Life in Tanah Rata, Malaysia: Part 3

Click here to read Parts 1 and 2 of this post if you haven't already.

Here we are with some local builders, preparing a room for decoration.

Putting the carpet down.

Cleaning the windows, which had become splattered with paint.

Hoovering the carpet.

This is one of the finished rooms. Needless to say, they looked very pretty and well-decorated by the end, and we were proud to have been a part of their creation.

At Orchid Lodge, we became good friends with some new guests there: Hannah and Ryan from the Isle of Wight, and Helen from Northampton (though now living in Denmark). We took them up to the top of Gunung Brinchang, which we'd previously visited during our first few days in the Cameron Highlands. This time it was much mistier, though there were still some nice views to be had.

We also returned to the Mossy Forest, this time following a wooden walkway which Angela and I never visited previously.

A carnivorous pitcher plant, or "monkey cup."

We decided to attempt the long walk down the road towards Brinchang, a small town north of Tanah Rata. On the way, Ryan's flipflop broke, so we had to fix it with duct-tape.

Passing farms and tea plantations.

After a couple of hours, some locals offered to take us the rest of the way down in their truck, and since we were kind of tired of walking at that point, we took them up on their offer.

They could only take us as far as the main road, so we decided to hitchhike our way to Brinchang.

This friendly dude let us into his van and took us to Brinchang. It was the first time Angela and I ever hitchhiked.

Shopping at the market in Brinchang.

Back in Tanah Rata, Lisa joined us all for a meal at Kumar's, our favourite restaurant in town.

That evening, Kassim let us try on some traditional Indian and Bangladeshi clothes at Orchid Lodge.

On our final day at Orchid Lodge, we gave Kassim a gift of orchid vases for the new hostel, which he seemed happy with.

Though we were glad to be moving on with our adventures, we definitely felt sad to be leaving Kassim, Orchid Lodge and Tanah Rata behind us. Kassim is a beautiful human being, who has so much to give, so many talents, and such a loving heart. We'll miss his massages, his tea, and of course, his delicious meals, and we hope that CH Travellers Inn is a huge success for him.

Tanah Rata will go down as one of the best places we visited on this trip. Such a relaxed, breezy town with friendly locals and the best food in the world. I can't recommend it highly enough. But on we must go. Angela and I left for Penang eventually, pleased with the three weeks we spent in the Cameron Highlands, and excited for further explorations of magical Malaysia.