Cameron Highlands, Malaysia 07/16/08-07/18/08

The Cameron Highlands are hilly areas in the higher elevations of central Malaysia. There are many hiking trails there, as well as tea plantations, and strawberry farms, many of which offer tours. On the ride to Tanah Rata, the main town and the place where I stayed, I passed by a tea field. It was very pretty, but having already gone through tea fields in more scenic parts of India, I wasn't really interested in exploring them any further here.

Tanah Rata had good Indian food, but as far as hiking trails and water falls, I was sorely disappointed. Before going hiking I went to the information booth in town to get the latest information on the trails and see which would be the best to take. This was pointless because, although the information booth was open, it was deserted. I went there again after my day of hiking and there was still no one there.

Stuck in Kuala Lumpur

When traveling by bus from Melaka to Tanah Rata, I had to change buses in Kuala Lumpur. Since I could not be sure when the first bus would arrive, I could not reserve a seat on the second bus.

When I got to the Pudaraya bus terminal in KL at 12:30, I immediately tried to book a ticket to Tanah Rata. The next bus was scheduled to leave at 1:00pm. That would have been perfect, except the bus was full. I had to wait for the 3:30 bus. Crap.

I checked my bag at the bus station and wandered across Chinatown, hopped on a train, and went to Kuala Lumpur City Center (the mall attached to the Petronus towers) for lunch. I had bad Indian food and a crepe. I took my time and headed back to the bus station.

I hopped on the bus, which was 25 minutes late leaving.

Arrival

When I got to Tanah Rata, I checked into my hotel--KRS Pines. I had hoped for quiet. It was quiet except that every sound both inside and outside were transmitted directly into my room--exactly what I was trying to avoid. Oh, well. It wasn't that bad. Other than that, the place was fine.

After checking in, I went out to eat. It was already 8:30, but there were several places open. This is definitely a area that caters to tourists. I ate at an Indian place which was pretty good. I ate a lot of Indian food in Tanah Rata.

Hiking

The next day I got up and left to go hiking at 10:30. After failing to get any information at the tourist information office, I decided to take trail #9 to Robinson Falls. It was was just OK--a bit disappointing. It would have been better if you could actually see the falls through the trees and brush.

I continued on #9 to trail #8. This trail basically started straight up, rough and slippery. The whole trail was very steep with no views to compensate for it. Up and up and up and down and down and down and up and up and up and down and down and up and up. I was getting worried about how long it would take to get back. (I had food, water, a cell phone, and an emergency blanket.) I did not want to turn around because the trail I came up was not one I would want to go down again.

I ran into a young British guy coming the other direction and he said it was about two hours back. Crap. I had already been hiking two hours and I wanted out. Nonetheless, I felt much better for having seen him. It made me feel more secure to see someone coming from where I was going and getting a sense of how bad it would be.

A few minutes later, at the peak, I ran into an older traveler. He seemed to know the area. I asked him which was the best way down, and he told me to take trail #3 to trail #6, which I eventually did. It was good that I ran into him--the maps did not show #6 (or rather, they did show it, but they showed the old #6 which was miles away.) The guy stopped for lunch there and I stopped and ate a muffin and chatted a bit. He was originally from America but seems to have been on the road for years.

It was still a long trek back with much up and down, but not as much as trail #8. I saw Parit falls on the way back to town. It was a joke. A brown drop that was nothing to look at.

With the exception of one spot in the boggy bottom of a valley near the end of my hiking, the trails were easy to follow.

All and all, a very disappointing day of hiking. I decided that I would leave for Penang the next day.

I went back to the information desk when I got back to town. It was still empty.

An Even Worse Walk

After lunch, I went back to my hotel and rested a bit. I saw the young woman who works there and asked her about suggested hikes. The one she pointed out was to another mountain. I did not want another one of those hikes. I decided that I would just walk down the road to a scenic viewpoint shown on the map in Lonely Planet.

I started walking to the viewpoint that was supposedly a mile out of town. I walked and walked along the highway and never found it. I don't know if I went the wrong direction or if it was just not what I expected to be and I missed it. I did not see the tea fields that I expected. When I turned around it started raining. I was drenched and my right shoe developed a hole in the bottom. A metal bar was sticking out and clicking on the asphalt as I walked. The shoe was acting like a pump--every step pumped water into my shoe. I felt like a fool walking along that highway.

When I got to the hotel, I was soaked.

Departure

The bus ride out of the highlands from Tanah Rata to Penang was not as scenic as the ride coming from KL. Ugly buildings or stripped ground spoiled the scenery in a lot of places. I don't see the big attraction of the Cameron Highlands. While sitting on the bus, I lamented that Malaysia had been kind of disappointing so far.