It's 3.30 pm in the Cameron Highlands, which rise some 5000 ft above sea level and are reached by a vertiginous four-hour drive winding up through the jungle from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. The landscape up here seems otherworldly; with high ridges as far as the eye can see covered in strangely vivid, clipped bushes which at first resemble either a vast art installation by the likes of sculptor-in-nature Andy Goldsworthy or maybe a place J.R.R. Tolkien might have imagined for his orcs and elves.

Then the eye is drawn to a different silhouette atop one of the bright green slopes, which, as one gets closer, is revealed to be a table shaded by a vast parasol. Beneath it stands a waiter in a starched white uniform. Laid out on a damask cloth are bone china cups along with finger sandwiches and home-baked scones; all in all a spread that would not look out of place at the London Ritz. Behold the "afternoon tea picnic" prepared by YTL's the Cameron Highlands Resort Hotel and served on a working tea plantation. The hotel also offers tea planter guided walks and, before every treatment on its spa menu, a detoxifying, skin-softening bath in cold tea.

High Tea in Malaysia: Tea tourism attracts travelers to the Cameron Highlands Resort, where classic tea service is provided right on the plantation grounds.

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Tea Tourism is a growing niche, confirms Caroline Grayburn, of Tim Best Travel, a London-based travel agent known for planning unusual, bespoke trips. "An interest in tea can take you to the exceptionally beautiful Darjeeling in the northeast of India, or to Kerala in the south, or even to Uganda and Malawi in Africa. Our clients are keen to get beneath the surface of a country and see how it works and of course being served afternoon tea in ravishingly lovely hill country, well, what could be more glorious?" she adds.

Joe Simrany, president of The Tea Council of the USA, who has also stayed on breathtaking tea plantations in China and Sri Lanka, agrees. "There's nothing like waking up at the top of the world, with only the noise of birds and monkeys."

Those who love tea are fortunate that the camellia sinensis, the plant from which all tea — whether black, green, white or Oolong — is derived (except of course peppermint, chamomile or fruit teas, which are not strictly teas at all) is inherently picturesque; especially when viewed from a cane armchair on a shady veranda.

As for the round-the-world rituals of tea, the precision of tea making is fascinating to observe — from the Chinese style to the wonders of Japanese tea ceremony. Even English-style Afternoon Tea — accompanied by finger sandwiches and freshly-baked scones — is enjoying a considerable revival. In modern Britain where workers sup their afternoon "cuppa" on the go, the tea break may be a thing of the past, yet going out for afternoon tea has, perversely, never been more popular. At Fortnum & Mason, the Piccadilly store which started selling loose leaf tea in 1707, the instore restaurants alone brew 40 kilos a week; that's 3,600 pots or about 7,200 cups.

"There's a certain ceremony to tea," says Simon Burdess, Fortnum & Msaon's trading director. "It's the absolute opposite to the morning shot of espresso. It has its protocols, it's about slowing down and taking a moment from the hustle of the modern world, which, these days, seems the ultimate luxury."

The French took to tea in 1636, eight years before it arrived in England and what were then Britannia's colonies in the Americas. Afternoon tea, French style, (accompanied by macaroons or madeleines, but never with milk) has been enjoying a considerable renaissance too, which some attribute to Sofia Coppola's 2006 movie, "Marie Antoinette", where the Queen and her friends taking tea was portrayed as an 18th century equivalent of the Carrie Bradshaw and the girls with their Cosmopolitans.

In India, the source of much of the world's tea, the ceremony of afternoon tea used to be considered a throwback to the Raj, "yet recently, my girlfriends and I have rediscovered The Willingdon Club in Mumbai for the full afternoon tea," says Sheetal Mafatlal, the president of Mafatlal Luxury, which has the Valentino franchise in India.

Afternoon Tea Picnic: An employee of the Cameron Highlands Resort prepares a table for classic high tea service. The hotel also offers guided walks of the plantation and a includes a cold tea bath as part of its spa menu.

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Such fashionability makes it tempting to call tea the new coffee, although this would be ridiculous from a historical perspective, given that an emperor in ancient China (or more likely, his servant) first threw boiling water onto plucked leaves some 3,000 years before Arabian traders decided to boil up the coffee beans they had gotten from Ethiopia. Worldwide, tea is far more popular than coffee (except in the US, where it also trails behind soft drinks, beer and milk). Yet while Arabica certainly has its aficionados and people all over the globe are now familiar with the "Tall, Grande, Vente" lingo of Starbucks, "there are literally thousands of different types of tea to discover, according to the Tea Council's Simrany.

The taste of the four main types of tea varies according to how the leaf is treated before it is dried: hence white tea, which comes from the tips, tastes different from black tea, where the leaves have been wilted, rolled and fermented and which is again different from Oolong, where the fermenting process is arrested half way through. Green tea leaves are dried fresh from picking. Add to this first and second flush, which refers to when the leaves were picked; then geographical origin from robust, malty Assam in India to light, bright Dimbula Ceylon, from Sri Lanka. There is leaf size to consider too and here, the term "Orange Pekoe" has nothing to do with oranges, but instead denotes whether the leaf is a bud, even the very tip of a bud.

Good tea, like fine wine, carries the character of the land where it is grown. The world's top traders employ tasters, who are rather like perfumers, except they must juggle with flavor as well as aroma to mix extraordinary blends. "We have two people here who can identify tea virtually to the hillside on which it was grown", says Fortnum & Mason's Burdess, "and that simply isn't possible with coffee where so much of the flavor comes from the roasting."

Source: http://www.ytlcommunity.com/commnews/shownews.asp?newsid=40723
Time Magazine. September 15, 2008 issue

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No cause for concern
Thursday September 4, 2008
By Clara Chooi

TRADERS at the Brinchang market in Cameron Highlands can be rest assured that their business licences will not be revoked.

Cameron Highlands District Council secretary Mohd Pauzi Abu Hussaini said the council had never made any plans to revoke their trading licences.

“We received a letter from their lawyer telling us they are upset that their licences will be revoked and that they have nowhere to go,” he said.

He said the claims were unfoun-ded and the council had never brought up the matter.

Mohd Pauzi said he had no idea why the traders were suddenly plagued with such a wor- ry.

More than 20 traders there had alleged that the council planned to revoke their temporary trading licences once the row of shop units in front of the market was completed.

Market trader Ridhuan Lai Ab-dullah, 29, said without the licen-ces, he and other traders had now-here to go.

“We heard that once the buil-ding is ready, we have to move out. We also heard that the shop units will be rented out to other traders and we won’t have the first option to lease it,” he add- ed.

He claimed that the move was unfair as many of them had been operating there for more than 20 years.

The traders are also worried that the main road passing through Brinchang will be turned into a one-way street.

The council had changed the traffic flow for four months last year but reverted it back to its original route shortly before the general election in March.

“Now, we are worried that they may change the route again,” Ri-dhuan said.

He said that should the one-way street be re-imposed, those heading towards Brinchang from Ringlet would not even pass through the town market.

He said when the council chan-ged the traffic flow previously, their business had suffered about 40%.

Mohd Pauzi said the council had no plans to reintroduce the traffic system. -- The Star Metro.

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Enduring charm
Wednesday September 3, 2008
Over a Cuppa by Hoo Ban Khee

Fraser’s Hill has managed to retain its character over the years.

MANY travel brochures describe Fraser’s Hill as the “Little England” of Malaysia. It is an idyllic and tranquil resort perched on top of the Titiwangsa mountain range some 1,500 metres above sea level.

There are scores of colonial-style stone houses scattered in the lush tropical forests of the seven hills that form the mountain resort.

Of course, a few century-old Tudor-style stone houses perched on hilltops are not enough to justify that claim – even if the weather up there is pleasantly cool and crisp.

Nonetheless, all these years, Fraser’s Hill has managed to retain its character and remains a pristine hill resort, an ideal escape from the sweltering heat and hustle and bustle of the city life in Kuala Lumpur.

Along the same mountain range, Cameron Highlands has been ravaged by over-development and Genting Highlands has become even more commercialised, but Fraser’s Hill remains a balm for tired souls.

Admittedly, there is nothing much one can do in Fraser’s Hill except rest and enjoy the peace and quiet. Here there is no pressure to look for the best restaurant or the best shopping arcade or even the hottest discotheque.

Unless you are a golf enthusiast, a keen bird-watcher or enjoy jungle-trekking, there is nothing much you can do except to spend quality time with your family which many busy parents have missed doing.

Fraser’s Hill is about two hours’ drive south of Kuala Lumpur – an hour to Kuala Kubu Baru at the foothill and another 40 minutes or less to the hilltop. It’s not too far for a holiday and it used to be very popular with the locals – and Singaporeans – before Genting Highlands came into the picture.

If you are from the Klang Valley, it is closer than Cameron Highlands. Because of its accessibility, many are regular visitors as accommodation is affordable.

To stay in one of those colonial-style bungalows is quite an experience as most of them have fantastic views overlooking deep valleys.

My recent holiday there was like a trip down memory lane. Many old timers have good memories of the restaurant at the Rest House at the Gap, a half-way stop before reaching the peak.

The restaurant was once run by a Hainanese family and in true tradition, they served excellent Western cuisine. From the Gap, one can either take the winding road to the hilltop or continue the journey to Bentong and Kuala Lipis in Pahang.

Before the new road up the hilltop was built, cars had to line up and wait for their turn to go up as the old road was too narrow for two-way traffic. Cars going uphill could do so during odd hours and those coming down travelled during even hours.

While waiting, most tourists took the opportunity to have their meals at the Gap and freshen up after the long drive.

Years ago, there were one or two coffee-shops operating opposite the Rest House further down the road. They served local fare and their curry laksa was one of the best.

My recent trip was quite a disappointment. The Rest House was boarded up for renovation and the old coffee-shops were gone.

I was told that the new road had been closed for a year or so because of a major landslide and would take a while to reopen.

And so we had to go uphill using the old road. A long queue of cars was waiting and there was not much one could do. A burger stall by the guardhouse did roaring business as stomachs growled. It had a captive market.

When we arrived at the hilltop, we realised that except for the private hotels and resorts, almost the whole town comprising a few shops and eateries was under renovation.

It was quite empty and so we drove round the area searching for interesting places to visit.

To our dismay, we found that most bungalows at the best locations are now owned by big corporations or utility companies.

Where once visitors came and enjoyed the breathtaking views, these bungalows are now out of bounds to the public. Big signs at the gate warn against trespassing.

Unless you have booked into one of those hotels or resort apartments, all that is left for you to enjoy is a little playground where visitors were having some fun with their children.

Still, we enjoyed the cool weather and tranquillity.

Fraser’s Hill was named after Louis James Fraser, a Scottish whose original idea was to explore for gold. Instead, he found tin and made a fortune mining tin using Chinese coolies.

It was only in 1922 that the town was named after him. At that time what is now Ye Olde Smokehouse was used as a Red Cross convalescent centre for injured British soldiers. Those days mules were the only means of transportation.

Fraser disappeared mysteriously after making all his money.

Fraser’s Hill still retains its old name although many towns and cities have their names changed to reflect a more nationalistic character.

Fraser’s Hill is an established name and a strong brand. It has a personality and let’s hope it will stays that way. -- The Star Lifestyle.

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Check fertiliser and pesticide prices, Government urged
Tuesday September 2, 2008

KUANTAN: While welcoming the abolishment of import duty on fertiliser and pesticides as an-nounced in Budget 2009, Cameron Highlands vegetable farmers urged the Government to monitor prices of the products.

Cameron Highlands Malay Far-mers Association chairman Syed Abdul Rahman Syed Abdul Rashid said he was worried that importers benefiting from the incentive would continue selling the items at high prices.

He said the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry should monitor prices of imported fertiliser and pesticides and the association was willing to help.

The association wants fertigation fertiliser for tomatoes and strawberries to be reduced in view of the drop in fuel prices to ease the burden of farmers affected by high input and production costs, he said.

Syed Abdul Rahman, who is also Federation of Cameron Hig-hlands Farmers Associations secretary, said the price of cabbage had gone up to 95 sen per kg from 67 sen after the fuel price rise.

“We have been selling cabbage at a loss to wholesalers at 80 sen per kg,” he said.

Federation of Malaysia Vege-table Growers Associations secretary-general Chay Ee Mong said, besides ensuring prices of fertiliser and pesticides were lowered, the Government should provide incentives such as fertiliser and diesel subsidies to increase productivity.

“After 15 years, the Government listened to us and abolished the import duty on fertiliser and pesticides. We are grateful,” he said. - Bernama

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Farmers: Give out incentives fairly
Saturday August 30, 2008

THE RM5.6bil provided under the National Food Security Policy for incentives to help agriculture entrepreneurs is good news to the Federation of Vegetable Sellers Associations.

However, its adviser Datuk Yeoh Chip Tong said in George Town yesterday that the incentives must be distributed fairly to all who genuinely deserve it regardless of race.

The incentives are meant to encourage higher agriculture output among agriculture entrepreneurs. More than 1,300ha of abandoned land has been identified for padi, fruits, vegetables and livestock.

About 350,000 vegetable and fruit growers, as well as aquaculture and livestock breeders, will benefit.

Yeoh said consumers would reap the most benefit with the introduction of such incentives.

With the incentives, Yeoh said he hoped to see more participation from various races in the sector as currently there are still segregated groups in the sector with the Chinese growing fruits and vegetables and the Malays growing padi.

On the RM1bil allocation which will assist 220,000 padi farmers, Yeoh said it was insufficient compared to other sectors which had secured a bigger slice in the 2009 Budget.

The move to abolish import duties on fertilisers and pesticides has met with mixed reaction from farmers in Cameron Highlands.

Federation of Malaysia Vegetable Growers Association secretary-general Chay Ee Mong said in Ipoh that any measure to reduce the operating cost of farmers was most welcome.

While the import duties for fertilisers and pesticides varied, Chay said farmers would be saving RM100 for every metric tonne of fertiliser costing RM2,000 if its import duty had been at 5%.

However, Cameron Highlands Flower Floriculture Association chairman Lee Peng Fo said that taking away the import duty translated to nothing.

“Instead, the Government should control the price of fertilisers and pesticides because importers are buying them cheap but selling to us dear,” he said.

Lee also said that farmers would have been happier if the Government had offered them help in the form of subsidies.

“In the last Budget, the Government had brought down our electricity charges. This time there is nothing for us.” -- The Star

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Fun in the hills
Monday August 25, 2008
By George Lee

Life can be lived with gusto, even in one’s senior years.

WHO says seniors have to sit in one corner alone and stare at the “lost” horizon day in, day out, and miss out on all the fun? Given the opportunity, we love to get around and socialise.

I look forward to the weekly fellowship on Saturdays. Seniors with cars often bring one or two new friends along. Those without transport wait for the van – driven by volunteers – to pick them up.

The tea plantations of Cameron Highlands are a big draw for tourists.

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After a breakfast, we socialise, exercise, sing and dance or do whatever it takes to get the old self ticking again.

All too soon, it’s time for lunch, which is about 12.30pm, and then it’s “bye till we meet again next week”.

Those who are active and mobile look forward to outdoor activities and visits. Then there are much-awaited yearly trips to Cameron Highlands to savour the cool outdoors and enjoy the scrumptious seafood.

Our last trip there a few months ago was a huge success. We had fun sightseeing, playing games, shopping and feasting.

With the new highway, it was not necessary to leave Penang late in the night and spend hours travelling uphill from the Tapah exit. Now it’s an early start at 6am from Penang Island. We headed to Butterworth for breakfast, and had lunch later along the way.

Have your pick of fresh strawberries from the farm.

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Shortly after Ipoh, we took the Simpang Pulai exit and headed for the hills. From there the drive up was smooth and pleasant. The road is less winding and wider than the old route from Tapah.

The half-way stop provided the opportunity to stretch our legs and, for some, the much-needed toilet break and tea. That’s the beauty of it. Organised by seniors for seniors, all our needs were looked into.

We had a great time together. The weather was pleasantly cool. We did lots of shopping, too. Seniors may be slow in some things but when it comes to shopping and getting the best bargains, we are at our most active. During that time, nothing else matters. One nearly missed the bus home.

One is never too old to learn new things. We visited a tea plantation and saw how tea was harvested, processed and packed, and we were served tea with cakes and scones.

We sampled the honey from the bee farm, and bought freshly harvested vegetables and strawberries from the farms that we visited.

Life can be as interesting as we make of it. There’s really no time to sit and mope at home. If you’re feeling bored and lonely, you are most welcome to our weekly fellowship.

Senior is a fortnightly page dedicated to senior citizens. We welcome real-life stories happy, sad, inspiring, heartwarming from readers who are 55 and above. E-mail them to startwo@thestar.com.my. -- The Star.

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Highway realigned to help small towns
Friday August 15, 2008

KUALA TERENGGANU: The several realignments made to the East Coast Highway were to benefit the smaller towns, the state assembly was told yesterday.

The state government did not want to see the smaller towns, especially Kuala Berang, turn into sleepy hollows, said Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said.

“We don’t want the same situation that hit Temerloh and Maran (in Pahang) to recur here, and the state government therefore constantly consulted the Federal Government to review the alignments,” he said in reply to a written question by Mohd Zawawi Ismail (BN – Kuala Berang).

He said, with the new alignments, towns like Kuala Berang would still be lively, as the interchange would be situated only five minutes from the town.

Ahmad said the highway link to Kuala Berang was also complemented by a new connection to Cameron Highlands and Ipoh via Aring and Gua Musang in Kelantan.

He said with the road connection to Perak, the state government would also enhance infrastructure and develop more shophouses in Kuala Berang.

Meanwhile, the assembly was also told that the state received RM510.76mil in investment from foreign and local investors between January and May.

State Industrial, Commerce and Environmental committee chairman Toh Chin Yaw said foreign investors invested RM38.26mil in Kerteh and Telok Kalong Industrial estate in Kemaman.

Toh, replying to a question by Datuk Tengku Hassan Tengku Omar (PAS – Ladang), said the state government would revive the less popular industrial estates, like in Batu Rakit here, to attract more investors.

State Agriculture and Agro-based Industry committee chairman Rozi Mamat said plans were afoot to expand the Bumi Hijau agro programme to selected schools. The state government had allocated RM20,000 for this purpose.

The Bumi Hijau programme was mooted to encourage the people to cultivate vegetables in their backyard for their own consumption to defray the escalating cost of living. -- The Star.

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Comment: So look like in future there will be another new route from East Coast Highway.

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No greens from Highlands on Saturdays
Wednesday August 6, 2008
By Clara Chooi

VEGETABLES from Cameron Highlands are no longer available at the Selayang wholesale market on Saturdays.

This is because the Cameron Highlands Vegetable Transport Association has temporarily stopped transporting vegetables to the market since mid-July.

Other smaller markets in Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore are also affected by the move.

“Saturday has always been considered our only day off in the week.

“Despite that, we still transported the vegetables from Cameron Highlands every Saturday in the past,” association president Lau Sai Hoong said recently.

He added that members of the association were finding it hard to cope with the additional costs since the fuel price increase two months ago.

“We have been trying to negotiate with the Kuala Lumpur Vegetable Wholesalers Association for a higher payment but we were unable to come to an agreement,” Lau said.

In comparison, wholesalers in Ipoh and Singapore had already accepted the new prices charged by the transporters and agreed to the Saturday off-day, he said.

Lau said previously, the transportation cost for vegetables sent to the Selayang market was 10sen per kg of vegetables, while that for vegetables sent to Ipoh and Singapore was six sen and 22 sen respectively.

“Now, wholesalers in Ipoh have agreed to pay 10 sen per kg and those in Singapore, 30 sen,” he said, adding that they had been trying to negotiate with the KL association for a price of 15 sen per kg but the latter had only agreed to 13 sen.

Lau said there were about 40 members in his association, each of whom owned between two and seven lorries.

He said on average, 5,000kg of vegetables were transported from Cameron Highlands daily.

“From Sundays to Fridays, about 50 lorries will transport the vegetables and on Saturdays, about 20 lorries would hit the roads in the past.

“Now, however, we will only transport the vegetables from Sundays to Fridays. Saturday is our off-day,” said Lau.

He added that market-goers should avoid buying vegetables from the Selayang market on Saturdays, as the prices would definitely be higher.

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Pahang to have a hospital in each district
Tuesday August 5, 2008

CAMERON HIGHLANDS: Two more hospitals will be built in Pahang this year to ensure all its districts have one each, Health Minister Datuk Liow Tong Lai said.

Liow said the last two would be built in Rompin and Bera districts after the completion of hospitals in Cameron Highlands, Pekan and Temerloh.

He said the Sultan Hajjah Kalsom Hospital in Cameron Highlands was the latest to be completed.

Royal touch: Sultan Ahmad Shah (right) pampering day-old baby girl named Kalsom carried by Sultanah Kalsom while Liow looks on at the hosital in Cameron Highlands recently.

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“The Federal Government’s commitment to providing facilities for healthcare is shown with the availability of the hospitals and health clinics in most villages.

“Sultanah Hajjah Kalsom Hospital built at a cost of RM112mil will replace the community hospital and benefit patients from Ipoh in Perak.

“In the 9th Malaysia Plan, apart from the hospitals in Rompin and Bera which are under construction, there are 22 health clinics, 16 community clinics, 19 upgraded hospitals and 20 staff quarters, while a project to upgrade a health clinic has been approved,” Liow said in his speech during the official opening and renaming of the hospital here recently.

The Cameron Highlands Hos–pital was renamed after Sultan Pahang Sultan Ahmad Shah’s wife Sultanah Kalsom.

Sultan Ahmad Shah officiated at the ceremony while Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob and wife Datin Seri Junaini Kassim and other state dignitaries were present.

Liow said the hospital, which had been operational from January, had 76 beds and could provide outpatient and in-patient, operation theatre and physiotherapy services.

“The hospital will be served by visiting specialists from Ipoh Hospital for children, obstetric, gynaecology and psychiatric services, while surgeons will come later.

“We provide shuttle services from Tanah Rata to the hospital, which is quite a distance from the town,” he said.

Liow said some critical cases were previously referred to Ipoh Hospital, however, patients from Perak who lived near here could seek treatment at the hospital.

Meanwhile, Sultan Ahmad Shah said, with the increase tourists, it was timely for the highland destination to have a hospital.

“I advise people to keep having programmes to promote healthy living, take healthy food and participate in healthy activities.

“We need to keep reminding people to care for their health as prevention is better than cure,” Sultan Ahmad Shah said. -- The Star.

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Cameron’s blooms to cost
Thursday July 31, 2008

IPOH: The price of Cameron Highland flowers will go up by 10% from Aug 8.

Flower Floriculture Association chairman Lee Peng Fo said the increase was inevitable as the price of raw materials such as fertiliser and petrol had been increasing.

“The last time we increased the price of flowers was in December 2004,” he told a press conference here yesterday.

“We have no choice. If we do not increase the price, some of us may be forced to turn to vegetable farming,” he added.

Lee noted that the price of raw materials had increased by between 40% and 50% since last year.

The flowers produced at Cameron Highlands are mostly sold in Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Johor Baru, he said. -- The Star.

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