Our Highlands retreat

After spending two months on an island, we finally crossed over to the mainland last weekend, taking advantage of a long weekend from school.  Our destination, the Cameron Highlands, was within a four-hour drive and promised to be a cool respite from the sweating we've been accustomed to here in Penang!  Our adventure began with a scenic drive across Penang Bridge, the longest bridge in southeast Asia.  Once on the mainland, we hopped on the North-South Expressway to Ipoh, a picturesque town of historical buildings and bouganvilleas surrounded by grand limestone cliffs.  (After getting used to much slower driving speeds on the island, it was fun to zip along at 110 km/h!)  From Ipoh, we headed up a long and very windy road to the highlands.  Temperatures were much cooler here, but sweet, carsick Abigail was quite happy to escape from the car!

Somehow in my planning, I hadn't considered the possibility of rain, and therefore left all but one of our umbrellas at home.  Of course, Rachel picked out a cute strawberry one at our first stop, a strawberry farm.  (I've never seen so many strawberry-themed things in my life!)  Here, strawberry plants are grown in individual pots above ground and watered via drip-irrigation from collected rain water.  All the plants are covered with giant plastic roofing domes in order to protect the delicate fruit.  The kids enjoyed picking strawberries, and we all shared some homemade strawberry icepops! 

We then crossed the road to a chocolate shop, bought some souvenirs, and enjoyed the cool temperatures as we ate lunch outside under covered awnings while the rain poured down.  After checking in to our hotel, a very cute cottage inn called Bala's Holiday Chalet, we headed into the small town of Tanah Rata and found a half-muddy, but still fun, playground for our kids.  They played on what they could, and then were entertained for quite some time simply throwing leaves in a muddy river.  Who needs toys?!  Afterwards, we had fun climbing on some giant fruits and veggies we discovered in the park and pretended that we were in the town of Chewandswallow.  (For reference, read the children's classic Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.)  We ate Indian food for dinner (everyone loves naan!) and enjoyed the cool weather.  My kids even complained they were cold!

The next day, we all slept late and then went downstairs for breakfast, where we enjoyed some wonderful scones with whipping cream and homemade strawberry jam.  From there, we headed out to explore a honey bee farm.  Wandering through the beautiful gardens, we observed the bees "at work" and all had a good time except Mark, who was scared of being stung.  We stopped at various souvenir shops and then headed up an extremely narrow and windy road that led to a tea plantation.  Unfortunately, the road was packed with tourists and we were unable to make it down that day.  We did, however, go back the next morning on our way out of town and were so glad we did!  The rolling hills covered with tea bushes, combined with the cooler temperatures, was quite pleasant, and Rachel had fun hiking up the steps to the tea facility.  The tour was short but informative, describing the stages of production, including picking, rolling, and fermentation.  I also learned that the proper way to make tea is to not use tea bags, but instead to let the leaves steep for a minimum of three minutes in hot water.  Filter out the leaves as you pour the tea into your cup.

We headed down the mountain and back to our island home with a brand new tea set, lots of strawberry souvenirs, and memories of our cool mountain retreat.  We'll definetely come back, next time with more umbrellas, two pairs of shoes (one for hiking in mud), hopefully with family, and not on a holiday weekend!