Maxwell Hill — officially Bukit Larut — rises to 1,035 metres directly above Taiping and is the oldest and least developed hill station in Malaysia. While Cameron Highlands and Genting Highlands have been heavily commercialised, Maxwell Hill remains essentially unchanged: a handful of colonial bungalows in the cloud forest, a weather station, and unobstructed jungle. You can rent the government bungalows if you book well in advance, but most visitors come only for the day.
Getting up requires a government Land Rover, which departs from a jeep station at the foot of the hill on a fixed schedule. The vehicles are old and the road is terrifyingly steep — the driver reverses around the tightest hairpin bends because the turning radius is insufficient for a forward manoeuvre. At the top, on a clear morning, the views extend west over the flat coastal plain to the Straits of Malacca. The walk back down takes about two hours through forest that is noticeably cooler and damper than Taiping below.