-Arrived around 12pm and checked into the KLS Pines. Booked an afternoon tour and went into the town for some Indian food before we set off.
-Our tour picked us up around 1:45pm and we drove off into the mountains! Driving there was probably one of the scariest things ever. The road was pretty much one-lane and we were turning around very sharp corners. However, because this is Malaysia, there were no mirrors around the corners and the driver just had to honk continuously to warn anyone oncoming. There were a few close calls. Plus the driver kept stalling the car, at one point we were just rolling down a hill with no engine.
First view of Teletubbie land (aka tea fields):
-We finally made it to our first destination: Gunung Brinchang, a mountain at 6, 666 feet. Unfortunately it was pretty hazy (we later learnt this was from all the burning of the jungles in Indonesia to make space for one crop harvesting).
Panoramic 1: Created with panoramic setting on my camera, which I just discovered, and a great website: http://www.dermandar.com/create/
Panoramic 2 from the top of the mountain:
Marco climbing the viewing tower:
-We then headed off for a little jungle trekking, or what Marco and I thought was going to be jungle trekking. We were all ready to go with our bug spray, walking shoes, etc. It turned out to be a 10-minute trek through the "Mossy Forest," which my tour brochure here says is the oldest forest. Hmmm.
Marco in the "Mossy Forest:"
Hiking with the guide:
Unfortunately a little blurry, but some of the vegetation in the forest:
-From there we took another treacherous journey to the tea plantation and factory. The Cameron Highlands is a big producer of BOC tea. Marco and I headed right in to have a cup of tea, but apparently we weren't supposed to do that and our tour guide came running after us- we had to do the factory tour first where they told us about how the tea was made. After that we finally had some tea and pastries. The tea fields were just gorgeous. It felt like we were in Telletubbie land.
A panorama of the fields:
Marco the tea farmer:
Another view of the fields:
-We then went to the Butterfly Farm, Strawberry Farm, and Rose Garden. In the butterfly farm it seemed like half the butterflies were dead and just sitting in the leaves. None of them were moving. They had some creepy snakes though and the ugliest creature I have ever seen. It was literally a hairless rat. Disgusting. The Rose Garden was huge. I love things like that but Marco hates them. And the Strawberry Garden was pretty boring. Marco bought a sour strawberry milkshake.
Dead butterfly?
View from the rose gardens:
A strawberry at the farm:
-We headed back but hit this huge traffic jam. What should have taken 30 minutes took about 90 minutes. There was a big night market in the town before Tanah Rata which was the hold up. Once we got back we ate some more Indian food then headed back to the hostel.
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