Cameron Highlands and Chefoo, May 27-31

(Apologies...there may be far too much detail in the following post for anyone who hasn't been to the Cameron Highlands, but I know a few folks wanted a few more details on this portion of the trip! There are two additional posts with additional Cameron Highlands photos that illustrate the good news and the bad news written about here.)

I attended Chefoo School in Malaysia from first to sixth grade and it remains one of the most amazing and magical places I have lived. It is a nature lover's paradise, high in the hills, surrounded by jungle, tea estates, waterfalls, orchids and Monkey Cups (pitcher plants). It is much cooler than many places in SE Asia and thus used to be the mountain getaway for the British back in the colonial days. It was literally 20 degrees cooler for us coming from Bangkok – 66 degrees when we woke up in the morning instead of 86! Back when I was in school there were few tourists and it was almost like the 70-100 of us students had the run of an entire jungle kingdom along with the Malay, Chinese and Indian locals that lived in the surrounding towns– many of them in the vegetable farming business due to the cool temperatures. Unfortunately word of this charming place continued to spread and now it is overrun by tourists much of the time. Busloads of tourists from the lowland come seeking the cooler climate. With them has come rampant development and sprawl – not just of buildings to accommodate them but also increased vegetable farming and deforestation. This combination has caused the temperature to begin to rise and fewer nighttime fires are lit in the cozy hillside bungalows these days.

I had witnessed this development eight years ago in 2001 (when the school closed and they held a grand celebration/reunion/decommissioning which was my first visit back to Malaysia since 1984) but it is sadly even more apparent now. The small village of Brinchang, five to ten minutes walk from the school is now almost unrecognizable and grotesque from this over development. The Hotel Rosa Passadena, which perhaps was the largest and most shocking of the new hotels in the town is now being dwarfed by buildings the size of the Equatorial Resort further up the road. Infrastructure wise there just doesn't seem to have been too much planning or control and I don't know how much more the area can handle. Interestingly, Tanah Rata (another town close by) seems to have done a better job in planning and retaining its aesthetic value – which ironically I wouldn't have said it had much of 20 years ago. Now I would pick TR over Brinchang to stay in any day! Roads are often clogged – it can take five minutes to cross the road that leads from Brinchang down to TR past the golf course – and parking is often tight, especially on weekends and holidays. (It took us almost 40 minutes to get from Brinchang to Kampong Raja past the Boh tea estates (a distance of not very many kilometers) due to the traffic one day.

The other significant change to the entire region, which is also largely responsible for the flood of tourism and development is the completion of the new road cutting through the mountains from Ipoh. Where before you took the long and windy road up from Tapah (which is still possible) most buses now go through Ipoh and the new road from the west. So now you come down through Kampong Rajah into Brinchang first and then onto Tanah Rata. It cuts down on time, twists, and turns and as mentioned already allows most of Malaysia and Singapore in for the weekend! Wish this hadn't happened – if anyone is planning a trip here, do it soon and don't do it on a weekend especially during any sort of public or school holiday.

That's the bad news for anyone familiar with this place. The good news...in spite of all this, if you get away from the towns and walk the roads and trails through the jungle, you wouldn't know too much has changed – yes there are new houses and bungalows, but it still passes for the Cameron Highlands we grew up in.

And Chefoo...is largely unchanged. Most Chefoosians know that the school was sold to the Methodist Church which now uses it as a retreat center. We arrived to discover it in a massive state of construction as they renovate the entire property. It has been well used but everything internally needs to be updated to accommodate the many visitors. Evidently retreat goers don't like using sinks that only come up to their knees! So all the buildings have been gutted as new plumbing and wiring is installed. All the dorms, classrooms and sadly even the teacher houses have been divided up into smaller rooms to house guests. The assembly hall (was that its name?) dorm one and two (or whatever it was called at the end (the big L shaped building) had the roof off as they were raising the whole building a little. The good news is that the footprint and exterior of the school will remain largely the same. - Although the swimming pool is now a fish pond and the jungle is encroaching on the ironically named Adventure Playground. Only four posts of the Pony Hut remain sticking out of the jungle. It truly is amazing to see how nature will take over again.

The OMF Bungalow also remains largely the same now run by Mrs. Chye and her family. It is still open to guests, so after 30 years or so, I was finally able to experience what so many others have experienced down through the years. Can I just say what a nice piece of real estate this is!? OMF had better not let it go! Food is also fantastic! If you need peace and quiet, this is a great place to be. One caveat though, the booking process (you have to book with another person who then lets the bungalow know you are coming) and the communication between the booking agent and the bungalow is not good at all. Won't go into all the details but it is definitely something that needs to be taken care of. If you want more info get hold of us, we can let you know details.

It was great to be here and just walk the roads and smell the Cameron Highlands smell. Two walking highlights – one day we walked from the bungalow to TR past Parit falls and a large green parrot swooped down right in front of us in the trees. Kind of cool. Another morning I got up early and walked from the bungalow to Sunlight cottage. Kept going and came to Moonlight cottage completely empty and front door unlocked and wide open. What a great place!


Duncan