CAMERON HIGHLANDS: Malaysia

I took one last trip before the airlines wouldn't let me and this belly fly anymore. Cameron Highlands, Malaysia with two fun friends. We flew into KL and then drove 3 1/2 hours up a windy windy road to the Cameron Highlands. Where the air is oh so fresh and a little crisp, it smells like cut grass, and its cool enough to wear a sweater. yay! 

Waterfalls along the way

and the yummiest fried bananas you ever did try. 

There are 3 small towns there: Brinchang, Tanah Rata, and Ringlet. They either do agriculture or tourism, or a funny mixture of both.  

Road side stands everywhere - selling bananas, "fresh" honey, and all sorts of things. We kept asking, "what is that?" and then someone would tell us the Malaysian word for that fruit or vegetable we'd never seen before and now we still don't know what it is. 

Our hotel. 

But the highlight of the place was the Tea Plantations. Huge, never ending, acres and acres of chamomile plants.  

(thanks to Malia for the picture) 

(another from Malia)

Our fantastic guide gave us a tour of the plantations, established in the 1920s. There is so much I never knew about tea. Like how anciently the first plants were found in Burma, and then taken to China, then to India, and from there to Great Britain. And how chamomile tea, black tea, and green tea all come from the same plant - it is just processed and oxidized differently. We also got a good lesson on what makes quality tea and what doesn't. 

most of the harvesting is done by hand

most of the workers come from Burma or India or Nepal and stay on the plantation for 5 years sending money back home. 

There were also fresh farms to see. Bee farms, vegetable farms, butterfly farms, rose gardens. 

And strawberries! This place was crazy about its strawberries. 

Strawberry earmuffs anyone? 

We also stopped by the "native village" and learned about the Orang Asli people, the native people of Malaysia. Our guide explained to us that the Orang Asli people contributed invaluably to the scientific field with their knowledge of the rainforest (medicinal plnats, survivial, care of the rainforest) but as the people become more and more modern they are losing their knowledge and their culture.

This village was mostly for tourists. Ali, with his big smile, showed us how to shoot a blowdart and did a traditional dance for us.