Kuala Lumpur to Cameron Highlands

Leave Kuala Lumpur before seven. This is not a suggestion — the North–South Expressway out of the Klang Valley is heavy until nine and you will want the daylight at the other end. Take the E1 north towards Ipoh, and settle in: the first two hours are effortless three-lane motorway with well-signposted rest stops.

Exit at Simpang Pulai. This is the newer, wider, safer of the two roads up and it is the one to take. The older Tapah road is narrower, has more lorries and takes longer. From Simpang Pulai it is about sixty kilometres of continuous climbing, first through open cuttings, then into cloud forest with moss on the rock faces and the temperature falling roughly one degree every three minutes.

The road surface varies. Most of it is fine. Some sections above Kampung Raja have been chewed up by lorry traffic and landslip repair, and there are stretches with no barrier and a long drop. Slow down, use the horn on blind hairpins as everyone else does, and give yourself space.

Tanah Rata is the main town, Brinchang the busier one. The tea estates — BOH at Sungai Palas is the famous one — are on single-track roads above Brinchang, with passing places. A wide car is a genuine liability up there, which is another reason to take something compact.