After a rather chaotic departure from Kuala Lumpur last time I was here, where the bus Rebecca and I had bought tickets for did not exist! I suppose it shouldn't have surprised me to encounter more problems at the same station when trying to get to Tanah Rata. This time I was being told the bus did not leave from the station at all but from a market somewhere up the road from one of the rear exits. I just couldn't grasp what she was saying, I was expecting a platform number, but she was giving me some complex directions! What? Where? Why? Thinking I had mis-heard I kept re-asking until the poor girl trying to explain got up from her desk and walked me to a rear doorway, pointed out some green sign a long way up the road that I could not see and told me to wait there. So, I headed in that general direction and eventually found Darren, Rachel and a few Malaysians standing around looking like they might be waiting for a bus. They were, ten minutes later the bus turned up! Daz and Rachel from Blackburn were on a one year round the world trip and also heading to Tanah Rata.
Tana Ratah is in the mountains so has plenty of cool fresh air, a nice escape from the humid, tropical lowlands I had just left. I stayed in one of the strange looking corrugated iron huts in the garden of "Father's Guest House", an odd looking structure, but perfectly fine and the Indian owners were very helpful. The town was full of cafes offering Indian, Malay and Chinese foods, the surrounding area was full of thick jungle to explore via its numerous trails. I chose a combination of three routes to try out one day, starting with one path, joining another and then descending the mountain via another, just to stretch things out! The paths were at times far from clear and a couple of times I had to backtrack and try again before finally getting thoroughly lost on the way down and ending some way from where I intended. The walk was not simple, at times it turned into a crawl and a struggle using hands, knees and any available tree trunks/branches to scramble up and over, made more difficult by the bags of melon and pomelo that I was carrying for lunch. It was tricky at times, but good fun and certainly gave the muscles a good stretch and workout.
Even more of a workout was the day cycling to the region's other attractions. Cycling along the hilly route north of town with steep inclines was hard work in hot weather. The region's fertile land is home to many fruit and tea farms and my first stop was the "Big RED Strawberry Farm" whose cafe was a strawberry lover's dream as it sold almost every possible type of strawberry dish; strawberry juice, strawberry flan, strawberry shakes, strawberry sundae, strawberries with yoghurt and honey, strawberries and cream and even strawberry "ais-krim goreng" (deep fried ice-cream!!). The shop held even more strawberry products; toothpaste, soap, shower gels, hair gels and shampoos for your personal hygiene; strawberry jam, sweets, cake, chocolate, biscuits and cereals for your dietary needs and strawberry posters, tea cloths, jewellery boxes, jigsaws and much more as a souvernier option. Strawberry plants however are not that exciting to look at, the cactusses (or cacti if you prefer) were a more interesting view and photograph oppurtunity. Then, even more cactusses were to be found next door in "Cactus Valley" where there were more varieties of cactus than you can possibly imagine. A bizarre and varied collection spread over a huge area, most of which looked awfully painful to bump into.
Left: Crawling through the jungles.
Centre: Lots of Cacti!!
Right: Yummy, strawberry ice-cream.
Off on the bike again, through the town of Brinchang and on past more strawberry farms, butterfly farms and plenty of flower gardens. By now the roads were getting tougher, steeper and longer and it was a relief to reach the top of the mountain, so I could fly down the winding road towards my goal, the "Sungai Palas Boh Tea Estate". Approaching the estate, the rolling hills around are almost entirely covered in Camellia Sinensis, tea plants. All around, you are surrounded, wherever you look, you see nothing but tea plants. The estate offers a brief guided tour of the production factory, explaining the processes involved in production of each variety of tea, and then you can sit in the cafe and sample some while gazing at the amazing plantation below.
Left & Right: Tea plantations at Songai Palas Boh Tea Estate.
It was hard work getting back up the hill even after some refreshing tea, but after that it was an easier journey home, even if my clothes and body took a battering thanks to the thunderstorms, muddy roads and lack of mudguard on the bike. Back in town, I picked up a bus ticket to Ipoh for the next morning and an enormous indian meal to top up all those calories I'd lost due to the day's cycling.
The nest morning I left for Ipoh, choosing to stop there for a few hours on my way back up to Butterworth and a re-visit to Penang. Ipoh is an old town with none of the shiny lights of KL. It made its name thanks to the tin mines of the nearby Kinta valley when tin was Malaysia's largest export. Now it's an average Malaysian town with old colonial style architecture and some friendly Chinese cafes, where I spent most of my time once I realised there was not so much to see or do here. So after a typically Chinese noodle soup for breakfast, some exploration and a lunch with some of Malaysia's finest Tiger beer, I headed back to the station and once again towards Georgetown, Penang.
Left: Tanah Rata's fine Indian Meal.
Right: The streets of Ipoh.
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