Mossy Forest and High Tea in Cameron Highlands

We left the tropical, humid jungle climate of Taman Negara National Park in favour of the cool, rainy mountains of the Cameron Highlands, on the west coast of Malaysia.

We travelled west across the country taking rusty local bus after rusty local bus until we reached the town on Tanah Rata, just seven hours and four rickety old buses later. One bus was full of Indian men on their way to work at a hydropower plant, they filled that bus with so many different varieties of body odour that it made my eyes burn.

At 1,400m above sea level, the Cameron Highlands have a climate similar to that of Manchester, and I felt quite at home in the cold rain. We found a great hotel that had a big cosy living room with comfortable couches and a HDMI lead that meant we could plug in our laptop and snuggle down to watch all the films we wanted while the grey world carried on without us.

The town itself is small and uninteresting with one main street and a row of Malay-style Indian restaurants that serve huge portions of bland Indian food.

Fortunately we had one day of good weather during our three day stay and it happened to be the day we went hiking.

Steep climb over exposed tree roots.

We set off with three Dutch guys that were also staying at our hotel: Arnould, Timmy and Tom. The five of us climbed to the top of Gunung Brinchang, 2000m asl. I gave up keeping pace with the four boys and let them go ahead as I scrambled up through the mossy forest, admiring the dense damp vegetation as the clouds swirled in around us. It was a steep 90 minute climb to the top, crawling up over tree roots, scrambling up muddy banks and ducking under fallen logs.

Mossy and misty in the damp forest.

From the top we enjoyed the panorama of the surrounding hills before descending down the other side. After a few kilometres walking down the now paved road, we got our first sighting of the region’s most famous landscape: the rolling hills of tea plantations as far as the eye can see.

At the top.

We walked through the vivid green tea bushes to the BOH Tea Plantation and stopped at the site’s popular restaurant for a spot of English refreshment: tea and scones! A tasty remnant from the days of British imperialism.

Tea plantations.

High tea at the BOH plantation.

Down at the main road we hitched a lift back to Tanah Rata in the back of a flat bed truck. Just as we settled in for the ride, the heavens opened, soaking us all to the skin as we sped around the mountain bends.

If it weren’t for all our damp smelly clothes moulding in the corner of our room unable to dry we might have stayed longer in the Cameron Highlands, it was certainly a nice place. However, after the hot and wet jungle followed by the cold and wet highlands we were in serious need of some sunshine, and so we left for Penang.

How To Get To…

The hike: We took a 10ringit taxi from Tanah Rata to the start of “trail #1”, on the far side of Brinchang. From there the path is signed and is easy to follow, no real need for a map although we did have one, available free from tourist information. 

We Stayed At...

Dew Drop Inn: home away from home, 55ringit (£11) for a double room en suite.