The Cameron Highlands

Like an Oreo, Malaysia too has a magical center.  Malaysia's isn't made of white stuff though, it is made of cool breezes, rain forests, and tea plantations.  And its name is the Cameron Highlands.  The humidity was still sheet-soggingly high, but we were pleased to feel cool air on our sun burnt and tanned faces from the moment we set foot in the town of Tanah Rata, our base for a few days of exploring Cameron's Highlands (that was for Eric Eng).

From our home base we went on a jungle trek (billed as a walking path), visited the Boh Tea Plantation, and ate the best darn banana pancake we've ever had.  The jungle trek involved climbing over fallen trees, pushing back overgrowth, routinely checking Annette's hair for phantom spiders, and getting really, really muddy from the waist down.  Once done with walking path # 9 (the biggest lie of a title since "Funny People") we walked for another hour and a half up a road to visit a tea plantation.  The Cameron Highlands are known for strawberry farms and tea plantations.  We didn't buy any of the horrible strawberry-themed souvenirs or visit any S-berry farms, but we did sip lovely Boh tea while munching on deee-lightful scones overlooking some beautimus hills covered in tea bushes.  After a self-guided tour of the facilities and a walk up to a stunning viewpoint we pointed ourselves downhill for a 4 hour walk home.  We kept our thumbs out, hoping to hitch a ride but we weren't sure what to expect.  We had only ever hitch hiked one other time between the two of us and, although we saw other hitchers zipping past us with their benefactors, we didn't really know how white hitchers were treated in Malaysia.

We walked for what felt like forever, but was probably only a half an hour or so, with Annette cursing every car that didn't stop but might have had a seat.  Finally we got picked up by the people who were meant to pick us up.  Let us explain: 

The family that scooped us up consisted of a mother, father, a three year-old boy, two twin girls (aged 7), and a grandma visiting for the day from Kuala Lumpur.  The mother spoke really good English and translated much of our conversation to the grandma and pops, who would ask us questions through her.  Pops seemed especially  curious about certain parts of our lives and travels.  Most of his questions came when we passed other white folks walking along the road and he would query through his wife, "Are they friends of yours?"  We rode and chatted (and pulled over at a view point for a photo-op) with this amazingly nice family for about 45 minutes.  We learned a little about them and they seemed to enjoy every little detail we shared about ourselves.  As in Korea, all the adults nodded approvingly and made corresponding sounds of approval when we mentioned we were married.  The mother in particular had a sweet smile and way about her.  We jumped out of the car feeling warm all over after we got into Tanah Rata.  We talked giddily about the experience and how little moments like the one we just finished with really helped illuminate new countries for us.  Enriched.  We both felt enriched.  We chattered this way for the next 15 minutes or so as we shopped on the main street.  We stopped only when interrupted by pops, who stood up and greeted us from his dinner table.  Before we knew it we were sitting with our family as they ate dinner (we declined their offer to buy us dinner) and we sipped teh terrik (which they did buy for us).  We chatted with them more about our lives and learned more about theirs: Mom is a stay at home mom, dad works at a hospital, and the kids don't like to sit still for long.

The Cameron Highlands were really pretty.  We ate some great food there (including two breakfasts from the deaf and insanely warm super husband and wife team located in a string of stalls near our guesthouse, the Twin Pines-pantomiming back and forth with them was another highlight of the CHs) and soaked in some really spectacular countryside.  But to us, Cameron Highlands will always stand out in our memories as the place we connected with a beautiful and kind family.  We'll remember coming to the highlands liking Malaysia for things and leaving loving the country for its honest, sincere, heartfelt people.