Cameron Highlands - Stage 4

After a five-hour car ride - Dania drives very safely and clearly enjoys it - the cool mountains of Cameron Highlands spread out before us. They are part of a mountain range and invite us to marvel at the lush greenery and the many different tree species. It's (still) quiet. We hardly encounter any cars, and I wonder: 'Where are the people, where do they live here? Where are all the tea plantations?'

Hardly spoken, covered plantations and a lot of traffic and of course garbage spread out in front of us. We quickly agree that we find the cityscape - especially that of the capital Tanah Rata - surreal, mainly because it looks like the Black Forest has been brought into a Polish border town under Malaysian control. I can't describe it any better.

For the first time on the trip, we are staying in a hostel (http://www.westwoodhighland.com/) - treating ourselves to something special... we are pleased with our new temporary home (thank God it also has a private bathroom). Our host greets us and gives us a tour, and it immediately becomes apparent that there are fresh gerberas (I love gerberas!!!) everywhere. No wonder, because the house has a gerbera plantation.

... from Stuttgart - on a 6-month trip around Asia - gives us a tip on where we can eat and strengthen ourselves after the drive, before Dania and Michi start their trip through the Highlands tomorrow. The girls treat themselves to Indian delicacies and for me, there's rice with rice, or optionally rice with bread. But what will you not do to get better... for example, reluctantly cancel the day trip...

So I'm handing over today's blog to Michi:

After hurrying to the meeting point to start our tour on time, we were greeted by an English couple, a photography-loving Swiss father with his son in tow, and of course our guide Ravi. Ravi gives us a thorough introduction to the local tea cultivation and how it is harvested. Machines sometimes mix snakes and spiders into the tea, making it more flavorful 😳🕷. In Malaysia, only black tea is grown and different types of tea are made from it, such as green tea or teh tarik, which we unintentionally ordered multiple times in Singapore. The tea plantation is truly spectacular and has been in Scottish hands for three generations. A field worker earns five euros a day for this back-breaking job. In the tea factory, we saw live how BOH tea is made and treated ourselves to a pot of black tea. DELICIOUS!!!

We then headed to the Mossy Forest, where we admired some native plants and received the recommendation from our guide not to visit the viewpoint, as all we would see is fog. The museum that followed was a little journey through the history of the Cameron Highlands and it was interesting for us to see, but time was running out and the past hour passed almost unnoticed. The rest of the day can be summarized briefly. A hectic plastic market, a strawberry plantation sprayed with 14 pesticides, and a butterfly park that resembled more of an animal prison grounded us and offered us a different perspective. The Buddhist temple remains a positive memory and once again shows us that less is more. A full day comes to an end and we take many impressions to bed.