We got up this morning and went with our friends Claudia and Dominik to grab some Roti for breakfast. After some packing and with a full belly, we waited until our mini-bus came for us at about 11:30. We we
re only the second group of people to pick up so we ended up driving around Georgetown collecting passengers, finally leaving the city around 12:15ish. After a fairly uneventful 5 hour drive, we finally arrived in Tanah Rata, up in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia. The Cameron Highlands themselves comprise a large area (712 sq km according to Wikipedia) and several towns, but Tanah Rata is where the most hotel/hostel development is. We ended up picking a place called the Father's Guest house, which is slightly removed up on a hill but is a nice spot to stay. After putting on some pants and a jacket (its cold up here! ~1500 m altitude) we walked the one main street of the town and ended up eating a HUGE dinner comprising of a mutton rice put (mmmmm!!) and some tandori chicken. After dinner we headed back up to our hostel and caught the tail end of a movie while playing scrabble (as expected, steph kicked my ass).
re only the second group of people to pick up so we ended up driving around Georgetown collecting passengers, finally leaving the city around 12:15ish. After a fairly uneventful 5 hour drive, we finally arrived in Tanah Rata, up in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia. The Cameron Highlands themselves comprise a large area (712 sq km according to Wikipedia) and several towns, but Tanah Rata is where the most hotel/hostel development is. We ended up picking a place called the Father's Guest house, which is slightly removed up on a hill but is a nice spot to stay. After putting on some pants and a jacket (its cold up here! ~1500 m altitude) we walked the one main street of the town and ended up eating a HUGE dinner comprising of a mutton rice put (mmmmm!!) and some tandori chicken. After dinner we headed back up to our hostel and caught the tail end of a movie while playing scrabble (as expected, steph kicked my ass).Jan 4-Rafflesia!!!! and tea...(Cameron highlands, Malaysia)
Today we signed up for a trek to see the enormous rafflessia flower, the largest flower in the world! Rafflesia is a genus of parasitic flowering plants, which means its "roots
" just go into another plant, and it sucks all of its nutrients from there instead of the soil. It's flower is supposed to smell like rotting flesh, which gives it it's nickname, the 'corpse flower.' We got up, ate some breakfast and then happily hopped into the "horny truck", which has water buffalo horns secured on the front of it (I was very happy about this). After a 45 minute drive, we arrived at the tiny Orang Asli village. Orang Asli is roughly translated as "original", meaning they were some of the original peoples to live in the jungles of Malaysia. Here we got to try out a blow pipe, which was neat. Soon, however, we were off treking to find the star of todays adventure, the rafflessia flower. After a (very) muddy hour of hiking, we had found our prize. It was really cool to be able to see this flower and definitely worth the money we paid. We also smelled it, and, unfortunately, it did not smell like rotting flesh, just a little bit like cheese. After another five minutes hiking, we saw a pretty "meh" waterfall and turned around for another muddy hour of hiking back to the cars. After another 45 minutes in the horny truck, we arrived at the BOH ("Best of Highlands") tea factory and took a tour. It was interesting to see how the tea is processed and whatnot, but the r
eally cool part of this trip was getting to see the surroundings. We were literally surrounded by tea plants and it was an awesome view, to say the least. We also learned that the tea plants were 80-100 years old, and even though they were little bushes, they grow into huge trees if they aren't pruned. After a while at the tea plantation, we headed off to the butterfly farm. It was much more than a butterfly farm and we got to see and hold many different types of bugs. During this time, I think the guide fell in love with how interested and fearless Steph is and used her to hold all the scorpions the rest of us didnt want to hold (there were 4 on her at one time; I guess scorpions have a good grip because they definitely can hold on to her jacket). After some time looking at different bugs, snakes, lizards and butterflies, we left for the strawberry farm. This was ok, but since we can gro
w strawberries ourselves, the highlight of the whole experience was the strawberry milkshake. Or it could have been the fact that our guide told us the plantation imported the dried strawberries it sold from China. Who knows? After all this we found ourselves to be tired and dirty and ready for a shower. After a shower and some scones at our hostel, we watched the end of the movie Wallstreet (not much to do in this town but eat and watch movies... and that totally ok with us). After the movie we were ready for a more substantial meal and headed to the main street for some "meat in red sauce" with fried rice and some koey teow that tasted really similar to pad see ew. Afterward I got to watch the end of Eat Pray Love alone (lucky me!) while Steph wrote her Goldwater update letter (lucky her!). The only reason I write this is because earlier that day we were looking at the movies and Steph commented that she wanted to see that movie but didn't want to force me to watch it. Ha!
" just go into another plant, and it sucks all of its nutrients from there instead of the soil. It's flower is supposed to smell like rotting flesh, which gives it it's nickname, the 'corpse flower.' We got up, ate some breakfast and then happily hopped into the "horny truck", which has water buffalo horns secured on the front of it (I was very happy about this). After a 45 minute drive, we arrived at the tiny Orang Asli village. Orang Asli is roughly translated as "original", meaning they were some of the original peoples to live in the jungles of Malaysia. Here we got to try out a blow pipe, which was neat. Soon, however, we were off treking to find the star of todays adventure, the rafflessia flower. After a (very) muddy hour of hiking, we had found our prize. It was really cool to be able to see this flower and definitely worth the money we paid. We also smelled it, and, unfortunately, it did not smell like rotting flesh, just a little bit like cheese. After another five minutes hiking, we saw a pretty "meh" waterfall and turned around for another muddy hour of hiking back to the cars. After another 45 minutes in the horny truck, we arrived at the BOH ("Best of Highlands") tea factory and took a tour. It was interesting to see how the tea is processed and whatnot, but the r
eally cool part of this trip was getting to see the surroundings. We were literally surrounded by tea plants and it was an awesome view, to say the least. We also learned that the tea plants were 80-100 years old, and even though they were little bushes, they grow into huge trees if they aren't pruned. After a while at the tea plantation, we headed off to the butterfly farm. It was much more than a butterfly farm and we got to see and hold many different types of bugs. During this time, I think the guide fell in love with how interested and fearless Steph is and used her to hold all the scorpions the rest of us didnt want to hold (there were 4 on her at one time; I guess scorpions have a good grip because they definitely can hold on to her jacket). After some time looking at different bugs, snakes, lizards and butterflies, we left for the strawberry farm. This was ok, but since we can gro
w strawberries ourselves, the highlight of the whole experience was the strawberry milkshake. Or it could have been the fact that our guide told us the plantation imported the dried strawberries it sold from China. Who knows? After all this we found ourselves to be tired and dirty and ready for a shower. After a shower and some scones at our hostel, we watched the end of the movie Wallstreet (not much to do in this town but eat and watch movies... and that totally ok with us). After the movie we were ready for a more substantial meal and headed to the main street for some "meat in red sauce" with fried rice and some koey teow that tasted really similar to pad see ew. Afterward I got to watch the end of Eat Pray Love alone (lucky me!) while Steph wrote her Goldwater update letter (lucky her!). The only reason I write this is because earlier that day we were looking at the movies and Steph commented that she wanted to see that movie but didn't want to force me to watch it. Ha!Jan 5- Relax and Internet (Cameron Highlands, Malaysia)
Today was our off day. We slept in till about 10:30 or 11:00 9, had a late breakfast or early lunch at 11:15 of Roti. Afterwords we began a massive internet session to try and decide what to do for the rest of our time in Malaysia (like whether or not to go to Singapore?) and to blog and basically relax while its raining.
wanna see more pictures of our adventures in the Cameron Highlands? click here
wanna see more pictures of our adventures in the Cameron Highlands? click here
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.