After an overnight bus to Ipoh and a dash across town we managed to find ourselves a bus bound for the Cameron Highlands. The scenery was stunning and we could feel the humidity dropping as we climbed higher, joy!
We arrived in Tanah Rata, the main town of the highlands, found our hostel for the next couple of days and continued to marvel at the lack of sweat we were both producing. We wandered around town, ate a bowl of very spicy noodles and then sniggered at amusingly named chocolates.
The next day we piled ourselves into a good old Land Rover, accompanied by our guide Ravi and set off in search of the Rafflesia flower, a type of parasitic plant named after the same bloke the hotel was. Once we left the road things got interesting as there had been a lot of rain in the previous days, leaving the road up to the jungle rather muddy. We slid and slipped our way onwards, until an emergency evacuation was needed indicated by Ravi shouting 'Shit' from the driver's seat and the Land Rover tilting to a precarious degree.
We eventually made it to the beginning of the jungle trail and set off on foot to find the flower. An hour later, after wading through rivers, slipping down muddy banks and climbing over tree roots we found our first flower.
It was huge and we were so lucky to see it as they only flower for around 5 days at a time. We saw a second flower slightly further into the jungle and then made our way back to the trusty Land Rover.
Our next stop was at a traditional Malaysian village where we got to try our hand at the blow pipe which they use for hunting. We were surprisingly accurate, although I think my dart was nearest the bullseye!
Tea plantations, strawberry farms and butterfly/reptile farms were all on the agenda for the afternoon; broken up by some kamikaze driving from Ravi to get us through the ridiculous Malaysian Labour day traffic jams.
The highest point of the tea plantation
Our guide found this Pope's Pit Viper (highly venomous) during our jungle walk, kept him in a water bottle during the day and then donated him to the Reptile farm. It was that or death at the hands of the locals
Strawberry icecream, strawberry milkshake, strawberries - yum!
We arrived in Tanah Rata, the main town of the highlands, found our hostel for the next couple of days and continued to marvel at the lack of sweat we were both producing. We wandered around town, ate a bowl of very spicy noodles and then sniggered at amusingly named chocolates.
The next day we piled ourselves into a good old Land Rover, accompanied by our guide Ravi and set off in search of the Rafflesia flower, a type of parasitic plant named after the same bloke the hotel was. Once we left the road things got interesting as there had been a lot of rain in the previous days, leaving the road up to the jungle rather muddy. We slid and slipped our way onwards, until an emergency evacuation was needed indicated by Ravi shouting 'Shit' from the driver's seat and the Land Rover tilting to a precarious degree.
We eventually made it to the beginning of the jungle trail and set off on foot to find the flower. An hour later, after wading through rivers, slipping down muddy banks and climbing over tree roots we found our first flower.
It was huge and we were so lucky to see it as they only flower for around 5 days at a time. We saw a second flower slightly further into the jungle and then made our way back to the trusty Land Rover. Our next stop was at a traditional Malaysian village where we got to try our hand at the blow pipe which they use for hunting. We were surprisingly accurate, although I think my dart was nearest the bullseye!
Tea plantations, strawberry farms and butterfly/reptile farms were all on the agenda for the afternoon; broken up by some kamikaze driving from Ravi to get us through the ridiculous Malaysian Labour day traffic jams.
The highest point of the tea plantation
Our guide found this Pope's Pit Viper (highly venomous) during our jungle walk, kept him in a water bottle during the day and then donated him to the Reptile farm. It was that or death at the hands of the locals
Strawberry icecream, strawberry milkshake, strawberries - yum!
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