My trip to Malaysia

The last destination I told you about was Singapore, which I said was a very tiny country. Singapore sits on an island at the very southern tip of a peninsula known as the Malay Peninsula. Most of that peninsula is taken up by a country called Malaysia, which is the next country I'm going to tell you about. In addition to the land on the peninsula, Malaysia also contains two provinces on an island called Borneo, but I didn't go there. I just traveled up and down the main part of the Malay Peninsula. Before you keep reading, you should see if you can find the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, and Borneo on a map.

I traveled to Malaysia by overnight bus from Singapore to a region called the Cameron Highlands, which are located in the Malaysian state of Pahang. The Cameron Highlands are famous for growing tea. Malaysia was a British colony for a long time, and – as I learned during the year I spent living in Oxford – British people love their tea. They still import lots and lots of tea from Malaysia.

I sit on top of tea plants.

I luxuriate in a tea field.

I'm going tea surfing.

The weather in the Cameron Highlands is cool and rainy. That means there's lots of moss in the forests. It also means that you have to take an umbrella when you go there.

Look at this mossy forest in the Cameron Highlands.

What a beautiful day to visit the Cameron Highlands!

One fun thing that you can do with really wet weather is to grow strawberries and mushrooms, both of which are famous products of the Pahang State. I was particularly intrigued by how many different kinds of mushrooms I saw for sale in the stores.

Look at all the different kinds of mushrooms you can buy!

They are so colorful!

Here is a close-up photo of the Malaysian mushrooms.

Because the Cameron Highlands are cool and wet, lots of British colonists used to go there to relax back when Malaysia was a British colony. Remember that British people really like rain. Nick took me to visit a traditional English tea house right there in the Malaysian wilderness. I had English scones and local Malaysian tea!

Here is the English tea house.

For some reason, Nick put me on the gutter.

Here I am with my scone.

I really enjoyed my trip to the tea country of Malaysia. After I finished exploring the Cameron Highlands, I took a bus on to the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, which is a big city like Singapore. From there, I caught a plane to Thailand, which will be the subject of my next post.

--Benny