Tea plantations, mountains, and a mossy forest

Saturday 21 July

Today we've booked to go on a 3-point tour; a visit to a tea-factory, a panoramic view from the highest mountain in the Cameron Highlands, and a walk through a “mossy” rainforest.

We've found another cafe where we can have a sort-of English breakfast (pork-free to cater for Muslims), and this one opens early. So we nip out for eggs on toast before the start of our tour.

Our young Indian guide, Satu, drives up to our hotel with a minibus full of other tourists. He's friendly and full of enthusiasm about our trip, and has a sense of humour which is refreshing. Reg and I are the last to be picked up and we're sitting in the 2 seats in the front next to Satu, which gives us an excellent view. I'm happy because there are seatbelts in the vehicle and they actually work; this is Malaysia after all, not Vietnam, Cambodia or Thailand now.

The minibus wends it's way up to the Boh tea factory and tea-rooms. It's the same route Reg and I took in our hire car yesterday; the view of the mountains and undulating valleys, carpeted in row upon row of tea bushes, is amazing. At a suitable vantage point, Satu stops the minibus and we all pile out, and he explains to us how the tea is harvested. The tea bushes are only allowed to grow to about 3 feet high, otherwise they would be too difficult to harvest. They are pruned every 3 years; if left untouched they would grow into trees 30 feet high.

Only the youngest leaves are used in the tea manufacturing process; they are picked every 3 weeks. Years ago, these young leaf-shoots used to be hand-picked; nowadays a semi-mechanised shearing process is used. The tea-pickers usually work in pairs, using a 3ft long hand-held petrol-driven shearing machine, which cuts off the new shoots and blows them into a plastic bag attached to the machine. Occasionally the pickers work alone using hand shears and a plastic bucket on the least-accessible slopes, but tea gathered in this way represents a tiny proportion of the total yield.

Then the leaves are picked off by hand from the shorn-off top layers of the bushes; and what is not useful is allowed to decompose and is used as fertilizer.

The shearing is a skilled and difficult process, as most of the tea bushes are growing in rows on steep mountain-side slopes. Only where tea is grown on the flats of the valleys is the bush cutting process fully mechanised, using a combine-harvester adapted for this purpose.

Satu tells us that it's how the leaves are processed that gives us the different flavours of tea. Green tea, popular in China, undergoes a short manufacturing process, whereas black tea takes longer to produce. Apparently teabags are largely made up of “tea-dust”, the very minute particles of tea-leaves, because these infuse more quickly in boiling water. Also it's easier to add flavours to “tea-dust”, to enable all the different types teas to be produced, for example, fruit and herbal teas.

We progress to the tea-factory; Satu tells us that his grandfather used to work there, taking it in turns with others to work the pulleys which enabled the huge flat roller discs to crush the tea leaves. These same rollers, manufactured in 1935, are still being used today, but now they are fully mechanised. Once crushed, the tea-leaves undergo a 97% drying process – not 100% as the flavour of the tea needs to be retained.

Satu confirms that the tea-pickers all live in the little “hut-cottages” below the factory. I mentioned the school and recreation areas yesterday; Satu says there's also a health clinic (where he was born) and a computer room. The tea-pickers used to be of Indian origin; now they are all migrant workers coming from poorer countries. They get paid according to how much tea they pick; average earnings are 1100 ringgits (£220 a month).

We're surprised to learn that the Boh tea estates were established by a Scotsman, J A Russell, in 1929. His granddaughter, Caroline Russell, and grandson, Tristan Russell, are now the millionaire owner of these estates, which cover some 8000 acres. Caroline Russell lives in London, but visits Malaysia every so often to makes sure things are running smoothly.

Reg and I enjoy another cup of Orange Pekoe tea in the tea-house with its splendid views of the surrounding mountains and valleys, completely covered with tea bushes.

Afterwards our minibus wends its way further up the mountainside to the highest point in the Cameron Highlands; 6660 feet. We climb up to the top of a watchtower, which should give us magnificent views, but everything is shrouded in low white clouds.

Satu is an experienced forest and jungle trekker, and when he leads us on our walk (or rather climb) through the mossy forest, he's able to point out various tropical plants, such as orchids, and insect-eating pitcher plants . The forest floor is covered with winding tree roots, and the air is extremely moist; this causes the trees to be covered with different types of moss, and encourages unusual plants to grow there. The moss apparently has healing properties, and many of the plants that grow in this forest are used for medicinal purposes. Satu tells us that the moss is only present in forest which grows at this particular height and in these temperatures.

We thoroughly enjoy our morning tour and learn a lot about tea-growing and manufacture, and about the natural habitat of the Cameron Highlands. We are lucky, because just as we arrive back at our hotel, a terrific thunderstorm breaks, and rain hammers down for several hours.