december-2011

Clockwise: Farmers pick tea leaves
every morning at plantations in Cameron
Highlands; sit down to English high tea with
scones at the Smokehouse Restaurant; stay
in one of the mock Tudor-style bungalows.
Cameron Highlands,
Malaysia
Ye Olde English Town
There’s no better place to have a steaming cuppa than here.
The Cameron Highlands is Malaysia’s quintessential teagrowing
region, thanks to its long history of cultivation here
by the British. In fact, this is the most Brit-fl avored of all the
country’s colonial towns, its mock Tudor-style bungalows
looking strangely at home against the backdrop of rolling
fi elds and tropical jungles.
If the sweet weather and the misty slopes haven’t
convinced you yet, this hill station is all about taking it slow.
Savor an old-school English high tea with a serving of scones
at the Smokehouse Restaurant, before setting off on a scenic
drive along the main road. It won’t be long before you come
across one of the region’s many sprawling farms. Do stop by
for a visit — we recommend the Boh Tea Plantation and the
Big Red Strawberry Farm in the Brinchang district — and
soon enough you’ll be happily picking leaves and berries.
Another steaming cuppa beckons (you can fi nd it
everywhere in these parts), and then it’s onward to the
nearby produce market, or fl ower nursery, or the local
butterfl y gardens. Whatever else you decide to check out,
rest assured you’ll be doing it at a leisurely pace. Kuala
Lumpur may be fi ve hours by road from here, but this
mountaintop hideout is truly a world away.
Cebu Pacifi c fl ies to Kuala Lumpur from Manila.
www.cebupacifi cair.com
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