Cameron Highlands

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After spending 4 nights in Kuala Lumpur we made our way to the main bus station for the city, Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS). We booked a bus online to take us all the way to Cameron Highlands at 10:15am with Uniti express this cost us 35MYR (£6.29) each, not bad for a 3 and half hour bus ride.

Upon arrival at the terminal I presented my voucher code on my phone this proved to be incorrect and they needed me to go print it off, which it never said on the booking, it says please present the code. Luckily they had a printer in the terminal which was free to use, so probably happens many times.

The bus was quite nice, and not very full, we had large seats that reclined back with air con, we were pleasantly surprised, as this was a lot more comfortable than other buses we have been on. The trip included a half way point lunch stop over to grab food and use the toilet. The journey was long and once we got closer to Cameron Highlands we started to go higher up and round all the bendy roads. It seemed like the bus driver was driving faster once he got to this stage. We arrived in Tanah Rata which was the main bus station, and luckily we booked to stay in this town.

We walked to the apartment, but found that the address was incorrect, luckily the host was on whatsapp and he kindly picked us up and explained that google has incorrectly named the roads. We booked a private room and it was newly refurbished, the host was probably the most friendly person we have ever booked a room with. He seemed to be very interested in what we are doing and where we are from. He expressed his opinions about life and wanted to see how we changed bed sheets as he knew we were super hosts on airbnb. The climate is a lot cooler here, and at night it was actually cold so no need to have air con, we needed bed covers.

The town centre was only 10 minutes walk away so I went to get food, there are many places in the town to buy food from, for some reason I seemed to have this impression that Cameron Highlands would be in the middle of no where with no access to anything, I was very wrong. The food was good and cheap, about 8RM (£1.60) for a meal.

The next day we tried to rent a motorbike but found out that the bike hire shop would need an international license, there seems to be a lot of conflicting information about it but this place said no to my UK license apparently other places don’t care. We ended up just going into Tanah Rata and the host was happy to give us a lift. We spent the afternoon wandering around the town and had some food and Sassi got a massage for her knee to help with the pain. We then got a taxi, no ubers available here, and it cost a lot considering the journey was less than 1km, compared to uber. We weren’t surprised because we knew from reading blogs that taxi drivers will try and over charge you.

The next day we took a half day countryside tour, we were picked up at 8:30am in a jeep and sped off to pick up the other guests joining us.

The tour included:

Butterfly park

We weren’t overly bothered but once we were walking around, it was quite interesting seeing huge stick insects that we thought were sticks. Butterflies that would sit on our hands, chickens (oh wait that wasn’t impressive) many other insects and reptiles.

View point

Beautiful viewpoint showing the mountains covered in tea trees, great spot for selfies as the guide put it. He also gave us some facts about the area and tea.

Mossy Forest

The mossy forest was as the title puts it a very mossy forest, moss grows everywhere and the tour includes a walk along the boarded walk way which goes over the forest to make sure you don’t destroy and also slip on the moss. The views were equally amazing, and the guide provided more facts about the forest, but be prepared the board walk includes a lot of stairs.

Boh Tea plantation

BOH is the tea company that makes tea in the highlands, we were able to go see a working tea plantation, and then have some tea in the cafe. We opted for ice tea as we were limited on time and it is a lot quicker to drink a cold drink. The view from the cafe was again really awesome, as you can see we enjoy beautiful views.

Overall the tour was a great little trip around the Cameron highlands for a good price, if you are unable or don’t want to hire a bike then this a good way to see the area. We did opt for the cheaper option which was 70RM (£12.50) each but this kept us busy until 1pm. After this they dropped us back at our apartment.

The area is lovely and a nice little break from the hot humid climate, so if you need a place to rest and see some beautiful mountains, while sipping on some tea then we recommend the Cameron Highlands. Just remember you might need a jumper for the cold nights.

Buses from Kuala Lumpur take around 3-4 hours and you can take a bus to Penang afterwards which takes around 3-4 hours or do it the other way round. This seems to be a very common route for people traveling in Malaysia as we met others doing the same thing.

[kad_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab2lfNmwIpc” ]

 

 

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