Cameron Highlands - Malaysia

24 - 27th Feb

Anybody know what the Cameron Highlands are famous for - YES - TEA - lots of it, fields of it in fact! The temperature and climate in the highlands is ideal for growing tea and, as the Malaysians are mad about their tea (on average they drink 25 cups a day) they just about grow enough for themselves - no exporting here!

As you can see this place is a cool picturesque retreat, ideal for the knackered backpacker to take a well earned rest! I did however manage to persuade Elvis to don the walking sandals and take a jungle stroll with me through the beautiful undeveloped forest. (As usual we 'got lost' and she wasn't best pleased when instead of a gentle stroll back to the guest house we were forced to scale a 'near vertical' face of the jungle after a night of heavy rainfall!) This is obviously a smiling 'before' shot!

The landscape is just covered in lush green tea plantations, they date back to the English Colonial days apparently.

The tea pickers wade between the rows snipping the green tips by hand and throwing them into a basket on their back. There is also a machine that can do this although it is not as 'choosy'!

There's an abundance of fruit and veg grown her too, cabbages, strawberries, chillies to name but a few! Homemade strawberry ice cream is a bit of a speciality here, yes of course we tried it...it would be rude not to!

We also did a guided forest trip finished off with a visit to a tea plantation and of course.... the obligatory cup of tea....leaves not a tea bag please! It looks like the land is wearing a giant pair of chords!

The guide explained that the new leaves from the 'green tips' provide the best tea. There's also a huge amount of 'hand sorting' goes on and then all the left over bits and rubbish etc. well....that's what goes into your tea bags!!





This is one of the few 'flesh eating' plants in the world, it temps insects into the bucket with sweet smelling nectar, when the little creepies get close to the nectar they realise, too late, that they're not on solid footing! The waxy inside makes them slip into the bucket where a cocktail of digestive juices is waiting for them! It's called a pitcher plant.

Elvis and I enjoying a spot of breakfast, what a view eh!

More beautiful tea plantations.

Now then, who wants to win a cup of the cameron highland gold tips select tea - you can't buy it in the shops cos they don't make enough to export it. Just tell us the names of other flesh eating plants and the finest brew known to man could be steaming in your pot!

One of the oldest rain forests in the world next: Taman Negara - that's the next blog!

Cup of tea goes to Sister Ginny, who not only correctly translated  Medeka to 'Independence' she also corrected me on the date - you can have a scone with your tea (jam and clotted cream of course) for that. We want to wish Sissy Poll and Shaz a great time in Malaysia, they'll be in Kuala Lumpur very soon. Hope you enjoy it and if you visit the towers - watch out for the brain washing video!!! Just do what I did and repeat "Jack and Jill went up the hill, repeatedly  - I think it worked, however Petronas does make some pretty outstanding petroleum based products!