September 27,

Today when I looked out… I saw blue sky!!! So we got around having our Javas and breakfast of Coconut French Toast, finishing off the coconut bread, coconut milk, and the last egg – which was convenient as tomorrow morning we move on. After we were done it was still blue sky and our weather app said no rain until 1500. We “lit out.”

We took off down a narrow road that seems busy but we had not been on it before. It wound around a mountain with a steep drop on the other side – all the while having cars negotiating the road. We were trekking as close to the edge as possible, but stopping when cars were meeting. Some busses even came onto this road, which caused significant issues- sometimes cars had to back up for the bus. Somewhere along the way we heard a very loud sound – seemed to be mechanical in nature. But we could not find any construction equipment. We got close to the mountain side of the road, covered with vegetaion and trees, and the sound lessened. It was some kind of insect – loud as a Cicada if not louder! Craziness!! Why did God make them that loud?? Questions?

Anyway, the trees gave way… lo and behold a tea plantation! Yeah!!! We even saw workers picking the tea. The tea bushes were so green. Amazing that you can forget how vibrant green they can be, especially when it is time to be picked. We walked on. This tea plantation is part of the BOH. It is the tea that we bought the other day!! Next we saw the workers quarters and we stopped a convenience store across from the housing to get some water. We had hiked for about two miles and were parched.

We finally made it to the BOH Tea Factory and Visitors Center. We found out BOH started 95 years ago, in 1929, by John Archibald Russell- 'Archie.' (I have a grandma still living at the time of this writing that was born in 1928.) Not interested in a tea factory tour, we meandered about. The Tea Center had some free samples of tea and we tried two kinds – a Fruit Orchard, and a Teh Tarik/white coffee. Then we found an Ice Cream Stand. We bought two scoops – a great Vanilla Tea and a good Teh Tarik. It was 11 MYR ($2.67).

With that, we did the hike back. The weather held out and we made it all the way home without any rain!! The clouds were starting to build up though. It was around 1300. So we set about making lunch out of the last of our yummy sweet corn. It started raining, of course, sometime in here. We started a load of laundry – we had two loads. So the afternoon was relaxing while doing laundry… simple living, just someplace else!

Laundry done we went to Kensington Western Restaurant for supper. Our last meal here. We had an Ice Plant Salad (with mango, pineapple, cherry tomatoes, maybe a pomegranate(?), and a crunchy veg – similar to Jicama) with Crispy King Mushrooms; Roasted Lamb Shoulder in Chilli BBQ Sauce with sides of veggies and potato wedges – and a extra Spicy Mint Sauce (this was a special order, that we requested); and Vegetarian Aglio Olio Mushroom Pasta. We each had an Iced tea – peach and lemon. Super fine meal!!! Our best one here. It cost 112 MYR ($27.15)!

We walked back to our place in a fine drizzle, ducking through the garage. Rest of the evening was packing, relaxing, blogging and reading. Beautiful day to end our Cameron Highlands exploration!!