Wait and drink tea in the Cameron Highlands.

And now I'm sitting at the airport again - today in Kuala Lumpur. I still have a good hour before boarding and departure for Bali. After a long time searching and comparing, I was finally able to decide on a hotel and hope that I might recognize something from almost 20 years ago.

But first, a few quick sentences about my last days in the interior of Malaysia. After the stay in the national park, I booked the boat-bus transfer to continue to the Cameron Highlands. This means you drive a long way down Sungai Tembeling and then change to the minivan at the next intersection.

There was neither a boat nor any other tourists at the “Floating Restaurants” meeting point at departure time. Just national park guides who crossed the river into the park one after the other. In moments like this you realize how lost you are without mobile internet or a telephone network and that just believing that everything will go well is enough. It worked, because the nice Floating Restaurant man (no idea whether he really worked there or was just sitting there) helped immediately, knew the boat driver, also said he saw me on a list and called him again to be on the safe side. 20 minutes later the boat arrived and surprisingly I had booked the VIP shuttle because I was the only passenger.

We finally made it for a full 15 minutes before the boat initially sputtered, was started again and finally came to rest on the bank. My “What's wrong?” was answered with a laughing “the engine is broken!”, but the towing service was already on the way. 😉 After another 10 minutes, a second boat actually arrived, into which I transferred with my bags and luggage and finally arrived at my destination 1 hour later. At the transfer parking lot we met Lauren and Oliver from the day before and drove on to the Cameron Highlands together with the Pakistani from the outbound journey. Please don't ask how the trip was! My Seabands (battery pressure bands for motion sickness) gave it their all, but with this driving style and the road conditions they gave up too much. Finally, I was really happy to have arrived in Tanah Rata, and in one piece.

In my guesthouse I quickly booked a trip for the next day, found something to eat in the town and did the laundry before I fell flat into bed.

The excursion the next day started at 8 a.m. Which was actually a good decision, as we were a little ahead of everyone else at the tea plantation. An impressive scenery! A plantation is comparable to a huge forest made up of thousands of very small trees, which stand compactly together, perhaps around 1.2 m high (in the “wild” tea plants can reach 15-20 m high) around a so-called picking table to make it easier to harvest by hand. “Through years of pruning and shaping, usually over 50 years, the tea bushes become a veritable miniature forest of dwarf trees on unique tea plantations.” ( https://www.palaisdesthes.com/de/vergehen/die-teeplantage ) Unfortunately it was In the Tea Garden Café run by BOH, the owner of the tea plantations, it was already so full that there was no chance of tasting and drinking tea. I don't want to imagine what goes on there in high season.

The actually planned second highlight, the Mossy Forest, was unfortunately, like the Canopy Walk before it in Taman Negara, spontaneously closed for maintenance work. Which is why we trekked up Coral Hill with our guide. As far as that's possible with 3 small children and Spanish tourists with Chucks. The path was adventurous, but we were rewarded with a view at the top. It probably wasn't the prettiest I've ever seen, but it was ok. 😉 I'll skip the stops at the butterfly and strawberry farms that we made because of the kids... Overall, it was all "nice to see", but when it comes to hiking and views, we Germans are pretty spoiled. And you could certainly make something nice out of the town of Tanah Rata itself. If you wanted.

This morning we took the bus – this time a big bus – back to Kuala Lumpur. The first few kilometers were horror again. In the competition “who can fit the most curves into around 55 km”, the area really won. A few traffic jams and a train ride later, I'm sitting at the airport again. I started the post with these words. 😉

As far as further planning after Christmas and New Year in Bali or Gili Trawangan is concerned, I made a gut decision last night. Nepal and Laos were available. Even though I would be very interested in Nepal, it seems a bit too complicated for me right now... And my motivation for a 7-day hike is limited at the moment, which is why I decided on the more chilled-out Laos. Accommodation has already been reserved, now I just have to see how I can make it from the mini-island (6.3 times the area of Europa Park, or 840 football fields - for all football fans 😉) to Vientiane. But more on that in the days. Now arrive in Bali and spend Christmas Eve at the pool and on the beach. Strange.