Cameron Highlands

Before I start ... WARNING ... photo overload!!!

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Tuesday we left for Cameron Highlands for a couple of nights. We hadn't been there before but had heard how nice it was. It's a very beautiful & interesting place, but words alone can't describe it and even if the words are accompanied by photos, it still doesn't do it justice. I shall do my best! :-)

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We ended up driving to Ipoh and then back down to Cameron Highlands - mainly because of the road (which is very narrow and winds up the mountains) and Maddison and her Mummy get carsick hehehe :-) Maddison did really well though and was only sick once about half an hour before we arrived at our hotel.

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We past a few marble quarries.

And one stretch of the road had a lot of these little stalls on each side ... some seemed to be "resting" spots for numerous young men (I have no idea what they were up to!), others were selling things (we think honey and some type of vege - not sure exactly).
And then there were the tunnel houses! I knew there were a lot of them, but I wasn't expecting this sight!!
Acres of them stretching out between the valleys taking up every available bit of space. There hardly seemed to be room between some of them to drive a vehicle. The ground that didn't have tunnel houses was terraced and had plants growing. All land that could be used was!

Then we came to a little township ... and we spied the Land Rovers! HUNDREDS of them! I wished I could have got an aerial photo to show how many there were! Lyndon and I were laughing and decided it was the place to dump old well-loved Land Rovers!!
Watching them drive around the corners were interesting - they drove round on the wall of the tires the suspension was so good! ;-)

I told there was a lot didn't I!
And then obviously when they can't go any further you park it up, take off the wheels and use the deck as a rubbish dump!
This seemly dilapidated building housed stacks upon stacks of cardboard boxes. I presume it was a "shop" where the farms purchased their boxes to pack their produce for sale. (I think you would have to wipe off several layers of dirt & dust before you could pack fresh produce in them!)
Once we had arrived at the hotel and unpacked we decided to order room service for the kids dinner (hot dog & chips!) and when they had finished we all went to a steamboat restaurant next door and Lyndon & I had our meal.

If you haven't had steamboat before ... basically it's a soup (we had the non-spicy one ... chicken) and pile in all bits you want from the accompanying plates and cook them in the soup. Greens, mushroom, eggs, seafood & chicken.
I had no idea what half those things on my plate were ... but I ate them anyway :-)
Wednesday we piled back in the car and stopped at this place where there was every conceivable type of cactus you could ever imagine!

And in amongst the cacti were other flowering plants & "Christmas Trees" of all things! :-)
Then we went to a Strawberry Farm. This one was on the way to the tea plantation we were going to and the signs looked great! Great advertising is all I can say heheehe
Entrance to the "animal farm" !! Lets just say that the signage was most excellent! ;-)
Inside ... there was a cage with hens & roosters, one with 3 geese, another with one rabbit and one with 3 rabbits, and then the piles of wood and of course the washing line! hahahaa At least the animals looked clean & healthy.
So we picked strawberries ... well Aaron & Maddison did really.


They had lots of fun :-)
The man that was helping the kids was VERY keen to take a photo of me. I had no idea why and then he asked me to hold my hands up palms facing him! Then he held up the strawberries! Ahh now I understand hehehe
Strawberry ice-cream with fresh strawberries was next of the agenda of course! :-)

I was most amused at the dish washing station!! This photo is especially for my NZ readers hehehe (I was kinda glad I saw him doing this AFTER I had eaten my ice-cream!) ;-)
Next stop was the tea plantation.
Some pics of the road in ... The ferns reminded us of the West Coast in NZ.

Acres and acres of tea.

We walked up a steep track to the cafe.
There were several men along the way harvesting the tea. They cut the leaves with the shears and then tossed them over their shoulders into the basket on their backs.
View from the cafe. There was a little settlement for the workers of the tea plantation. They even had a school :-)
Thursday we left Cameron Highlands and headed to Penang. But that's another post in itself! I will be back :-)

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Oh and I have to add that it was about 12degs C colder than back in KL. I know ... I shouldn't complain at 23degs when it's snowing back at both our parents place in NZ heheee

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Thanks for visiting.