Kayu Aro Tea Plantation

The Kayu Aro estate was planted by a Dutch company from 1925 on the western flank of Mount Kerinci at around fifteen hundred metres, and at roughly three thousand hectares in a single continuous block it is among the largest tea estates in the world - a sheet of clipped green running to the horizon with the volcano standing behind it, which is the view. The tea is orthodox black, produced without cloning or replanting on the scale used elsewhere, from bushes many of which are a century old, and it was supplied to the Dutch royal household and to Queen Elizabeth II, a fact repeated on every packet. The factory can be visited by arrangement. Kersik Tuo, the village on the estate, is the base for climbing Kerinci and has homestays, and estate workers' housing lines the roads.

What you actually see

• Three thousand hectares in one block - among the largest single tea estates anywhere.
• Century-old bushes - the original plantings still worked, largely unreplaced.
• Kerinci behind the tea - the volcano standing over the estate.
• Estate villages - workers' housing and the factory in the middle of the fields.

When to go

May to September; early morning before the cloud takes the mountain. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Factory visits need arranging and are not always possible. Cloud hides Kerinci most days after mid-morning. It is cold and wet at this altitude. Facilities are village homestays.

Nearby

Kerinci and Lake Gunung Tujuh are above; Sungai Penuh is south.