Cuppa tea
Trip Start
Sep 10, 2008
1
19
71
Trip End
Sep 03, 2009
Where I stayed
Cameron Highlands,
Pahang,
Malaysia
Thursday, November 27, 2008
After Adam was finally reunited with an ATM after not having one in the jungle, we decided to book a guided tour of the area, as there was one that only cost about 2 quid. The bus arrived and picked us up. Nothing was actually mentioned as to how we pay the people, and we weren`t even sure as to whether it was the right bus. They didn`t seem to have a booking for us. We became less sure, and more and more Malaysians got on, we were the only foreigners on the tour and there obviously didn`t seem to be enough seats
The crowds in the tea factory
. As such, we were a bit worried as to whether any of it would be in English. However, the tour started off well, with us heading to an impressive tea plantation. Whilst driving round very narrow roads on a huge bus, we pondered as the roads didn`t look wide enough for the vehicle and the corners looked far too tight. We watched as cars passing in the opposite direction were forced to hover dangerously close to the edge, amazed that they managed to get past at all. As the tour was so cheap, and so far conducted exclusivly in Malay, we weren`t sure as we to whether we were going to be allowed to get off the bus at all, as we drove for a long time through the plantations. Sure enough however, just as it looked like we were leaving, we stopped off at the factory. The smell of tea was overwhelming and enough to put you off the drink for a week. A huge crowd of us were led through the small factory by a thankfully, English speaking guide. We all scrambled for positions to see the working factory behind the glass as we were rushed through.
After just enough time for us to take a few photos of the plantations themselves, which you could just wonder through as you pleased, and of course time for the obligitory cup of tea (can you possibly get more British?!), we all ran back to the bus before it headed off for our next stop
Crazy scorpian guy
. Getting off at the butterfly park, which seemed to contain more lizards, snakes and beetles than butterflies we were suprised at how good the place was. There was a crazy man showing a group of tourists various bugs and we tagged along. No sooner had he thrust one piece of log upon which was a huge rhino beetle into our hands, he was already rushing to the next tank to liberate its contents as we wondered what we were now supposed to do with the beetle in our posesion. For his finale, he climbed into a big tank containing a lot of poisoness scorpions and started to pick them up, balancing as many as he could on his arm. As the creatures kept crawling/falling off, he kept putting them on. Clutching one particularly juicy beast by the tail he then terrorised the crowds "you hold, you hold, no problem". Nick very bravely stepped up, and the man plonked the scorpion on his chest. Nick then had to stand their for a good few minutes, (I don`t think I`ve ever seen him stand so still, or look so worried!) until the man stopped trying to deposit further scorpions on unsuspecting sight-seers and came back to remove it. When we finally made it, still alive, into the butterfly garden (there seems to be a lot of these in Malaysia), we found a huge pile of dead butterflies, amongst the once still flying around, which wasn`t exactly great!The tour went on, and on, and on. Making stops at a strawberry plantation, not interesting in itself, but serving amazing strawberry milkshake, we took in various markets as we decided we didn`t particularly want to pay to walk round a rose plantation
Drinking tea at the tea plantation
. Whilst wondering through one of the markets we sampled fried mushrooms, fried bananas, and some other fruit that was offered to us, that we think was guava, but we`re not quite sure. After a while, we came across a honey factory. We were ushered in by another character. We quickly realised that he was the smily wide-headed man in all the pictures of people wearing a full beard (and chest!) of bees. After a while, we eventually came to realise he was actually speaking in English to him, and managed to catch that he wanted to show us round for free. We obliged, even though we could barely understand a word he was saying due to his thick accent. The man enthusiastically told us all about the honey production process (or at least I think that was what he was talking about). He then proceded to open up a few different hives. At this point we became slightly concerned, shouldn`t we be wearing protective clothing? Shouldn`t the bees be gassed first? At this point we politley declined the offer to hold a honeycomb full of bees.Eventually escaping the bee factory and after another stop at another bee factory we got ready to head back to the hostel. Unfortunately, whilst we were ready, the bus quite clearly was not, and cut out as soon as we tried to move forwards. It then of course refused to start at all. The driver rolled us backwards down the hill into the face of oncoming traffic, before he found a safe place we could roll to
Flutterby
. It was a long wait for a second bus to come and pick us up. When the second one finally came, we discovered that it was a luxery bus, which was great until you realise that the extra leg room means less seats and so we all crowed on as best we could. On the way back we started chatting with some Malays on their honeymoon, two sisters had just had arranged marriges. We had guessed that they were newly-weds, due to the very public signs of affection which is very unusual, and usually frowned upon. One of the sisters in particular didn`t seem too impressed. We said goodbye to the couples as the coach steadily dropped people off. It seemed to take an extra long stop at the bus station, and it wasn`t until 5 minutes later that someone actually got back on the bus to tell us that we had to get off and walk the rest of the way. Luckily it wasn`t far from where we were staying, and we headed back for some food and got ready to move on the next day. 
