Tanah Rata and Parit Falls

Thursday 19 July

A baby cried long into the night last night, and at 5.30 am this morning, a deep, resonant chanting voice erupts from the sound system of the local mosque. The rumbling continues for a good 20 minutes – it's not an unpleasant sound, as I lie in bed listening to it – quite haunting and evocative, actually. I ponder on whether this would be allowed to happen in the UK? Or maybe it does. Some Christian churches still ring their bells to call people to church, but not this early.

Our hotel in the Cameron Highlands, which doesn't do meals, has told us that we won't find a cafe or restaurant in Bringchang which provides English breakfast. However, I've spotted a place called the J Tea Cafe on the internet which advertises English Breakfast, and it's in Bringchang. The internet tells us where it is, so off we go.

The J Tea Cafe is right next door to an agency which arranges tours in the Cameron Highlands. It's 10.30 am, and the tour office is open, but the metal shutters are down on the J Tea Cafe. Reg pops his head around the door of the tour office to find out what time the cafe opens.

“We see from the internet that the J Tea Cafe does English breakfast,” I venture to say to a man within.


There's a hustle and bustle inside and the shutters come up on the J Tea Cafe, and we are ushered inside, and shown to a table. The man talks to a young woman who seems cross, but the lights come on behind the counter, and menus are thrust into our hands. But they are to us, dinner menus; although to Asians they would be breakfast menus as well, as they eat noodles and rice for breakfast, too.

“What would you like to order?”

“We read on the internet that you serve English breakfast.”

The man I'm speaking to doesn't understand, so he goes off to fetch someone else. I explain again.

“Ah,” says the second man, and disappears, returning with another menu. “Would you like to order from here?”

On this menu there's fried eggs, scrambled eggs “chicken ham” (whatever that is), sausage, and toast and jam. We place our order. I ask what time the cafe normally opens, and am told, 11 am. To us that seems rather late for breakfast.

“We are open till 11 in the evening,” says the man who speaks English. “So we don't open early in the morning.”

“But what about your advert on the internet, saying you serve English breakfast?”

“Aaah, yes. The boss said he was going to put us on the internet.”

Breakfast comes, and the eggs and toast are lovely; the sausage is “ok”, the baked beans (which we didn't know we were getting) are cold, and the jury's out on the “chicken ham”. This breakfast, to us, is better than rice or noodles, even though we know there's an argument for “When in Rome...”

We explain to the man who speaks English that it seems that there's a gap in the market in Bringchang for serving English breakfast, as there are many “Westerners” staying at our hotel. He seems to acknowledge this.

We clear our plates, though I leave the cold baked beans, and we are then brought a dish of porridge, which is delicious. We have black tea served from a teapot, with a tea strainer – this is the Cameron Highlands, centre of tea plantations, after all.

A man who seems to be Chinese appears on the scene and asks if we've enjoyed our breakfast – we think he might be the boss. We talk to him about the breakfast gap in the Bringchang market.

We tell him we're off to Singapore in a few days. It turns out that this man knows Singapore well; he tells me how it has changed to a modern, pristine-clean city, where the people are afraid of putting a foot wrong, as the fines are so high, and we already knew that chewing gum is banned. I tell the Chinese man that I lived in Singapore over 40 years ago. I've already found out that some things I remember are still there – Orchard Road, C.K. Tang's ( a big department store), the Bukit Timah (a road which runs through Singapore). But I'm told that Chinatown, as I know it, has disappeared.

Later in the day we visit Tanah Rata, which is the main town in the Cameron Highlands – it's just a tourist centre really, with cafes and restaurants (some serving English breakfast!) and, I'm sorry to say, many “tacky” tourist shops, most selling strawberry shaped cushions, and t-shirts and bags with pictures of strawberries all over them – why? Because the Cameron Highlands are not only a centre for tea plantations in Malaysia, they are also famed for growing strawberries.

We take a short trek through a little bit of forest and jungle to find a local waterfall, the Parit falls. We're disappointed though; we follow the river, only to find litter scattered along its banks, and caught in its crevices. At a look-out shelter where it would have been pleasant to sit, the litter bin obviously hasn't been emptied for a long while – there are piles of cans, plastic bottles and paper refuse heaped around the bin, which is overflowing.

A pretty bridge which crosses the river is broken and a big sign says "not in use". Evidently either the finance, or the will, to refresh and renovate this little spot is not forthcoming.