TOURING THE HIGHLANDS

Sunday, September 02, 2018
Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia
September 2
Developed in the 1930’s, the Cameron Highlands  is one of the oldest tourist spots in Malaysia and, because of its moderate climate, which provides a cool escape for city-dwellers, it is the most popular of the highland retreats in Malaysia.  The area is known for its tea growing, vegetable farms and flower nurseries and is home to 700 species of plants.  There are also beautiful waterfalls, mossy forest, places of worship, museums and the very popular tourist attraction, Pahang Cactus Valley.  We would be seeing much of these spots on our day long tour and we started with a visit to a Buddhist temple which was interesting but didn’t particularly wow me.
We were, however, totally wowed by our next stop, the Pahang Cactus Valley.  It is one of the most popular tourist destinations and boasts of having one of the largest collection of cactus plants in Malaysia, some as old as 60 years.  In addition to this impressive collection, they also had a comprehensive variety of flowering plants and fruit trees, all for sale.  Many of the cactus specimens were familiar to us, as our cactus garden at home in Mexico has grown considerably, but there were so many that we had never seen and we were lusting to take them home with us. After visiting the Cactus Valley, we went to this strange little museum called the Time Tunnel. Established in 2007, it’s Malaysia’s first memorabilia museum and is unlike any other in Peninsular Malaysia.  It is filled with more than 4,000 collectibles and memorabilia that serve as a reminder of what life was like in Malaysia during the pre-War years.
The BOH Tea Plantation, was founded in 1929 by JA Russell, a British-born, British-educated businessman during the British colonial era in Malaysia.  Russell was granted a concession of land and, out of this undeveloped steep slopes of jungle terrain, with a steamroller and mule-teams, the stepped plantation was created.   This was the first tea garden in the Cameron Highlands, and today, BOH Plantations owns four tea gardens totaling about 1200 hectares of land.  It is the largest tea plantation in Malaysia and produces about 4 million kg of tea every year, accounting for about 70% of Malaysian tea output.    The tour of the processing and packaging plant was really interesting and, afterwards, we sampled the tea in their commissary then walked through some of the fields.  During our tour, as we drove through the different districts of the Highlands, the vibrant green fields of the BOH tea plants could be seen in every direction.
The Mossy Forest, our next stop, is a natural environment that grows only at the highest elevations of Cameron Highlands and other mountain ranges across Malaysia.   At such heights, low-level clouds driven by winds, blanket the forests with constant mist and moisture - creating an ideal environment for moss, ferns, lichen and orchids.     After climbing  a few flights of steps, we were able to stroll along the 2 km wooden boardwalk and marvel at the gnarled and twisted trees, covered with moss and lichen, and the abundance of plant life sprouting up through the ferns that covered the forest floor. With the mist creepy through the forest, we felt like we were in a scene from a fairytale filled with monsters.
We had a quick stop at the Strawberry farm and then, finally, the Butterfly Farm, which I think was my favorite.
In addition to the beautiful butterflies, there were countless cages of other animals and reptiles and insects, including some gigantic black scorpions and very creepy huge spiders.
 The passageways that connected the different parts of the farm were covered with beautiful cascading flowers and there was an area where they were growing beautiful ornamental flowers. 
Will picked us up at the tourist office after a long and enjoyable day of sightseeing.  We were curious about his job in the Cameron Highlands so he took us on a quick tour of the nursery where he works.  Because of his immense knowledge and expertise in agricultural techniques, he was hired to bring these near failing greenhouses back to life and, boy, were we impressed when he showed us the masses of thriving and healthy plants and explained to us the methods that he had introduced to accomplish this task.
I believe he is about the only person in all of Malaysia that has this degree of knowledge so, consequently, he is in high demand and will be moving on next year, once his contract has been completed in the Highlands, to revive and expand a large nursery in Indonesia.  We had really enjoyed getting to know Will and seeing his fun-loving, pool-playing, Schnapps guzzling side as well as his more serious and professional side,  We’re hoping to spend more time with him when he comes to Mexico to visit his parents and our dear friends, Jack and Laney 
In the morning, we took a bus back to Kuala Lumpur where we would spend one night and the next day seeing as much of the city as we could before catching our flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Comments

Rich
2018-10-03

Nice photos

Karin
2018-10-05

Lovely places specially the tea plantation besos

2025-02-10

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