Day 103: Highlands Exploration

Hoping for a better day than yesterday, we crossed our fingers that the Highlands would look nicer under a fresh dawn, piled into the car and headed off. Stopped at the same Indian restaurant for breakfast (roti canai is just as good for dinner as for breakfast!), then drove southwards towards our first stop: the Cameron Valley Tea Plantation.

This was more like it! The company had set up a store, cafe and outlook point not far from the town, on the edge of a sharp drop into the valley overlooking their entire tea plantation. It stretched out for miles and miles, across to the other side of the valley and almost out of sight in both directions. Great view, very vivid green colours, and far more in line with what we'd expected from the area! We wandered around a little bit, but you couldn't venture that far down into the plantation as it was very steep in places. After a little walk around we retreated to the cafe and had a cup of tea - unusual for me as I'm not much for a tea drinker! We also bought some tea bags from the store as they were quite cheap and hopefully very tasty.

The Highlands are known as Malaysia's breadbasket, and it's easy to see why. The tropical latitude means they don't have distinct seasons, while the cooler climate in the hills allows for consistent growing. And the young volcanic soil makes it very fertile - basically everything grows here and they don't have to worry about seasons spoiling crops like in other parts of the world! As we drove we saw various fruits and vegetables being farmed, including strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce, corn, lavender, beans, cabbages, grapes, watercress, potatoes and other root vegetables, and many more besides.

Since we were down the southern end of the populated area, we dropped in at the Lakehouse Hotel which we'd heard did excellent high teas, but unfortunately they didn't start service until 3pm - doh! Though we half expected that to be the case, so not disappointed. We drove back northwards and randomly turned in at a signposted bee farm, which also had many other small crops (though mostly strawberries). Lots of honey for sale and several bee hives to check out which were quite interesting.

By now it was lunchtime so we returned to town and had a quick sandwich at a cafe, along with a fruit juice. We also dropped by the hotel to pick up our rain jackets as the weather up here is quite changeable, though we hadn't been rained on just yet!

Our afternoon task was to drive up Gunung Brinchang, the tallest mountain in the highlands at 2032 metres tall. Although we'd considered hiking, we eventually decided on driving to the top instead! Partway up the steep and winding road, some western guys flagged us down and asked for a lift - they had been dropped off at the bottom by a taxi driver and had no real idea of how far it was or where they were going! Since there were three of them (two Germans and a Scot), they piled into the back seat and off we went.

Our poor car had been pretty gutless most of the time, and with five people on board it was really struggling up the hill! There were a couple of points where I considered asking them to push, but we made it up okay. It's a fun drive too, lots of switchbacks, hairpins and blind corners for you to blast your horn (hoping that anyone coming the opposite way will hear you and stop in time!).

At the top there was an observation tower and several large communication towers. We climbed the observation tower and had a look - the view was excellent although the cloud ceiling was very low above us meaning our photos don't look that great. The tower was a bit of an adventure as well - probably four stories high and very rusty! Sturdy enough though.

We spoke to some hikers who'd finished the climb via the walking track (not the road), and they strongly recommended to our new friends that climbing down was a bad idea - apparently some parts basically required abseiling! They were all very muddy too, so it looked pretty miserable all round.

Near the summit is an area known as the Mossy Forest which we headed over to: it's basically a forest that faces into the prevailing winds, and so it's constantly damp and, well, mossy, owing to fairly constant rain. Thankfully it wasn't raining when we were there, but it was definitely high up in the clouds and we couldn't see much. The walking trail through the forest was quite nice though, lots of trees and moss to check out.

We had a good time just chilling out and chatting with our new friends about various places in Asia we'd all been to. The Scot was travelling for a year and soon to head to Melbourne and hopefully pick up some work, while the Germans were spending six weeks in Malaysia and Thailand over their uni holidays. Eventually decided to head back down and the guys piled in too, which didn't bother us at all.

By the end of the 25 minute descent the brakes were a bit smelly, but not on fire or anything. Felt very sorry for a pair of Italian girls we'd seen hiking in the Mossy Forest - they were muddy and tired looking, having evidently walked up to the summit and were now descending via the road. They flagged us down to ask for a lift as well, and looked absolutely crushed when they saw we already had five in the car!! Almost considered going back for them once the guys had bailed out of the car back at the main road, but they were a bit too high up. Sorry girls!

After a quick stop back at the hotel to change a bird-poo-splattered shirt, we headed south again to the Lakehouse Hotel as it was now approaching 4pm. We ordered the high tea special and took a seat overlooking the very brown lake (and the main road, doh). Happy to confirm that the High Tea was excellent: various sandwiches, scones with jam and cream, grapes and strawberries, carrot cake, banana cake, and lemon tarts. And of course unlimited tea! I've had more tea today than in the past year I think.

Had to move inside during our high tea as a downpour moved through, but we rather enjoyed the interior of the hotel as it was done up classic mountain chalet style. Very old school furniture and decor with big fireplaces, and for all we know the items may well be genuine antiques! It certainly didn't feel fake.

After a good long relax and unwind, we headed back to the hotel around 6pm resolved to have a very small dinner. After a snooze and a Skype with the Cleavers (where we discovered Schnitzel was in big trouble for digging up and eating some expensive tulip bulbs!!), I headed out and grabbed us some takeaway naan for dinner. I guess that counts as a light meal?

Overall a much better day today than last night's entrance had promised. We'd also realised that Sunday night probably meant traffic jams of Malaysians on weekends away (or even just day trips), and that during the week things were likely to be a bit quieter. Again the tourists here are mostly Malaysians and Europeans; no Australians or Americans to be found, and the Chinese tour buses just seem to stick to the same handful of places. There's hundreds of strawberry farms to look at, so we can easily avoid them! Perfect.Read more