Up to Mount Brinchang, Mossy Forest and Tea Plantations

Cameron Highland and Tanah Rata is just over 1500 meters above sea level and the top of the mountain that I am going up to is 400 meters just over higher up.

The road up to the top goes from the foot of the mountain at Brinchang and it is described that it should be paved but it is a truth with great modification. Many holes and cracks and landslides have meant that the road in many places is barely passable.

After all the way up you pass tea plantations in masses but there are also other cultivations, mostly vegetables. Green, green everywhere and for every meter you ascend it gets colder, but apparently never below 5 °C.

The sun has not had time to warm up the air very much at this time in the morning and probably won’t do so today either because the clouds don’t seem to want to separate very much.

At the top of Mount Brinchang 2031 m.a.s.l, there is a raw mist and the temperature fluctuates between 13 and 15 0 °C. It feels cool up here on the mountain, the area is called Mossy Forest and you understand that when you see the rainforest.

It is dense and in some places impenetrable, the trees are overgrown with green and soft moss and since you let nature have its own life, it is risky to walk along the path.

You are advised not to deviate from the trail as it leads to the vegetation being trampled down and dying and thus threaten the entire rainforest area. Up here, it is also forbidden to hunt.

It’s magical, downright magical to walk along the path. The trees, plants and bushes grow as if inside each other.

In order not to fall along the muddy path, you have to hold on to trees and branches because it is not a footbridge exactly. Unfortunately, the raw mist prevents showing the view down to the valley.

Around noon we headed down to t he tea plantations ,Boh Tea Plantation it lies further down and most of them are located along the mountain slopes. Cameron Highlands is known for its tea plantations and up here there is also a tea factory that takes care of the tea leaves.

Only the light green leaves are harvested, and they grow at the top of the bush. The dark ones are allowed to return to Earth.

 

The leaves do not smell of tea, you have to crush the leaves between the palms of your hands to be able to smell a faint scent of leaves or leaves but absolutely no tea smell.

Green tea is from leaves that have been dried in the sun and then the drying process is quick. The taste will be smooth. Black tea is dried without sun and together with the tea leaf process, takes longer and then the taste is also stronger.

The tea flavors are obtained through the process that after drying, grinding, sorting that the tea leaves go through  From the thinnest and greenest leaves, ”white tea” is made, but then you have to handpick these and the price is then relatively high. Otherwise, you use a machine that two people stand on either side of the tea bush row hold and move forward.

On the steepest slopes it becomes too heavy and then you use large scissors to grab the tea leaves. Most of the tea workers live nearby in small houses and they earn about 2000 RmMyr per month, or just under 4400 SEK (2019)

Among all the green tea bush rows there are also less pleasant creatures. A green snake that they call Viper snake, and it is very venomous and all workers wear special gloves, sleeve guards, pants and shoes.