Would you like some tea?
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
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Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Cameron Highlands,
Pahang,
Malaysia
Monday, April 28, 2008
Anyways, we got a lift up to Father's Guesthouse, a comfy complex sprawling on a hilltop. Our beds were in strange, metal bunker-like buildings, but they were good enough.
As is usual with us, we quickly found out that the restaurant wasn't open that night (because it was Sunday) and the tea plantation we wanted to visit wasn't open tomorrow (because it was Monday). We generally plan on visiting something the only day of the week it is closed
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. That's just how we are. So we extended our stay and settled in to wait until Tuesday.It turned out the restaurant wasn't open because of the amazing street food market down the street. Malaysian food markets are wonderful. Vendors whip up huge batches of great, cheap food, speak English, and have clearly labelled signs. Generally street food is a little intimidating but it's easy here. We cobbled together a meal of chicken, corn, some sort of meat-filled pancake, and a strange, sweet taco with sugar and sweet corn. It tasted better than it sounds. Then we went back to Father's to watch an amazing yellow sunset over the hills.
The next morning we took a walk down the highway to visit a tea plantation that was open on Monday. There was a tea shop located right off the road with a wonderful view across the hills covered in tea plants. These plantations are enormous, and quite a beautiful sight. We had masala tea overlooking the plantation, then wandered down among the rows.
On the way back it looked like we were going to get very, very, wet. That is, until a friendly Malaysian driver picked us up and brought us back to town
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. We settled into the couch at Father's to watch the nightly round of movies on the giant screen TV. We also awaited the opening of the kitchen for our afternoon tea and scones with whipped cream and jam. Yes, we take tea and scones in the afternoon now. We were so comfy we ordered dinner from the couch as well.
The next day we checked out early and went down to the bus station to see if the mythical afternoon bus to Kuala Lumpur actually existed. We then took the rattletrap local bus up the highway and got off at the Boh Tea Estate. What we thought was a fairly short walk turned out to be a very long one, but it was okay when we rounded the corner and saw the scenery we would be walking through. This tea plantation was several times larger than the Bharat tea plantation we had seen yesterday, and we had a nice five kilometer walk through the whole thing. It was at this point that Erin mentioned that our new camera, which we had bought three days ago, wasn't working. She changed the batteries and said it still wasn't working. It wouldn't be until lots of curses and warranty questions later that she would try the working pair of batteries. Sometimes.
At the visitors center we read a lot of material about the Boh company and the process of making tea
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. There was also an informational video that turned into a rather long-winded commercial about Boh teas. Then we took a very short tour of the factory to see the tea-making process.Of course, we finished up with Palas Supreme (the highest quality tea money can buy), shortbread, and strawberry tarts in the shop. Palas Supreme was good, like the stuff you get in tea bags.
It was looking like we were definitely going to get wet this time, when right on cue we were picked up by a friendly trucker who brought us a good portion of the way back to town. Malaysians are great.
After a banana leaf lunch at an Indian restaurant we were off towards Kuala Lumpur.
~Travis
