Okay...to those of you who have emailed about freezing...we are cold now too.
We have made it to the Cameron Highlands and it is truly cold. A fleece is definitely a necessity.
We left KL on a supposedly non-stop four hour trip, but one hour into the trip, the driver decided he needed some breakfast. We spent about 40 minutes in some hole so he could have some nasi lemak!
From Tapah, it is only about 50 kms to Tanah Rata, but it takes over 2 hours because it is the most bending and winding road we have ever seen. You are climbing to over 1500 m on a very narrow road, not wide enough for two way traffic, so everyone is always crossing the centre line. Scary enough...and all of this, while our driver is attempting to shell peanuts and have a drink, as he honks to warn on coming traffic on tight corners. Anyone with motion sickness or any fear of heights simply could not make this trip. It was most definitely hair-rising.
There was way too much barfing for us...one Indian guy behind us was puking so bad (and the smell was so bad) that the driver started yelling and made the guy come up to the front and heave his barf bag out...And did we mention that all of the guard rails seem to be in the wrong places?
Whew! We arrived in Tanah Rata after much praying, and checked out several guest houses. The touts were not at all aggressive or pushy. One gave us a lift to one place, we decided against it, so he drove us elsewhere and connected us to the van for the next place. Nice.
The town itself it small..only one real main street. Paul is happy that Tiger beer is at least a bit less expensive than it has been so far. We relaxed, drank and ate some before we started "trekking." As a matter of fact, we had our first glass of wine since leaving home. Last night we had a little Australian shiraz and watched Mona Lisa Smile with a couple of Brits who had purchased the DVD in KL.
Today we toured the Boh tea plantation and it was outstanding. It is easy to see why this is known as the giant green carpet of Malaysia. Unfortunately the photos will not do the "greenness" justice, since it is cloudy and cold today. We have been eating a great deal of Indian food..it seems that most people here are Tamils...so there are lots of mosques and calling for prayers. We have also visited other farms such as apiaries, strawberry, cactus and orchid enterprises. It is all very interesting. The tea is still harvested somewhat manually with most of the workers being migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. They cut the tea and put it into huge straw baskets on their backs...all for RM 40 per day (about $12 CAD).
Oh yes...and today was laundry day. Perhaps we'll throw up a photo of Paul trying to get all of the grease and curry out of his pants!
So here we are updating and checking out trails for tomorrow's treks. We surely will not make it to Brinchang, the highest point, but we will walk in the rainforest for a few hours.
As of now our plans are to get to Ipoh and then Lumut (for those of you looking at a globe), which will be our jump off point for Pulau Pangkor and a few days on the beach.
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