It’s a long way up.

Almost a mile actually, straight up! It took us almost two hours by bus to arrive in the village, a surprisingly large one, where we transshipped to two smaller minibuses in order to negotiate the narrow roads in the area. Our guide, Mary, was waiting for us, and drove us even further uphill to a tea plantation, BOH teas. There we learned how the tea is grown and processed actually on the mountain tops, we saw the cropping being done by hand and machine. Mile after mile of tea shrubs are planted here, around two feet high, and only the top two leaves are harvested every three weeks to make the tea.

The very best tea is higher in the mountains, and is picked by hand, and Anne swears that it is wonderful taken without milk. I don’t know about that….

I think they said they make tea for about 5 million cups every day here- a lot anyway.

Most of the outdoor workers are Bangladeshi and Indian, on five year contracts, and are not allowed home leave for the first three years. They live a little way down the valley in dormitory huts, looking after themselves, with a “Tesco” store in their little village itself. Their spiritual needs are well taken care of with a small mosque, a Hindu temple and a Christian church in the village, and their health is looked after in a clinic on site. So, apart from being away from their families for long periods, they are happy and healthy.

We witnessed the process of making tea- starting with the leaf drying, which takes place overnight under heat, to the rolling process which grinds the tea into smaller pieces, to the final sorting and drying, culminating in bagging to be taken down to the packing stations near KL.

Afterwards we enjoyed a lovely cup of tea and a scone, courtesy of Mary, while we watch the thunder clouds gathering over the mountains a short distance away.

Down to the village again to a butterfly farm- well, although there were many butterflies there it was more an insect and a reptile zoo. We were able to handle some if the snakes and lizards, as well as some of the larger insects.

It is amazing how these large insects are able to camouflage themselves, the stick insects, some 12 inches long, look exactly like the twigs they are attached to, and the leaf insect we would not be able to pick out ourselves had our guide not found them for us.

The colourful butterflies were all around us, some even settling on our clothing, a pleasant experience for the ladies and ourselves.

Lunch was taken in a golf club, where a choice of European and Malaysian food was available, not exactly brilliant but edible. As we ate the clouds gradually lowered until we could see nothing of the course below us, and as we had seen 4 golfers going out some minutes before wondered if they would ever be seen again.

Later we were taken to a Strawberry farm, where I enjoyed a large portion of fresh strawberries and cream- bang goes the diet again! But that was not the only item grown there- row after row of hydroponically grown lettuce of all colours, shapes and sizes were on show, with nutrient filled water running through their roots. While we were there the rain came down with a vengeance- it is amazing how much can fall in a brief period.

So- tired and happy we made our way back to the bus and back down from the mountains, slowly I might add as the road was tortuous and steep in places, took us some two hours to get back to Ipoh.

On arrival we were whisked off to a restaurant with president Sushil, John & Julia Mather  and Dr Majumber. A good meal again with a variety of options- I am very wary of the Malaysian dishes as many are curry or well spiced. So it’s European for me!