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| A block of the Boh Tea plantation |
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| An adorable leaf bug checks Christina's hair for dandruff |
Between 1500-2200 meters above sea level, the Cameron Highlands lured us in with promises of pleasant days, crisp nights, and a bounty of tea. As a symbolic gesture I threw on a sweater and left it on, laundry be damned. I drank in the nighttime chill and then I drank more tea. What anxiety can't a cool breeze blow away?
We chose our accommodation, Gerard's Place, on a whim, and we couldn't have had better luck. With a half dozen rooms, shared kitchen, warm lounge, unlimited local tea, and an extremely generous and helpful family running the place, we felt more grounded than we had in months. Our respite then was not just from heat - we stopped feeling like travelers. Maybe I was more homesick than I knew.
Well above lowland Malaysia, where you'll break a sweat growing your finger nails, we re-discovered the joys of hiking. A network of jungle walks link Tanah Rata town with neighboring Sri Brinchang, passing over Gunung (mountain) Irau, Brinchang, Perdah, and Jasar. The trails were well-formed and only challenging enough to inform us of how much we'd fallen off since New Zealand. We never seemed to finish the walks where we expected to, but it was easy enough to follow the few roads through the hilly highlands back to town.
The Cameron Highlands are famous not only for tea, but for strawberries, orchids, and the exotic mammals, birds, and insects that still there reside. There are over 605 species of wild orchids in the highlands, and you frankly get accustomed to seeing healthy and fancifully designed examples growing out of puddles, on the side of the road, under a log, anywhere you take the time look. With the help of a ranger/ naturalist, we explored the Gunung Brinchang mossy forest, discovering many other hidden and bizarre jungle treasures along the way.
We later visited a strawberry farm where we befriended a young Malaysian family from Penang (are Malays the friendliest people we've met in Asia, or are they simply more eager to engage us because their own English is stronger?). A tea plantation and factory, butterfly sanctuary, and cactus farm kept us smiling, but it was much less about what we did than about how we felt. I felt glad to be there.
We chose our accommodation, Gerard's Place, on a whim, and we couldn't have had better luck. With a half dozen rooms, shared kitchen, warm lounge, unlimited local tea, and an extremely generous and helpful family running the place, we felt more grounded than we had in months. Our respite then was not just from heat - we stopped feeling like travelers. Maybe I was more homesick than I knew.
Well above lowland Malaysia, where you'll break a sweat growing your finger nails, we re-discovered the joys of hiking. A network of jungle walks link Tanah Rata town with neighboring Sri Brinchang, passing over Gunung (mountain) Irau, Brinchang, Perdah, and Jasar. The trails were well-formed and only challenging enough to inform us of how much we'd fallen off since New Zealand. We never seemed to finish the walks where we expected to, but it was easy enough to follow the few roads through the hilly highlands back to town.
The Cameron Highlands are famous not only for tea, but for strawberries, orchids, and the exotic mammals, birds, and insects that still there reside. There are over 605 species of wild orchids in the highlands, and you frankly get accustomed to seeing healthy and fancifully designed examples growing out of puddles, on the side of the road, under a log, anywhere you take the time look. With the help of a ranger/ naturalist, we explored the Gunung Brinchang mossy forest, discovering many other hidden and bizarre jungle treasures along the way.
We later visited a strawberry farm where we befriended a young Malaysian family from Penang (are Malays the friendliest people we've met in Asia, or are they simply more eager to engage us because their own English is stronger?). A tea plantation and factory, butterfly sanctuary, and cactus farm kept us smiling, but it was much less about what we did than about how we felt. I felt glad to be there.
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