Cameron Highlands - Mossy Forest

This was a new place that none of us had been to. Searched on the internet did not reveal any surprises. Syafiq was doing driver's duty. Just his luck !!!! Nobody warned us about the road up to Gunung Brinchang! It was narrow with deep potholes and deep grains on the road. It was so winding and narrow that an incoming car would need sheer expertise to pass through or to make way. We had to honk at every turn and corner. We were just lucky as it was a weekday morning. (We left Alor Setar at 5am to make it up there by 11am.) If we had known, we would have left the car and took a hired 4wd or bigger car to go up. Poor cars ... but we did arrived to the top of Gunung Brinchang. It was cold and so refreshing. Syafiq was sweating and stressed out. He proclaimed that he would not drive the car down ...

Trekking into the mountains were no longer allowed. One needed a permit and guide to go trekking. They had built stairs and walkways so that one could walk through the mountains up to the peak. It was steep at some areas and I literally had to hang on the rails to pull myself up. It was worth it. Here are some photos taken ...

The peak of Gunung Brinchang/Mossy Forest - the viewing tower

Gigantic ferns

The view from the viewing tower

How steep the steps were ...

Notice on the right of the photo - a signage which points Pahang / Perak border

Entrance fee was rm10 per adult and rm5 per child under twelve. It was worth the torturous journey up for the car. After that we stopped at Boh Tea Plantation (Sg Palas) on the way down. They had closed the road up to the factory. Even the factory had glass screen up and a guide to explain the process. It used to be opened and one could watch up close the whole process of tea making. Now the trail was only up to the Boh Tea cafe with a viewing deck. The view was as usual breathtakingly beautiful.

Strawberry cheesecake, strawberry tarts, green tea tiramisu cake and banana carrot cake with
Gunung Cantik tea - very yummy as it was cold

Tea plantation as far as the eyes can see ...

 Overall for the first day of our visit, we managed more than seven thousand steps. All of us went off to sleep after dinner  ... we were flat out since we had started the day at 5 am.

Ten floors of 4.9km .... my poor legs ....