Roses, Lavender, Cactus, and Bees . . .

Soren, the guest house manager, has hooked us up with a car and driver for the day so we're off to see the 'sights'.  The Highlands are renowned for the hiking trails through this dense jungle terrain but the weather is pretty skunky so this will not be a hiking day.  Instead, we opt for the Rose Valley, the Lavender Farm, and the Bee Farm, all of which are relatively sheltered and we've borrowed umbrellas.

Interesting, this is more like a commercial rose operation than a 'valley'.  Reminded us of a trip through a really high-end nursery like Swanson's in Seattle.  As did the Lavender Farm . . .

There were actually more non-lavender plants than lavender but beautiful nonetheless.  And, big surprise, the cactus garden!  They looked kind of peaked but we were amazed to see cacti in this jungly environment.

Bee farm was not at all photogenic but we did buy a couple of 'tubes' of local honey and learned that they have not had any 'hive collapse'.  Long and full day . . .

The Amazing Highlands

Four plus hours by bus from Penang we're almost in the Cameron Highlands.  'Almost' because the last couple of kilometers takes us an additional two hours so we're quite late arriving.  It's dark; the delay has been because of the 'night market' which is a long-standing Friday and Saturday night institution. The streets are utterly clogged with stalls, cars, scooters, bicycles, busses, people - it's a grand colorful mess.  These night markets are absolutely the norm all over southeast Asia - we've seen them in every city and large town we've visited.

We have five nights here and the guesthouse we're booked into is lovely - they greet us by name when we arrive after a 2-3 minute walk from the bus stop.  Ahhh . . . settle in, and then off for a quick bite.

(This post is out of sequence so this was our first day.)  We decide on a walk to MARDI - the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute - which is both a garden and nursery.

Another one of these condom-like things which is about a foot long!

Looks like a troll house on a stem.

Have no idea what this is but it's oh so exotic!

And then I offered to photograph these young women and they promptly wanted their photo taken with us.  All the women - young and old - wore the head covering.

And one of our absolute favorite plants, the datura brugmansia which was growing, sapprophyte-like, in a fir tree!

And one that just grew, untended, right near the entrance.  Tim wanted to take this one home.

Lovely day, long walk there and back but most delightful.  The MARDI gardens were filled with families which we thought was so unusual.  There were no rides, no video games, no kid-centric activities but lots and lots of kids.   And then on the way home, walking on one side of the canal we waved to a family having a picnic on the opposite bank.  They enthusiastically waved back and beckoned us over to share their picnic!  We declined but were so touched.  

If You've Ever Wondered About Tea . . .

Tea's one of those things that I've pretty much always taken for granted.  It comes in a box, in a bag, loose in a tin - a bunch of crunched up leaves and bits that one puts into hot water, steeps for a few minutes, and the result is a favorite drink worldwide.  We're now in the Cameron Highlands, one of the tea-growing/processing capitols of the world and are amazed.  At approximately 5,000' in a mountainous jungle terrain, tea plantations abound.

Those stripes you see are the walkways for the workers (most of whom are from Nepal) who painstakingly shear the leaves, load them into baskets, and finally stuff the leaves into 50 kg sacks for transport to the processing plant.

This is tedious work and the workers get about 900 MR a month - roughly $1/day.  They are provided with housing (dorms) but not food.  And, amazingly tea plants can be sheared every three weeks!  In this climate they seem to grow while we're watching.  Interestingly, now they can't shear fast enough - they can't get workers.  The locals won't work for $1/day, and more restrictive immigration laws have meant fewer workers from other countries.

Sign advertising the basic data of this tea operation.  The actual processing was done by the time we got there but it's all quite simple:  dry, sort, crush, separate, package.

View from the tea house at the BOH (Best of Highlands) Plantation.   This is owned by the Russell Family from the UK, and one of the billboards describing the history of the Plantation says that the founder worked for $1/day in the late 1800's!  Not much has changed . . .

And we can't help but think of the incredible effort to clear this land which is a dense, very dense jungle!  We're hoping to trek to the Mossy Forest which includes the oldest tree on the planet - weather is not cooperating.

Fortunately, we're in a most wonderful guesthouse (Arundina) in Tanah Rata (the main town in the Highlands) and have been given the 'best room in the house' - with access to a gorgeous garden - despite having booked the basic double room.  The manager, Soren, is of Indian descent (from Chennai) but he is third generation Malay/Indian and has no real connection to India.  However, Malaysia is a Muslim State and he, as a Hindu, does not enjoy the same rights and privileges as a full-on Malay.  Every resident has an identity card which specifies their status - Soren is a Bumi Petra (sp?) which means that he's not a 'real' Malay and definitely not a Muslim.  What this means is that he pays more for a car loan, is not entitled to some of the 'perks' of Malaysian citizenship and no matter how long he lives here, he will always be a 'Bumi Petra'.  No matter, he is a joyful, friendly young man whose wife is from Sarawak, Indonesia (Borneo) and they have one 3yo daughter who is an absolute sweetie.

Enough for one day's adventure - tomorrow I think we'll 'do' more of the indoor attractions as it looks like this wet weather is here for a long visit.