02 Mar
It took nearly all day to get from Langkawi island to the Cameron Highlands. We got a taxi to the ferry, got the 9am ferry, then a few buses, and arrived in Cameron Highlands around 5pm. It’s up on a mountain top so the weather was MUCH cooler which was really nice. Upon getting off the bus a man approached us about a hotel room for 40 MYR, which sounded good, so we got in his van and went with him. It was only a minute up the road, but as soon as we got there, we got out, he quickly dumped our backpacks out of the van and took off. We then asked about the 40 MYR room, well the woman told us all they had were rooms for 55 MYR. We were so angry and then realized that’s why that man sped off. Luckily it was only about a 5 minute walk back into town and we found another room for 40 MYR (about $13).
We went and ate at an Indian restaurant and had clay pot chicken rice (which is actually Malaysian food) and which is one of my favorite things to eat in Malaysia. They cook it in a clay pot of course, and there ends up being a lot of crispy burnt rice which I love. The only part I don’t love is that they don’t use boneless chicken, which I feel is kind of a hazard. So every time I eat something in Malaysia with chopped chicken, I have to chew the chicken verrry slowly and carefully in case there is a bone in there so I don’t crack a tooth or something.
This was $4 and enough for 2 people.
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| Malaysian clay pot chicken rice |
After we ate we talked to a tour operator about jungle trekking the following day. We ended up purchasing a full day tour for 40 MYR each. In the morning we got up early and were picked up for the tour around 815am. It was just us and 5 Swedish people. First we stopped at a tea plantation where we got out and the guide told us about how the tea is grown and cut, and we took some photos.
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| me in a tea plantation |
Next we drove to the highest point in the area where all the radio towers were, and climbed up a wooden observation tower to get a good view. It was soooo freezing cold and windy so we didn’t stay up there long.
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| view from highest point in Cameron Highlands (around 2000 meters) |
Nearby was the “mossy forest” which we walked through for an hour or so, it was really nice. We were still really cold though. Also we weren’t expecting it to have a wooden walkway built through it but that was better I guess than there being none.
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| mossy forest |
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| A pitcher plant! I’d never seen one in the wild before. Really cool. |
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| walkway through the mossy forest |
After we were finished with our walk in the forest we went to the BOH tea plantation cafe and factory where we drank tea with a nice view and then went for a walk through the factory which wasn’t operating at the time so we didn’t get to see much.
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| me at the tea plantation cafe |
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| view from the tea plantation cafe |
Next we went to a butterfly/insect/reptile farm and got some great photos….
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| great closeup of a butterfly |
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| this is one of my favorite photos. and I took it with my phone! I forget what kind of a lizard this is. |
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| tree snakes! there are so many. we saw a few in Taman Negara in the wild. |
After that we went to a strawberry farm where we could have picked strawberries if we wanted but we just had some strawberry cake instead.
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| Hussein in the strawberry orchard |
Lastly our guide dropped us off at a trail head so we could do some jungle trekking back into town. All of us went ahead with that and it ended up being really really difficult. A lot of really hard climbing up and down, I had to keep stopping to rest so we fell behind the Swedish group but caught back up with them later. After a couple of hours we made it back to town.
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| jungle trekking |
We went to eat immediately when we got back, at the same place we ate before. This time though we got a traditional Indian meal on a banana leaf. It was rice and various vegetables, chicken (in the bowls) and curries (in the bowls). Really good. $2 each.
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| our banana leaf meals |
There’s not really much to do in the Cameron Highlands except what we spent the day doing, and it was kind of expensive, so we decided to leave the next morning and head to Taman Negara for more jungle fun.
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