6/06/10 – 6/08/10 (kuala lumpur)

Kuala Lumpur – Cameron Highlands

We arrived at the bus depot ready for the madness again. But the madness happened while we were waiting for the bus. To be fair I will give two accounts of the story…mine and Jon’s. Our bus was a bit late so I decided to go use the restroom since it was going to be a long bus ride and I have a tendency to need to go at inconvenient times. There was a really long line since there were only two stalls. After ten minutes I was still waiting in line but by this time I figured I would continue to wait. I figured if I left the line Jon would have wondered why I waited all that time for nothing. I kept checking my phone to see what time it was and figured since the bus was already late it probably wouldn’t leave immediately after arriving. Plus Jon would’ve told them I was in the restroom and would return momentarily. Once I was done I ran to the waiting area to a very angry Jon who spewed many bad words that I won’t repeat. We grabbed our luggage and ran to our bus.

Now Jon’s version…I told him I needed to use the restroom for about ten minutes before actually getting up and heading towards the restroom. Right after I left the bus driver came to get everyone to board the bus but he couldn’t leave since I hadn’t come back. There were rows of buses so he didn’t know where the bus was. He didn’t want to leave the waiting area since I wouldn’t have known where to board the bus. Of course, it always seems longer than it really was when you are the one waiting. He waited there for what seemed like ages and was afraid that the bus would leave without us. I don’t know what we would’ve done if we missed our bus. While he was waiting he was thinking how upset he would’ve been if he saw me strolling toward him rather than running. If I had gone when I initially thought about going none of this would have happened.

The best part of it all was that we waited for another forty-five minutes on the bus before we hit the road. It’s something we laugh about now and I like to give Jon a hard time by imitating him in the waiting area.

Cameron Highlands reminded me of a Bavarian ski town with chalets lining up the main street. The place we were staying, Father’s Guesthouse, came to pick us up and we realized that there was also another couple staying at the same place. They lived in the Cayman Islands and had been traveling for a few months through southeast Asia. When we arrived at the guesthouse we were shown to our room. There were only shared shower rooms available, which we were fine with, but the room was extremely small and had no outlet plugs. And they were in these tin roof buildings, which they called historical Nissen huts though it looked more like run down garden houses converted into three rooms. We were both a bit shocked when we were shown to our room and immediately asked them if they had a room in the main building where it was a lot nicer and also had a fan. The room attracted a lot of bug and the walls were so thin that we both took an Ambien to help us sleep. We also realized that there was only cold water left in the shower, probably because all the hot water had been used up. It was the most bare bones place we had stayed.  The only consolation was that it only cost forty rupiahs per night. To give the place some credit it offered a range of very affordable accommodations. It also had a small restaurant that served pretty good and inexpensive food. It was an ideal backpacker destination.

Luckily the next day we were moved into a room in the main building, which was more spacious and had a plug! We had to pay twice as much but certainly worth it. We decided to stay two more nights there. On our first full day in Cameron Highlands we walked into town to have breakfast at an Indian restaurant. We had Indian style crepes, which were really good. We were still a bit worn out from our long bus ride and interesting sleeping arrangement so we decided to just chill around the guesthouse for the day. We booked a full day jungle trekking for the next day.

We woke up the following day a little more refreshed and ready for an exciting day. We were supposed to take a Land Rover but we had more people than expected so we had to take a van. With the van we had to start trekking into the jungle at the bottom and had very muddy paths. We saw some Land Rovers driving through and one of them almost got stuck in the mud. There were no roads, it was all mud. Our guide told us to be extremely careful since the path was slippery and you also didn’t know if the mud was mushy or solid enough to step on. Needless to say there were times when my foot was covered in mud up to my ankle. It was a pretty hardcore workout. The whole point of the jungle trekking was to see the world’s largest flower called rafflesia. It is red and about the size of a car tire. There were only two of them in the entire jungle and took about two hours to reach one of them. The flower was pretty amazing though we were told that the center of the flower smelled like shit. We all had our photo taken with the flower and then it was another two-hour trek back to the van. It was a really good exercise and something Jon and I hadn’t done in a long time. Our shoes and pants were caked in mud and I have never been dirtier!

Next we visited a village where we got a chance to try our blow dart skills. Our darts weren’t poisonous like the ones they use to kill animals but I was afraid that if I inhaled I would choke on the dart. Luckily it didn’t happen since there is a piece of fine cotton between the mouthpiece and the dart to keep that from happening. One of the guys we were with almost hit a bulls-eye and I was just happy that my dart even landed on the board.

We were then on our way to visit a tea plantation called BOH. Cameron Highlands is well known for its tea (and strawberries) and there are huge rolling tea valleys all around. We learned about the tea making process but what I found more fascinating was the people working at the plant. There was a section of the tea process where only women were allowed to work but I can’t remember the reason. Also, a lot of the tea pickers are Burmese and Bengalines since they are willing to work for lower wages. Who would’ve thought that even the Malays outsource their labor.

After the tea plantation we visited a mossy forest, which was a refreshing change since it was much cooler there. The ground was made up of compost so it was soft and squishy. There were a lot of different types of plants and flowers and our guide showed us something that smelled like cinnamon. It was really cool to see the moss growing all around and wrapping itself around tree limbs.

We ended our tour at the strawberry plantation and enjoyed a delicious strawberry sundae as the sun was about to set. The plantation reminded me of when I was a little girl and went strawberry picking with my family in Taiwan. The difference was that the strawberries in Cameron Highlands were grown in bags on an elevated platform so bugs didn’t eat them.

After a super long day we were ready to relax our legs and enjoyed at nice meal at the guesthouse.