To the Hills!

The bus to Tanah Rata is your standard Asian wide-seater with frosty air con and charmingly lurid patterned upholstery and frilly curtains. It would be a nice ride if it wasn't lurching up forest-shouldered mountain paths, dodging oncoming traffic whilst our driver chain smokes in the front seat, giving me a steady choking waft of cigarette smoke and cheap floral air freshener in alternate bursts.

I'm heading to the Cameron Highlands, the favourite mountain retreat of English colonial settlers in the past, and nowadays knackered Malaysians and backpackers.

Mostly I'm in it for the tea plantations. As a celebrated tea nerd, I get very excited when we get our first glimpse of one of the Boh estates from the bus - The sections of tea bushes are trimmed to look like little clouds and run ramshackle all over the hills in a green brickwork.

The Cameron Highlands are much cooler than the rest of Malaysia, which is why you can grow tea and strawberries here. There's also some good trekking to be had through the jungle, and you can go and see the world's biggest flower, the Raflessia, whose latin name means "fuck-ugly massive warty flower".

It's also a welcome respite from Kuala Lumpur; the atmosphere is more laid back. As the bus travels up the hills I see people selling Durians by the roadside. There are some schoolkids looking very smart in pale blue shirts and sky blue ties who wave at the bus as it goes past. The Guesthouse is also relaxed, with free locally grown tea. Immediately I book in an extra day. "Take as much time as you need" -  and I could do with more of this sort of thing.