Tea-cinos at 5000 Feet

Rachel wearing a butterfly at the Butterfly Museum stop
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After a quiet -- but late -- night of mangosteens (if you want to know more about these mangosteens I keep referring to, click on: http://info-mangosteen.biz/freshfruitmangosteen/index.php) and girly talk at our guesthouse, we had some difficulty waking up for our bus tour of the "places to see and been seen" in the Cameron Highlands.  After packing our bags and bidding a fond farewell to our lovely room, we hoped in the van, along with most of the fun people of our tour.  We were all a little hesitant about the idea of another mini-bus tour -- given the complete rip-off adventure in Georgetown -- but Jane assured us that many people had taken this one and it was good.

Pretty rose from Rose Farm... it smelled SO sweet!
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First stop was The Rose Garden.  First, some background.  Cameron Highlands has amazingly fertile soil and a perfect growing climate all-year long.  At about 25C, and sunny most of the year, Cameron Highlands is basically a farming paradise -- not to mention our paradise... 25C... it's absolutely FREEZING here!!!  Anyway, with the help of some GMOs and fertilizers, the Rose Garden is the home to some many thousand varieties of roses and other flowers.  I have never smelled flowers so sweet and seen roses so HUGE!  It was a pretty incredible sight and I took way to many pictures of flowers.   No one can ever say that I don't take time to smell the roses... :)

Only in Asia can your day start in scenic highlands and end by dancing on a bar in the middle of a cosmopolitan city!

My view with my tea-chino at BOH tea factory
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Sniffing those flowers took up quite a bit of energy, so we were ready from some breakfast when we reached the strawberry plantation.  Growing in hydroponics, the strawberry fields stretched for miles, and we had the ability to wind our way through the aisles.  While it was cool to see strawberry hydroponics, I was much more enamoured with the cafe, where we feasted on strawberry shakes (basically ground-up strawberries) and belgian waffles and creme.  Food in the Highlands is definitely good.  It was especially good, because all of the strawberries were fresh from the plantation... yum!

Dancing on the bar at Raggae Bar, KL.
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Next stop was definitely my favourite: the BOH tea plantation.  The largest tea plantation in Asia, and also the highest at 5000 feet, the BOH tea plantation was a stunning natural wonder of luscious hills growing acres upon acres of tea plants/ trees.  The road to the factory wound through the plantation, giving us amble opportunity to gape at humongous sight.  We were given a free tour of the factory, and shown how the tea is plucked from the tea plants, dried, fermented, sorted and packaged.  I was interested to learn that tea is given much of the same care as grapes for wine, including the whole concept of terroir and such.  Apparently, the Highlands grows amazing tea... which we were able to sample at the cafe, overlooking the expansive tea fields.  The view from our table was breathtaking and my "Tea-Chino" -- kinda like a Cappuccino, but with tea -- was very yummy.  I'm now kicking myself for not buying the packets in the gift shop... curse the small back-pack!

The crew (clockwise from top left): Sara, Wez, Rosie and Jane (our fearless leader)
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Regretfully, our driver scooped us up far too soon and we were off to the Butterfly Farm.  I don't know why it is called a farm, but basically, it is a large greenhouse, where tens of varieties of butterflies are kept.  It was very cool to walk through the greenhouse, because the butterflies would swoop right around you as you walked.  A new fact for me is that butterflies are nocturnal, and since we were visiting during the daytime, many of them were sleeping -- on the ground!  Watch your step, don't fall on a butterfly!  On the other side of the greenhouse was an insectarium, in which there were some pretty amazing insects, as well as the traditional scare ones, like a scorpion.  Well worth the visit all in all.

Me and Sara, looking pretty!
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Our tour of the Cameron Highlands sights was now complete and as soon as we arrived back at the guesthouse, we were off again to the bus station, where we boarded buses for Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.  The drive down the mountains only took an hour (compared with 4 hours up!), so the bus ride wasn't too long and we arrived in KL in the early afternoon.  Claiming our packs from the bus, we walked single file through KL's main roads and straight into a MARKET!  Now, Asian markets are difficult enough to get through carrying only a small dayback or purse, but imagine a train of 13 of us winding through it, carrying all of our huge backpacks, daypacks and purses.  What a sight I'm sure we were!

This photo is called "Wez is a bad boy"
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We arrived at the hotel (stationed right outside the market, I might add) and I was so impressed with the accommodation.  Finally... a really nice place!  That's what I'm talking about!  We made plans with the group for a late dinner and Liz and I quickly hit the streets, taking in our neighbourhood and checking out the market.  We had a great location, right in the heart of Chinatown and on the main road (hence the market).  I love Asian markets... I really do.  Even if I don't need to buy anything, I just like walking through the hub-bub of stalls and shouting, being told I need to buy everything from a purse, to DVDs, to watches to wallets.  Of course, being called beautiful by the eager vendors doesn't hurt either.  :)

One interesting stall was a fortune-teller and Liz and I couldn't resist.  For 10 Ringitt (about $3CDN), we each had our palms read.  I won't provide full details here, but apparently, this is a very lucky year for both Liz and I -- wahoo!  Oh, and Liz is supposedly only going to have sons... pretty funny considering she comes from a family of all girls!  :)

Dinner was a traditional Chinese restaurant and most of us had dressed up and cleaned up because we had made plans to hit the town after dinner.  I had almost forgotten what I looked like with make-up on!  haha...

After dinner, we headed to Jane's favourite backpacker bar: Reggae Bar, in Chinatown.  It was a pretty small place and reminded me a bit of the Loft in terms of size and layout, but the crowd was pretty interesting.  You could tell that most everyone was foreign to Malaysia, but you had no idea where else in the world they were actually from!  Our group stuck together for most of the night, having fun dancing -- mostly on top of the bar ala Coyote Ugly -- and drinking vodka limes.  Only in Asia can your day start in scenic highlands and end by dancing on a bar in the middle of a cosmopolitan city!