Malaysia Peninsular... tea, snakes, mopeds & chicken!

After our short sweaty time in Kuala Lumper we made our way up north to be welcomed by the cool air of the Cameron Highlands. It turned out to be a great place to spend a few days. An area full of tea plantations, jungle and rolling green hills. We checked into an old army barrack style accommodation costing us just under £4 a night for a room. The architecture of the town gave it a rather English feel and it was like no place we had visited on our travels.

Many of the Malaysian tea plantations are based in the Cameron Highlands and we arranged a tour for the following day. Taking a drive to the tea fields we saw where the tea is grown, how it is picked and learnt about the different parts of the leaves that are used in different quality teas. The young leaves closest to the top of the plant are considered to be the best and therefore are the ones sold as the premium quality teas. It was interesting to learn that if the plants were not constantly maintained they would grow into full sized trees. Also all teas eg green, black etc all come from the same plant and it is the process the leaves go through which determine the type of tea.

Many of the original tea pickers were south Indians who were bought over to undertake the work that the Malays were not prepared to do. The Indians soon realised, however, that they could earn a far better income selling cuisine from their home country. This explained the many South Indian restaurants that lined the town along with the general Indian influence of the area.. It clearly took off very well (and I am very thankful the South Indians decided to look further afield as the tandoori chicken was immense... chicken cooked in a modern day tandoor oven = amazing!). Today the tea leaves are picked by mainly Nepalese and Indonesian workers.

Later in the day we stopped off at an area of forest known as Mossy Forest (for a pretty obvious reason). Our guide taught us about the plants around us and their medicinal purposes. Also present were some crazy flesh eating plants. I feel I can now give good old Bear Gyrylls a run for his money!

Moving on we made our way to Gunung Brinchang, the highest point in the area. When we arrived we were surprised to see that a statue of me had been erected! Climbing the tower we were rewarded with superb views that were surrounding us. We were able to see as far as the town of Ipoh in one direction, and in the other direction we could see as far as Taman Negara National Park.

Making our way back we stopped off at B'oh tea estate to see the processes of turning the picked leaves into drinking tea leaves – a process of withering, rolling, fermenting, drying and sorting the leaves. We also sampled a fine cupper overlooking the very impressive Sungei Palas plantation. The Sungei tea plantation is one of the smallest in Malaysia producing 600,000 kg a year. As Nic is now a huge fan of both tea AND coffee, she picked the Teacino - an interesting combo but apparently pretty damn good!

Our final stop of the day brought us to a butterfly farm (which also housed a number of reptiles and other animals). Nic enjoyed the number of colourful butterflies. I on the other hand think they are merely moths with

a splash of colour. They can't fool me! The health of the animals was questionable, there were quite a few dead butterflies on the floor that appear to have been squished and the other animals looked a bit too docile for my liking.

There are a number of hiking trails around the highlands and Nic and I decided to go and explore later that afternoon. We were treated yet again to beautiful scenery and at times it felt like we

were in our own little world. On our journey we passed a lush waterfall. The water did look very inviting but we had distance to cover so we just stopped for a quick photo. Nic was still recovering from Kinabalu...!!

On our final day I decided to tackle one of the other hiking trails. Nic's leg was playing up a little so she chilled at the hostel. I saw more of the lush surroundings. In some parts it got a little tricky and the trail became hard to follow. The end result = I got lost! I stumbled upon 3 kids who didn't speak 1 word of English but understood I was a little lost, and they walked me back to the trail. The kids were very 'jungle wise', snapping big branches downwards (but leaving them attached) every few hundred metres. They appeared to be leaving obvious markers – I assume so they could backtrack on their trail if thy got lost and/or so other people stumbling upon the branches would know that people have recently been along the route.

After enjoying a few days of cooling off we next made our way over to the Perhentian islands. We had heard promising things about the Pernhentians and we were looking forward to the trip. The island did indeed turn out to be beautiful, a little different to what we were expecting but beautiful nonetheless. Both Nic and I can't put our finger on it exactly but we both agree it didn't have 'the vibe'. We didn't get very lucky with the weather (except on the morning we were leaving!). Much of the day was overcast

and we did get a few big downpours. This was no big deal though as I came down with a 24hr bug so spent a bit of time in our bungalow recuperating. In the evenings we enjoyed candle lit meals inches from the sea for less than £2 each!. The evenings turned out to be our favourite time on the island.

Leaving the beach behind, we began our journey to Penang, the oldest British settlement in Malaysia. We were big fans of Penang by the end of our stay there. The majority of our time was spent in the bright, lively bustling area of Little India. Sari shops, temples, restaurants and Indian sweet sellers lined the streets, along with Bollywood movie shops attempting to out do each other by seeing who could play the loudest bhangra. It was here that I ate the best Tandoori chicken of my life! We were beginning to think that we should have included India in our itinerary... that will also have to wait for next time!

We checked out Fort Cornwallis and learnt some interesting information on how it came to be. Captain Light arrived on the island in 1786 and developed a free trade port hoping to lure trade from Britain's Dutch rivals. Surrounding the fort we passed a number of Penang's grand Colonial buildings.

The shopping malls of Penang also allowed us to stock up on our supplies. I also thought I should get another hair cut and see if anyone could save the carnage that had been done to it in Costa Rica, Hollywood AND Kuching (!) Nic convinced me to go to a proper salon. I agreed. The lady was able to sort it out a little although I think I am going to have to shave it all off and start again. Savage.

Our last place left to visit in Malaysia was the island of Pulau Langkawi. We decided that the best was to properly see the main island was to hire a moped. Although Nic was a little hesitant at first, she agreed it was the only thing that made sense. She turned out to be a quality little rider. With exception to the starting and stopping (when things got a bit wobbly) I felt safe on the back ;-) Nic really enjoyed the freedom of our ped and wasn't long before we were zooming along with confidence.

We did have to watch out for the locals who drive super crazy. We stopped off at various points along the way, including rice fields, coastline and harbours, taking photos as we went. Langkawi has an impressive cable car system so we decided to go and explore. The cash points were temporarily not working which was a little frustrating but no big thing as we decided to return th next morning. We took a detour to see one of the close by waterfalls where we were greeted by a number of cheeky Macaques.

The weather the following day was overcast but we decided to ride the cable car anyhow as we thought the experience would be cool even if the views from the top were going to be obscured. The incline of the cable car ascent was quite steep, 45 degrees in places! Our ride took us to the top of Gunung Machinchang, 708m above sea level. On the way out we saw this guy with a BIG sack trying to sell a photo with the beasty 14ft python and Nic stepped up with no fear while I kept my distance!

We decided that we would invest some time going back to Penang to save time overall with visa runs (as we were enetering Thailand via bus or boat we would only have been given a 15 day visa). We had tried to sort the visa beofe leaving for Langkawi but as it was the weekend we would have had to wait for the following week.

Plus we thought we would be able to arrange it in Langkawi. We were wrong. Back to Penang. It was no big thing, we enjoyed Penang. It was an easy place to be for a few more days and it meant I would be able to eat more tandoori chicken and stock up on more Indian sweets from Little India. It was definitely worth it. The visa cost us £8 each and gave us up to 2 months travel in Thailand... value! Visas sorted... onto Koh Lanta, our fist stop of our island hopping tour in Thailand!

Malaysia Peninsular... tea, snakes, mopeds & chicken!

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia