Cameron is a big relief because of it’s weather! As the other parts of Malaysia are so hot and humid you won’t feel like stepping out most of the time. Cameron is just the opposite of that; the climate here is chill all 365 days a year. No wonder it’s the easiest getaway for the people of Malaysia to escape the scorching sun!
On day 7 we reached Traveller’s Bunker’s hostel (for link checkout the previous blog) and while planning for the next day, we found a travel company which takes people for touring Cameron for half a day at a reasonable cost. We found it online (find their website here) and their office was just right beside our hostel so we booked the same.
The tour cost was around 1.5k per person which was quite reasonable I felt because it would cost a lot more if we want to cover all the below places by ourselves considering there is no proper public transportation in the state.
Our pickup was at 8.30am and since it was a group tour we were joined in by 5-6 other people in the jeep. Our first visit point for the day was the Mossy forest which as the name suggests, is a natural forest which is mostly covered by mosses. This is a must-visit place as mossy forests are found very rarely and this forest is said to be around 200 million years old being home to various species of animals and ancient trees.
It is very cold here and one can find mosses, ferns, lichens and orchids which grow only at such heights. The jeep goes only till a point here and we have to walk to enjoy the nature by foot rest of the way. At the end of the pathway there is an entrance to the view point where they charge a certain amount. It includes a small hike till the view top to enjoy the views nearby.
The environment is very moist here since it falls under the category of tropical evergreen forest. Hence it has a rich variety of creatures dwelling in this environment such as wide range of insects, snakes, frogs, birds and mammals specific to this chill atmosphere. We also saw pitcher plants which made me nostalgic as I had seen them only in pictures during school time.
So next we stopped on the way where we were surrounded by tea plantations on all sides. Well, it is because Cameron Highlands is the biggest tea growing region in entire of Malaysia because of its geographical conditions. After taking a few pictures with the background of lush green mountains carpeted by tea plantations, we were then taken to Boh’s Tea Centre- a leading manufacturer of tea and a place where tea leaves are processed and sold. There is an entry fee to this location and a free guided tour through their manufacturing unit where we are shown in real how the tea leaves are extracted right from the scratch. It was very informative and at the end they have their store where you can buy discounted packets of all kinds of tea.
Filling our bags with tea packets, we left for our next destination which was the strawberry farm. Strawberries are another famous thing for which the Cameron Highlands are known for, as they are also grown in abundance here. We are allowed to handpick our strawberries from the farm in order to buy them but they charge a lot for it. So we just purchased readily available ones instead. There is also a cafeteria here where you get yummy varieties of juice, cakes, ice cream all made from fresh strawberries so make sure you try them.
We had a small lunch stop at a local Malaysian restaurant on the way. We searched the entire menu for veg options and ordered the only 2 available. It was Malaysian noodles with some tofu dish we ate and the taste was so good which we really were not expecting!
Next stop was a butterfly and insect farm which is basically a glass house inside which a wide variety of butterflies are kept. We had to tread really carefully here as butterflies were literally everywhere! And we had to make sure not to step on them :P. Apart from them, there are a few other animals and insects kept inside glass boxes here like frogs, snakes, rabbits, guinea pigs, etc,.
We then visited the Time Tunnel museum which contained the entire timeline history of how Cameron Highlands formed and regarding their freedom struggle. It was really good to see the preservation of all the old things including newspaper articles, documents, photos, everyday items and posters from 1930’s. Overall the museum conveyed to us the entire story of Malaysia being very interestingly designed to catch the attention of people.
Our last stop for the day was a Buddhist temple – Sam Poh which is the largest religious structure in entire Cameron. It is situated at the back of the town in a place called Brinchang on top of a hill hence also providing good views of the place. We spent only around 10-15 minutes here and then were dropped off at our hostel by around 5-5.30pm.
After sometime we walked across the town to explore places nearby and came across a street nearby which was full of food vendors. We were actually searching for some good vegeterian food and finally decided upon one of the Indian restaurants present at that place. We did not like the food that much as it was not even tasting Indian. After this we just shopped around for a while and then retired for the day.
Click here to know the Day 9 itinerary – our final day of the trip at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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