Cameron Highlands
The bus to the cameron highlands takes about 4 hours which compared to places like india and the philippines is a vertible spin just around the corner. There are many corners because as the name suggests the area sits at an ear popping altitude. Like the hill stations in india (dalhousie, ooty) it was set up by the english as a much more like home retreat away from the steamy lower lying lands. The road snakes and it makes it quite difficult to nod off to sleep especially seeing as had had no sleep at all when I arrived into the main town in the highlands I cut a pretty drowsy figure. Before setting off for somewhere to stay I figured I would gather my thoughts at one of the restaurants on the main strip, read the guidebook, get some food then find a bed to spend the rest of the day in.
The main strip is lined on either side with many many restaurants, the town itself is about the same size as ballyjamesduff at home. I picked one as the indian food looked nice, the indians back in the day were brought over by the british as a form of cheap (read slave) labour. They did this around the world, in south africa and the carribean especially there are large indian communities. None bigger than the one that they planted in malaysia. The form a sizeable minority in the country and you get the feeling that despite the passing of time they have not acquired a level social status with the indigenous malays. The indians that did come over all came from the very south, Tamil Nadu a place that I have spent 3 weeks previously in my trip. I figured my knowledge of the area might win me some friends. I didn’t count on the first staff member being an expat of nepal though. He introduced himself and asked me my name and my country before he gave me a menu he says ‘Conas ata tu?’ ‘Ta me go maith’, twas mad. I guess that book doesn’t need writing after all.
I made my way up around the corner to daniels place, more than anything else I was eager to check it out to see why it got such an awful review in the lonely planet guide book. Now I have been critical of the lp before, esp the south east asia one. But here, right here at this house they got it shockingly wrong. They described the place as a ghetto (think back to ghetto in ballyjd??), that the place was sparse and empty. The place was hopping, the beds were clean and the showers had great hot water. It has a free book exchange and the most hilarious collection of movies I have ever seen ‘Titanic 2’ anyone?? It also has an internet room and a bar out the side where they light a campfire every night and you can sit around and chat to whoever arrived off the bus that day. Alot of the chat was about what the hell are the lp on about.
Eddie the guy that runs the place, sporting a ho chi min beard let us know that the lp journalist for malaysia was a bit of a dirty scamp, asking for money for good reviews etc etc which is poor form, you are talking about a persons livelyhood here. It sparked a conversation with an new zealand dude who was there, chris. Who informed us that the lonely planet for south america, brazil specifically was written by a guy who never travelled the country, just spent his allowance on hookers and drugs in rio de janerio and made up all the travel guide stuff and got away with it until people started travelling to towns that didn’t exist etc etc – kinda funny but what a bastard!!!
I had a great time in the cameron highlands, there are tea plantations, forests, jungles, golf courses, butterfly and strawberry farms to walk around and explore. Its quite chilly and it rains most of the day its just like home. The weather meant I was confined to the guesthouse with the others for many hours on end either reading books or coming up with new ways to play jenga – the set I bought in chiang mai is earning me plent of friends 🙂 Not that I need the help of a bunch of tiny wooden bricks – people love my, and I quote ‘Flag waving accent’, its just that they don’t have a notion what I am saying half the time. I stayed for 6 nights, the time flew. I met so many cool people that it will be some bother keeping in contact with them all. I had to leave and to panang I left on a promise from one of the guys in the hostel, a malay with my own name that I would have a place to stay in panang when I got that far. Sounded too good to be true and in many ways it was but turned out to be in itself really worthwhile. I’ll go into that in more detail in my next post.
All the best,
Phil
Tags: Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
Phil Gill
Leave a Reply