Day 162 - Cameron Highlands

After breakfast we were collected from our hotel for the tour we had arranged through Mr Joe, the taxi driver.  He was charging us an hourly rate to go to the different sites we had chosen. 

Where we visited included:

1. Sam Poh Temple - a Chinese temple that allegedly contains the forth largest Budha in Malaysia.

2. Orchard Farm Tour - Not as well presented as many of the nurseries in Australia, it was more like rough hot houses that did contain a variety of prety orchids.

3. Honey Bee Farm - Nothing special but we did notice 2 separate bee species there, ones that looked like Australian bees and another type that were dark orange in colour and looked more like wasps.

4, Butterfly and Insect Farm - The butterfly house at Melbourne Zoo is a lot better, but we did see a few lovely species.   Highlight at this place was seeing Rhinoceros and Elephant beetles close up.  I kept away from the spiders (big hairy ones!), but the snakes were also good to see.

5. Boh Tea Plantation - Driving through the plantation was lovely!  It is an amazing landscape.  A lot of the plants are over 80 years old.  Machines now 'pick' the leaves on the top of the trees but the sides have to be done with pruning shears that have a bucket contraption attached to collect the leaves.  We all had something to eat and drink here, bought some tea, then visited the factory.  Over 8 million cups of tea are consumed in Malaysia a day!!

6. Rose Centre - A cross between an old nursery and Fairy Park.  There are incredible views from the top of this centre, stairs take you from one platform area to the next.  The roses were pretty ordinary, but there was an amazing variety of other plants there.

So ended the tour for Nic and I (5 hours later!) we were dropped off in Tanah Rata (the main town) and Stefanos continued on to other sites he was interested in.  The rain had started hosing down so Nic and I had a coffee, bought some supplies then went back to the hotel.

Rest of the evening was spent quietly at the hotel, getting room service for dinner (worst meal so far), reading, watching tv, listening to the rain and working on the computer.

* Note on Cameron Highlands - it is Malaysia's most extensive hill station, with an altitude of 1300m-1829m, the temperature rarely drops below 10c or climbs above 21c.  Trekking, tea tasting and visiting local agro-tourism sites is the main thing done here by tourists.  Looking around Cameron Highlands, and conversations with local people confirms that unfortunately not a lot is being done to maintain the balance of farming and maintaining the natural jungle.  Big chunks of hillside have been stripped bare for soil and space for crops.  It really is quite sad to see, and one wonders how long it will be before there is very little jungle left.  The region has a very high concentration of Indian and Chinese people, and it is currently monsoon season.  On the days here we had clear weather each morning then the rain would roll in about 3pm and stay through the evening.