Trekking for Tea

Today pretty much everyone I've been hanging out with in the past two days either checked out and went to Penang, or was going on the half day tour I did yesterday. I hung round the hostel for a while, as the volunteer staff suggested, to see if a hiking partner would surface. In went for a brief wander round the village for a drink and a snack and then returned to the hostel. No one had surfaced; there wasn't many people left at the hostel. I decided just do short trek by myself and set off for trail number 10. I was a bit wary as there had been robberies and assaults on lone female hikers in recent weeks. It took me a while to find the beginning of the trail as it was through some little garden and wasn't well signposted. An older woman was also looking and we eventually found it.

I walked for a while on the narrow path through the forest. I was almost in the bushes; it was quite overgrown.  At one point I had to squeeze between two large boulders that were either side of the path. The path was like an obstacle course. I was going over tree roots and under fallen trunks and up and down on the uneven path. Eventually I turned round and returned to the start. It was nice to get out, get some fresh air and stretch my legs. 

I was very hungry when I got back to the village so I went to a restaurant and got a fried noodle dish called Koteow Goreng. They were big noodles and there appeared tofu and chicken and some green veg in it. It was quite nice. After lunch I returned to the hostel. It was around 2pm (maybe).

The hostel manager asked if I'd been hiking and if I wanted advice on where to go. He suggested a 4km walk to a tea plantation. The map said it was 10km but he assured me it wasn't. After doing it I'm not even sure it was 4. It took me around 50 minutes to go the walk. It was downhill all the way along the busy main road. I got lots of funny looks from drivers. But it was worth the walk I would have to do back. The plantation was owned by a company called Cameron Valley tea and it was massive and so scenic and beautiful. It was so green. I took some photo and just took in the view for a little bit and then made my way back up the hill. It didn't take as long. Maybe I was walking faster, but not sure how that would work. I was a bit sweaty when I got back so jumped straight in the shower.

The hostel manager got food for everyone to try so I went upstairs and sat and chatted to a couple of other guests. I tried some spring roll type things and some rolled up thing that tasted like a plain pancake and then I went to the market and got some chicken skewers and an freshly made cheese naan bread.

I returned to the hostel to eat the food and two of the other girls said they were going to go to a weekend market and invited me to tag along so I did. We walked to the main road and tried to thumb a lift. One of the girls was quite aggressive about it, leaving right into the path of the car as they went by. It seemed to work though. We weren't waiting for very long when a young guy pulled over to give us a ride. It was only about ten minutes in the car but it would have been a long walk. The market has cooked food, toys and clothes, and for the first time in ages I saw stalls selling whole raw veg. There were also many stalls selling strawberries as they are grown round here.

 We were only at the market for about 15 minutes. The two other girls bought strawberries and one bought chillies and then we went to hitch hike back. We were waiting less than two minutes when by huge coincidence that exact same guy pulled over and gave us a lift back to Tanah Rata. He dropped us off and we returned to the hostel, where I packed my stuff and relaxed on my bed.