Cameron Highlands - Pictures



Ali in the Butterfly Garden




Leaf Insect!!!




Ali loves bunnies haha




Tons of flowers in the butterfly garden



Ali about to get a walking stick put on her arm - Ali: "OMG I don't think I can do this!!"

hahahaha - best picture of all time!

She's still not sure how she feels about this...



much happier




Very different reaction to the bug haha!

The guy that works there brought out a little lizard for us to hold

Ali and the lizard



Scary!!!

This plant smells like "Christmas"

Hi Friends!

The butterflies finally wake up!

View of the highlands from the main highway

Honeybee Farm!



The bees are hard at work



Ali thought I was too close haha



Crazy!

Big bee statues all over the place!

Powder Puff!

yum!

Strawberry farm!



 

A man working there picked us a strawberry each so we could sample them

Very fresh

Close up of the strawberries

Homemade icecream and strawberry from the farm :)

Taken at the start of the 3km walk to the tea plantation





The rolling hills of the Cameron Highlands - you can see part of the tea plantation at the bottom

All the tea plants - part of the "BOH Tea Plantation"

A service road weaving through the plantation

up on a hill you can see workers - they are picking leaves and putting them in sacks



2/3 of the walk is done, we are almost there!




Ali and I on the road though the plantation, you can see the tea plants and rolling hills behind us



Ali between tea plants

A closer shot of the plantation



After  3km walk we finally made it!




Ali and I went on a free tour of the factory. These signs explain the tea-making process. Each sign picture is followed by a picture of the workers completing that step.



 Stage 2 - part of the rolling process

The Fermentation Process

A part of the Rolling Process

The houses where the factory workers live - right in the middle of the plantation

Plantation in the backg

On the balcony of the Boh Tea Restaurant

The Boh Tea restaurant - overhanging the tea plantation

After the 6km of walking, we decided to get a treat at another strawberry farm :)



Walking up the path leading to our guesthouse



Our guesthouse - the garden in front

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!

Cameron Highlands - Day 1

Monday August 23, 2010

Somehow Ali and I ended up packing this day full of activities. We visited a butterfly farm, a honey bee farm, a strawberry plantation, and visited the local “Kea Farm” market. We started our adventures early (around 8:30pm and finished by 2:30pm) and then we were able to relax in the guesthouse for the rest of the day.

The very first morning in the Cameron Highlands Ali and I woke up early to catch the first local bus (8:30am, $1.50 each). We caught the earliest bus because we were informed that it was most reliable for leaving on time. The bus ride was about 20 minutes. It left from Tanah Rata (the small town where our guesthouse was), went through several other small towns, and then arrived at the butterfly farm.

Kea Butterfly Farm

Because we arrived so early to the farm, we were luckily the only people there! Unfortunately for the first 45 minutes or so the butterflies were still sleeping (it was not sunny and warm enough for them yet), so we spent the first chunk of time looking at flowers, insects, birds and reptiles. We took a ton of pictures. As we were walking through the greenhouses taking pictures an employee came up to us and started to show us things excitedly. He couldn’t speak English so he would instead use gestures, wave us over to look at something, or bring something crazy over to us to see our reaction. He showed us “leaf insects”, he brought us into a cage with giant walking sticks (he took one and put it on Ali’s arm and she freaked out a bit!), and then he showed us a lizard (he had it down his shirt and asked us to reach into his shirt (yeah, kinda sketchy) not knowing what it was, and grab it. I had to do it because Ali was too scared of what he might be hiding. After a grabbed out the little lizard he wanted us to put it down our shirt too – we refused haha!) Soon enough the butterflies started to wake up and they began to fly around the gardens. There were so many different sizes and colours of butterflies. Ali loved it. We spent another hour or so looking at the butterflies and then decided to leave for the honey bee farm around 10:00am.

Honey Bee Farm

We left the butterfly farm, walked in the wrong direction for about 30 minutes (we got some nice pictures of the countryside at least!), realised we were walking the wrong way, and then turned around and finally found the bee farm. We spent about 30 minutes here walking around the farm, taking pictures, sampling pure honey, and seeing all the bees hard at work. There were tons of boxes for the bees to make hives in, and often the bees had even extended their hives beyond the box – you could see bits of honeycomb  covered in bees dangling from the edges of the wood.

EQ Strawberry Farm

We really wanted to go to Raju’s Strawberry Farm because we had read the farm made handmade strawberry ice cream and jam, but when we arrived at the gates we discovered that Raju’s was closed that day! Super disappointed we decided to settle for second best option– EQ Strawberry Farm across the highway. The farm itself was a little disappointing – we were only allowed in this caged corridor which meant we could not get good pictures of the strawberries though the fence, and to top it off the owners were kinda rude. Even though we were disappointed we could not bear to leave without some sort of strawberry treat. Thus, we both ordered a strawberry and vanilla ice cream sundae. They were really good, so we left feeling not completely disappointed by the experience. We also had a handmade strawberry popsicle when we left which helped make the walk along the hot Malaysian highway much more bearable.

Kea Farms Local Market

Quite close to the strawberry farm was the Kea Farms market. We decided to look around a bit while hoping a bus would stop near there. We bought a case of strawberries and a case of cherry tomatoes from a local vendor. Both were very fresh and very tasty.

No bus was within sight when we left and we had no idea where any bus stops where, so we decided to start walking towards town in hopes a bus would pass us along the way. It was a 13km walk so we didn’t want to have to walk the whole way back in the 35-degree weather. We lucked out, and soon after we started to walk, a city bus pulled up behind us and let us on. We got back to Tanah Rata around 2:30pm. We then decided to get some envelopes, folders, and food from a local store, grab lunch, and then head back to Father’s Guest House. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the guesthouse washing clothes, using the internet, writing in our journals, and watching movies in the common room. It was a relaxing end to the day J

A Little Bit About the Cameron Highlands….

The Cameron Highlands is an area that is at a higher elevation than the rest of Malaysia. As a result, the temperature is a little cooler (a nice break from the heat and humidity of the rainforest!) and they are able to grow things well. Because of this, the Cameron Highlands is known for their strawberry and tea plantations. The area is quite different than the rest of Malaysia. It looks like a little alpine village, attracts a different tourist crowd (more middle-aged people and richer people – not only backpackers), and it even has a fancy golf course. We ended up being happy about the unexpected change of plans, as the Cameron Highlands was a good place to spend a couple relaxing days.

Crossing overland to Thailand…or so we thought: An unexpected trip to the Cameron Highlands

Sunday August 22, 2010

After we finished our time in Taman Negara, we took a 7:30am local bus back to Jerantut. Our plan was to now proceed to Thailand. Thus, we bought a train ticket from Jerantut to Kota Bharu and planned to cross overland on the eastern side of the Malaysian peninsula. We got to the train station around 9:00am, but our train did not leave until 12:30pm, so Ali and I decided to find a grocery store to get some food for the long trip ahead of us (it was supposed to be a 7 hour train ride from Jerantut to Kota Bharu. We also stopped and got an early lunch at a noodle soup place. We decided to eat at the soup place because when we walked by we noticed it was super popular with the locals. We figured any place that was popular with the locals was probably good. That theory panned out as they made the noodles fresh from scratch and made everything right in front of us. It was one of the best meals in Malaysia.

After lunch we headed back to the train station to wait for the train. While waiting we ran into a couple (Edward and Marula) that had stayed with us at the Durian Resort in Taman Negara. They told us they were planning on going to the Cameron Highlands and we told them we were going to Kota Bharu. We noticed that Edward had a Lonely Planet guide book so we decided to borrow it from him while we waited so that we could figure out how exactly to get across the border. We ended up reading and then we talked to Edward about crossing over to Thailand as well. From the book and from Edward we learned several things:

1)       Crossing the border at Kota Bharu is a logistical nightmare. It is not easily accessible and you have to walk very far (i.e. 4-5 km with backpacks that weigh 50 pounds) or take several expensive taxis to get where you need to go.

2)       Crossing the border at Kota Bharu is actually kinda sketchy. Lonely Planet informed us that crossing at Kota Bharu was not safe because of some political tension between Malaysia and Thailand at that location. Plus, our train was supposed to arrive at night which increased the sketchiness…

3)       Arrival to Thailand OVERLAND results in a 15-day tourist visa whereas crossing by AIR results in a 30-day tourist visa (Ali and I were planning on spending 21-28 days in Thailand, so crossing overland at Kota Bharu would give us a visa that expired too quickly. Tourists who get a 15-day visa usually end up in a sticky situation because their visa expires before they are done travelling in Thailand. They often end up having to cross overland to another country and then having to re-enter Thailand and get another 15-day visa. A huge, often expensive headache.)

After learning these three things, we started to seriously doubt our choice of crossing the border overland at Kota Bharu. It was logistically crazy, unsafe, and we would get visa that expired too quickly. So, Ali and I decided to change our plans last minute. We decided to go to the Cameron Highlands as well and once there book a flight out of Malaysia to Thailand. We then told the train conductor our change of plans, and got off the train at Gua Musang (the place to get off if going to the Cameron Highlands) instead of Kota Bahru.

We arrived in Gua Musang around 3:30pm. Ali and I got off the train and met up with Edward and Marula, in hopes of splitting the cost of a bus/taxi with them. It turns out Gua Musang is not a great place to be. No tourists go there, and there are no buses that depart from there. A taxi to the Cameron Highlands was expensive – about 50 RM a person. We really did not want to have to pay that much when transportation in Malaysia is usually super cheap. We spent about 2 hours in Gua Musang trying to come up with a better option for getting to the Cameron Highlands. We called a bunch of companies and tried to haggle with a bunch of different drivers, but they were all working together to over-charge us. In the end we ended up paying $200 for a van to take us there which was disappointing but we had no other option.

The van ride was alright. It poured rain for a while, but then it cleared up and we were able to see the rolling hills around us as well as the plantations and greenhouses. We arrived at our guesthouse – Father’s Guesthouse – around 7:00pm that night. We booked a dorm bed (our cheapest yet at $3/night), and then went for dinner. We found a quaint little restaurant on the second floor of a building. We ordered some noodles and rice with cashews and split the dishes. It was a pretty good meal and it was pretty inexpensive. Once finished eating we headed back to the guesthouse, used the wifi for a bit (to book a flight to Thailand – we found a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket for $60CAD so we booked it), and then we went to sleep.

Applying Wan’s advice to the greater journey: A reflection on the value of “taking it slow” while travelling

Packing as much as possible into every possible second is part of the North American psyche. It’s all about getting the most “bang for your buck” out of each day. Faster, more, quantity, quantity! In trying to do too much everything becomes a blur, and the surface of any one experience is only just skimmed. With this type of mentality, it would seem that you are getting more out of an experience, but in fact you are really losing out.

On the recent trip Caitlin and I took to Taman Negara National Park in Malaysia, a local restaurant owner named Wan gave us some advice about hiking in the forest. He explained to us that we need not rush. Instead, to truly appreciate the forest we should use all of our senses and really take our time. When Caitlin and I later discussed our time in the forest we felt that it was such a good experience because we took our time, which allowed us to be present and focused on all that was around us. Wan’s advice of “taking it slow” came at a good time, when we were still fresh backpackers, figuring out how to make our travels work for us. His advice is applicable to the rest of our journey, and will be of great value to our backpacking experience. 

Doing things slowly and with deliberation is important. It is about doing everything as well as possible instead of as quickly as possible. The North American mentality often values quantity over quality when it comes to experiences. Doing as many things as possible and seeing everything you can in any given time frame is often the archetype of a North American vacation. With a list of sights to see, the vacationer sets off to discover the “greatest hits” of a place, rather than experiencing the location in its truth. In doing so, the traveller cannot truly get under the skin of a place. There is so much value in travelling with quality in mind, instead of quantity.

Picking a handful of essential experiences to take our time with (and saving the rest for another trip) is a mentality that has kept Caitlin and I happy backpackers. When we try to do too much or to see too many places, it feels like we are always on a bus/boat/train, or just settling into a spot when we are uprooted and whisked off to the next location. Travelling like this leaves me in a dizzying haze, not to mention in a grumpy and uptight mood. Travel is about experience NOT sightseeing.

Some of our best experiences have happened when we go off the beaten path, do something spontaneous and unplanned, take the advice of a random traveller (“You have to go there, it is AMAZING!”), or just simply reading a book and sipping a coffee. Exploring surrounding villages instead of big cities, or eating where locals eat instead of going to the local “western food” restaurant are always travel gems. Experiencing a place for what it truly is, the local people for who they truly are, and allowing time for reflection of all the things that you are doing are the perfect ingredients to create a trip full of life-long memories and authentic experiences.