SE Asia V - Cameron Highlands

The Cameron Highlands are an oasis of cool air and calm rolling mountain hills in Malaysia. A complete contrast to KL. The scenery is stunning. There are jungle clad hills and tea plantation clad hills all around. There are also lots of Land Rovers. While I was in town I did some hiking and went to visit an Orangi Asli village in the jungle.

The Cameron Highlands have beautiful scenery. The scenery is not matched by the towns. The biggest town, and where most of the accommodation is, is Tanah Rata. Tanah Rata has the architectural quality of Basildon. The people are friendly and there are lots of good places to eat. I stayed at Father's Guesthouse in Tanah Rata. It is an institution on the backpackers circuit. The accommodation is in army style Nissan huts. They are basic (and a bit chilly at night) but at RM10 a night you can't go wrong. The toilet facilities are basic, but they do have hot showers and western toilets. There is a cafe which serves breakfast and dinner. Gerrard runs Father's Guesthouse and he is very helpful. I booked the tours he recommended and was not disappointed.

I did two tours in a day with Cameron Secrets (http://www.cameronsecrets.com/). I was up at 5.30am for the Morning Madness tour. We were taken to Gunung Brinchang the highest peak in Malaysia accessible by road. We were lucky enough to have a superb sunrise. We then did a hike through the mossy forest. Our guide Satya was excellent, he was an excellent source of information and funny with it. After that we went to the BOH tea plantation. The Cameron Highlands is famous for its tea. The tea here supplies the majority of what Malaysia drinks and they drink alot of tea. The tea hills are beautiful to look at.The British brought Indians to the Cameron highlands to create the tea plantations and to maintain them. It is only in recent years that wages have dropped and they jobs have gone to Indonesians on two year work contracts.

We spent the day driving round in Land Rover Defenders. The Cameron Highlands are packed to the brim with Land Rovers. I have never seen so many in one place before, and I have been to Land Rover club meetings. It seems to be one of the few parts of the world where the Toyota Landcruiser doesn't rein supreme. It is a legacy of the British involvement and the use of the Land Rover during the Communist insurgency on the peninsula. When the British left they sold the Land Rovers to the locals. They are used for absolutely everything. While you drive around the winding bends of the Cameron Highlands you see locals piled into the back of them, others with boxes of vegetables stacked high and the suspension giving under the strain.

In the afternoon we visted an Orangi Asli village. The Orangi Asli are the native people of Malaysia. Their way of life, like most indigenous peoples, is slowly dying out. The Malaysiuan government is 'persuading' them to leave the jungles and move into the towns. The tour that Cameron Secrets offers is special because you are taken to a village in the jungle, an hour and a half from Tanah Rata. The particular village only allows Cameron Secrets to visit because the chief has befriended the two guides. The village is therefore not inundated with tourists and we were treated as guests. Kumar the guide was full of information and we had a much greater appreciation of the Orangi Alsi by the time we arrived. The village is just what you would expect, bamboo homes on stilts, lots of kids, chickens and dogs running around. Initially I felt somewhat awkward in the village. Whilst there was only me, Z and the guide it still felt like we were intruding. I like to merge into the background when I travel, to observe rather than be observed. It is achievable in the Western world but once you are taller and look different to everyone else it becomes a bit tricky to not literally stand out from the crowd. When visiting a native village you are guaranteed to stand out. The villagers noticeably warmed to our presence and interacted more and more with us over the time we were there. The children ran around us. A group of teenagers spoke to me in halting English. We were taught how to use a blowdart. it was a bamboo tube a few metres long, you are given a dart, you put it in the tube with some cotton wool (natural version), focus on the target (a flip-flop) and blow. I was pretty good, though the chief didn't seem particularly impressed. He invited us inside his hut where we shown musical instruments and tools. We were given a nose flute to play. I pushed it up my nose and blew threw it, the correct technique is to play it just in front of your nose and then blow. We were given an excellent cup of herbal tea, some jack fruit seeds and tapioca. The jack fruit seeds have the texture of bark, taste like BBQ crisps and apparently if you eat ten you will die. After the meal we had a go at a string puzzle. It was a piece of string looped through a bamboo puzzle. I had no idea how to do it and the chief demonstrated how you solved it. When we left the chiefs hut the kids were skipping outside. Kumar thought it would be a good idea if we took part. I haven't skipped since the early 1990s, which was shown in my efforts.

The Cameron Highlands have a number of trails marked through the hills for you to do under your own steam. Me, Z, Margeritta and Ella, a group of Melbourne girls, attempted Trail 8. It was an extremely gruel climb up tree routes through the jungle to the summit of the hill. It was followed by an equally taxing hike down the other side. The Cameron Highlands may not be humid but I was still sweating like it was going out of fashion.