Cool Cameron Highlands

Golden Shower aka Dancing Lady aka ???
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Spent our first morning quietly--went down to the town(quick walk) to drop off some laundry, looked into things we could do. Decided on a tour for the afternoon, and one the following morning. At 2 we piled into a land rover(7 of us plus driver--4 of us on benches facing one another in the back). Off we went down the road. (Curvy, really hilly road--we're in the highlands!!) Kumar(our guide) telling us all kinds of stuff about everything. Really knowledgeable guy. The road got worse and worse. We stopped off at a flower plantation which specialized in a really fancy flower. Not sure what the new name is: Kumar said it really quickly with a bit of an accent!! --the old one was "Golden Shower" which they stopped using when the English speaking tourists started coming in force. Really pretty flower--cost 200 ringgit(over $60) for a bunch of them, apparently.

Kids at the Orang Asli village
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On to the Orang Asli village. The Orang Asli are the indigenous people of Malaysia, and many still live (mostly) traditionally. It was interesting to us to see them and their village after seeing the tribes in Vietnam... Big difference. They do live traditionally, but there are many modern ammenities that are available to them. The village we saw has solar panels (provided by the government) to run their lights/tvs(!). The children all speak some English, and run up and ask your name. The people still live off the land, farming, fishing and hunting (with blow darts). We got to look around the village, and go into the chiefs house, have special tea they make and tapioca(a common food of theirs--a really starchy root). Then we got to try the blow guns!! That was fun, despite the pouring rain! Apparently the government wants the villages to switch to Muslim religion, and has offered financial incentives if they do. We saw some modern villages(governmen subsidized). Then, back to the jeep onto the roughest road I've ever seen!! The 4 of us in the back were bouncing all over the place(it was really fun). I fared better than most, 'cause my legs reached all the way across to help me brace myself!! Saw where some amazing washouts happened--I'm really glad we haven't seen much rain, but it sure would be something to see the rain that would cause such huge washouts... We stopped for a bit, and walked along the road(path, really). Kumar is a spider enthusiast, and enjoyed finding the biggest ones he could find (and there were some big ones!) and trying to catch them so we could see them up close. We saw a really neat stick insect too, and a bunch of other things. It was a really nice walk. Back into the jeep, and a first introduction to a tea plantation. We drove through part of it(3000 acres in total!!) and stopped for pics, but didn't linger--we were going to see lots of teathe next day.

Houses and solar panel
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Next day dawned, off we went, stopped again on a tea plantation for pics. Up to one of the highest points in the highlands, and to the top of a lookout tower up there for some really amazing views. Down the road a bit, and we went on a walk through a mossy forest (our guide had an accent, and it kept sounding like he was saying "mozzy" forest, mozzy being what people from the UK call mosquitos. I was quite relieved to find he meant moss, and not insects!!) The walk was really interesting and we saw some great pitcher plants. Back down to the tea plantation (Boh Tea) which is owned by a Scottish family who has 4000 acres of tea trees in the Highlands alone. Learned a lot about how tea is made(it's a lot more work than I thought!), then to the factory where we SAW all of the steps, and to the lookout for lunch, and tea of course. Sean and I got dropped off on the way back to the hostel... at the golfcourse!! Yup, we played golf in Malaysia! Not too expensive, considering. It was a weekday, so it wasn't very busy, which was a good thing! Only the 3rd time I've golfed in my life, so I didn't mind not having an audience!! I lost a LOT fewer balls than Sean, but that's only 'cause i couldn't hit them very far!! haha, there was a water hazard on every hole except 2, but that's okay, 'cause some holes had 2 or 3 water hazards to make up for it. We gave up after 14 holes(well, I gave up halfway through 12), 'cause we had to have the clubs back by 6pm, and were getting tired.(and I would sooner have thrown the ball than try to hit it a that point!). We were waiting for our cab back to the hostel, and some friendly older guys from Kuala Lumpur started talking to us. They told me I looked like a very good golfer. Must have been referring to my outfit(collared blouse and black capris)--they couldn't have seen me on the course!! haha. A good day.

Blow gun practice!
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The next day we spend on a minivan/bus getting to Taman Negara, the oldest jungle in the world...