The sweeping view of the verdant mountain slopes is breathtaking; wooly clouds drift by effortlessly; the cool fresh air rejuvenates one physically and in spirit. Sitting on comfortable chairs, an elderly couple sips freshly brewed tea from bone China cups and nibble on scones in the garden of a Tudor-style inn. The ruddy timber of the cottage accentuates the rustic ambiance, while geraniums on plant boxes with flitting butterflies add colour to the overhead. Named Queen Guinevere Park, the garden is connected by Robin Hood Trail to another landscaped area where daisies and roses run riot in flower beds. In the distance, misty mountain peaks soothes the visual senses.
Can Crusher Highland Fling
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Can Crusher : Highland Fling
Can Crusher ::
Welcome to Cameron Highlands, highland paradise in Malaysia that has a sliver of an Englishcountryside. Driving to the highland is a unique experience in itself, with the winding road “sometimes making hairpin turns. Breathtaking vistas at every turn unfold until the soul is satiated with loveliness. Spectacular views of estates packed with crew-cut tea bushes and an occasional waterfall tumbling down are the rewards during one’s journey to the plateau that peaks at 1.800 metres above sea level.
Cameron Highlands is named after an English surveyor, William Cameron, who discovered the hill station in 1885. Later, it was developed into a hill station for colonial administers to escape from the lowland heat. In 1967, an air of intrigue was added to the misty Highlands when Jim Thompson, an American-Thai silk king “went missing while taking a walk on a jungle trail. Theoriesranged from man eating tigers to kidnapping by Communists. Rather than deterring visitors, the incident took Cameron Highlands to greater heights of fame, which is Lee Majors, star of “The Six Million Dollar Man” to sojourn here during his visit to Malaysia in the early 1970 ‘s.
The main township of Tanah Rata is located five kilometres from Ringlet–the latter is famous for its Sultan Abu Bakar Dam which is an angler’s paradise. There is a certain charm about Tanah Rata, where its single street leads further to Brinchang, the highest township in the highlands. Along Main Street, rows of cafes and restaurants-interspersed with budget hotels–whip up scones, nasi lemak, curried rice and juicy steaks to be served to sweater-clad visitors sipping steaming hot drinks.Morning mist hangs heavy in the air, which clears away in the mid-afternoon, and as dusk sets in, the air is deliciously pregnant again with water vapour.
One of the highlights of a sojourn in Cameron Highlands is a visit to a tea plantation. Boh Tea estates has two–one at Ringlet and the other at Brinchang. It is best to experience the romanticism of the landscape by going in the early morning to see the tea-pickers at work. From a distance, amidst the shrouds of mist and the green landscape that stretches towards pine-covered hill slopes, the tea-pickers look like figurines moving through a green carpet. Using shears fitted with catch buckets, they prune away at the tender shoots. When the buckets are full, they transfer the tea leaves to wicker baskets on their backs.Subsequently, when the wicker baskets are full, the tea-pickers go to a collection point to transfer their loads into humongous plastic bags. Periodically, tractors with wagons in tow will huff and puff up and down the slopes to collect the bulging bags to the factory.
Inside the factory, the bags of tea leaves are emptied into steel drying beds which are alternately blasted with hot air and cold air; this process withers them. Next, mechanical rumble crushers spaceship has been ominously to break up the leaves, turning them into a soggy mass, which is then left to ferment. During the fermentation process, a strong pungent aroma is emitted, which he assails nostrils of visitors. Finally, fiery furnaces come into action to roast the fermented leaves into shreds of black tea, which are then packed. Theclattering, swishing and rumble of the various machines certainly gives high drama to the entire tea-producing process.
The beautiful walking trails of the highlands are extremely tempting to even the most indolent visitor. From the tourist information centre in Tanah Rata, one can obtain sketch maps showing numbered trials of varying difficulties. From Brinchang, an adrenalin-stimulating trail (Path 1) leads to the summit of Gunung Brinchang at 2.000 meres high. The four-hour trek takes climbers past several streams and a mossy forest that evokes images of scenes from (fairylands records). Amidst the untamed wilderness, pitchers plants and rhododendrons scream their joyous colours. At glorious dawn and dusk, wonderful sunshine serene loves the mountain peak with gilt. There are also trailsthat are slightly more than casual out. 9 and Path 4 Path lead to the Robinson Falls (one hour) and Equal Falls (30 minutes) respectively. From Tanah Rata, Path 9 snakes southward through walls of towering trees with an astonishing variety of leaves such as webbed, pinnatified and trifoliloate, which are alive with the chatter of macaques, past bubbling brooks where clear colourful butterflies hover overhead, past blue and red orchids in bloom, epiphytes, bladderwort, moss and lichens, and finally to the roaring Robinson Falls which tumble over near-vertical rock faces, forming frothy streams to be swept downhill to irrigate the vegetable farms in the valley.
All over Cameron Highlands there are vegetable farms that produces cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, leek, mushroom andstrawberry that flourish in the temperate climate. To maximise the surface area for planting vegetables, small plots have been carved from the sheer sides of hills, creating terraces that climb all the way up the slopes. Spread over the terraced fields and garden plots, the farmers weed and mulch and plough, sow and irrigated the soil transplant and laboriously but ever ready to wave a friendly hand or return a smile to visitors. When the vegetables are harvested, they are put in rattan baskets, and a motorised system cable hoists them from the terraces up to the roadside high above to be transported and eventually by lorries to wholesale markets in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Singapore. Between Triangkap village and Brinchang, several corrugated zinc sheds punctuate the roadside; they sellwater cress, cucumber, pumpkin, carrot, tomato and other greens to tourists-to be sliced and tossed into bubbling soup of steamboats in their holiday apartments and bungalows.
North of Brinchang, several interesting spots entice visitors to explore this rather precipitous area with taste. At Butterfly Farm and Butterfly Park, just past the famous Kea Farm, there are both living butterflies flitting amidst landscaped gardens with gurgling waterfalls as well as typical Cameronian souvenirs such as framed dead butterflies and key chains with beetles embedded in them. At Triangkap village, Rose Centre dazzles with its white rose, red rose, black rose, thornless roses, and green rose-in fact, 450 varieties of this magnificent flower-and offers a spectacular view of the surroundingvalley hemmed by hazy distant peaks.
When the your vehicle makes the trip down from Triangkap towards your hotel in Tanah Rata, axles with its creaking and screeching tyres against the tortuous road, you are filled with gleeful anticipation of the delicious scones and Devonshire tea piping hot awaiting to be savoured. Cameron Highlands-truly a charming and serene bolthole in the heavens.
– Can Crusher
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