Cameron Highlands - New Year's Eve

In Thailand we met three Dutch cycle tourers who we cycling the opposite way to us. We stopped by the side of the road and had a good chat and swapped stories. They told us that they had cycled up through the middle of Malaysia through the Cameron Highlands. They told us had they known what it was going to be like, they would not have done it as the two guys were hospitalised due to exhaustion, and knee and neck injuries. We had considered cycling it, but I think this made up our minds for us. Isn’t what we are doing already a challenge enough? With this in mind and also the fact that our end date for this trip was coming up soon and we wanted to see and experience as much as we could, we decided to hire a car and drive up into the Cameron Highlands, with the bikes and all our gear chucked in the back. We had also read that the attractions worth doing were quite spread out, so having our own transport was a bonus because it meant we weren’t tied to the random bus service we had heard about too. The drive up there took 4 hours, 2 of which were ascending up the mountains. Our ears were popping as we went – up, up, up for 60km and down, down, down went the temperature. By the time we got to our hotel, we were both exhausted from concentrating on the hairpin bends and the ever mental driving and over taking from the Malays. 

I knew it would be cooler up there, but I certainly was not prepared for it being this cold! I was frozen! Yes, it may have been 18-20 degrees, but coming from 40 degrees plus, it was such a huge drop in temperature. The first thing on my to-do list was buy some socks and a shawl. I was a little shocked at the lack of clothing sold up there; there was a real niche for a decent clothing company to get their latest winter range in stores, I would have paid anything to get a half decent jumper! I layered up with nearly all my clothes and just about survived the 3 days we had there.

The Highland activities we did included the Butterfly centre – how twee! But actually they had some pretty good bugs there too. It was the first time we have seen a green leaf insect and a dead leaf insect – pretty amazing!

The main attraction in the Highlands is the tea plantations. ‘Boh’ is the primary tea company in Malaysia, sold everywhere and this is where their plantations are, so we paid quite a few visits to their cafes, shop and factory. We learnt how tea is made, had a tour of the factory (which smelt amazing), sampled many of their tastes, and enjoyed various cakes and scones, although sadly no clotted cream. 

Tea bushes in the background

Inside the tea factory, this is the first stage where the leaves are left to ferment and dry and then grinded.

Another big attraction up here is the strawberry. The temperature there is perfect for growing them and Malay people are fascinated by them because you can’t really get them anywhere else due to the heat. This was the first time (and probably the last) that I had pure strawberry juice – that was just awesome. 

After visiting tea plantations and strawberry farms, high up on the rolling hills, we decided to see if our bad boy Toyota Avanza could make it up the highest road in Malaysia. Thanks to James’s driving, we did and although it was too cloudy to see out, we felt pleased (and cold) that we were at 2045 metres. We tried to walk the path that leads to 2090m – the highest point in all of Malaysia, but the rains had visited significantly recently and it was so boggy, that I ended up ankle deep in cold wet mud and nearly fell straight onto my hands – much to James’s amusement. Our little trek sandals couldn’t cope so we turned back. 

We spent New Year’s Eve at a posh hotel resort having a five course delicious and very creative meal. ‘Dancing’ prawns and salmon to start, followed by lobster bisque, cleansed by a black cherry sorbet, followed by roast beef, potatoes and veg, and finished off with chocolate lava cake and ice-cream, and coffee in the lounge listening to the piano playing. We didn’t stay to count the New Year in at the hotel, but went back to our little apartment to drink our pink champagne we bought in Tesco (yes they have Tesco here) before we came up here and celebrated just the two of us. : )

We then drove back down the mountain to Georgetown, over the huge 13km long Penang Bridge, dropped the car off after unloading and spent the afternoon researching our cycling route down through peninsula Malaysia. The next day, we cycled to the ferry port and caught the free drive on, drive off boat from Georgetown to Butterworth and headed south down the west coast. 

Driving over Penang bridge