The One with the Blow Pipe

The Cameron Highlands are wonderful. Green and luscious, and much cooler than KL - so much that I even need a jumper in the evenings.

We book a tour for our first day and are joined by an American girl called Autumn, who is very good company.

Our first stop is the BOH (Best of Highlands) Tea Plantations. I am really glad I don't have to pick the tea. The women have to climb those hills with up to 20kg of leaves on their backs (the equivalent of my rucksack), and believe me, those hills are steep.

Our guide tells us that the leaves are used for all sorts of tea, and the flavour simply depends on how long they processed/ dried for!

We head up the hill to the highest point of the highlands which is shrouded in mist, and then go for a walk in the"jungle". We saw pitcher plants (right), and Rhod tried to climb a big vine.

Next stop was the BOH tea factory, where we saw the tea being processed, and more importantly got to try a cup! mmm.... lovely cuppa

Our last stop before lunch was the insect "farm"/zoo... where we held a rhinoceros beetle, cats eye gecko, and I held a scorpion. The photos have my head cut off.... Rhod was just desperate for me to put it down! The guide there was a nutter, stepping lightly on the scorpions claws to show it's tail flex to show you "what not to do" in the jungle!

Autumn is only doing the half day tour, so Rhod and I head off in the afternoon with our guide. We head down the hill to the wooden stilt houses we had seen the previous day on the bus ride up.

We're met by a guy in traditioanl costume -loin cloth, and a woven basket, carrying a mean looking knife and a blow pipe. His name was Ali. We follow Ali down the road to a waterfall, where he proceeds to pose for photos with his blow pipe and to shoot it at trees.

Back at the hosue we get to look inside. They have two monkeys chained outside (really sad). As I bend down to take a photo of one he jumps on me! This little boy was playing with the nice monkey for ages (the other had an attitude problem as well you might if you were chained up). This monkey then proceeded to groom the boys hair - it was very sweet.



We then got the chance to try the blowpipe. Randomly - I'm a natural at it and hit the middle of the board on my first shot. Rhod has a few goes first before he hits it. He also almost hits a rooster en route!

That evening we met up with Autumn and had a steamboat. It's like a fondue but with a soup instead of chocolate. You're given loads of fresh fish, meat veg and noodles and add it to the soup to boil and cook. There were prawns, Jellyfish, Stingray, Jellyfish, and Fish balls to name a few. We had to ask what to do when we were presented with all this food. Much to the amusement of the locals! Dinner took ages but was really good.

The next day we just took advantage of the sun and chilled. They're quite keen on their Cream Teas up here too so it would have been rude not to partake!