The usual path goes: Kuala Berang -> Kuala Terengganu -> Ipoh -> Cameron Highlands (CH). As I tried booking the bus too late, the second leg was not available anymore, so I stayed a night in Kuala Terengganu. I took a night bus the next day and reached Ipoh around sunrise. In the afternoon, I had my last leg. It was very curvy!! Take your anti-motion sickness food supplements! I actually managed to sleep for 90 min straight (despite the curves), that tired I was.

As most buses start from Ipoh, you'll have to spend there half a day either way. Eat tasty local food while small-talking with local locals (yummy yummy food at Sajian Gjee – close to the bus terminal, albeit a bit hard to find).

Visit the Perak Cave Temple. As often in Malaysia, this Chinese temple was carved into stony caves. Approximately 325 stairs were carved into the stone and now allow you to ascend – both spiritually and literally.

I also visited the Gunung Lang park to chill a little bit (but monkeys prevented me from doing so), then returned to the terminal for some more food and departure preparation.

Most probably, you'll be situated in Tanah Rata. Most hostels are a couple of minutes walking-distance aways from each other, so all locations are good. Ask your host about a so-called Half-Day Tour and they'll happily book it for you. They'll take you to the tea plantations, the mossy forest and the strawberry farm (subject to opening times) while delivering you detailed information about this place.

Did you know that black tea, white tea and green tea all grow on the same bush? White is the top-most part, green is the second leaf from the top, and black is the whole plant mixed together. This bonsai-like shrub can be cut every 3 weeks. However, as it keeps growing, you have to prune it every few years, then wait 3 months for it to start growing leaves again. All the tea here comes from the identical plant instance – brought from India in a bonsai-form more than sixty years ago.

White tea must be processed within 6 hours afer cutting, while the black tea has 24 h of time to allow the process of fermentation to begin. In the past, all the leaves were hand-plucked, but now, they use motorised scissors. The tea is then proccessed in CH and packed in Kuala Lumpur. It is rarely exported as Malaysians love tea and drink it all.

Mossy forest, also unknown as Mosquito Forest – because there are none. The citronello tree's leaves fall down and start decomposing, releasing natural mosquito repellant. If you apply Jungle Formula, you are said to attract bees and flying bugs.

If you arrive early in the morning, you are supposed to see the morning mist arising from the trees. We were there on a non-humid day, so we didn't see that. For a pre-defined fee, you can walk a lovely path into the forest. Do not go off the beaten track, for you will step onto the oldest moss on Earth. It extends multiple metres into depth, and is older than any other tropical jungle.

The end of the path will be denoted by a small house-like structure. These guys here also have something common with Scandinavia: the roofs grow plants.

Do not; it is disallowed. But you can sneakily peek at them 🫣

To avoid strawberry-eating bugs, strawberries are planted onto bags of soil (mixed with fertiliser) directly, and put on top of wooden constructions. The season here is non-existent – strawberries can be plucked all year round. However, their taste is nothing special (they are comparable to the ones you buy in Slovenian supermarkets off-season). I still prefer the still-half-white ones from my grandma's garden because they are much sweeter 🍓.

Cameron Highlands is the hiking destination of this area. Most backpackers come here with the same goal as you. In any sociable hostel, you will find your new co-hikers. This will make the hike safer and more fun.

Ask your host (shout-out to Kazz, who was very knowledgable in this regard!) for trail suggestions and preferrable times of the day (take weather and night into account). Do not expose yourself to getting caught by rain in the wild on purrpose.

With this in mind, we decided to hike trails 10 and 6, walking through the tea plantations on the way back. However, just as we were leaving the forest, a torrential downpour began.

We tried grabbing a Grab, but due to the road being one-car-only narrow and more-than-100-% steep, no-one accepted our order. Finally, a driver (who had not known this road before) had mercy on us.

Start before six and hike the trail number 10 to get to the sunrise viewspot. Sadly for us, the scenic view at the top was mostly branches. Even worse, it was cloudy and foggy. Ultimately, we realised we were trying to see the sunrise looking towards west.

While descending the mount Gunung Jasar, the fog will probably vanish, exposing the stunning views along the trail 6. Among the tea bushes, you can still see workers taking care of the plants.

Ask your educated host for hiking recommendations. However, keep in mind that most hilltops here are overgrown with trees and bushes, robbing you of scenic views. Instead of waiting to reach the top, enjoy the journey and the beauty along the way.

Trail 4 offers you a couple of waterfalls. However, we have to keep things straight: Malaysians like to name every drop of water greater than 3 cm a waterfall. As someone from an Alpine country, this may be underwhelming. Yet, the waterfall in the picture is actually nice, and sitting in the picnic house makes you surrounded by countless sounds of nature.

Speaking of sounds of nature, the cicadas here sing differently.