Cameron Highlands (April 1-3)

The Cameron Highlands are really a relief in terms of climate. The temperatures are very moderate during the day and cool in the night. The main town Tanah Rata is located around 1500m above sea level and the highest mountains reach 2200m. In this part of the country, large areas are still covered with rain forest although settlements and agriculture are spreading rapidly (like everywhere in Malaysia). There are also a lot of tea plantations.

I arrived Sunday afternoon in beaming sunshine but few hours later I got to know the regular rainfalls here which tend to be quite heavy. At the guest house I met Marion from France and Dominic and Justina from Germany and we agreed to go trekking the next day. You can do that on your own here as the paths are pretty well signed. Everyone told us to go in the morning and thus avoid the regular afternoon-rainfalls. We started when it was clouded and ended up being showered because it started raining at 11am, not in the afternoon like usually! Although we got soaked to the skin, it was a really nice trek and the forest seemed even more mystic under these weather conditions.

Today I decided to sleep late because I always got up early within the last week. After my wake-up at 9:30am, I saw that there was sunshine and so I decided that I had to do something. This “something” ended up being a motor bike rental because I was too lazy to walk. I got an old bike with manual gear but I said to myself that someday I had to learn it. The rental station didn’t have an automatic bike anyway. I knew from a person in Pai how to drive such a bike but I hadn’t practised yet. To be honest I didn’t feel very comfortable with it, not because of the gear but rather because it was trembling in a strange way. I cruised through the tea plantations and there were some really nice views! I even entered a road which according to the lady from the bike rental was forbidden for their clients. I couldn’t resist driving uphill because of the views but at some point of the road I returned because it became too steep. I feared that the rain started early and I wanted to avoid driving downhill on a slippery road, it would have been kamikaze. I returned the bike after two hours (I really had enough) and spent the rest of the day hanging out in the guest house. It has a lovely terrace and is perfect for relaxing and meeting other travellers.

Tomorrow I will go to the Perhentian Islands, the first time at the beach on my whole trip!