Cameron Highlands

We traveled from Penang to the Cameron Highlands which is about 1600 meters above sea level and temperature in the low twenties. The highlands are know for there agriculture, mainly their ability to grow many fruits and vegetables including strawberries. We only had two days here but we made the most of it. The afternoon of the first day we headed out on a hike to waterfall through forest and some of the local plantations. The path wasn't really well marked and we didn't have a mapped so about half way through we made a German friend who helped us find our way. About 85% of the hike was a nice gradual downward slope along the hill ridges overlooking the jungle and farms, the last 15% was an almost vertical incline where we had to basically climb back up to the top. I think this was our first time sweating from physically effort and not just the heat.

Fruit and Vegetable Farm

A dam we found along our hike!

We treated ourselves that night to Tiger Beer and a Steamboat buffet which is a dish where they bring out a pot of tom yum soup on a burner and a bunch of plates of raw vegetables and meat and you cook it yourself at the table. It was good until the end when everything just started to taste like fish.  

Steamboat

Our second day we went on the Countryside Tour which took you around to different farms and gardens in the Highlands area. We visited a:

• Insect and Butterfly garden showing the different species you can find in the Highlands area
• Strawberry farm, where they grow the strawberries in a elevated rows using coconut husks as soil and drip irrigation. (Fun fact! the strawberries don't have a season so they continually produce fruit every 3 months). They were not as tasty as Ontario strawberries though.
• Rose and flower garden
• Tea plantation and factory- one of the largest in Malaysia
• Honey farm
• Local Buddhist temple.

Cameron Highlands Strawberries

Boh Tea plantation

Next and last stop in Malaysia is the capital, Kuala Lumpur!