I’ve never been a tour kind of guy. Usually I’m the one off to the side doing his own thing doing my best to avoid the large groups of overly friendly laughing people led by a native who has a knowing smile on his face. Yet, as our 4×4 Land Rover plowed its way through reddish brown clay-like dirt spraying pooled water everywhere with each of us bouncing in our seats with each jolt of the solid steel frame, I was having a ball.
The night before I had arrived in the Cameron Highlands, the tea famous tea producing region of Malaysia, still nursing my body back to health. My mind felt like it was on vacation but as my friends from Melaka, Alex and Lohr, stepped on to the veranda and saw me things snapped back in to focus. We had to have a laugh about the coincidence. Three days and half a country separated our last meeting. I didn’t even remember them mentioning that they were coming here, but here we were, another strange twist of fate.
The next morning was a bit difficult. My body protested the early hour but the thought of an adventure to come primed my engine long enough for it to catch. By the time the 4×4 diesel powered Land Rovers pulled up to the hostel I was in gear and ready to get going.
To say that our driver was a speed freak would be a slight understatement. From our hostel to the meeting point near the jungle entrance was supposedly 40 minutes but we made it in 30. That might not sound like a big time difference but when you’re careening around hairpin turns in the wrong lane with the horn blaring ever second becomes another precious moment of life not to be wasted. It was about halfway through the ride that a cry from the back alerted the driver to some of the more squeamish passengers.
As for me, I was enjoying every minute of it. A couple of experiences in China had taken away my fear of insane driving in Asian countries, not to mention this guy knew how to handle the vehicle. When he slowed down to a more pedestrian pace it was actually kind of depressing.
Forty minutes of street (actually 30) and 20 minutes of insane jungle driving later we arrived at the beginning of our ‘jungle trek.’ It was another hour from this point on foot to the special event of this leg of the tour, one of the worlds giant flowers.
The ‘jungle trek’ was okay (nothing compared to the hike I took 2 days later) and the flower was a big, ‘meh (not too exciting).’ I guess I can say I’ve seen it but that’s about it. On the way out we stopped by what they called a waterfall, more like a small change in elevation by a river, where I got stung by one of the unfriendly bees that was swarming about. Three days later as I write this the area is still a little red and swollen…no pain no gain or something like that.
Next up was the aboriginal village. Now, for most of you when I say aborigine the images of half naked women and men in loin clothes come to mind but the reality was a bit different. A better description would be small groups of half drunken men hanging around under shanties made of bamboo and local wood with women hiding in the house doing various domestic chores. Dogs roamed about, some flopping down with no warning on the dusty road into the scant shade from the occasional tree. Let’s just say I was quite glad when the guide finally called us together to leave.
A brief lunch at a small roadside Indian restaurant and we were off to our next and less depressing destination, the BOH tea plantation.
The rolling hills covered in short stubby tea plants was impressive, something that you could never imagine unless you saw them. They might be compared to the Mid-west and its rolling hills of grain but where the hill turns into a steep mountain and yet there are still tea plants is where the comparison ends. Lucky for us the tea plantations in the Cameron Highlands are a bit different then the ones in India. No King Cobras to jump out and surprise us as we milled about taking pictures.
It was from this point our tour separated in to two groups. Thanks to a series of ‘innocent’ questions I had asked starting back at the ‘jungle trek’ half of our group wanted to switch from the tour they signed up for, a visit to a butterfly farm and a strawberry farm, to a more interesting one that involved going to the top of one of the highest mountain in the Cameron Highlands and trekking a bit through a mossy forest. A few conversations the previous day with people around the hostel had planted the idea in my head and once we were out on the road I saw the wisdom of their words and went to work.
The peak of the mountain and the viewing tower we climbed to get a better perspective really weren’t that impressive but what they lacked our guide more then made up for it with his patter and joking. For the most part wave after wave of clouds swept over us blocking our vision but sometimes we could see and when we could it took our breath away (might have been due to the high altitude though).
What came next really made the whole tour worth it (besides the insane 4×4 ride through the muddy jungle).
Have you ever scene the movie Avatar (the CG one by James Cameron) or Lord of the Rings? You remember the forests in either of those two movies? The dense growth, narrow paths, and air so thick you could cut it with a knife? Well, add to that a fine mist which seemed to cling to everything and bird cries that echoed eerily about the trees.
Our guide took us up and around clumps of trees and under thick masses of vines, at which time he mentioned the deadly mango viper which loves to wait in those kinds of places for prey, and showed us things like wild cinnamon and carnivorous pitcher plants.
As we rappelled via a convenient vine out of the forest I couldn’t wipe the grin from my face. Most of the tour had been either depressing or boring, but the high points really had been high making it worth every one of the 88 ringits I had paid.
On our way back to the hostel our guide jokingly asked if any of us wanted to stop for strawberry farm souvenirs (being sold from stands at the side of the road). A resounding ‘no’ issued from all of our throats as the thought of a warm shower overpowered any urge to waste money on useless garbage.
It took a bit of stretching to work the kinks out of my arms, legs, and back after unfolding myself from the back of the Land Rover but once I was mobile again I made a beeline for a shower. Hot water had never felt so good.
Oh, a bit of advice. If you ever have a chance to ride a 4×4 through some crazy terrain, do it, but be sure to get a seat in the front or as hear to the front as you can. The seats in the back might be more comfortable but once you hit some bumps and have hit your head rather hard on the low roof a couple of times you will understand the wisdom of my words.
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