Tea and Scones... Yes Please!

I am absolutely blown away by the scenery here.  Okay, now that I got that off my chest, I can regale you with stories from here...

We left Georgetown at 8AM this morning and none too soon I might add.  The only place I was happier to leave was the jungle.

We then lugged our packs (so glad I packed light by the way... I have the smallest pack of anyone here, earning my bag the name of "mini-pack") all the way to the bus station in Butterworth.  I absolutely love the name "Butterworth", especially when the Brits say it as "Bu-e-wor-h" -- they don't pronounce tees.

We finally boarded the bus, which would take us the 5 hours into the Cameron Highlands.  At one point, I was jolted awake by the sound of our bus struggling up the through the hills.  When I opened my eyes, I could barely believe what I was seeing and I went a little camera happy.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves and just remember that these were taken by a VERY amateur photographer (me) from a moving bus.  Just imagine what I could have taken if I was actually outside!  They almost look like the postcards that we found for sale on the street here.

Besides the obvious scenic beauty, I was also impressed with the gorgeous flower trees and the hundreds of greenhouses, situated on the very few flat tracts of land.  The reason for all of these greenhouses became clear the next day, when we learned that the Highlands is a major agricultural centre of Malaysia because of the supreme growing conditions. 

When we finally arrived -- nearly 4 hours later (btw, we later learned that it is only about 100KM from the lowlands to the Highlands, meaning our bus was struggling at a mere 25 KM/H!) -- we found the village to be very sleepy.  A driver was waiting to carry our packs to the guesthouse, but we walked the short distance, winding through the downtown and enjoying the beautiful sunshine and temperate climate.  At about 20C, the Cameron Highlands is quite a bit cooler than the lowlands, and anywhere in SE Asia for that matter.  It was pure heaven.

When we arrived at the guesthouse, we immediately started running around like kids on the first day of camp.  The house has an extremely "homey" feel to it, with a common area on each floor, including DVD player and TV.  Liz and my room had a single and double bed, and all of the windows and doors were open, showing a beautiful view out the scenic highlands.  We even had a balcony... this is the high-rent district!  And certainly there can't be cockroaches at 5000 feet, can there?  Since each room was a little different, we all chirped around the house, admiring each other's digs and basking in our palacial residence... too bad only one night here!

After re-grouping, we headed back to the downtown, but the group split -- half in search of tea and scones, half in search of real food.  After travelling for the entire day (it was nearly 4PM by now), we were starving, so we settled on Indian and enjoyed a leisurely lunch on a patio -- imagine, no A/C needed!  Lunch was superb, but we're finding that food is not nearly as cheap in Malaysia as it was in Thailand -- i.e. I'm spending about 5-10 CDN on a meal, instead of 3-5 CDN.  Oh well!  After lunch, Liz and I purchased 3 KG of mangosteens (so in-love with the mangosteens) for 10 Ringitt -- what a deal!

After some Internet, we headed back to the guesthouse, where plans were being made for a traditional Cameron Highlands meal.  The group was waiting for some of the others who had been on a jungle trek of the Highlands, but they were nearly an hour late in returning.  When they got back, they were all worked up about their terrible day.  It seems the guide's idea of a jungle trek was hiking up the town's main road to a look-out point, scaling cliffs (their story was SO scary... I surely would have died if I had to do what they did) and walking through a tea plantation, which was closed.  Hardly their idea of a jungle walk to see monkeys, snakes and foliage.  We were all reminded of Eric and the mini-bus disaster of the day before and these guys were particularily mad about being scammed twice in 2 days.  Poor them... I took care of Alex by feeding her some mangosteens to make her feel better.  Mangosteens fix anything...

When it came time for dinner, there was no way I could handle another meal, so I opted to stay back at the inn and enjoy a quiet evening.  When the group got back, it was quite late, but a few of the girls and I stayed up, enjoying each other's company, laughing a little too loud and telling jokes.  Exactly like summer camp!