Off to Cooler Weather

Cool tiled wall at the Chinese temple
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Thankfully getting out of KL on an early bus, my next destination was to the Cameron Highlands, which promised cooler weather ahead.  The bus ride was about 4 1/2 hours with the last 2 being up extremely winding roads - good thing I hadn't had my lunch yet because I don't think it would have sat too well with all those switchbacks.

Once I had arrived at Tanah Rata (which is the main tourist town in the Cameron Highlands), there was a van waiting from my guesthouse, which was a nice change of pace.  I had pre-booked at the Cameronian Inn and once there, they tried to give me a song and dance about not having a room with a shared bath.  After complaining, they suddenly found one - hmmm, go figure.  Their explanation was that other guests had extended their stay and so nothing was available.  Something I have to remember for the future that just because you reserve a room (which you only ever to seem to give your name when you call) doesn't mean it will actually be there when you get there!

View from the top of the rose garden.
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The town of Tanah Rata is really only one street long with a stoplight that always seemed to be blinking yellow, packed on either side with restaurants, shops and a few lodging options, although most preferable lodging is off of the main road.  There is a derelict construction site that must be quite the fixture because even Lonely Planet references it as a landmark!

I decided originally decided to take a full day tour, but once again, I seemed to be the only person willing to do it, so I ended up taking the half day "Countryside Tour".  Packed into a minivan, me and 8 French speaking travelers (I think all but one were from France, the one guy was from Algeria) we were whisked from tourist site to tourist site, 7 in all.  As you can imagine, we didn't really stay at any place too long.

Tea bushes at the Boh tea plantation
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Our first stop was a Chinese Temple that had a beautiful wall that was covered in hundreds of tiles.  The next stop was to a rose garden that was more than just roses and was quite beautiful with layers and layers of mini gardens and a beautiful view from the top.  Off again, this time to a strawberry farm.  This was quite underwhelming.  We got to taste a bit of jam on a breadstick (woo hoo!) and then got to look at some strawberry plants.  The only interesting thing was that the strawberry plants don't have to be planted in the ground (yup, that's it!).  Next, off to butterfly garden that also had some insects, which seemed just a little too tame and used to being taken out of their cages to be touched and gawked at.  The butterfly garden that I visited with Deb and Michele in Costa Rica, was so much better.  Stop number five, was to the Boh tea plantation, which produces the majority of tea in Malaysia.  Not quite done yet, next onto a bee farm.  Really nothing to see here, they didn't even have an exhibit of the bee hive, but did have huge bee statues all over the place.  Finally, we were able to walk around a market.  All in all, not too exciting of a tour, but did mean getting out and about and was able to see the surrounding area.

View from the Boh tea plantation
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Besides that, I just have to note about one of the internet cafes that I stopped at that was the haven for the local kids all playing their computer games - reminded me of the stories of kids playing things like Second Life to rack up points!

Oh and yes, the weather was much cooler, even requiring to put on a long sleeved shirt!

Next stop, back to the humid weather.