Project Runaway

We were back on the road again and this time headed for the Cameron Highlands. The highlands are the highest area in mainland Malaysia. The area is known for its tea plantations and rolling green hills reminiscent of the English countryside. After another grueling multi-bus ride, we arrived at Father’s Guesthouse feeling like we had just spent a day inside a clothes dryer with a load of rocks. I truly wanted to kiss the ground when we arrived.

Father’s Guesthouse is on a small hill in the town of Tanah Rata and this situation makes it quiet and removed from the town below. It used to be a mission for French priests thus the name ‘Fathers’. It is a friendly and organized place and boasted its own cafe where the 2 cooks prepared excellent curries. After our sketchy and dirty accommodations in Taman Negara, our scrupulously clean rooms made us giddy. It truly is the simple things after a while. Like toilets that work, clean sheets, cold beer, and kind hosts.

We decided to book a guided tour for the first time. It was a half day tour to a tea plantation, a trip to the top of Mount Brinchang, and a hike in the Mossy Forest. Our guide was a young Indian guy who knew his stuff inside out. He made learning about the cultivation and production of tea interesting. Really.

BOH Tea Plantation

So here are some ‘Did you knows’:

• The tea bush is actually the camellia sinensis bush
• All tea comes from the same bush, it depends on how it is processed
• To make Black tea the leaves are fermented fully, then dried, Green Tea is unfermented, it is withered then dried
• Fermentation is what makes the tea leaves dark, if you skip it then the leaves stay green. Are you following me?

Our guide also knew the famous Mossy forest inside and out, it was like an interactive National Geographic documentary.

Every inch of the trees here are literally covered in moss. It grows in huge, squishy clumps, as wet as unsqueezed out sponges. There are even huge clumps of moss near the tops of the trees which make it look like it is growing upside down. Moss hangs among the trees and long tendrils of it sway in the breeze.

See any Hobbits?

The moss is always wet and feels like you are walking on cushions. If it is not moss you are sinking in, then it is red slippery mud. The trail was narrow and the branches hung low so you had to bend over the entire time. It was like being in Boot Camp and doing a muddy assault course.

When Malaysia was a British Colony, the Brits would come to the highlands to do some hiking and refresh themselves in the cooler climate. This was exactly why 4 Canadians went there and I would say ‘mission accomplished’.