Day 17 That's it?

Cameron Highlands, Trail 9, Robinson's Waterfall

03.09.2011

Today I set out on my first hike, nothing major, just a little something to get me warmed up for the bigger jaunts. I stopped at a tourist information place, which beware, in Malaysia all the tourist information places are really tour agencies that will try and sell you some crazy tour package. I have yet to see a legit - government run tourist information place anywhere. Anyway, the reason I stopped off there was because they had a nice big map on display; something I didn't have. Of course, a guy immediately started talking to me, and asking me all kinds of questions about where I was going and what was doing. I said, "Look. Today, I'm just planning a short hike to see a waterfall. I don't do tours and definitely don't need a guide."

Trail 9 to Robinson's Waterfall

Here's a bit of useful info for anybody planning to go to Cameron Highlands. The guy ended up telling me that the, "so - called", waterfall on Trail 4 named Parit Falls, is not really a waterfall, but rather a sewage drain down the side of a hill. "Parit" in Malay means drainage. This didn't sound to appealing to me, so he recommended I go to Robinson's Waterfall, which was a 45 minute trek. That sounded perfect, so he gave me some brief directions and told me to come back to buy a tour to the Mossy Forest. I smiled, and said, "Yeah . . . O.K.", and I disappeared around the corner.

After wandering around a bit, trying to find the "blue" house he told me to turn at, I finally stumbled onto the trail head. In retrospect, it's not that difficult, just turn right at the bus station and walk for about 15 minutes until you see this little blue house on your right side, it'll be on a corner where your road curves to the left, and another road goes to the right.

You turn right and go to the end of the road, then on the left there will be a foot bridge, which is the trail head; the falls are another 20 - 30 minute hike.

The trek wasn't that interesting, and I would rate it as easy peasy. I'm just glad this wasn't a difficult and long hike, because I would have been disappointed. When you finally arrive, your not sure if you've actually arrived, because it's so small. This is a good example of tourism in South East Asia, you have to keep in mind that many tourist attractions are created out of not so interesting things in order to get people there and keep them there.