Yesterday no post as we saved the last day at the resort just to chill out so nothing really to post.
That was the plan but we had a storm blow through the previous night with thunder and lightening, Usually when this happens over night the next day is clear as though nothing had happened. But because we had planed a day to relax around the pool and do nothing nearly all day yesterday was cloudy with on and off rain all day. First wet all day we have had except for the usual late afternoon rain that comes in but goes within an hour or so.
Last night again was very windy and thunder during the night. We left the resort by 8.30am as we had a big driving day up to the Cameron Highlands. The traffic was very heavy leaving the Island at that time and we drove through some very heavy rain which made it hard driving for PT but as we travelled further south the rain eased off so we then had a good drive and stayed on the motorway for about 135Km. before our turn off to Cameron Highlands. We were going to do a day trip from KL a couple of years ago but decided it was a too bigger trip for one day so we are looking forward to our two nights here.
CAMERON HIGHLANDS.
Malaysia's most intensive hill station is the home of tea plantations ( tea tasting), small towns, waterfalls, strawberry farms and trekking.
Best of all the altitude of 1300m to 1829m, the temperature rarely drops below 10 degrees or usually climbs above 25 degrees, cool enough to make you forget your in Malaysia. Nice relief from the heat of the beaches, towns and rainforests.
The towns in Cameron Highlands are Raja, Brinchang, Ringlet and Tanah Rata. The latter of which we are staying in the Heritage Hotel.
We arrived about 2.30pm checked in, very nice room which surprised me as the hotel only had a 7.5 rating from previous guests so I can't understand why. We are in what they call the new wing where all the original hotel possibly might need upgrading and that's where the lower reviews come from.
But we are very happy with our room and I requested high floor looking over the mountains and that's what we got.
Its beautiful in the mountains after the heat we have been having. No air con and you can just open the ranch slider and let the fresh air in. So restful.
Some shots out of the car window as we were approaching the mountains in the distance.
We passed this accident where a truck had rolled, so that made the traffic slow for awhile as everyone goes slow to have a look.
Our turn off up the mountain we go.
Shots taken as we were climbing up the hill. Our highest point was 1629m.
As we started to approach some of the townships we were fascinated by all these plastic houses which we guessed must be growing vegetables/flowers. They were everywhere mainly up the valleys but obviously big business.
As I said nice big room with balcony looking towards the mountains.
View looking to the left of our balcony. at 2.30pm
By 4.00pm the clouds suddenly started to come in over the hills.
View to the right of balcony.
Overall view
After we dropped our gear off, we had a cuppa and then went out to see one of the many strawberry farms. The one we chose was called Big Red Strawberry Farm. Its not really the season for strawberries but just a few around. The farm also grows all sorts of lettuces a few flowers and cactus. Big business. We could now see what all these plastic houses were used for. Its the perfect climate up here for this sort of growing and the plastic protects the product from the rain. PT is going to do the writing about the Strawberry farm that grows lettuces!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes the plastic houses are made beautifully. The owner Kamal spoke with us at length how all the tables are on a slight incline so that the water (with necessary nutrients) flows through the tubing into a guttering and is pumped back up the hill to be recycled. In the picture above you can notice the white tubing and there are two small black pipes that the water flows into the tubing. Each plant is in its own small pot that sits into the tubing. Quite ingenious. Kamal converted his 10 hectare horticultural farm to this method in 2005 and says he has never looked back. He has markets for his products world wide including Borneo, Hong Kong, Sth Korea Japan USA, and Australia plus others. The product is absolutely free from all disease. No blight is apparent at all. The yellow squares that can be seen are sticky and designed to attach insects and when there is an over supply of bugs attached to the sticky he does a spray. Again, Kamal was a most interesting chap to talk with. Finally he did make mention of the different varieties of lettuce and it was well into the hundreds.
The table at the left corner are all juveniles.
These are the strawberries but as you can see not a lot of fruit to be seen though.
This is a close up looking down over the roof of the plastic houses. The frequent rain is caught off the roofs and recycled through the irrigation systems.
They have all sorts of food made of strawberries. We had a very yummy strawberry milkshake. and a fried strawberry ice cream. It is ice cream with a bread wrapping and deep fried.
This is what it looks like inside. Beautiful.
After we had done this, which we found very interesting how it is all set up, we then did a quick walk around the town we are staying in Tanah Rata. By now we were fading fast after our big driving day so back to the hotel. No wifi in the rooms but I asked for a cable again and can now do my blog in the room while everyone else is sitting in the foyer working on their phones and computers.
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