tourist map - it was a seriously long way and it was seriously downhill. That wasn't bad in itself of course, but the walk back seemed a bit intimidating. However, we found the local electrician repairing the wiring at Ye Olde Tea Shoppe, and he was happy to give us a lift back. Keen golfer, plays off single figures - apparently the local golf course is the cheapest in Malaysia. Very nice of him - although if we'd known his shortcut, we could have reduced the distance by about 2/3! Still a steep climb though.

I bullied Liz into having Chinese food for dinner, and it was OK, but it seemed pretty clear that Indian was the go, judging from the crowds on the boardwalk & the sheer number of Indian places, so we had Indian for breakfast the next day. In Australia the most common Indian bread is naan (which you can get in Malaysia too) but in Malaysia roti is the signature Indian bread. And while you can get roti in Australia, Malaysian roti is an art-form. In Tamah Rata, the artform reaches its greatest heights - cue bad puns from the peanut gallery. It comes in cones, in strips, in pancakes, in mounds, folded, with curry, with fruit, with whatever you like pretty much. And if you have ever been amazed by a guy making pizza by tossing dough around like a Frisbee, roti is made the same way, only the dough is a millimetre thin by the time the cook puts it onto his hotplate. It is unbelievable - speaking as a moderately skilled dough-maker. We managed about 6 different kinds in the three days - but I think my favourite is the one with curry sauce. Even for breakfast, this is excellent. (My diet didn't fare too well in Malaysia)

View from look out - note imminent arrival of rain

We went for a pleasant little walk on Day 2 to a pleasant little waterfall & a rickety, rot-infested look out for a view over the whole valley which was impressive (making due allowances for the holiday accommodation) with the rain clouds sweeping in. Inspired by this we planned to do 2 walks on day 3 - the shortest one in the morning, and then a quick visit to a strawberry farm in the PM.

There is a Buddhist monastery in the hills, and it's only a kilometer off the road. Just so you know, it takes 3-4 hours to walk that kilometer. Longer if it rains - which it will, because it does every day around noon. We did eventually arrive at the monastery, wetter than I have ever been in my adult life (because being in wet clothes is muche wetter than being under a shower) where a very nice nun gave us an umbrella - for free! thus raising my estimate of Buddhist monks about 1000% because in general they are a predatory lot with the mandatory exorbitant donation - well the ones around Shanghai & Guangzhou are. In Guangzhou locals have frantically waved at me to advise me NOT to give money to a begging monk - so my view is not isolated. On the other hand we have a monk in one of our schools and I feel a bit sorry for him because in 6 months he doesn't appear to making much progress. Maybe what goes around comes around in the ripping-off business.

One reason for jungle trekking

Anyway, it was nice of the nun. It was quite an interesting monastery - it is one of 3 in Malaysia named after the Ming navigator who allegedly discovered America (Zheng He, but I can't remember his Hakka or his Cantonese name, which is the temple name). It seems to be a kind of Pirate Buddha; it was certainly a very interesting temple with a couple of artifacts I hadn't seen before. (I think the camera must have got wet, because I can't find the pictures) It must be doing pretty well financially because it was big new and shiny, while the guidebook suggests that there has been a temple there for quite a few decades.

We cancelled our plan for a second walk.

Next morning we tried to make a quick dash to a strawberry farm, but somehow we missed it and ended up taking a tour of a small Muslim community - not so visible in the Highlands as elsewhere. We ended up with a back of semi-dried strawberries for the bus trip back to KL. I have to say that I have never found dried fruits to match up to raisins and dried apricots. You'd think that dried strawberries would be fantastic, what could be better than intense strawberry flavour?, but they just don't work. The sugar overpowers the flavour.