Day 160 – Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

July 16th, 2019

Today we got up early and took a 5-hour long bus ride from Penang to Cameron Highlands.  Before we left, Brendan got some breakfast at the bus station.  He tried something that he thought might be like French toast.  It was basically a folded piece of bread that was fried together.  He gave me one and once I bit into it I realized the inside was filled with tuna and onions, not French toast!  I don’t like tuna to begin with and definitely not inside fried bread for breakfast.  I gave the rest of mine to Brendan who luckily thought it was good and I went back for some veggie samosas. 

The notable part of the bus ride was a bridge that connects Penang to mainland Malaysia.  It was the longest bridge I have ever been on.  It felt like we were driving on it forever.  I later looked it up and the bridge is 15 miles long!

Cameron Highlands is inland from Malaysia’s west coast and sits at about 4,000 feet in elevation.  It is known for the tea plantations and for being able to grow strawberries year around.  It is SIGNIFICANTLY cooler here with the average high temps in the 70’s and lows in the 60’s.  After some difficulty finding our hotel, we finally did and got checked in.  There are many tours you can do here that include hiking, tea plantations, strawberry farms etc.  This is also home to the worlds largest flower bloom called Rafflesia and you can search for this rare flower on some of the jungle treks through this area. 

We went to town and set up a tour for the next day to take us through a tea plantation and the mossy forest that is the world’s oldest mountain rainforest at an estimated 230 million years old.  We got some Indian food and I had the best cheese naan of my life.  As we were walking around town I saw a couple of massage shops.  I have been wanting a massage and the advertisements have been fairly cheap in Malay (about $15 for 1 hour).  EVERYONE has said how cheap and great the massages in Thailand are so I have been trying to hold out, but I figured we were probably close enough to Thai that the massage would be good. 

After our not so great massage experience in Peru, Brendan was hesitant but decided he wanted one too since I was doing it.  We were led upstairs to an area that had tables separated by curtains and were each shown to our individual cubby with a table.  My masseuse was a very elderly Asian man and I had high hopes for this being an incredible massage. I was picturing how this man has probably artfully perfected his craft of massage for the past 60 years and is a guru in anatomy, pressure points, and chakras.  That was me judging a book by its cover, because in reality I think he was a little tired of working and had a bad case of acid reflux.  He kept burping and coughing/clearing his throat during the massage and I had to try hard not to laugh because I knew it would make my back and shoulders shake and I didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable like I was.   I really wanted to share with him the Western art of taking a Prilosec before a meal but refrained.  I know everyone dogs on Western medicine, but I really think some Prilosec would help this guy out!

The other thing that was uncomfortable was when I was told to lie down, the table only had some old towels on it.  There was no top sheet.  So, I just had to lay down without a top cover and wait for him to come in and put another little towel over my backside.  Anyway, the massage really wasn’t that good but even if it was fantastic, I think the constant belching really ruined it for me.  Brendan’s massage was apparently worse, and he said he could hear my guy burping from the other side of the room.  Okay, Thailand you have a lot to live up to with some good cheap massages that I have been waiting a very long time for!