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See one of the country’s most prominent British hill stations come alive through the
heart-warming tales of its residents.
24 | FireFlyz
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W o r d s & I m a g e s :
E d w i n K o h
The Unsung Highlanders
I
t
was clear the minute I saw
the Mercedes Benz taxi that was
pre-arranged by the folks at The
Lakehouse pull up at the entrance
of my house. This was no ordinary
transfer. The yellow-topped, white
vehicle had to be no less than 30
years old. Its prussian blue leather interior
and outmoded dials bore the stately charm
of a bygone era. Out from the driver’s seat
came an unassuming man with neatly
coiffed hair, a greying moustache and a
polite smile.
“Youmust be Uncle Shan,” I exclaimed
as we exchanged a handshake. He nodded
as he bundled my luggage into the trunk.
The car’s dashboard was emblazoned
with a varied collection of coins bestowed
by foreign guests and amongst it lay a
white plastic chip – issued by the licensing
authority of the then Malay States – that
taxi drivers always had to carry when they
were on duty.
Shanmugam Ramasamy had indeed
been in the transportation business for
well over 30 years, and he had driven
that Mercedes a whopping 3.5 million
kilometres, plying back and forth between
major cities in the Peninsula and ferrying
guests to the famed Cameron Highlands,
which is, in essence, his home.
“My grandfather came to Cameron
Highlands in the 1920s from India,” he
said, in the way how all great stories
began, “and he was part of the workforce
who built the road from Tapah to
Cameron. It was all manual labour back
then. When the road was completed, he
was involved in jungle-clearing to make
way for tea plantations.”
The family lived in Lobok Tamang
Village (near Ringlet), which was
demolished to make way for a dam to
power the 105MW Cameron Highlands
Hydroelectric Scheme in the 1960s. The
site of the village is now submerged and
is, essentially, part of the Sultan Ahmad
Shah Lake, which gave The Lakehouse
its name.
The family had been tea pickers for
two generations. Uncle Shan’s father
became a chauffeur for a tea estate owner
when he was seven and remained in the
taxi business for 50 years. His mother
continued to pluck tea leaves by hand
at the estate and the family holds her in
the highest regard for the hardship she
THE FIREFLY OPTION:
There are no airports in
Cameron Highlands. The
nearest airport is Ipoh’s
Sultan Azlan Shah Airport.
Firefly flies to Ipoh (IPH) from
Singapore (SIN) daily. For
more information on routes
and schedules, please visit:
www.fireflyz.com.my