Cameron Highlands
So the Cameron highlands, thats a very malaysian sounding name? well no, its not. Those great name imperialists the Brits have been at it again spreading names in the interests of growing the ubiqitous drink of empire - tea. Leaving KL was a bit of a relief, not because i disliked it, on the contrary, i found it grew on me over the days. However the pollution also grew on my lungs and the heat on my pores so twas time to get to a more civilised environment.The bus to the highlands was more of a local affair than the ones i had been previously accostomed to. Perfect! i thought, local buses will surely lead to entertaining stories of how we had to bump start it, or how i had to save a wedding by stepping in as last minute best man due to a spot of cholera. But no, no such romanticized tales, more like being stuck for 5 hours in a small refrigirator on a rollercoaster. The road to the highlands was predictably precarious, steep drops, oncoming trucks etc etc. Lining the road were shanty villages of the local hill tribes. The tribes people were engaged in their traditional persuits of selling durians to passing motorists. I mean, what is it with these fruit! They seem to be an euDURing obsession (try to control laughter). A single durian on the high street of tanah rata can be smelt at either end, such is the pungency of its odur. In fact, along with smoking and drinking, durians are banned on public transport in singpore! This is not only because they present a serious hazard to the nostrils but also as these large spikey skinned fruit have a nasty habit of impailing people when dropped/thrown. Ok, so i should probably say something about the highlands itself. Tanah Rata is the 'capital' of the region and is where i stayed. Tanah Rata is an odd blend of malaysian style shops/restuarants and mock tudor black beams on white clad apartments. Activities in the area translate as hiking through rainforest and trying not to get lost and sampling the local tea. Rainforest walking was wet, spongy and dirty. The forest also possesses slightly confusing signposting whose singular purpose seems to be to keep the local guides in a job. Climbed the highest peak in the area for views of forest and mountains and wandered through numerous tea plantations. The endless neat rows of tea bushes reminded me of hampton court maze, only on a massive and time consuming scale. Also visited tea making factory, with machinary dating back 80 years. Its quite amazing how little has change in that time. The fact that everything down to the picking is still done by hand on huge estates shows how little these people are paid. Each estate has a small village for the workers, repleat with school and temple.Each afternoon the heavens opened, a timely reminder that this is the monsoon season. The streets are instantly awash in up to a foot of water. The pavements here are also paved in a type of tile that turns instantly to ice rink viscosity as soon as they are touched by water - making walking in flip flops totally deadly.
posted by justplainnigel @ 1:57 PM
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