Cameron Highlands - Strawberries and Tea Galore!

Sampoh Temple
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Took a bus from Penang to the cool hillside town of Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands.  The ride took us around 5 hours and we saw the most incredible scenery.  The highlands sits at around 3,000 m above sea level and the climate is very similar to the UK in summer.  The main commerce here is strawberries.  Strawberries Strawberries everywhere and we mean everywhere.  You can pick them, then eat them in all manner of things, and then you can wear them on t-shirts and have them dangling from your keys on key-rings.....  The other big earner here is tea.  Cameron Highlands is home to some huge tea plantations.

Lee enjoying the Strawberries!
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We booked a 1/2 day tour through our hotel.  First port of call was the Sampoh Temple located just outside Tanah Rata.  The temple was built in 1975 and is currently home to 12 monks.  On the approach to the temple we saw a small procession of 5 people headed by a monk who were prostrating.  This is the worship act when they lie the length of their body in prayer and then get up and do the same the next step.  We had been told that they would be doing that the length of the road to the temple which was over 1km in length.  We had seen a lot of worshippers doing this in Tibet but this was the first time we had witnessed this in other countries.

Boh Tea Plantation
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Next stop was a strawberry farm.  We had a quick look at the strawberry plants - now it was just like being back home and the best bit was sampling the goods!  We both enjoyed a very delicious strawberry sundae and it was only 10am.

Next was a visit to a very nice rose garden located high on the edge of the valley.  The best part of this place was the amazing views it afforded over the countryside below.  The roses and other flowers were lovely, but to be honest, flowers are normally our thing.  The odd thing about this place is that it was full of disney statues which needed a bit of TLC.  Snow White looked a bit like a badly made up drag queen.

Butterfly Park
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Next stop was a visit to the Boh Tea Plantation.  The place was absolutely huge.  The Company cleared the land which had previously been dense jungle way back in 1929 and with imported tea plants from Sri Lanka, established the plantation.  A scottish family still own this (Archibald Russell) and apparently they call by on regular intervals by helicopter to make sure everyone is still working.  The plantation employs 200 indonisian single men who come here on 3-month contracts and are paid 20cent per kilo of leaves they pick.  Each plant is picked on a 3-week rotation - now thats hard work!

Beautiful tasty fruits on offer
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Next, we seen a butterfly farm which was actually very interesting.  Not only was this home to what must have been thousands of butterflys, but also all manner of other things including various reptiles including snakes, lizards, huge beatles, millipeeds, spiders, scorpions and frogs!  Very interesting indeed.

Final stop of our packed morning was a visit to a traditional highlands market.  The foods on sale were just delicious.  We purchased strawberries (obviously!), mange tout, cherry tomatoes, sugarsnap peas, carrots and very sweet oranges - fab!

Devonshire Tea at Ye Old Smokehouse
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On our third day in the highlands, we decided to do some hiking.  The various trails around the village are very clearly marked on maps which you can pick up for a couple of ringgits.  However, they aren't so easy to follow on signs on the road.  After a brief confusing start when we ended up in someones back garden, we found the trail.  We hiked through a really quiet forest for around 1 1/2 hours and saw some lovely trees and a nice river but no wildlife.  Never mind, we consoled ourselves with a 'Devonshire Cream Tea' at Ye Olde Smokehouse which could have been pulled straight out of the Lake District.  We were the only ones there and it was VERY expensive but was a nice experience.