Our elder son, Yu -N, and his wife Angie, invited us to come along for a trip to Cameron Highlands for the raya break. They took along their son, Julian, i.e. our grandson, to let him experience the cool weather of Cameron. We spent 3 days and 2 nights up there and lodged at Star Regency Hotel & apartments at Brincang. The weather was surprisingly cold, windy and rainy - just the type of weather Cameron should have. However, recent development in the highlands increases demand for more land for agriculture and housing, thus deforestation is on-going and affected the weather. We often hear visitors complained that the temperature up in the highlands is like down the lowlands. Fortunately, Connie was wise to bring along some sweaters in case the weather is cold, otherwise, we might have to huddle for warmth at night.
While stopping at Bharat Tea Shop near Tanah Rata for tea and scone, I looked over the mountain range where the tea plants met the forest. It reminded me of my adventurous younger days. In 1961, I was only 15 then, I joined the scout troop of SYS Batu Gajah for a hike to Cameron Highlands via Gopeng. We engaged two orang asli guides to lead us going through jungle trails and wading along streams in thick jungle infested with leeches. The weather was not kind to us. It was raining non-stop so slowing down our trekking. We were behind schedule and forced to put up a night in a shaky bamboo hut abandoned by a family. We were also short of food supply. Whatever the orang asli could sell to us we just bought to cook. The next morning we continued our trekking for a few more hours and finally emerged from the jungle and saw Bharat tea plantation. What a relief and joy to have reached our destination !
