The train ride from KL to Tapah was uneventful -about 2 hours. The trains are so cheap here - it only cost us 8RM from KL to the Tapah station (about AU$3.50). When we got to Tapah train station we were supposed to go to the bus station to catch the bus to Tanah Rata from where you can explore the Cameron Highlands. The bus station was 9km from the train station and being a Saturday there weren't too many taxis around.
We met this girl named Vicki at the station who said that her brother Vrea was coming to pick her up from the station and he could give us a ride to the bus stop. She was a nursing student home for the weekend and she seemed like a nice girl so we thought it would be ok and would save us the cost of taxi fare. When her brother came he asked if we would like to see the local waterfall on the way to the bus staion. We were pretty early for the bus and we didn't want to be rude so we said ok.
[It was totally random. I was just standing at the train station while Naomi was wandering around the station and this random woman started talking to me (it was very obvious to locals some guy with a big backpack on his back and with a lonely planet guide in his hand that he's just got no idea where he's going...). I asked her re the bus stop and she said she had no idea. She then asked this random girl to look after us...... talking about local hospitality! It was awesome. We then went on to a very long detour joy ride as described below - P]
We got to the waterfall which was about 20 minutes from town - it was very impressive and there were a lot of people swimming there and having barbeques.
Vrea shouted Vicki and Paul drinks but I thankfully got out of it (they all had ice in them). Thankfully Paul drank one otherwise it may have been a bit rude but he totally saved my bacon. After we got back in the car Vrea said he would take us on another detour to see a local Hindu temple. I was a little worried by how long it was all taking and the fact that a simple ride to the bus station had turned into a half day odyssey to see all the local sights. Plus I was trying the whole time to suppress my instincts not to accept rides from strangers (especially in a foreign country).I had a few anxious moments wondering whether we were going to be driven into the bush and killed or robbed but I tried to tell myself that surely someone wouldn't rob us or kill us with his sister in the car. Right? Right? Besides, Vrea himself gave us a lecture on getting lifts with people in big cities but he said it was ok in small towns (like Tapah presumably).
When we got to the Hindu temple it was closed and the local guru didn't want to open it despite Vrea's pleading. The story that Vrea told us about the temple was that there was a Hindu holy man who walked from India to Malaysia. He didn't ever eat any food but he lived to be 149 years old. The holy man did not want to be reincarnated as most Hindus are so he was buried alive at the site of the temple around 1959 and the temple was built over the top of his grave. Spooky! I was kind of glad that the temple wasn't open, especially when Vrea told us that there was a pipe that went down to the Holy Man's grave from which he could speak to you while you were praying!
[That was totally random. I was just like....right. Did the Holy Man make it into the Guiness Book of Records for being so ancient??? It was probably not the best to ask Vrea. Apparently Vrea even dreamt about 2 travellers coming to Tapah the night before and that he would guide us around. Crikey! I really wanted to say G'day to the Holy Man through the pipe though. I almost slid in a $20 note for the guru to open the gate. - P]
After the temple, we were supposed to go back to the bus station, but Vrea turned onto the road to the Cameron Highlands. By this stage, Vicki and Vrea had already spend most of the day driving us around so we protested and asked them to take us back to the bus stop. But Vrea said that he had decided to drive us all the way to the Cameron Highlands (about 2 - 3 hours by bus) because his sister had never been there. Well, by then we couldn't really say no because we felt extremely indebted.
On the way we stopped at a little roadside stall for food. Once again Paul was my saviour because he ate some food (I couldn't come at it because it looked like it had been sitting there all day) and then we were off on the highway. Vrea wouldn't accept any payment for the food or drinks although he obviously wasn't very well off. There were no seatbelts in the back of the car and we had Paul's backpack sitting on our laps. Also, the road to the Cameron Highlands was very narrow and windy and the Malaysian drivers are all crazy!! We were just hanging onto the door and hoping we wouldn't die.
Suddenly, when we were about 20km from the Cameron Highlands, the car sputtered and conked out!! Vrea pulled onto the shoulder of this narrow windy road and popped the hood while he tried to figure out what was wrong.
At this stage we thought we were never going to make it to the Highlands!! Vrea told us we would have to hail the bus to the Highlands (which we had overtaken on the way) as he didn't know what was wrong with the car and he would have to ring his relative to come all the way from Tapah to pick up him and Vicki. Luckily the bus came by after only about 5 minutes and we hailed it down and jumped on board. Paul slipped Vicki some money before we left because we felt bad about all that they had done for us. We felt sorry for Vicki and Vrea as they were left on the side of the road with the broken down car....
[It was seriously nice of Vicki and Vrea to spend half of their weekend driving us around and shouting me free food and drinks. It was really the first time that I experience something so hospitable from a totally random stranger. Having said that, within our first 24 hours in KL, 2 random people offered us free tours in their home State of Penang. The experience is overwhelmingly warm and generous. I felt so bad that their car broke down and Vrea still hailed a bus down for us while he and his sister had to sit in the car on the side of the road waiting for their relatives to come and pick them up 2 hours later. - P]
Anyway, after that exciting interlude we checked into our very nice hostel in the Highlands (RM45 per night for a double with shared bathroom).
Today we went for a half day tour to visit some of the attractions around the Highlands which include tea plantations, strawberry farms and a butterfly sanctuary. We may stay for another day to do some of the walks they have here before we move on to Penang.
The tea plantation was really amazing with the tea planted all the way up the sides of the mountains.
It must be such hard work to pick for the labourers who have to do it by hand with shears. Our tour guide told us that they are paid about RM44 per day (about AU$20) and they have to purchase their own harvesting equipment - it seemed a bit of a raw deal to us - N.
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