We were picked up in an old 4/4 truck and stopped to get a few other small groups. Like everywhere we've been, there were some gap year students from Germany. Taking time off before college is much more of a norm there than it is in America.
The tour started with a butterfly farm, which we went to first to give the clouds time to clear. Lots of cool lizards and snakes but the most interesting exhibit was a North American chipmunk.
After the chipmunck, we bounced up a winding mountain path to the highest point in the highlands, 6666ft. On the way up, we stopped for pictures at one of the tea plantations. At the top, We climbed up a fire tower and had a great view of the surrounding tea plantations and hills.
I'm pretty sure the guides words were " get out, walk around and down take pictures and I'll meet you below". It was unclear if we were supposed to walk along the road, so Gretchen, Nave, and I led two of the German boys straight down through the tea plantation. There were almost paths used by the harvesters. We wandered our way downward for about an hour before meeting up with the road and our now-slightly-miffed guide.
The mossy forest was the next stop. We were led on a short walk through the jungle. The center of the forest is closed this year to limit the damage done by humans. While it would have been nice to see more of the forest, it's much better to see people taking care of their natural resources.
From the hike we went to a strawberry farm and bought ice cream tea and cake. We didn't realize that the truck was leaving without us and my tea was still too hot to drink. It was strawberry flavored and the first tea I've been able to have without milk and sugar and I was GOING TO DRINK IT. we almost finished the ice cream in about ten seconds and I poured the rest of the tea into that plastic cup to cool it off and take it with me. . It became sugar/milk tea like always but worth it I guess.
The tour also included a cactus farm and old market, which were nothing special.
We were dropped off around 2 and ate a Malaysian meal ordered by our local, Nave. He's been talking about waterfalls since I first mentioned the highlands and we were going to try to walk to one after lunch.
Gretchen had had enough hiking for the day and she went to explore town and relax.
After asking for directions twice, we started walking toward where we thought the trailhead was. There were signs for the falls and after inching past a pack of barking strays clutching our selfie stick(nave) and stick(me), we started down the clear, almost-paved path. About halfway down it, there was an offshoot marked trail 8. We had looked at a list of the trails on the bus ride the day before and trail 8 was ranked "very tough". We couldn't decide if we wanted to do it so we flipped a coin. It came up for the shorter trail but we ignored that and started scrambling up the jungle time. Nave stopped a few times to rest as we struggled our way up through the jungle and it started to drizzle about midway up the first climb. We resolved to see how far we could get before the rain really started and then we'd turn back. After about 30 minutes of hard climbing, we got to a summit and started down the other side. The sign at the bottom said 1hr back to where we started or 1.5 hours to go on, hit the taller summit and then a road. The signs weren't very informative on their own, but someone had sharpied on estimated times and more directions. We flipped another coin and then kept going. It started raining hard about halfway up the second climb and we put on our emergency ponchos for about a minute before realizing that we'd be hot and wet, instead of just wet. We used them to cover our packs instead. At this point, we figured we were closer to the end than to where we had started, so we just pressed on. We came to a few more ambiguous signs and after about two hours spiced with falls, thorns, countless spiders and a stinging plant, we made it to the summit. 1884 meters. By this point, we had expected to be long back, but now our only options were an impractically long climb back through the rain or to start down one of the other two trails.
At the top, Nave noticed a leech attached firmly between his middle and ring finger. I pulled it off (after a few attempts) with my bandana and soon after, found one under my right ankle. I'm not sure the proper way to remove leeches, so I yanked on them and squeezed them between my fingers in an effort to get them off as fast as possible. They're not dangerous, but very unpleasant. By the end of the hike, I had found five or six on my feet. I missed on on my big toe and by the time I found it, it was almost the size of my pinky. Pulling it off left my toe numb for half an hour.
The plant that stung Nave left a red welt about the size of two silver dollars on his forearm and it was starting to itch like crazy.
Hiking through the pouring rain and ankle deep mud, our goal was to get to a road by sundown. I had carried my backpack with me and had everything we needed to spend a night in the jungle, but getting back by dark was a good goal. After fording a few streams swollen by the rain, we came out on a road by the golf course, just under 4 hours after we started our 30 minute walk and a few minutes before sunset. We hitched a ride back to the correct town (we had come out past the next one) with the first passing car. Showering felt amazing and after hanging my stuff up to dry, we went downstairs with some of the hostel mates and tried the "burger challenge" which was a fried chicken sandwich as big as your head. It was full of weird things like cucumbers and pineapple. I could've eaten two.
Back at the hostel, some people were watching transformers while I planned the next leg of my journey.
-AB
Leeches on my toes
Stick figures serve as our guide
A walk in the woods
Leaf bug
Highland tea plantations we weren't supposed to walk through
Nave napping near the start of the first climb
Summit!
Yup, that's the path
We made it
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