When the world gives you mud...make tea!

Into the jungle highlands today, we were 6 ladies and Spencer, our guide, on a trek to see the largest flower in the world. We climbed into a 4X4 Land Rover and clambered into the hills. About halfway up the mountain, we encountered another Rover, tire popped, half the wheel submerged in mud. Stuck with no jack. Confusion, conference, conclusion between the drivers, we headed back into our Rover to pass the stranded. Into the mud also, just even with the other Rover, we too got stuck. The road fully blocked, both groups' trucks mud-logged, we roughed it up the rest of the hill through mud and more mud. It was the same color as Georgia red clay. I'm thankful my shoes are black...not sure it'll come out of some of the girls' sneaks.

Dan, Sana, Evelyn, Helen, Celine and me: 3 from China, 1 England, 1 Switzerland and 1 USA. An all-girl group, we crossed streams via bamboo bridges, skipped across rocks and boulders as the river widened and then took a small break at the main waterfall. All sorts of wild flora, fauna and insects stopped each of us from time to time for a snapshot. There was this one flower that looks like an alien, something created on a computer, only it's 100% natural. Not to mention gorgeous. About an hour later, we made it to the flower. Rafleesia, named for a local who first found it and a foreign botanist who kick-started a local program for new discoveries, the flower can stretch up to three meters wide. We saw two, one half-open, unable to complete its bloom because of a tree branch blocking it. And up the hill, a fully open one, three feet wide and red. What a cool thing to stumble upon in the jungle. Up close, really close, it smells like what our guide Spencer calls "a Malaysian public toilet." The flower attracts bugs inside with that smell (like a dead animal) so that they will pollinate future flowers. Only in bloom for 8 days, the flower dies after about a week after blooming never to reopen again in the same spot. If you touch it, the petals turn black, so our guide asked us not to indulge. He did say that the flower feels like leather.

Back down the mountain, we stopped at a local tribal village. Spencer called them aboriginal. We watched a demonstration with blow pipes, which the tribe still uses to kill animals. Our group was most enamored with the village children. And they with our cameras! Seeing themselves and pushing the buttons to scroll through their images caused serious giggles. I put Chichamon on my shoulders and ran through the village. Nothing like a kid to bring out the kid in you. One of the village men said, "Excuse me, miss, but that's my son. You cannot have my baby." Laughter and a big sigh, I relented.

We headed next to the BOH tea plantation.Malaysians drink 7 million cups of tea per day, apparently 5 million of which the BOH plantation produces. I learned how much more healthy tea is for you than coffee. And from today forward, I hope to make the switch. Tea is a natural anti-oxidant, contains fluoride and is anti-cancerous. Early in the plantation's history, women plucked the tea leaves by hand, but in the 80s the plantation switched to men with lawnmowers.The plantation makes black tea in varying degrees of quality and ships the tea outside of KL to add in other flavors. The tea plants themselves carpet the hills. Rolling hills of tea, it's gorgeous here. We relaxed for a spell and all had a cup of tea.

We finished the tour with a stop at a strawberry farm and then a butterfly sanctuary. At the strawberry farm, one of the workers snuck us samples of the berries. They are a bit more bitter than sweet, but still delicious. I think they were young, under-ripe and, therefore, tart. Speaking of, a strange thing happened at the farm. The worker who'd fed us all berries asked one of us to take a photo of him with another of us girls with his cell phone. Only right before the picture was snapped, the guy chose to embrace a certain part of our friend's body, an inappropriate spot. The girl taking the photo leaned out from behind the phone, in shock. Woah...what was that?!? Meanwhile, the girl in the photo who just been fondled swatted the guy's hand away. A swift departure from the scene, we rejoined our guide. We told Sana (from Hong Kong), who hadn't witnessed the incident, what had happened, and she marched off to retrieve the photo from the guy's phone. The one who had been in the photo, however, told her to let it go. What can you do?

We moved on to the butterfly farm where they also had an insect and flower exhibition. The size of your hand, some of the butterflies were iridescent. The grounds are covered in butterfly wings, as they have such short life span. It's sad to see beauty lasting such a short time.

On to roses and cacti, hibiscus and birds of paradise, the flowers were also exquisite. In the Cameron Highlands, the weather is cooler but there is still a good mix of sun and rain. I saw these pink flowers and they looked like wedding bouquets. Will you marry me? Only kidding. At the right time, the one of us who'd been violated relayed the events to our guide for future guests he might take through the joys of CH. Spencer was apologetic and disgusted but not totally surprised. Mind your bodies, ladies, at strawberry farms.

Back into town, we all agreed to meet for dinner. Steamboat at the Mayflower, we dined in local tradition, a meal a bit like fondue. A huge boiling pot in the center, ours was chicken broth, you pay per head and get the following: chicken, fish, squid, beef, mushrooms, cabbage, noodles, eggs, fish balls, and more! You drop the goodies into the pot at certain times, depending on the time they take to cook. Veggies and noodles take no time so they go in last. And from what I could tell, certain things are deemed healthier to eat first, meats and fish, followed by veggies and tofu. It's a nice coursing of a meal, not to mention interactive. And, from time to time, messy! We had a great group today. And at dinner Spence revealed that, early in the day, after we'd all been picked up, he walked into the tour office and all the guides had been jealous. A group of 6 women, a rarity, he'd struck it rich! What a ball.

We continued into the evening at the Jungle bar. Whiskey, beers, fire and fun. I love the Cameron Highlands.