It is very late and I just have time to post some cool pictures of the tea factory we toured today. The hills are filled with acre after acre of tea plants. Most are 80 years old.
June 1
We took a cab the 20 minutes to the tea plantation. It was a beautiful day out, a bit cloudy but very nice. As we drove up the mountains all around us were hills filled with tea plants. Tea plants are kind of like a bonsai tree. They would be huge trees but are cut back to about 2 feet tall. Their trunks look old and weathered as they are around 80 years old.
When we got closer to the factory, there were workers in the fields cutting the tea leaves and putting them in bags. Some of the hills are very steep and we wondered how they cut them.
We toured the factory first and learned all about how the tea is picked, crushed, fermented and dried. Then we went through the tea shop to sample some tea and we picked up a few samples to take home. We couldn’t resist going to the tea room for some scones, apple pie, strawberry cake and tea. Mmmm so good.
After our tea and cake we thought we could probably walk down to the main road. I thought it was all mostly downhill. Franz (Holland guy) thought it was mostly uphill….he was right. To make my being wrong worse, it started to rain as we were walking the 5 km uphill back to the main road. As we walked there were cars passing us very slowly on the very narrow road. So after 6 or 7 tries to get someone to stop. A guy with a truck did and we all piled in even though we were 200 feet from the end. When we got to the bottom, there was a corn on the cob stand. We all needed a little snack to celebrate our good fortune at getting a ride. Then as we ate our corn, it really started to pour. It rained so hard there was a river running down the road and as it got deeper, we hid under the little stand roof. We wondered how we would ever get the 20 minute drive back to our town. Just as we thought we would never get dry, our tour 4x4 from the day before drove up. We waved him down and he gave us all a ride back to town. Hitchhiking 2 times in one day. What a great time.
tomorrow morning we are taking a 4 hour bus ride to KL and catching our 6 pm flight to Ho Chi Min city, Vietnam!!
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4 comments:
Lovin it ... ALL OF IT! Keep it coming friend.
Hugs for your overnight good sleep,
Sara
Good morning everyone everything is so interesting I would also like to know the name of the flower. I would love to have one of those tea trees that sounds so interesting I could grow my own tea you could help me make green tea. Everything just looks beautiful and exciting this is just a wonderful trip for you guys. Take care I miss you a lot have a wonderful time love mom [grandma]
My family trip was a success and my kids loved the places we visited, the weather (they complained of hot weather at other places) and the Cameron Highlands hotel where we stayed served food that they enjoyed.
Hey, no fair! The place looks great and I would love to stay there. Incidentally are there good Cameron Highlands hotels there?
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