Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Around The Cameron Highlands
There are numerous hiking trails around here which range from a couple of hours to a couple of days (or longer if you get lost). The thought of a couple of days in mosquito infested forests didn't really appeal to us much (we must be getting lazy!) so we decided on one of the day tours around the highlands. Given our growing dislike of organised tours we didn't set off with high expectations but it was actually pretty good and not as rushed as others. We even got to wander off into the forest for a bit, albeit only for about 30 minutes.We started off at one of the tea plantations with a short tour around the processing area followed by a stop for tea and cake (of course). Remember the queue jumping German from the Petronas Towers? Well, of all the tea plantations, in all the world...... he had to walk into ours! Somehow I got the impression that he didn't like us much. What a shame!
Anyhow, the plantation was quite interesting, particularly the details about the harvesting. Some of it is still picked by hand, but even the 'machine harvested' stuff is done with a lightweight machine that is carried by two people. The pickers are paid by weight, so apparently they love rainy days, because they earn more when they turn in baskets of wet leaves. Fancy a job in the outdoors? If you're a good picker you can apparently haul in about 200kg a day. Assuming that the figures we were given are correct, if you manage this you'll earn the princely sum of about £5.50 a day. If anyone wants the address for applications let me know.....
After tea we set off to the highest point of the highlands, which is allegedly 6,666ft. As you can see from the photos of the day it was pretty cloudy so the view was hardly spectacular. On the way back down the hill we had a short walk in the forest where we got to see a few of the curious looking local plant species. Our guide seemed very concerned about local conservation and there were a couple of times when he showed us plants at the side of the road which he was keen to keep hidden from following traffic. Apparently some of these plants fetch high prices at market and are therefore rather vulnerable to 'poachers'.
The local butterfly farm was a bit of a disappointment, and in true South East Asian style was an unexpected extra payment we had to make. It did however provide Nikky with an opportunity to get up close to a Rhinoceros beetle, not that she ever realised that she wanted to do this before the man thrust it at her on a stick!
After that it was off to visit another 'hill tribe'. Again, it wasn't entirely clear how these people have come to be living where they do, but they do draw in the tourists because they are known for hunting with blow pipes and very poisonous darts. Of course the reason for the visit is because you get to have a go with the pipes. I'm not sure whether the poison tipped darts are really as deadly as we were told, but to be honest you wouldn't want to be hit even by an untipped dart as even with our amateur skills we managed to get them quite firmly stuck into the target.
There is one rather worrying side to the visits to these villages, which is that you are encouraged by the guide to take along small gifts for the children which you hand out after the main event. Now in theory this is a great idea, but unfortunately the 'gifts' take the form of either sweets or biscuits purchased from a nearby convenience store, so sadly the dental health of all the children seems to be suffering somewhat.
The final stop of the afternoon was to check out one of the other major local crops. Strawberries. There are quite a few farms where they produce strawberry jam, ice cream, cookies and milk shakes. You can even go and pick your own, although the phrase "Pick Your Own" isn't used here, they prefer "Self Plucking", which for some reason I found far more amusing.
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