Cameron Highlands

From Ipod a short bus ride took me to the Cameron Highlands (short for me at this point a good 5 hours +). Another hill station built by the British, which I  venture to the highlands for some relief from the humidity, well that and the great hiking.

I’d found myself a cheap hostel and even treated myself to a double room as it was only a fraction more than the dorm. My room didn’t have a window and barely fit the bed, but it was mine for a few nights. I can’t remember the cost but it was next to nothing and it included a free breakfast of toast and tea – Boh tea to be specific, which we’ll come back to.

After finding some lunch, I think I had a Nasi Lemak (a dish of rice, an egg or two and a sweet spicy sauce), I headed to the first of the many hikes I had planned for the highlands. The first hike I tackled was a mostly downhill affair following a river down to a dam. It started with a lovely gentle waterfall, while beautiful I noticed a handful of plastic bottles caught in a whirlpool and thought to myself ‘someone should get those out.’ While a lovely walk it only took 45 minutes each way. With that done and my walking itch unsatisfied I took on a side path which was described on Alltrails (a phenomenal hiking app btw) ‘overgrown and impossible to follow.’

Of course, I ventured on down the side path. On a few occasions I stepped too far to the edge of the path and the ground fell away – albeit not very far. Under and over trees I navigated – overgrown yes but impossible to follow no. I made it a fair while before the path became so overgrown it would require a machete – at which point I did turn around. On the way back of course I learnt nothing and more of the path fell away as I stepped to the edge to avoid a tree. But I made it back to the initial waterfall just about safely.

I walked passed, heading back to my hotel, but then out of the corner of my eye I saw the water bottles again. Bobbing, up and down, mocking me. So with a resolved sigh, I took off my boots and unzipped the bottom half of my convertible trousers. I redonned my boots (as they are waterproof) and headed towards the falls. The falls were gentle and fairly bulbous, so I thought this would be a doordle. My first foot on the falls was met with absolutely zero grip and my foot slides forward only to be caught by the following rock. I rebalanced and went to take another step, which was equally as slippery. It appeared I’d found the slippy-iest surface on earth. And after falling on my arse and having a little laugh at myself – I headed home, defeated and a little bit wet. Rumour has it the bottles are still bobbing to this day.

After the hiking I was pretty hungry so went down the main street of this small but established semi-alpine town. I found two eateries next door to each other – both curry houses. I went into the one that was more friendly, and ordered myself a feast. As it would happen, I would alternate my evening meals between these two neighbouring eateries along with some smaller market stalls for my entire time.

That evening I was feeling very pretty good post hikes and thought I’d see what the nightlife is like. I headed to ‘jungle bar’ one of two places listed when I searched ‘bar’ on google maps. It was tucked away in a hostel and semi-hidden. An unusual sort of bar, which was both homely and incredibly run down. The pool table was propped up on books and assorted bits of wood rather than legs – that said it was remarkably flat. There were three people playing pool so I asked to join. It turned out they all ‘worked’ at the hostel. We end up playing a few games, and I was introduced to a new card game – precedence. 

Day two, was much of the same. This time I tackled one of the bigger hill / mountain climbs. Submitting was pretty uneventful just me and the jungle. The top greeted me with some lovely views over the surrounding mountains. This hike then continued down the other side of the mountain, which after another long walk deposited me by a lovely temple which was nice to check out (although it was closed by the time I was there). While walking around I saw a tiny puppy try to jump over a low bar only to make it over half way – trapping himself legs flailing in the air. I assumed he would free himself so walked away, only to be brought back by his repeated whining. I went over to free him but he freed himself as soon as I got close. At which point his rather angry looking parents seemed to appear so I strolled away as confidently as I could. 

On the route back, I ended up going through a golf course which I definitely didn’t mean to but it was lovely. I was super impressed by some of the golfers who had trolleys that drove themselves around the course. After the course I had a stint on the road, before joining the final trail which took me up the river. On this final stretch through a small forest I made a friend, a beautiful white doggo! He started to follow me and then we had a few races – of which he won them all. He really had some pace that I didn’t expect.

Problematically he then wouldn’t stop following me. We got back into town and I could not shake this dog. I tried taking him to a park, I tried running away. In the end it took some other dogs to distract him. Of course after the hike I ended up heading to one of the curry houses for a bamboo biryani. 

Then once again with not much to do in the evening I headed back to the jungle bar expecting another quiet evening. However that didn’t transpire. I ended up playing pool with some local regulars. The three of them were both better at pool than me and indeed better at drinking. One of them in particular was bloody brilliant (at pool). I felt bad for the guy on my team – we lost all but one game. But they were lovely, they didn’t let me buy a drink all night – I did manage to pay for a game or two of pool but that was it. They were on the black cans of extra strong beer which they bought by the four pack – I was on the tiger. Quite late into the evening I left them and headed to bed.

Thankfully I awoke mostly without a hangover as for my third day I had my biggest day of hiking planned. It was time for the biggy.

My hike started in town and trekked through the jungle until eventually submitting another mountain. However, I had a nightmare trying to find the start. My map and google maps had it starting down this quiet empty street, however when I got there they were building a huge hotel and that access was blocked. It took me a good 20/30 minutes of walking around the construction site until someone pointed me in the right direction. So by the time I reached the start I’d already done 5k. Anyway once I’d found the start the hike started with a long steep climb through the jungle. Once at the top you could see out across the neighbouring mountains, across the town and down through the valleys where the greenest of green sides can mean only one thing – tea plantations.

On my descent to the valley the trail was incredibly slippery and I spent far more time on my arse than on my feet – but ah well. Once down the steep section I began walking through the bottom of the valley surrounded by the tea plantation. I followed the small dirt path criss-crossing a small but fast running stream and through the tea terraces. I got my headphones out and took it all in while listening to Concerning Hobbits. After my stroll through Tolkien’s head I had to climb out of the valley to take myself to the tea house waiting for me. Where I was greeted with a lovely local cuppa (of Boh tea – a black tea mix akin to English Brekkie in my uneducated opinion), and here’s the real surprise, scones!! So I knocked those back and then continued my hike, however I found another tea stand just outside the official tea house selling tea for 1/10th the price so decided to have another two.

Fully caffeined up, I did the final slog following the twisting road back into town. In total it was close to 20k of ups and downs that day as well. Obviously with my sense of achievement I treated myself to yet another curry and then took a friend from my mostly empty hostel for a game of pool at jungle bar before getting an early night – which I very much needed.

Having completed the hiking it was time to leave, and so the next morning I did just that. However I wouldn’t be mentioning it unless there was a little caper. I was running a tad late, over indulging in my tea and toast that morning. So I was lightly jogging to the bus station. I’d bought my ticket the day before and he said ‘8.30 here.’ It was about 8.28 and I was about two minutes jog away. I arrive at 8.30 on the dot – whack my bag on the bus and go to get on. But I’m stopped by the lady sorting tickets and it turns out it wasn’t my bus. I went over to my guy and he sighed deeply. We had a short exchange with him arguing I was late and me saying its 8.30. Anyway he gets on the bell and the bus comes back for me lol. I did get a look or two getting on the bus but I got on the bus – wooo!

Further south through Malaysia we head.