Ipoh

Our next stop was Ipoh, a couple of hours south of Penang. It is located about 60km inland and although located on flat, arable land it is surrounded by forested mountains and limestone cliffs. These cliffs contain some huge limestone caves some of which have Chinese Buddhist temples built into them.

We hired a driver for a day to visit the Cameron Highlands, located on the Tablelands 1600m above Ipoh. It takes a couple of hours to drive there as the road is steep, narrow and windy. It reminded us of the Atherton Tablelands a bit except that when you get there there are hundreds of plastic covered greenhouses where vegetables and cut flowers are grown hydroponically. Probably the most intensive agriculture we have ever seen and covering a large area. It wasn’t pretty, but it was productive. The vegetables and flowers are of high quality and are sent all over the world. We had some beautiful strawberries.

There is also a large, beautiful tea plantation where we had a nice lunch. And bought some tea.