A 3 hour drive taking 9 hours?!

This morning we made a quick stop off to get some local breakfast before leaving Taiping and heading to The Cameron Highlands. Chris suggested we take the scenic route there so we didn't have to stay on the main highway the whole way, we all agreed this would be a good plan so off we went...

Nice rockface in Cameron Highlands

However, about 2 or 3 hours into the journey the scenic route soon turned into more like a dirt track with landslides along the way, but we continued on certain that it would get better.

Landslide

It didn't though. We came across a very dodgy piece of road that was full of wet sinking sand/clay and we all got out and planned the best proposed route through.

We then decided to walk over it ourselves to reduce weight in the car and all got filthy whilst Chris drove through.

We didn't get far though and soon got stuck and being a real-wheel drive sank further and further resulting in Chris getting out and Neil then taking over the driving with us all pushing from behind. But there was a wall right beside us and we slipped and managed to wedge the car right up against it. Now we were truly screwed and didn't know what to do as we were risking stractching the hire car more than we have done already.

Whilst trying to come up with a better solution, a member of the indigious tribe from the mountains came down with his son on a motorbike and came to see if he could help. Somewhere on his bike he had a huge machete hidden and then started hacking against the wall so we could push again.

Luckily it worked and we got through, but with plenty of spray-back clay hitting us in the process. We gave the guy some money (equivelent to £10) and he was over-the-moon constantly thanking us and we both went our separate ways.

We then continued on with a tiny bit of help using the guys directions even though he didn't speak a aword of English. About an hour later we came across an even worse part so decided that instead of getting stuck once again we would just turn around and go back and take the highway.

Whilst we were discussing this, 2 4x wheel drives came along and said they would follow us in case we got stuck again and off we went. But with a bit of speed and this time going down hill we made it without any problems and finally went on the right track to Cameron Highlands, working out that we took a turning too soon which was why we got stuck.

When we arrived in Cameron Highlands, we had already booked accomodation so checked in and then went out to get some food and relaxed whilst it poured and poured down with rain.

written by

chrischarly on May 2, 2011 from Tanah Rata, Malaysia

from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia

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