Patchwork of Tea
Trip Start
Jan 14, 2004
1
2
4
Trip End
Ongoing
Cameron Highlands,
Malaysia
Sunday, January 18, 2004
Patchwork Tea Plantations
I could've easily stayed here for a week if I weren't in such a rush to reach Melaka for Chinese New Years celebrations. The cool weather and killer hiking made this place the perfect playground for me. A small town with one main street running through it, surrounded by hilly primary forest and generations old tea plantations are really all there is to see... but that's how I like it. My guesthouse offered super cheap guided hikes with some Malay college grads that were knowledgeable in both the complicated trail system as well as the ecology of the area. Intense hikes in world class forests. Moss covered trees and car size palm leaves indicative of tropical equatorial forests were out of this world. The tea plantation I visited was by far the highlight of my visit though. Grandiose. Thousands of carefully planted tea bushes planted along the hillsides created a vibrant green pillow like patchwork that made you feel as if you were in a dream. It was so incredibly beautiful and awe-inspiring that it didn't look real. I don't know, the dehydration from my sweat drenching 8 hour hike to the tea plantation might have made me a little delusional at the time, though I'm sure if you were to take a bus it'd be just as stunning. I also woke up at 5:30am to watch an American football playoff game. Somehow after watching padless rugby players smash each other up, American football just doesn't seem as tough anymore.
