Day 8: Tanah Rata, Sunny, 25°☀️

A Tea Tour!

This morning we were up early in order to have breakfast and to be ready for the driver of our small 4×4 tour to pick us up. Because of the very heavy tourist traffic generated by the holiday, a number of the usually available options had been cancelled. The tours just could reach certain destinations because of the traffic jams!! So we selected a morning half day tour to visit a tea plantation and walk through the rain forest at 2000m elevation.

We started in the back of the 4×4 but later move forward which was great. Everyone else was much younger than us and they were very willing to change seats.

Our guide Tamil was raised here and has been guiding since he was 17, now 23 years old he also drives. He’s studying criminology at university with one year to go. Better yet, he’s a life time Manchester United fan!

We stopped to hike into the tea fields which were wonderful, and provided lovely views. It was suppose to rain today, but as usual the forecast was wrong and we ended up with a fabulous sunny day! Tamil and our host at the guesthouse both mentioned several times how fortunate we were for this time of year.

The track was muddy, but the 8 of us were basically dressed for the conditions. Others we saw were not quite so fortunate.

This tea plantation (1 of 2) was started in the early 1900’s by a Scottish family and it has continued to thrive and grow. It’s now managed and operated by the third generation.

Tamil carefully explained the tea harvesting processes and explained the different methods of preparing the tea leaves. AM of course was the only one in the group who didn’t drink tea, and this became a recurring theme with lots of fun banter.

Once we had enjoyed a decent walk and learned more about tea than I though possible, we moved on to the Mossy Forest walk. This is a board walk route along a ridge with interesting flora and wonderful views.

We stopped several times on the way to look more closely at some of the plants in the area.

I took some photos for our friends Corie and Jim who are avid plant enthusiasts and often identify the plants we spot on our walks together. This is a butterfly fern, and has been named as such because it twins at each bud point. Flower photos to follow.

Arriving at the mossy thing it soon became exceedingly obvious that this was a well visited location. There were 4×4’s parked everywhere.

We didn’t let this put us off and we started walking along the many stairs. The trail runs along a ridge line with a very long, steep drop to one side.

The forested area is essentially heavy jungle that would be very difficult to walk through and almost impossible to navigate without a compass. We climbed a tower that looked a bit suspect, but I was pleased to see that it was at least supported by some steel girders.😮‍💨

The views up top were excellent in both directions on such a beautiful day! We were very lucky we were walking in a rainforest and it’s still the monsoon season, though at the tail end.

Back on the trail we saw several special plants and flowers. This flower is about 5 inches long and catches insects when they land on its rim and ingest an alcohol like substance. This makes them lose their balance and tumble in where acids break them down which in turn nourishes the plant. I didn’t look inside!😬

We reached the summit and then turned around and walked back to our vehicle.

Workers from Bangladesh are brought in to clip the tea off the trees. If these bushes were left untended they would grow into full trees much like Bay leaf type trees. It’s the continuous harvesting that keeps the trees bush size. They use garden shears to cut the tea, placing it on to white canvas sheet until it weights 70kg or 150 lbs. they then tie it up and place the bundle on their heads for the walk up or down to the collection locations.

The workers are housed on the main part of the tea plantation and a school and daycare are on site for the children of the families. I can only imagine how tough the work must be, and I would guess that there is competition for these jobs given the conditions in Bangladesh.

We drove onwards to the tea factory and the main plantation operation where we were able to taste some of the tea and get an idea about how the tea is transitioned into drinkable tea. Someone I know might have even purchased a little tea to bring home.😇

It was at this point that we asked if we could stay with the group for the rest of the day. Turned out it wasn’t a problem. A fellow from Borneo (something I never thought that I’d ever say) told me that Tamil’s knowledge and English was much better than most guides. we thought this might help us to learn more. Tamil arranged for 2 of our group to hat a ride back to town, so we were down to just 6.

Did I not say there would be flowers? Some amazing flowers!

To this point, the traffic had been very busy and slow on the narrow road. Now it basically ground to a halt. The traffic was a snarled mess and it would largely remain this way until late afternoon.

We were stuck in this mess for basically an hour. And Tamil told us that guides coming from the other direction had been waiting even longer to get through. Did we ever pick the wrong time to be here!

Even the motorbikes often struggled to get through!

At one point we inched past a place where a slide had happened downslope from the road. it was a very long drop!

Lots of agriculture in this area. we could also see the traffic backed up far below us.

Once we finally got down lower, we stopped for lunch. We bought lunch for Tamil to say thanks, and the other four went to different places to eat. It was just a small hole in the wall sort of place, but the food was pretty good.

Tamil shared a fair bit about himself, and told us about his family and his future plans. All good.

Our final stop of interest was the local market where AM and I wandered, enjoying the goings on around us.

Interestingly, after a cash sale the money is simply deposited into a blue plastic pail hanging over the produce before being raised back up towards the ceiling.

It was a long day and at 21:00 AM is already asleep as I finish this up. We don’t have a super active day tomorrow touring wise. More a day for getting some chores completed and booking a few ferries that we will need to have access to in about 6 days. We also plan to wander around here too.

So that’s it for today. Another busy, fun day. Hoping the weather up here holds.🤞Still lots of load fire crackers going off. Today was the last of 2 official national holidays, but many will have tomorrow off as well (Friday). With the weekend they get a 5 day break. That’s why it’s busy here!

Geoff🪷🫖🚙