Cameron Highlands ~ still a cool place to be

Cameron Highlands, Pahang Darul Makmur.

It’s been two days and nights now that I have been here with my darling up in these cool mountain resort area.

Alhamdulillah, the temperature is quite cool befitting it’s reputation as one of our nation’s much preferred hill resorts.

There is an abundance of strawberry and vegetable farms that straddle the highlands here almost all over the lush valleys.

We arrived yesterday and checked in to one of the resort hotels which I had booked in advance from KL.

The hotel room is quite spacious and luxuriously furnished. The view from the hotel’s balcony is also quite uplifting and we have an excellent vista before us with the rolling hills in the background and pleasant sight of mist covered mountains. Truly, the Cameron Highlands is still a very cool place to be! Alhamdulillah!

During our drive up the highlands, I saw these strange fruits being sold by the Orang Asli @ Natives by the roadside.

I stopped our car and asked the Orang Asli as to what fruit were these?

They replied that these fruits are known as ‘Buah Larah’ and sweet sourish in taste. Just like the taste of ‘Buah Dokong’.

According to the native, these fruits are in season only once a year. They were selling these fruits for RM4.00 a bunch. 3 bunches for RM10. As I haven’t had the experience of eating such fruits before, I ventured to try out a bunch first and frankly speaking, after tasting them, I prefer the taste of Dokong, Duku or Langsat! 😛
I chatted with them for a while and asked them whether they were Muslims? They answered that they have yet to receive enlightenment although many Jamaat Tabligh missionaries have visited them and shared some information about Islam. So have other missionaries from the Christian side.

I shared some information with them about who we all are and about Allah the Almighty but since I was on a tight schedule to reach our intended hotel before evening, I bade them leave and wished that I could spend some time again with them in the near future. They welcomed me and said that they would be willing to learn if such a possibility should come into being? They spoke fluently in Malay and were quite friendly. 🙂

I saw many huts belonging to the Orang Asli’s along the road and also some built up in the hillsides. They were built using bamboo and palm fronds. Quite simple and environmentally friendly. Yet it seems that modernity has caught up with them.

There were also a few houses belonging to the Orang Asli that have been built using concrete and wood. Some of them even have Astro satellite tv dishes adorning their roofs. Cars and motorbikes also were parked in front of those homes. Good for them. 🙂

I stopped at one of the places where there were mini waterfalls gushing down the hillslopes and filled one of the empty 5 litre mineral water bottles I had in our car.

Sadly, the water quality wasn’t as good as the one I usually visit to get our supply of fresh mineral water at the Silk Kajang highway at Sg Long, Selangor. I had to re empty my bottle after seeing the quality of the collected water. Not that safe for drinking before purification.

One thing I loved very much was seeing the still green, plush, tropical forests surviving the encroaching signs of modernity up above these highlands. Hope they will be preserved for the much needed ecological balance and safe haven for our future generations as well as safeguarding the nation’s highlands environment.

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