Cameron Highlands

5 September 2024

Nestled in the Titiwangsa Mountains, Cameron Highlands is Malaysia’s beloved highland retreat, known for its cool climate, tea plantations, and strawberry farms. It became a key tea-growing region and was established as a British colonial hill station in the 1920s.

This visit offered us a refreshing break from the tropical heat of most of the region. Besides the climate, we came to the Cameron Highlands for the scenic tea fields and the mossy cloud forests higher in the mountains.

Day 1

Walking The City

We departed Kuala Lumpur via bus to the Cameron Highlands at 8:15 am (4.5 hour bus ride). The bus ride was chill for the first half of the journey. At the halfway mark, I was woken up by the bus stopping for a bathroom break. I didn’t need to go but decided to try since I was awake anyway. As soon as we got back in the bus and started going, the road turned extremely windy. I used to get car sick as a kid, but I haven’t had trouble for years. For some reason, I had been getting car sick more easily in Asia, so I was nervous. I had to breathe more deeply and keep my eyes on the road, but I made it out alive. We drove past a huge tea plantation, that we decided to visit the following day.

Walking The City

We arrived at 12:45 pm and walked to our Airbnb. It’s a 3-bed apartment with each room rented out through Airbnb. It was the cheapest we could find and had good reviews, so we went for it. It ended up being a great choice. The host was great, and no one else stayed in either of the other rooms while we were there.

We walked to an Indian restaurant and ordered some good food. Malaysia has amazing Indian food everywhere. We still hadn’t tried any Malay dishes up until this point.

The Cameron Highlands is cold and pretty. I walked around in my indigo cardigan I had bought in Bangkok because it was the only warm layer I had. Many of the structures are built with a charming, colonial architecture aesthetic. That, plus the lush forest all around, make for a really pretty town. On the way back, we got caught in the rain, so we took shelter in a cafe and drank some tea until the storm blew over after 30 minutes or so.

For dinner we ate at a hot pot restaurant. It was way too much food for us and neither of us loved it. There is some ingredient in the soup I really don’t like. It’s something like ginger or wasabi.

Day 2

BOH Tea Plantation
Bharat Tea Plantation

We set out in the morning to find waffles for breakfast. The restaurant we found on Google Maps turned out to be closed when we got there. Close to it were a bunch of small food places seemingly only frequented by locals. We got a fried banana and 2 egg rolls. I wanted to try Malaysia’s unofficial national dish: Nasi Lemak. So I ordered a plate from the stall next door where I saw a lot of people eating.

The plate is comprised of rice, fried chicken, roasted peanuts, some cucumber, and sambal (a spicy, thick sauce). It was alright for 6 ringgits. I think the sambal was made with fish sauce, which I do not like. My stomach was not happy with what I ate, and shortly after, I had to run to Starbucks to use their bathroom. You win some, and you lose some.

After breakfast, we rented a car so we wouldn’t have to pay for a tour of the tea plantations. Maybe there is an easier way, but it worked out okay for us. We picked up the car from a nearby shop and paid in cash for a single day rental.

BOH Tea Plantation

We drove to the BOH tea plantation and did a short, steep hike to a viewpoint with a nice view of the plantation. It was very peaceful until a bunch of kids came up who were screaming nonstop and coughing like crazy. I think something is going around because we have heard a lot of coughing. There was a “No Drones” sign at the top of the hill, so I didn’t fly my drone from there. I got some photos with the drone only after finding a place to fly it further down the road. We hiked back down the stairs and stopped at the restaurant at the bottom of the hill. We ordered tea, strawberry cheesecake, and a chicken pie. It was all very good. The cheesecake seemed to be partially made from gelatin, and I loved it. It’s a local recipe for a strawberry no-bake cheesecake.

Bharat Tea Plantations

From BOH, we drove to Bharat Tea Plantations. We ordered tea and scones and got a table with a view of the plantation. It was all very good, and the view was nice. At both BOH and Bharat, the number of flies was insane. They were all over the place and would land on and around you. We spent altogether too much time swatting them away. Indi was feeling sick again, so we hopped in the car and returned to town. I returned the car and arrived back at the hotel at 6:00 pm to chill.

We knew we wanted to do a tour the next day, mainly to see the mossy forest – a cloud forest with unique flora. I asked our Airbnb host about it, and she gave us multiple tour suggestions. We decided on a sunrise tour with Discover Camerons for 65 Ringgits/pax.

Day 3

Tea Plantation Sunrise
Mossy Forest
Tea Field Walk
BOH Tea Centre

We woke before dawn to walk to our Airbnb host’s house to wait for our driver. The host was a very kind and lovely woman. Our driver picked us up and took us to the center of town where we picked up two more groups of people.

Tea Plantation Sunrise

We drove in the dark to a sunrise viewpoint looking out over tea fields. There were around 20 – 30 other people at the same spot waiting for the sun to rise. I’m no fan of deforestation, but if it has to be done, tea fields aren’t a bad replacement.

Mossy Forest

Our guide drove us up a rough mountain road to a small parking lot near the summit. It’s important to note that at the time I visited, a guide was necessary to visit this area. There is a lookout area where you can see the untouched forested mountains extending into the distance.

The main hiking area is a wooden boardwalk which was closed for repair that would not open for another month. We did an extremely short hike through the forest that was pretty fun. Moss, lichen, and air plants cover the long, snaking limbs of thin trees. Our guide warned us not to lean or pull on trees while walking because the movement may dislodge pit vipers from the canopy onto our heads.

Bites from the Malayan pit viper can be fatal if untreated. The nearest hospital in Tanah Rata is about 45 minutes to an hour away, with larger facilities in Ipoh (2–3 hours away). We didn’t see any snakes, luckily.

The coolest thing we saw was multiple carnivorous pitcher plants. I had seen them in nature documentaries, so for me, seeing them in real life was really fun. Our guide described their life cycle and pointed out pitchers in different stages of their life, which I found interesting. Our guide also encouraged us not to be “human monkeys” by walking off trail or picking flowers which tourists too often do, damaging the fragile ecosystem. We also saw wild, poisonous banana trees and psychadelic flowers.

Tea Field Walk

We drove back down the mountain road to another tea plantation. Our driver let us out of the car to let us walk along the side of the road to take in the view. This was possibly just a way to kill time since the main hike at the Mossy Forest was closed and the replacement hike was so short, but it was still a nice walk.

BOH Tea Centre

Yeah, we spent a lot of time in tea plantations. Our last stop of the tour was at BOH Tea Centre, a restaurant on a tea plantation. I decided to give Nasi Lemak another try. It was 3x more expensive than the last one, but I was hoping it would be 3x better. It tasted nearly identical. I got hot chocolate, and Indi got tea. After getting no sleep from all the caffeine in my system the previous night, I had no interest in more tea. We got the same BOH no-bake strawberry cheesecake, and it was amazing. Indi also got a slice of basque cheescake and liked it.

I was exhausted when we got back. I took a 3-hour nap.

We were going to walk to dinner at the same Indian place where we had eaten the first day, but we saw rain clouds headed our way. As we stood and deliberated where to go, it started raining, which made it an easy decision. We went to the only restaurant open nearby, one right across the street from our Airbnb. We were seated, and the girl serving us stood next to us with the menus until we ordered, so we had to decide what we wanted quickly. No one spoke English. I ordered some kind of stir-fried beef, and Indi ordered chicken soup. We got our food almost immediately; we aren’t sure how they produced the food so fast. Mine looked like 50% onions, and Indi’s bowl looked extremely well used, but we liked the food. Indi loved the food! In the photo above, I catch Indi in the act of saying, “This is the best soup I’ve ever had.” With one drink, everything cost us 18 ringgit, about $4.50. I bought some fruit at a nearby corner store that looked like slightly bigger rambutans. We ate them, strawberries, and grapes in the apartment for dessert.

Next time

On our next adventure, we head to the colonial era UNESCO World Heritage Site of Georgetown.