Cameron Highlands

The rain forest adventure trek was quaint, but can be done on your own if you are amped up enough to do everything by hiking. At the start, one of the range rovers had a blowout and we all had to pile three carloads of people into two in order to get to the village for a blow dart demonstration. We all tried it, with poison-less darts made of bamboo. On first try, not only did I hit the board but I also hit the leaf attached as a target.

Because we were still waiting for the range rovers to come back, we decided to walk from the village through puddles of red mud. After 15 minutes, the rovers picked us up for an amazingly bumpy ride through rain-softened terrain. It was like being on a roller coaster without seat belts. Once we reached the top, we trekked through more mud and water, crossed a make-shift bamboo bridge where Alison nearly slipped through one of the bamboo poles that broke under her feet and the right railing fell. It was quite a scare but she managed to get across unscathed.

By the time we reached the Raflessia flower, we were caked with mud and sweat with soggy feet and pant legs. Apparently, this flower is actually a mushroom and smells like dead bodies or, as our tour guide joked, a Malay public toilet. The texture was bumpy and thick like an animal hide.

Afterward, we hiked back, many without shoes, jumped in the waterfall to wash off some of the mud, drank bamboo water and hopped into the range rovers for another bumpy ride down the mountain. Next stop was the BOH Tea factory that has roughly 200+ hectares of rolling landscape covered with bonsai-looking tea trees. The plantation is owned by a Scottish family who lives in Kuala Lumpur. It was quite a breathtaking site like green courdouroy hugging the lands voluptuous curves.

After lunch and a brief tour of the factory, we headed to the butterfly and insect observation. Imagine giant red and poisonous centipedes about 3/4 the length of your forearm, or mine at least. Giant beetles and mantis, millipedes and scorpions of indescribable size, yuck! as well as brightly coloured butterflies posing for snapshots. Next was the strawberry farm and back to the guesthouse for showers.

That night we has a Steamboat dinner, which is a soup where you cook your own ingredients. Unfortunately for Alison, the soup reminded her of the one we had in Laos that gave us food poisoning, we can thank the Lonely Planet for that one. Afterward, we went to Daniel's lodge for a campfire which wasn't much more than a group of Brits babbling about movies, actors and crap TV. Alison and I opted for playing a few rounds of pool and then bed. I really hate the day trippers.