Tanah Rata: Day 2

The adventure tour guide showed up half an hour late this morning, leaving me sitting in front of the Cameronian Inn to soak in the crisp mountain air. It wasn’t really much of an issue because I had preoccupied myself with a tiny snail slowly making its way across the patio. I named him “Put Put” because of the dotted trails he left behind.


When the rickety Land Rover finally pulled up, I moved Put Put over to the side so nobody would step on him. Godspeed, little guy.

Our first stop was a brief visit to the Boh Tea Plantation, higher up in the mountain. It is, apparently, the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia. Nothing too exciting here except for a nice view and a good cuppa & curry puff. It was good to relax a bit before our long trek into the jungle.



I admit, when I signed up for this, I didn’t really expect the adventure to be all that much of, well, an adventure. I just figured they’d cart us to a bunch of tourist traps, followed by the associated gift shops. The guide takes a cut of the profits, we come out with cameras full of photos and stories to tell the kids, everybody wins. Seeing the jeep packed with Japanese senior citizens reassured me of this.

Our surprise came when the Land Rover turned off into a steep and muddy dirt track, barely wide enough to allow safe passage. We didn’t have time to worry about sliding off the cliffs (which we almost did a couple of times) because we were being thrown around in our seats. The old Japanese men and women were really good sports about it. I think they fared better than I did.

This is one of many old Land Rovers around the Cameron highlands. The new models have become luxury vehicles and I don’t think many see this kind of action. The front passenger window was gone so we had to stop to put up a plastic sheet when the rain came.


We disembarked at the overgrown trail and made our hour and a half trek through muddy hills, jungle rivers, bamboo forests and dozens of biting insects. All this to track down (read: be led like cattle to) a Rafflesia in bloom. What makes it so special is that it’s the largest flowering plant in the world. It takes 5 years for it to bud, then another 8 months to bloom. The flower only lasts for a week. It smells like rotting meat to attract insects for pollination.

I slipped and fell a few times, hurting only my pride… and my head (on a tree stump).

The trip was a success:

To prove I was there:

Flecks of gold in the river sediment.


Foot modeling is tough work sometimes:

Next stop was an Orang Asli (Malaysia’s indigenous people) camp for a blowpipe demonstration. It’s not nearly what it’s cracked up to be. It’s a couple of huts by the side of the road where a group of people live. They have motorbikes and TV so it’s not like something you see on National Geographic. That said though, I did get some National Geographic-esque photos of the kids.



We ended the day with a stopover at a butterfly farm before going back to our respective hostels to crash. I made a quick stop at the bus terminal to book a ticket to Penang for the morning.

A nice British couple from today’s tour is heading the same direction as I am so it looks like I have some travel buddies now.