a wildflower in the land of smiles: Cameron Highlands: Tea, Strawberries, and a FREEZING Breeze

On to the Cameron Highlands!

Our stay in the Cameron Highlands was short and sweet. We wanted to get away from the big city and experience a little of Malaysia's countryside and get a breathe of fresh air. We came to the right place!

Number 8: We arrived in the Cameron Highlands from Kuala Lumpur and were able to find a hostel recruiting guests at the bus stop. After being welcomed with a cool air breeze, we took Lonely Planets advice and hopped in a van to take us to a guesthouse only to find that it was full. The driver said he'd take us to their "other" new guesthouse to see if it had rooms available, we were a little hesitant because often drivers receive a payment for bringing guests to the guesthouses so they tend to only have their best interest in mind rather than being a nice, friendly, helpful guy. We showed up at "Number 8 Guesthouse" which seemed to be all under construction during the day and threw our stuff into a dorm room. The price was right but we quickly realized it was a bit of a shady situation.. our hostel was down a dark dirt road, no locks on our room door, no key, no safety box for our passport, and we seemed to be the only guests there. We were in such a time crunch because we were trying to make a countryside tour that leaves in five minutes, so we left our big bags, brought our valuables, and ran down the street to the travel agency to make the tour. Since we hadn't paid any money yet, our plan was to check out a few hostels down the road on the way back from the tour and sneak out of "Number 8", but all were full so we settled on what we had. Turns out, we weren't the only people staying there, just the only western ones! **Nothing got stolen and we were fine and I don't think this place was as shady as we originally thought.. it was VERY clean! Reggae Mansion in KL spoiled us**

Butterflies, strawberries, and tea.. oh my!: Our country side tour was a good and quick way to see the main sights around the Cameron Highlands. We had a guide and were loaded us into a janky van with three other couples. Very couple-y tour.. actually, we came across many couples while traveling Malaysia, we were one of the few only girl duos that we saw! Go us! On the tour, we were taken to a butterfly farm (which included a section of other huge rain forest bugs), tea plantation, strawberry farm, Buddhist Temple, street market, honey bee farm, and flower garden. We had time to admire the rolling hills, sip tea, dig in on chocolate covered strawberries (as well as strawberry shakes), taste honey, and see the most vibrant colored flowers I've ever seen.

Aloo Gooooobi: Its not a post about somewhere in Malaysia unless I mention what we ate! Well, at dinner time Fiona and I ventured out to the one main road to find something tasty for dinner. As the sun went down, the temperature dropped only a few degrees, probably into the mid 60s, and I was CHILLY! Keep in mind, I have been living in Thailand, probably the heat and humidity capital of the world! This was the coldest weather I have felt in the past year! I had on my leggings under my jeans and my sweatshirt (which luckily I threw in my bag as I was running out the door in Khon Kaen) with my hood up. At that moment, I wished I had mittens, UGG boots, and a snow hat to warm me up! To others, the coolness was probably a refreshing change from the heat but I was barely functional.. shivering and shaking our entire walk to dinner. We found an Indian place to get food and I think this was our best Indian of the trip! Fiona taught me that I LOVE Aloo Gobi, a dish made of potatoes, cauliflower, and Indian spices, and Chana Masala, a chickpea dish, so thats what I ordered every time we got Indian. I think Indian may be the Mexican food of Asia for me!

Although it was very touristy, the Cameron Highlands was a nice break from the city! If it were a little warmer, I probably could have stayed longer.