Tea plantation

I finished my book, 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' back in Ipoh. Rabia told me he is buried in Paris - Oscar Wilde that is - and I left her the book.

Its funny because it was written at the time that the British were here in Malaysia - the Colonial era. Also there is a character in the book who becomes a sailor and plans to go to Australia to try to mine gold. It talks about the bush rangers - who are escaped convicts that live in the bush as outlaws, looting etc to scrape a living. Ned Kelly was one of them, who was held & hung in the gaol I visited in Melbourne. It all fits in with my travels.

Oscar Wilde plays with language and Pokes fun at the British Upper classes and the book has a strange supernatural story. I really enjoyed it.

I can See why British liked it here in the Highlands. The climate is like a never ending English Summer, as the temperature hardly varies all year. 

I have been reading about the East India Company. It's interesting how this company - starting with 'Sir Francis Drake & his golden behind' (a Blackadder II joke) - rose to power and empowered the growth of the British Empire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company

And today the colonials return in the form of British & Dutch tourists 😀

I have met and made friends with another dutch couple - Jisse & Michelle who are travelling around Asia. They too work in healthcare. He is a Specialist Neuro-Nurse and she is a Nutritionist.

We booked to go on a trip to the tea plantation & Mossy forest

23rd January 

We were picked up in an old Landrover Defender. They use these for all the trips in the highlands it would appear. I got to sit in the front first off as we drove round to collect a group of five Slovenians - they were really fun and a bit wild - passing round a bottle of Jack D in the back of the landrover, which they claimed was their medicine!

Landrover pics:

First stop was the BOH tea plantation. This is the same business that John Archibald Russell started in 1929 - it has remained a 'small scale' family run business and supplies tea to Malaysia and Singapore, but they are not big enough to export abroad. They are the biggest in Malaysia however. 

They employ families from Malaysia and India, for which they supply accommodation, and use less intensive methods to process the tea.

Workers accommodation:

The bright green newest leaves are picked - they use shears now instead of picking by hand - and collected in bags. they process the tea with rollers and shakers to separate the leaves. Oxidation starts to turn the leaves black and the leaves are dried and cut. The lower quality leaves and stalks are used for tea bags

BOH - stands for 'Best of Highlands'

The bushes would grow into full sized trees if left and they can harvest once every three weeks. The bushes need to be replanted every so often.

We then got taken to the small tea factory & cafe. This factory was undergoing repairs so we couldn't see the tea processing first hand, sadly

Café:

Some retired machinery.

I ordered some tea from the cafe - BOH Teh Tarik - a hot sweet tea. The views from the café were really lovely. 

We visited the strawberry farm & had fresh strawberry juice. The strawberry thing is 'for tourists ' as the guide put it. I have to say the strawberries are nothing special to taste but the setting was cool........

Me being a tourist 🤪 

Next stop - Mossy forest - well kind of. 

We were told when booking that the large Mossy Forest is 'closed ' due to a landslide. We were taken for a short trek to another Mossy forest.

After Tasmania & New Zealand's Mossy forests, I had low expectations for this one and it was nothing special, but the walk was great fun, climing through the tree roots. The floor was very mossy & bouncy.

Views from the top:

On the way back the tour guide/driver was telling us how it has become very busy and touristy around here, to such an extreme that it impacts the locals, particularly at weekends. The roads become so busy that its hard to go out anywhere. 

And because the place is more busy they need to cut down forest to build new roads and the wildlife reduces because there are too many people. 

I suppose this is the catch 22 of tourism. People want to see beautiful places but by visiting we are also impacting on the environment & contributing to the destruction of the beauty. I feel that sometimes as I go around. I guess the guide himself, despite complaining, is making a living from tourism too.

We fancied Indian food for lunch and went to a place recommended by the hostel. I had butter chicken & Naan. I love the fact they make the naan etc fresh.

Jisse & Michelle 

I had to have a nap after all that food.

Later we walked to the night market. It was very busy. The population of Malaysia consists of Malay people (who are Muslim & similar to Indonesians), Chinese Malay from Chinese heritage and mostly Buddhist. Then a smaller population of Indians - Hindu.

I was too full still to eat much but I bought some fruit skewers covered in sugar.....a bit like a toffee apple. 

The walk back was nice under the stars.