Cameron Highlands

It is in the Cameron Highlands that Reece is turned into a “young boy at Christmas time”. Not sure how else to explain the sheer excitement on his face for the next few days. Firstly finding out that Raflessia is flowering nearby and the next stage finding out we will see three at various stages of flowering and then actually seeing them!!.....Totally priceless!!  ......A x

 









                                                            Well...............imagine a flowering plant with No roots, stem or leaves that uses a Tetrastigma vine to parasite on (one species of vine, which grows in limited geographical areas in undisturbed forest at certain elevations), but produces flowers up to 1m in diameter of brilliant reds with amazing mottling and patterns with a large fruiting body which gives of “off” smells to attract insects who are the pollinators between the separate male and female flowers that appear sporadically often a great distant apart, that then rely on squirrels and tree shrews to eat and pass the seeds onto the vine to start the cycle again...............

A plant worth getting excited about.....Well after being in three different areas where they can occur (Sumatra, Sabah and Sarawak) and there being none in flower or the flowering season over and we didn’t know that they occurred in the Cameron Highlands, to be told that there was one...no possibly three flowering....Well that’s pretty exciting...........

The rest of the Highlands paled into insignificance...the numerous Tudor Hotels, all looking like the originals built by British colonialists, the many tourist attractions for the lowlanders escaping the heat, and the nightmare of vegetable farming and hydroponics that are reshaping mountains into eroding terraces of river filling wash outs.

Asia the beauty and the beast................................R