A couple of days worth of mini buses rides and ferry crossings, brings us from Koh Tao, to yet another new country to explore, Malaysia. On route to our first destination, the tropical island of Langkawi, we make friends with an American couple, Ethan & Rachel, along with a group of Swedes, Emanuel his girlfriend Emmie and older brother Kristofer. Little did we know that we would spend the best part of the next two weeks with our new Swedish chums.
In Langkawi, we share a taxi with Ethan and Rachel, and on arrival we struggle to find a place to stay as most of the budget options are full. We luck out and find a slightly out of budget hotel room which is right on Langkawi’s amazing white sandy beach. Being able to see the ocean from your balcony is not normally something a backpacker budget affords! Langkawi is a beautiful paradise style island, but the resort town that we found ourselves in, really could have been anywhere in the world. It is also geared more to the package holiday maker than the independent traveller, so the general cost of everything was inflated.
A room with a view!
The weather on the island was beautiful, sunny and hot, and a great deal of our time was spent of the beach, relaxing, swimming in the crystal clear water (until Heather saw a jellyfish and refused to come back in unless I constantly patrolled the immediate area for them) and playing beach sports with our new friends. Evenings were spent chilling with the Swedes, drinking beer (the only thing that was cheap on the island) and playing card games.
Amazing beach in Langkawi
After a few days chilling in Langkawi, we jumped on yet another ferry for the 3.5 hour crossing to Georgetown on the island of Palau Penang. Accompanied by Kristofer, Emanuel & Emmie, we arrived in Georgetown after dark, and walked through the distinctly colonial style streets to Chinatown to find our budget digs and some much needed food. Despite being famous for serving up the best cuisine in Malaysia, we somehow found ourselves in an Italian restaurant, but enjoyed some seriously good pasta instead of the local fare.
Next day we all headed out for a walking tour of Georgetown. Georgetown has a very English feel, with plenty of grand colonial style buildings, although the hot sunshine beating down of us did not. After a stop in a museum (not great) and a walk past some of the more impressive buildings in Georgetown (city hall, early catholic church etc) we stop for some lunch and a rest from the serious mid-afternoon heat. Unfortunately Heather wasn’t feeling to great, so we cut our sightseeing short and left the Swedes in the pub and headed back to the hostel for a rest.
Colonial Architecture
As Kristofer was heading off to Kuala Lumpur the next day, we went for goodbye beers. Kristofer has a wonderful talent of being able to slip yet another large bottle of beer on the table in front of you, so that what you think will be you last bottle of beer, never really is.
Kristofer (right) and Emanuel (left) after a few beers
Next morning we say goodbye to Kristofer and catch a taxi with Ema & Emmie along the coast to the beach town of Batu Ferrenghi. After a 30 minute ride, we hopped out and went looking for accommodation in the seriously hot midday sunshine. Little did we realise that Batu Ferrenghi is a popular Malay holiday hangout and after a couple of hours we hadn’t had any luck and had to settle for a overpriced budget option.
We all headed down to the beach and spent a good few hours playing in the large waves that were picking us up and depositing us back on the beach, then knocking us off of our feet when we tried to get back up, As Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim country, the sight of two girls playing in the waves in their bikini’s drew a crowd of locals (all male) from the nearby hotel, presumably waiting for the powerful waves to rid Heather or Emmie of their bikini tops. Fortunately (for the girls) the bikinis stayed in place and dignity was maintained. For dinner that evening, we joined Ema & Emmie and went to a restaurant shaped like an old galleon for dinner despite being at least three times more than we had been used to paying, the food was delicious and worth every penny.
A new day and a new destination, the Cameron Highlands and the town of Tanah Rata. A four hour minibus ride and we arrive (along with the remaining Swedes) at Fathers Guest House, perched away on a hilltop overlooking the main town. The Cameron Highlands are jaw droppingly beautiful, dense jungle covers the mountains as far as the eye can see and due to the altitude, the temperature on sunny days rarely gets above 25C/77F making it a welcome change from Penang,
The main attractions of the Cameron Highlands are trekking and the local tea plantations, so we decided to combine both and trek through the jungle to the Boh Tea Estate, the nearest to our hostel. We set off after breakfast and walked the 2km to the start of the jungle track, just outside of town. Having done some trekking already, we felt fairly confident of this short 3km of jungle path and the easy path for the first few hundred meters was a little disappointing. However this soon disappeared and was replaced by a narrow, muddy, slippery trail with huge drops off to one side and fallen trees to clamber over, while all the time Heather was convinced we were being followed by some mythical being (or a deer). After some fun trails, we ended up at the bottom of the road for the Boh Tea Estate, with just 6km uphill left to go before we reached our intended destination.
Trekking in the jungle
Cheeky little waterfall
Having already covered around 5km, the 6km uphill walk was pretty exhausting, although the views along the way were worth the effort. The edge of the tea estate was still a good 2km short of the main visitors centre, but the view of the tea plants stretching into the distance, looking like the worlds biggest maze, spurred us on. The Boh Tea factory offers free tours, so when we finally arrived nearly 3 hours and 11km later, we decided to relax in the tea shop with a cup of local fresh tea and a large slice of cake. The tour of the factory was interesting, other than we couldn’t hear our timid guide over the noise of the machines and that it only lasted 5 minutes, although the smell of fresh cut tea is delicious!
After our tour, we started the long walk back. Our plan was to walk back to the main road (8km) away and then catch the local bus that would bring us back to town. We wearily trudged down the road, looking enviously at the organised tour mini buses whistling past us and had just reached the point we had emerged from the jungle earlier when a local man in his pick up pulled over and asked if we wanted a lift back to the main road, we readily agreed and jumped in. On the way down he told us that we would not have made the last bus of the day if we had carried on walking and just as he dropped us at the bus stop (to find Emmie and Ema waiting for the bus), the local bus appeared around the corner, great timing! After walking the best part of 17km (11 miles) that day, we slept well!
Boh Tea Plantation
The long and winding road
Despite having good intentions of doing some more jungle trekking, the majority of our remaining time in the Cameron Highlands was spent relaxing, eating or drinking the local tea. After a goodbye dinner with Emanuel and Emmie who were heading off to Kuala Lumpur to meet up with Kristofer again, we spent another few days in this beautiful place, just drinking in the surrounding countryside and letting our minds relax.
- Mark ‘Tea Monster” Cleverly
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