Trekking in the Cameron Highlands!

Hello once again, we're back and updating you on the past few days. It's been so nice being in the cool refreshing air of the highlands, but all too soon we'll be back in the hot humid air of the lowlands. We've been pretty energetic over the past few days and are rather achy and sore now, but we're bearing up! Here's what we've been up to anyway.

SATURDAY 9th June

Today was quite good. We actually got up and got going this morning and made our way out to Air Hitam, near to Penang Hill again, so that we could go to the largest Chinese Temple in the area - Kek Lok Si. On our way up we had a bit of a gauntlet of souvenir stalls to fight our way through, but as long as we kept moving, we managed to not get pulled over by someone trying to sell us things! At the top we came across the Pond of Liberation - although it didn't seem too liberating for the turtles trapped inside (there must have been verging on a hundred or so of them and it wasn't very big), especially for the ones that had died and were just left floating around. We soon reached the Temple itself though and began wandering around to explore. Our first find was the Pagoda, which we decided to climb to the top of, which was quite sweaty work, considering how hot it was as usual! We then wandered around some more, looking at altars and rooms of worship and then made our way to the top of the Temple complex, where there was an enormous statue of a Bodhisattva, it was 120 feet high and completely cast in bronze - the largest statue of it's kind in the area. Unfortunately there was construction work going on, as they are building a vast 16 pillared pavilion to go over the top to protect the statue from the elements. We were a little disappointed with the Temple, as there wasn't as much there to see as we'd expected, but it was still a nice trip for the morning.
Once we'd finished at the Temple and run the gauntlet of stalls back down to the street, we had to jump on a bus back to George Town, from where we caught a bus to Batu Ferringhi, as we wanted to see the Dragon Boat Races we were told about at the tourist information office. Once at Batu Ferringhi, we saw a poster for the Boat Races and realised that they were in fact another 6-8 km down the road! So we had to wait for another bus, which dropped us off at the pier, from where we still couldn't see any signs of the boat races! So we went into a little shop and asked for directions, where a family kindly offered to let us tag along with them to get to the Boat Races as they were going themselves. So they gave us a lift the rest of the way - which was a real relief when we saw the huge hill we would have otherwise had to trek up to get there and they dropped us off at the top. We had a bite to eat and then sat and watched the Boat Races for about an hour. It wasn't quite what we were expecting and there did seem to be more competitors present than spectators! So we decided to make our way back down the hill to the main road to catch the bus again. Steve got some chilled corn water to drink on the way as well, he really liked it, but I found it slightly bizarre! It was a fair old walk, but we managed to get there in the end and after a bit of waiting, a bus turned up and we were able to make our way back to George Town once again.

SUNDAY 10th June

It was a very early start this morning, as we needed to get our bags packed and meet our taxi driver at 07.15 so he could take us to the bus station. Once at the bus station, he kindly took us up to the ticket office so that we could find out what number bus we needed to board and he showed us which bus it was and where it would pull up when it was time for us to get loaded onto it. The bus was quite nice, it had huge seats in it, which reclined and everything, but it was still pretty uncomfortable having to be on a bus for so long to get all the way to the Cameron Highlands.
After around 5 to 6 hours, we finally pulled into the bus station at Tanah Rata and as we stepped off the bus, someone from one of the guesthouses we wanted to stay at was there and offered to take us there so we could look at the room and decide if we wanted to stay or not. It's a really nice guesthouse, so we decided to stay put and got settled into yet another room before heading off into the town of Tanah Rata to explore a little bit, although to be fair, we soon found out that there isn't really a huge amount to Tanah Rata!

MONDAY 11th June

We were absolutely insane today! We decided to go for a nice trek through the highlands today and picked out a nice sounding route and set out on our way. However, we soon found out that the guidebook wasn't lying when it stated that the path was steep and strenuous, as in places it was almost vertical and you literally had to haul yourself up using tree roots and slippy foot holds! I managed to fall over a couple of times and so by the time we got to the top I had a fair layering of mud over me. After an exhausting 2 and a half hours we finally made it to the top of the hill and sat down to some well-earned lunch! We then decided to begin our descent, but found that we couldn't find the trail we had initially wanted to use, but had to go on a shorter route back down. It was a pretty tough and steep descent and was another slippery route and so I took a few more tumbles and added to my coating of mud, so by the time we got back my trousers were a browny colour rather than the green they'd started out as! But it was a good walk and as mad as it may sound, we decided to do another walk, which, according to the map and book were quite short and not too strenuous. However, we soon found that the route very steeply descended and once we got out to the road, where the return route started, we realised it was getting relatively late for starting on the way back, when it was going to take roughly 2 hours. So, instead we made our way to the main road to wait for a bus or taxi to take us back into Tanah Rata. We didn't have to wait for too long when a taxi turned up and dropped us off at the guesthouse, which was a huge relief! We spent the evening feeling pretty worn-out at the hostel having dinner and watching the movie that was playing on the TV.

TUESDAY 12th June

Another day of insanity, although we hadn't thought it would be so bad. We decided to do another Highland trek and so caught the bus to Binchang where the route started and after being pointed in the right direction we managed to get our walk underway. For the first half of the walk, it was very easy going compared to yesterday's walk, but towards the end it started to undulate severely and some of the ascents were just as bad as yesterday and so we were again scrambling up rocks and tree routes etc. What made this walk worse was the amount of boggy areas, where very unexpectedly you would sink vast amounts into the mud! After 2 hours of hard work we managed to make it to the top and luckily found a shelter to hide under, as it was starting to rain and very quickly became torrential! So we sat, absolutely caked in mud and a bit soggy, eating our lunch! I was muddier than Steve, as I'd managed to fall over a couple of times again!
As the rain eased off we decided to start wandering down the road to the Tea Plantation we wanted to visit. A few people stopped and offered to take us down to the main road, but stupidly we thought from the extremely useless map we have (that doesn't even have a scale), that it wouldn't be too far to the plantation and so declined. However, after over an hour of walking we'd only just arrived at the plantation! It was soon closing and it was still raining very hard and we were soaked through to the skin and so decided to just get to the main road so we could get a bus back to Tanah Rata. After another hour or so of walking we finally made it to the main road, but after 15 minutes of standing around we decided to walk towards Binchang and just keep our eyes open for a bus or taxi on the way. After 45 minutes or more of walking along the road, we still hadn't made it to Binchang, but a taxi did finally come along and so feeling exhausted and soggy we got in and got dropped back off at the guesthouse, where we had a very well-earned shower before heading out for some dinner!

WEDNESDAY 13th June

We had a bit of a late start, but in the end caught the bus back to Binchang! Now mum, don't get too jealous at this point, but we went back to the Tea Plantation we'd passed yesterday. We managed to make much better time than yesterday, as we weren't already tired from walking for 2 hours and it was also not throwing it down with rain! So after about an hour of walking we made it to the Sungai Palas Tea Plantation. We had a tour around the tea factory - where, I'm not joking, we were inhaling tea from all the tea dust that was flying around (you would have been right at home there mum)! After the tour, we treated ourselves to lunch at the plantation's cafe and had each had a cup of tea using the leaves from the plantation - it was very nice!
It was then time to make our way back down to the main road to get a bus back to Tanah Rata. Once we got down, we found out that the bus wasn't due for another half an hour, so we decided to have a little wander around the Butterfly Garden. It was OK, but as well as butterflies, they had lots of other animals, like insects, snakes, birds, rabbits etc which were kept in rather poor conditions, and we even saw another dead turtle in one cage. So it wasn't a great trip to have made, so we ended up leaving after about 10 minutes and sat outside waiting for the bus to come instead!

That's about all we've done since our last blog. We're off to Taman Negara National Park tomorrow, so it's going to be sad leaving behind the cool refreshing weather of the highlands and going back to the hot humid weather we're so used to, but we've got to keep moving on! Hope everyone is well, missing you all as usual!