Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

We had a day trip today to Cameron Highlands to visit the BOH Sungei Palas Tea Estate. It's not common as a day trip from Ipoh - most people stay in Cameron Highlands for a few days cause at 1500m, it's a nice cool break from the rest of Malaysia. There's no fully organized excursions from Ipoh - we had to organize our day trip the old fashioned way, on our own (cue the grumpy old man, and we liked it!).

Took a two hour bus ride from Ipoh to Tanah Rata. The road climbs up pretty sharply, our ears were popping most of the way. We then hired a taxi to take us to BOH estates, 75 ringgit round trip including the wait at BOH. Our taxi driver turned out to be very knowledgeable about BOH - his parents worked on the estate for many years, and he knew more about tea than most tour guides!

We stopped at a couple vantage points for pics of the tea plantations - the view of the tea plants growing in uneven rows is one of the reasons I originally wanted to come to Malaysia. Our driver explained how the leaves were picked in the old days (two leaves and a bud) nowadays it's all automated. I also didn't realize that if left unpruned, a tea tree will grow more than 20ft tall.

It was drizzling and misty and droplets were getting on my lens as I was taking pics :(

The road up to BOH Estate is narrow and single car width at times. This caused large backups especially as it was the weekend and there were day trippers unfamiliar with the road etiquette. Took us almost an hour for a 8km drive.

Normally you take an organized tour that lasts an hour, but our driver pointed out how to visit the factory on our own. It was really cool, they still use the original equipment in the various stages of tea leaf production.

Had a pot of tea and scones at the very busy restaurant. Took many more pics of the tea plants on the hillside. Bought a souvenir mug (it seemed appropriate to buy a mug from a tea plantation :) ).

We took the taxi back to Tanah Rata, and then walked down the main strip. It's a covered sidewalk (so we didn't need to worry about the rain) with many restaurants and shops.

Had tandoori chicken and roti made to order in a real tandoor. It was excellent. Had a mango lassi too, which was also good. We thought lassis would be more prevalent in Malaysia but we've only seen them in Indian restaurants.

Caught the 3pm bus back to Ipoh. With all the traffic it took us an hour longer to get back, at 6pm. The traffic is mostly local day-trippers, coming up to buy fresh fruits. Only strawberries grow in Cameron Highland's climate, the rest of the fruit is trucked in - but still people come all the way up here for the fruit markets!

After the full day at cooler temperatures (about 24C) we could feel the heat and humidity back in Ipoh as we descended. We looked like locals getting off the bus early, as we passed our street a few minutes before the station.

We weren't motivated to walk too far for dinner because it was pouring rain, and also almost everything was closed on Sundays. So we ate at Plan B, part of the hotel complex. It was really good fusion. Caught up a bit in my blog, had a couple beers, a relaxing evening.