The Cameron Highlands and Penang Island…our last days in Malaysia
From Taman Negara we headed to the Cameron Highlands, a complete change in landscape and climate. The Cameron Highlands is famous for its tea plantations and agrigulture. It’s also where the Malaysians go for a breath of fresh air. (The temperature hangs around 20C, and the air is balmy.) As we drove into the main village, we passed tea plantations, hydroponic strawberry farms, cabbage farms and lots of fruit, vegetable and honey stands. It was very green (like everywhere in Malaysia) and when we stepped out of the bus, there was a cool breeze blowing. We found a nice little guesthouse, the Twin Pines Chalet, and Fab and I spent the first evening relaxing. Chicken burgers for dinner and a card game. The next morning we booked a tour to see the area’s main sites, the Boh tea plantation and factory, the Rose Garden (a large nursery containing 100’s of species of roses and other exotic plants,) a honeybee farm, a butterfly and insect farm, a strawberry farm and a Buddhist temple. As you can imagine it was a big day. We felt a little like cattle as we were herded from site to site, but it was an easy choice for seeing all of the attractions. Our favorite was the tea plantation (a bit more modern than those in Darjeeling, they we were using machines for harvesting the leaves) and the butterfly and insect farm. We got to see many of the bugs that we could only hear in the jungle and Fab got a bit of scare when the caretaker put a scorpion on his shirt.
The Cameron Highlands also have some fantastic hiking trails, so we spent our second day hiking up to a nearby peak to enjoy some of the views. The path was great going up, but when we reached the top we found a rockslide caused by newly installed powerlines had wiped out the next part of our trail. Fabien and I played Tarzan as we descended a very steep and slippery path. I was sure that we were completely lost but eventually, navigating with our compass, we ended up on someone’s farm. We followed a steep, rocky four-wheel drive road to the end of the farm, where we found a tea plantation, then we took a path through the tea plantation, to the factory and up to the scenic cafe. I don’t think they get many visitors at this cafe who arrive by foot. We rewarded our 3 hour hike with strawberry tea and shortbread cookies, before finding out that we still had another hour walking uphill along a congested and polluted road. We arrived in town just as the rain was starting, phew. That afternoon, we caught another bus to our last Malaysian destination, Georgetown, Penang.
I am writing from Penang. We have spent a couple of days here, two very hot and sticky days. Georgetown is Malaysia’s oldest colonial settlement. It has a port feel; it’s very diverse, the usual Malays, Chinese and Indian, but also Japanese and European. Yesterday, we visited several interesting sites, including the old fort and Cheong Fat Tze Mansion. Today we took a bus out to Penang Hill, where we visited a huge Buddhist temple (the biggest in Malaysia, and a mix of Burmese, Thai and Chinese styles) before taking the funicular 700m (2100ft) up to the top of the hill. From the top, we had a great (but cloudy) view of Georgetown. We decided to walk to the bottom to the botanical gardens to see the Thaipusam festival. I mentioned this festival when I wrote about Kuala Lumpur, it is a huge Hindu festival, where devotees spear their cheeks with long steel rods and pierce their chests and backs with metal hooks in penance. The devotees do not bleed and they do not feel pain, they say it is their faith that prevents pain. The festival actually overtook the whole city of Georgetown, as the devotees and other followers made a procession through the streets to the large temple near the botanical gardens. We were overwhelmed by the masses of people and the festive atmosphere, music blaring, people dancing and the impending lightning storm. We tried to find a bus back to town, when the rain started. We gave up, stopped for a beer to get out of the rain and then made the 45 minute walk back in the pouring rain. We rewarded ourselves with a splurge- sushi for dinner. Just another day in Asia.
We are leaving for Thailand at 4:45AM tomorrow, it will be a big day of travel but in 24 hours, we’ll be on a beach in paradise.
Tags: BIG TRIP 2005-2006, In English 2005-2006, Malaysia
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