36363 km
CAMERON HIGHLANDS
Home to the famous Malaysian tea and known for the numerous jungle treks your best bet is to make a base in the town of Tanah Rata or Brinchang. This place after a while is inland again and getting to it requires a few hours climb even though we have enjoyed the climb through the windows of a mini van.
Upon arrival we have found out that Tanah Rata offers a little bit unimpressive value for the buck in terms of accommodation. Despite this we made it our ground zero for the following few days. First order of business we have decided for was a trek through jungle and moss Forrest to reach the peak of Gunung Batu Brinchang at 2032 meters. The climb to the summit is not too difficult through a small path but the heat and humidity is just a serious killer. ...and this should be the coldest place in Indonesia. In fact is the main selling point to local tourists who swamp the place in the weekends. Coming from Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown the selling pitch goes something like: 'Cameron Highlands, the coolest place in Malaysia'. No it's not the nightlife, it's literally the coolest place and the night temperatures may even drop bellow 20C. May not sound like much but so close to the equator every 1 degree Celsius makes a huge difference. Anyhow, once on the top a beautiful view of the surrounding hills covered in thick jungle opens up on the front of you. You can literally see the jungle breathing thick clouds. The moss forest located just on your descent is a magical place and you almost expect unicorns chasing fairies to pop out from behind the next moss covered tree. Descend further down on the loop of ‘Trek No.1’ and you are likely to stumble upon a tea plantation. These plantations are nothing short of beautiful. Vivid green hills covered in short and neat rows of bushes that produce the tasteful BOH tea. While sipping on an ice cold brew of this local tea I'm being told that BOH stands for 'Best of Highlands'. It is one of the companies if not the biggest to produce tea here. The scale is immense, tea covered hills every direction you look. Plantations usually offer a small shop and often a museum or a factory floor visit. The highlands have one more ace up the sleeve. You can visit a strawberry farm as these thrive here all year round. I have tasted some delicious jam and ice cream too!
We are leaving the coolest place in Malaysia just a day after the solar eclipse. The full eclipse was only visible further down south from Singapore and South Sumatra, but it still made for one surreal sunrise and made the Higlands just a bit cooler.
