Cameron Highlands

With the transvestite backpacker at our backs we headed off to the bus
station to find transport from KL to the Cameron highlands. The bus
trip north to a town called Tannah Rata lasted about 4 hours, during
which we both managed to get through some quality reading (yes yes, I
have actually started reading novels). I was so engrossed in my book
that I probably only saw about 30 minutes of countryside. Anyone who's
read Manda Scott's 'Boudica' will understand. The drive took us into
the mountains to the highest point in Malaysia and the drop in
temperature came as welcome relief to the high 30's we've been
experiencing since leaving north Australia. It was so much cooler
infact, that I regretted sending all our warm clothes home when we
left Oz.

We stayed at a very quaint liitle hillside spot called the Father's
Inn which had beautiful 360 degree views of the town and surrounding
countryside. Spent 5 days or so on our lazy bums at the inn trying to
recoupe some funds and only on the last day did we take a tour of the
highlands. The minibus tour lasted about 5 hours and included a little
history about the area from our tour guide with stops at a local rose
garden, a strawberry farm, a honey farm and a butterfly farm. The
highlight however was the stop at the BOH tea plantation. BOH tea is
malaysia's biggest export product run by 4th generation of a Scottish
family since the early 19th century. It's a vast plantation
that spans over 6000acres of hilly country side in which the
harvesting is done manually by labourers that get about 6pounds per day for
filling their basket with 200kg of fresh tea leaves. Sounds like
exploitation but there's a bigger picture. The labourers come from all
over SE Asia to be part of the BOH family. They get free quarters,
free meals for the family, free schooling for their children and
exist as a community with 4 different religions. BOH have built a
villiage with seperate places of worship for Catholics, Hindus,
Muslims and Buddhists and it's really interesting that they are able to coexist in
complete harmony - sounds like they could teach the rest of the world
a valuable lesson? We finished the day with a strong brew of local tea
at the really cool Boh Tea Centre.

Next stop is Pulua Penang for a few days before we cross the border
into Thailand.