Tanah Rata Malaysia

Even though it had been raining in KL every day, we were still sweating bullets in the humid hot weather. It was time to head to the mountains to cool off a little. Cameron highlands is known for its fertile soil and perfect tropical climate to grow excellent produce, especially strawberries and tea. We were thrilled to check it out.

We jumped on a bus for 35rm ($11) and 4 hours later arrived in the town of Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. It was down pouring and we had no idea where to stay. 

Each of the places recommended in our guidebook appeared to be a long, wet walk away so we decided find the nearest room available in liveable condition (after 2 months traveling, our standards have dropped a bit) Fortunately for us, there was quite a few options nearby and we found a decent budget hotel for 50rm ($16) and it had hot water, good wifi, and even a TV. Sure it only had 4 channels, 2 of which were in English, but at least one of them was a commercial-free movie channel. It’s the little things….



After settling into our room off the main road, we decided to do a "country tour" which entailed visiting a butterfly, rose, strawberry, and bee farm, a local market, a Chinese temple, and a tea plantation.
All for 20rm ($6) per person.
We hopped in our van with other couples from Germany, and New Caledonia who were also traveling the world. We first headed to the Butterfly farm.

 There we saw many species of butterflies, a three horned beetle, scorpions, and some leaf insects. It was beyond incredible how much the leaf insect looked like a leaf!



Next on the tour was the rose garden. They had a large variety and all were beautiful.


Roy was excited to go to the bee farm next, considering his love for honey. We saw the bees in their hives being busy busy bees and got a little taste of their product. The ginger honey was most delicious.

Then we were off to one of the multiple strawberry farms in Cameron Highlands. We passed on "plucking" our own strawberries from the farm and got a fresh strawberry float instead. It was delicious! I think we made the right decision.
The next destination was the local market where people were selling all types of produce, grilled corn on the cob, souvenirs, chocolate covered strawberries and even honey comb. Roy couldn't resist the honey comb and got a little sliver.



Next in line, was the Chinese temple where Siobhan had more fun playing with the Coy fish outside than going inside the temple. whoops! Some people never grow up! 

The last stop on the trip was a visit to the Cameron Valley Tea Planation where we took a quick walk through some of the tea bushes and sampled some of their best tea. We greatly enjoyed our hot and fresh tea along with a ginger cake overlooking the scenic view.

This whole trip has been very hard on feet because we are always on the go, so we thought we would treat our piggies to some foot reflexology. Foot reflexology is a Chinese practice that believes that certain areas of your feet and hands are directly related to specific muscles, bones and organs in your body. For example, if you rub and massage the very tips of your toes, your frontal sinuses will clear up. Foot reflexology is very popular in Malaysia due to the large Chinese population living here which has great influence on the country's culture. The 45 minute foot massage was insane and we walked out on clouds.The night ended with some really excellent Indian food and the best Garlic Naan we've ever had.



The next day we had planned to go to the Perhentian Islands located on the east coast of Malaysia but due to an early monsoon season, the islands were off limits. We were really bummed, but what can you do? We decided to stay another day in Cameron Highlands and visit the most popular tea plantation in the area. BOH tea plantation.
According to our Lonely Planet travel book, it was a quick local bus ride and walk down the road to get to the plantation. We grabbed some amazing chocolate and banana Indian pancakes called roti for breakfast and ate them in a nearby park to wait for the bus that only came every 2 hours and slowly chugged up and down the hills.

 After getting off the bus, we learned that this "easy" commute to the plantation was a little harder than expected. We had to walk 3.5 km down a windy road to get to the plantation, and realized we were going to have to walk all the way back in the rain after waiting 30min for a taxi that never came. All the same, the BOH plantation and tea factory was well worth it.
The information center and factory were very interesting and informative about the tea making process. We learned the 5 steps in producing tea:


1. After the tea leaves have been picked either by hand, or machine in the planation, tea leaves are wilted for 12-20 hours in a large bin.


2. The tea leaves are sent to a roller machine which twist and break the withered leaves, distorting and rupturing its internal cells, liberating and exposing its juices for fermentation

3. The leaves then ferment (oxidize) in large trays for 1.5 - 2 hours during which the characteristic flavour and aroma are developed. The leaves turn a brownish color.


4. Next the leaves are put in the dryer. The dryer machine  reaches 100 degrees Celsius using a furnace that burns rubber wood branches for about 20 minutes. The fermentation haults, and only about 3% of the moisture of the tea leaf remains. The juices are crystalized and the tea turns the familiar black color.


5. Finally the dried tea leaves are sorted with vibrating machines to become the multiple grades BOH tea offers. Each grade of tea has its own density and flavor characteristics.


Some specific production workers are responsible for testing the tea at all stages of the tea making process to ensure that each batch obtains the proper quality of BOH tea.

We enjoyed sampling the Premium Garden Tea on a balcony overlooking the beautiful plantation and began our long journey back.



Before leaving Cameron Highlands, we had to try one more thing, the famous steamboat! A steamboat is a very interactive meal where you are given a huge pot of soup on a burner in the middle of your table, plates of veggies, various types of meat/chicken/fish, and noodles that you cook in the boiling soup at your own will.


Siobhan was so excited to try the meal, as soup is one of her favorite foods.
We had a fantastic time making our own dishes with the ingredients. It was all so scrumptious. Even the jellyfish, cuddle fish and prawns. We're still not big fish ball fans yet though.


Cameron Highlands was everything we needed and more. We had a great time and felt a little more relaxed to go into a bustling city atmosphere again. Off to Penang!

Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Indonesia was amazing, but it was time to move on and experience another country and culture. We woke up at 3 am for a 6am flight to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.

However, when we got to the airport, our 6am flight to KUL was not listed on the main flight board! So many terrible thoughts rushed to our head! Did we have the wrong date? wrong time? Were we scammed when we bought the tickets?! 3am is not the best time for jokes. Fortunately we were not mistaken or scammed and got on our flight as planned. Thanks AirAsia for giving Siobhan a mild heart attack!

We arrived in KL at 9 am and we were starving knowing we had a long journey to find our destination in a city we had never been before. And what should appear before us, but the heavenly, most amazing, fantastic, DUNKIN DONUTS! Siobhan was beyond ecstatic to get a proper iced coffee, and Roy was thrilled to try some of the new donut flavors! We tried black forrest cake, almond creme, peanut butter and jelly, and of course we had to get a traditional Boston cream.

After our bellies were happily full, we hopped on a bus, a train, a subway, and then walked through Chinatown to get to the Backpackers Inn.

Chinatown, what a lively place. Full of stalls of knickknacks, knock off bags, and endless amount of real Chinese food. 

Roy dove right into the culture ordering Soya porridge, clay pot noodles, and steamed pork buns, where as Siobhan was a little more hesitant and was constantly saying "what is this" pointing to the food in front of her, with Roy replying "I have no idea just eat it!" We would say about 80% of the time it was really excellent food.

After unloading our bags, it started down pouring. A concept so foreign to us because we were in sunny Indonesia for so long. We hopped on a free city bus and headed to Bukit Bintang, a part of the Golden triangle and one of the best shopping areas of the world. We arrived (a little underdressed might we add) to a 6 floor mega mall full of top designers and top restaurants. Gucci, Prada, Tiffany's, Hugo Boss were all lined up in a row. Although we did not buy anything, we enjoyed window shopping. Well maybe more Siobhan than Roy.

The following morning, Roy was set on finding Masjid India aka little India for breakfast. So we walked many blocks over to the colorful little India with endless amounts of food, halkers, Sari stores, and blasting Indian music coming from everywhere. 

We got the best lamb skewer we've ever had along with curry potato pockets costing less than 30 cents, fried crab, fried sweet potato puffs, tapioca, rose tea juice, fresh sugar cane juice and sour plum juice. It was the most versatile breakfast we've ever had!

After breakfast, we headed 14 Kilometers out of the city to the Batu Caves to climb the famous 276 steps to the cave, and see the largest golden statue of the Hindu Lord Murugan in the world.

We arrived, and were blown away of the limestone caves and temples inside. The Batu caves is a very popular Hindu shrine dedicated to Lord Murugan, a Hindu Deity with a 42.7M statue of him guarding the front and with  the Sri Mahamariamman Temple inside to worship at. It was incredible to stand in the caves and see nature at its finest, with religion harmoniously accentuating it.

We hurried back to our hotel to start our afternoon City Tour of KL that we booked to get a little taste of the city. We had the BEST tour guide. He knew everything about all the historical sights and the history of Malaysia. We learned so much.

Our first stop brought us to a Chinese Buddist Temple dedicated to the sky God. We entered the temple with the upmost respect because there were many people praying. We took off our shoes, made a donation and lit 4 incense. The details and colors of the temple were magnificent.

Our next stop was the national Islam Mosque. It was very impressive. Large, clean, and spacious. It was full of praying rooms, speaking halls, water fountains and stone walkways. To be respectful, we were given light purple robes for the holy area.

After the religious part of the tour, we made our way to Independence square, a large plaza built in honor of Malaysia succeeding from Britain in 1957 including one of the largest flagpoles in the world (100M.)  Every year on August 31st this plaza holds an exciting celebration of parades and streets full of people.

Following Independence square, we visited the National Memorial. We learned from our tour guide, Japan invaded Malaysia in WWII and occupied the country for three years. Malaysia fought back but were unsuccessful because they were attacked from the North and South in Thailand and Singapore. Many soldiers died defending their country. The names of those courageous men were engraved on the monument. It was a great memorial.

The next on our list was the Royal Selangor Pewter Factory, the largest pewter factory in the world. In the past, pewter was made out of tin and lead, which was very hazardous to people's health. Now pewter is made from a combination of three elements: tin, copper and alimony. Kuala Lumpur, before it became a booming city was known for its successful Tin mines. We saw the process of molding, filing, and detail work it took to make each pewter object produced by the factory. We even got to try some of the detail work ourselves and found it extremely challenging. These workers are very good at what they do.

After the pewter factor,  we were off to the Royal Palace where the current King and Queen of Malaysia live. We learned there are 9 Sultans in Malaysia and every 5 years, the Sultans vote on who will be the next King to live in the monstrous Palace of Kuala Lumpur.

 Its not all fun and games though. Although the Sultans and King have no real government power like the Queen of England, the King is required to sign and seal every official government document from Parliament. We were not allowed to go inside the palace but we imagined an incredible and astonishing place.

The final destination on our tour was the KL Tower standing at 420 meters! We took an elevator to the observation deck at about 350M and viewed the lively city of Kuala Lumpur. This city from above is huge with skyscrapers spanning the horizons in every direction. It was really cool. We even saw the iconic Petronas Twin Towers light up right next to us.

After all that fun, we were exhausted. So we took a quick nap before eating and heading out to a trendy, upscale bar called Skybar located on the 33rd floor of the Traders hotel to enjoy a drink while looking over the city. 

Then we headed to a night club called Zouk, where we danced the night away to the bumping house music. Although most of the people in the club were Malaysian, most of the music was American!

And afterwards, what better way to cure the 3am  munchies than some tasty satay from the night market!

KL was a fantastic energetic city. We had done so much in so little time, but we felt it was time to chill and take it easy. We heard about a nice place called the Cameron Highlands, so we bought a bus ticket, and we're back on the road!