30 years ago I arrived in the Cameron Highlands, aged 5 yrs 11 mths, to start my primary education at a little boarding school in the middle of the jungle called Chefoo school.

I have so many happy memories of my six years at this school and I felt an appropriately child-like excitement about returning to this magical land of my childhood.

The Cameron Highlands is, as you might have guessed, high up – the climate while we were there was not dissimilar to a rather damp Spring week in England. But after five months of heat it was certainly a refreshing change (if only we’d brought any cold-weather clothing!).

We stayed in a dorm room in Father’s Guesthouse in the town of Tanah Rata – a really friendly place with a great crowd. As everyone tended to get up and go exploring in the morning before returning to the guesthouse befor the afternoon rain came, we had plenty of time to get to know the others in our dorm. By our last day we were having so much fun with the rest of folk in the dorm (thanks largely to several riotous rounds of the card game ‘Golf’) that no-one wanted to leave.

On our first day we set off walking with the aim of seeing some of the places I remembered from my school days. Almost immediately a third member joined our walk – a happy-go-lucky dog who took one look at us, decided we were going walking and decided she would accompany us! I shall call her ‘Happy’. She had no coller but was well-groomed and obviously not a stray dog. So we were slightly concerned when Happy walked with us right out of town – and then all the way to Brinchang, about 4 km away. We stopped here for a roti breakfast (as we used to do as kids) and at this point Happy got bored and wandered off – leaving us to worry about whether she’d be able to find her way home.

Incidentally roti has by far and away been the best breakfast we’ve had on this trip. Its insanely cheap and we ate it every day in Malaysia!

When we returned to Tanah Rata later that day we were delighted to bump into our walking buddy – wagging her tail, with a slight tilt of the head as if to say ‘Well you two certainly took your time!’.

On the second day we hiked one of the trails, up Mount Jasar. As we walked through town on our way to the start, who should trott up to us but Happy. The slightest bit of eye-contact and she knew we were going for a walk. This time though Happy led the way – it was clearly not her first time up Mount Jasar. The climb up was steep but only about an hour long. Then we wound our way back down the other side and eventually back to Tanah Rata. Happy would bound ahead and we wouldn’t see her for ages. But at every junction she would be patiently waiting, checking that we’d take the right route. We half expected to meet her owners at the bottom, asking for payment for the guide dog!

On the third day we joined a trip that took in the ‘Mossy Forest’ and the top of Mount Brinchang, the highest point in the Cameron Highlands, the tea plantations of the Boh tea estate and the tea factory and visitor centre. We also popped into the butterfly farm on the way home – it hadn’t changed at all in a quarter-century!