Cameron Highlands Revisited
On Langkawi I took a taxi to the ferry dock and I had two choices, go to Georgetown on Penang Island that takes 3 hours by boat or go straight across to mainland Malaysia to Perlis and that only takes an hour. I figured Georgetown would be packed with people and so I chose to go to Perlis. When I got there I walked the short distance to the bus station and hoped a bus for Ipoh, about 6 hours to the south on Malaysia’s great highways and roads. The roads are as good as any in the world and their buses are spacious. I’m not a big fan of air-con but every time I get on a bus I chill to the bone like I’m back in Alaska except I’m wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops.
On the drive down we passed the Penang Bridge and the sun was setting behind Georgetown and the harbor. The skyline silhouetted large hotels and business buildings. I arrived in Ipoh around 9 pm and secured a bus ticket to Cameron Highlands for the next day. I left the bus station and went out in search of something to eat and a place to stay the night.
I boarded a bus at 10:30am and figured it would take two hours to get to Cameron Highlands. Well, little to my knowledge, there was a holiday coming and traffic was bumper to bumper for the last 30 kilometers. As we rose in elevation I noticed much of the rainforest along the roadside had been cleared extensively and was replaced by open eroding ground and strawberry greenhouses, not just a few but an over abundance. I saw shredded tarps trying to hold back the inevitable landslide issues. For me it was sad but there seems to be a big market for these strawberries that produce at an alarming rate. Genetics? I didn’t see any bug holes either which is suspicious.
Tanah Rata, the Cameron Highlands quaint town center, was unrecognizable and buried under new construction of high-end hotels and resorts. The road is two-lanes, one each way and on this day there was a massive influx of visitors. The next day was a workers holiday.
I went to the only familiar place I knew, Kang Hotel and Guesthouse. Kang Hotel is on the main drag and the Guesthouse is around the corner with cheap rooms and a bon-fire pit where westerners gather after nightfall. No. 38, Jalan Besar, 39000 Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands. (Ph. # 05-491-5828, H/phone: 016-542-2249/ 019-542-0280).
I had a look around down town where merchants were setting up and preparing for the onslaught of the weekend. I saw Ye Olde Smokehouse, a high-end restaurant with a five star restaurant and wine list that I planned to experience the night before I leave. There are two 18-hole golf courses in the neighborhood when there used to only be one. I decided to hook up with an early morning tour to get out of the way, hoping to find the same peace and quiet I recall from my previous visits. There are two bars in town, the Traveller’s Bar down town and the Jungle Bar at Kang’s Guesthouse. There was plenty of live music about although they seemed a bit stuck in a retro time warp.
The minivan picked me up at 9 am and we drove out of town towards the Boh Tea Plantation. The Boh Tea Plantation began in 1929 and is still a Scottish family owned business. The father is 92 and has recently moved back to Scotland and passed the reigns to his son. We took a short walk through the tea rows and took some epically clear pictures of a beautiful day. It has been raining with lightning and thunder at night but I got lucky with the weather.
We drove to the highest point and climbed into a lookout tower at approximately 6,000 feet. There weren’t very many people around at this point in the day but I knew they were coming.
We walked through a mossy forest with 500-800 year-old trees and a spongy forest floor. Carnivorous insect eating Pitcher Plants hung everywhere and the air was different. Apparently there is a higher concentration of oxygen among the trees than out of the forest. We scrambled over roots and rocks and dodged the odd razor sharp vine. I blew a flip-flop and walked barefoot for half an hour. The moss felt cool to the touch and I watched for leeches.
A quick stop at the Boh Tea Plantation Center where visitors can taste different varieties of tea that they make and sent. There is also a chronological history of the plantation from its early days to present including many photos of the pickers out doing their thing but that doesn’t happen so much anymore. There’s not a lot of money in picking so they’ve moved on to clippers. The odd older leaf might get mixed in and they are usually additionally bitter.
The pickers of the past had issues with cobras hiding in the tea hedge as they picked concentrating on the task at hand. Boots and a thick apron have been added for protection.
As we left we noticed streams of cars coming towards us, most of them stopping and starting due to the narrow road. It’s basically one lane but used in both directions and with the amount of cars it became obvious that this was going to take some doing to get out. This gave me ample opportunity to take pictures of my surroundings and the family estate on the hill.
The last stop on the tour was at a strawberry patch where I joined a beautiful young German woman named Marie for a pure strawberry juice and a strawberry shake. She had been living in Melbourne, Australia working on a plantation there for six months before traveling to Malaysia. She was heading home to Germany shortly. We ended up having an Indian curry and roti lunch back in Tanah Rata before parting ways. I was to meet her at the Jungle Bar but I didn’t make it. I got caught up with some hydroelectric engineers and surveyors at the Travellers Bar listening to what they’re up to about 45 kilometers away.
On Sunday the Cameron Highlands emptied out of people. There was a stream of cars heading for home down the 60-kilometer curvy road. I got Cameron Highlands back a little for the evening and the day. I first came to Cameron Highlands in 1996 and returned a few times since then but this is the biggest building spurt I’ve witnessed. As the other times, I finished my time off here with an elegant dinner at Ye Olde Smokehouse. A little out of character for me but yeah I had a margarita, Prawn Cocktail with two types of caviar, a Caesar salad, roast leg of lamb with mint sauce, black currant jelly, and gravy for the roasted potatoes and a nice glass of Cabernet. I finished it off with chocolate mouse with strawberry sauce and whipped cream on the side. It’s a nice change of pace after a year of eating rice and noodles. Tomorrow I’m back to rice and noodles. Ye Olde Smokehouse deserves a blog all to itself and I’ll write it up soon. It’s got a good story behind it. It began in 1937 and still going strong.
