More Tea Please! — TO FALL UP

Greatest Moment: We anticipated that Malaysia would be relaxing place, and that Cameron Highlands would be a beautiful landscape. However, we could have never anticipated the extreme peacefulness, the vastness of tea plantations, the manual work that still works the land, and the fairy-tale forestry. One memorable day we woke up early and ate breakfast at a nearby 7-11 (the only thing open). In its back alley we ate packaged muffins, cereal crackers, and granola while drinking water and chrysanthemum tea. As ready as ever, we began the hike up Gunung Brinchang, a steep and worthy trail!

This was our first introduction to Malaysian jungle, as the trail weaved through mossy roots, dangling vines, and thickets of bamboo and fern. Some areas we climbed we could not believe how green and Lord of the Rings-like they were, and our day began in this challenging but rewarding adventure.

But the real treat was the descent. We continued to reach BOH plantation, one of the largest tea plantations in Cameron Highlands. As we turned a curve in the road, the view took our breath away with endless rows tea bushes and rolling hills. As far as our eyes reached, peaks and slopes of the plantation produced the same endless delight and adoration! We walked for over an hour just to get to the other side of it, where we then sat at its tea house and drank BOH tea. The most memorable part of the experience was walking through sunshine then through rain, viewing the plantation workers pruning and sorting through their day’s work. It was beautiful. Do they see it anymore? The beauty of their workplace, the quality of their labors?

Worst Moment: Sadly, the scones are very expensive in comparison to what you can purchase for a meal. We would love to have scones with our tea, but we had to refrain from indulgence! Jamie’s worst moment was her huge let down when we finally got to eat Indian food. After two days of anticipated Indian cuisine, Jamie ate each bite of her masala in disappointed distaste.

Lesson Learned: Hitch-hiking is not scary here! Though careful, we saw many people doing it. Being so far in the country side, most people hitch a ride rather than take a taxi. Kathy stuck out her thumb, and a pick-up truck pulled in front of us. We climbed the tires into the bed of the truck, and tapped the side of the truck when we were ready to climb out! Simple and so fun!

Cultural insight: Tea, as with coffee and chocolates, has certain demands to its flavor and its quality. The altitude, well-drained soil, and climate of no-frost and abundant rain fall make this region perfect for tea growing. Tea is greatly influenced by the environment it is grown in. The differences one finds in tea depends on these factors: climate, soil, altitude, and rainfall. Initially, each tea leaf was plucked by hand, but now there are machines that make a higher yield. However, with the steeper hills, manual pruning is the only way to harvest those bushes. We watched many workers in the fields. They waved at us from the blue trucks of loaded tea leaf bags and between green rows of bushes. Everything about this place was beautiful.

And the tea is, DELICIOUS!

There is one tea that is a traditional Malaysian tea: Teh Tarik. It is a milk based drink that is so deliciously full of spice and texture! BOH plantation had its version of it, which Jamie happily consumed two orders of it. However, we are able to find that tea anywhere and everywhere, and are the better travelers for it! Besides the tea plantations, there are many farms around the area as well. Particularly strawberry farms, bee farms, and orchid plantations. We visited a strawberry farm, where we learned you can have strawberry flavored anything! Jamie enjoyed strawberry hot chocolate, Kathy drank strawberry coffee, and we both munched on the freshly picked fruits.