Malaysia’s beautiful Cameron Highlands are a hive of tourist activity once again, but the traffic is still terrible
- Guesthouses in the Cameron Highlands are again doing roaring business as backpackers and other international tourists make a welcome return
- There’s still only one traffic-clogged road that links the district’s settlements, and some tourists even cancel bookings because the journey can take too long
Backpackers and other international tourists are making a welcome return to Malaysia’s Cameron Highlands.
The plateau, famous for its tea plantations, strawberry farms and cool climate, saw tourism almost completely vanish over the past two-and-a-half years, the sealing of international borders having excluded foreign travellers from the country.
Today, Father’s Guesthouse, standing at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in the town of Tanah Rata, is at full occupancy and buzzing with activity – a scenario that marketing and operations manager Valerie Thomas-Chin could have only dreamed of a couple of years ago.
Between March and June 2020, during Malaysia’s first strict lockdown, there were just six guests staying at the guesthouse.
“They were all foreigners who got stuck in Malaysia when borders closed and once they managed to leave the country, we were forced to close down for seven months, oblivious of the fact that yet another lockdown was looming,” Thomas-Chin says.
She was forced to let staff go, leaving just herself working, without a salary, until October 2021, when interstate borders in Malaysia reopened and local tourists started to return.
