Cameron Highlands - Day 2

Caitlin and I woke early this morning and caught the same city bus we had taken the day before. Today, we got off at the stop for the “Boh Tea Plantation”. If we had toured the plantation with an organized tour we would have been driven right to the tea factory, but instead being the budget backpackers that we are, we braved the winding, sidewalk-less 3.5km road on foot, despite the fact that it was full of blind turns. This decision ended up being a blessing in disguise because the walk to the plantation was beautiful, and we got to take our time and appreciate it, instead of blowing by in a mini-bus.

It was a nice day, and the walk was an easy and enjoyable one. We were able to take a lot of good pictures. As far as we could see there were rolling hills, many of which were carved deeply with tea terraces. In the distance we could see straw hat clad figures bent throughout the tea bushes, collecting leaves. Each bend of the road was more breath taking than the last, but unfortunately each turn brought about some danger. Many blind-bends sent cars speeding towards us out of nowhere, horn blaring, startling us as we scuttled toward the small shoulder of the road.

Finally, we reached the heart of the plantation: the tourist center and the tea factory. We wandered towards the factory and jumped onto a free tour. I love tea, and this tour gave me a further appreciation for the science that goes into producing a quality tea. I also learned a lot about the processes that go into the production of some of my favourite types of tea, as well as some little known tea facts. One thing I learned was that green tea and black tea are actually grown from the same bush, and are in fact made of the exact same leaves.  What accounts for the variation in flavour between these two types of tea is the processing of the leaves. Black tea leaves are oxidized for a long time (creating their dark colour), where as green tea leaves are not. Also, a high temperature stove dries black tea leaves, and green tea leaves are dried in the sun. With less processing going into the production of the green tea leaves, they can retain a lot of their nutrients and phytochemicals, which is why green tea has a much higher level of anti-oxidants than black tea.

In the visitor’s center, Caitlin and I were hoping to purchase some Boh Tea. In the tea store, we were confronted with so many choices in tea flavours, that we could not pick only one package to take away with us. That was when we saw that we could buy individual tea bags, which would allow us to purchase a variety of flavours. We got 6 each in total, a few of which included  “Passionfruit”, “Earl Grey Tangerine” and “Lime and Ginger”. We also bought package of “Jasmine Green Tea” with 25 bags in it.

We walked back the 3.5km to the main road, stopping for a strawberry and chocolate Belgium waffle on the way back to our guesthouse. Back at Father’s Guesthouse we sampled some of our tea (which was very good), and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Finished with the Cameron Highlands, the following morning we caught a bus to Kuala Lumpur. After navigating our way through their confusing public transport system (“Are you a singer?” Caitlin was asked by a lady on the subway), we arrived at our guesthouse and realized that we would not be able to make it in time for a flight the following morning, because public transport did not start early enough to get us across the city in time. Instead of checking in, we decided to kill time by shopping in a large 6-story shopping center, and made our way to the airport later in the evening.

We slept in the airport (and surprisingly this is a popular thing to do). We were kicked out from 2:30am-4:00am so the airport could be cleaned. Our fellow loiterers lounged on the sidewalks, strolled around, and tried to sleep. Caitlin fell asleep on her pack, while I stayed awake, paranoid that we would be robbed if I also shut my eyes.

Finally, we caught our morning flight to Phuket, leaving Malaysia behind entering into a new adventure…THAILAND!