South-East Asian Adventures: The Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

The drive from George Town to the Cameron Highlands was pretty magnificent: we climbed up and up, higher into the clouds, winding our way round the mountains. 

Don't let the name fool you - although they may sound like they should be in Scotland, the Cameron Highlands are in fact in Malaysia, so named as they was discovered by Sir William Cameron who was indeed a Scot.

I was really looking forward to this stop as the Cameron Highlands are home to acres of tea plantations and strawberry fields, and I do love tea and strawbs. (Getting a decent cup of tea out here is quite the challenge. The struggle is real.)

We went exploring through the Highlands on a cloudy morning which was really rather cool.


After checking out the tea plantations (they smelled great) we went on a little trek through the mossy forest.

I felt like quite the explorer, despite resembling travelling Barbie. The forest was unlike any forest I've ever been in before - the plants were so exotic and we even saw pretty flowers like wild orchids.

Having had our fill of adventurousness I was more than happy to move on to something a little tamer: strawberry picking!


Despite it being November the plants were laden with juicy, sweet, red berries and I thoroughly enjoyed filling my punnet. (I probably ate more as I went along but sshhh.)

Onwards we went to a very exciting place: a tea factory!

Here we learnt how tea turns from green leaves on bushes to a brew in a cup, and we of course sat down to a wonderful cuppa (or three on my part.)

Oh, and cake. Because tea and cake.

That carrot and banana cake was just exquisite. And what a joy it was to have a proper cup of tea with milk, even if it was UHT milk (which is a vast improvement on the sachets of milk powder that are everywhere out here!)

Drinking tea surrounded by tea plantations was a really cool experience, I have to say.

Whilst in the Cameron Highlands I also tried a cup of legit masala tea, which is a speciality of the area. It seemed to me like a cross between a chai latte and a chai tea but the spices were just so fresh and it tasted incredible.

We may not have been in the Cameron Highlands for long, and sure, the actual towns aren't particularly visit-worthy, but for the tea alone (not to mention the magnificent scenery and all the strawbs), I'm sure glad we did. Tea, anyone?