I booked on the 'Countryside Tour' for Friday morning which meant no lie-in for me. Wanting to beat the rush to breakfast I got up with plenty of time to spare and had a leisurely meal in the café. The tour left Father's at 9 o'clock and headed for the Sam Poh Temple in Brinchang. It was very visitor friendly, allowing us to take photos and explore the various rooms of worship at our leisure. Many golden statues decorated the temple with Chinese looking dragons and dogs guarding the entrances.

I explored until I was called back to the bus so we could move on to the Rose Centre; a huge garden home to many species of flower, not only roses. The paths led all the way up a hill which gave a good view over the surrounding valley through the trees and shrubbery. Various statue characters resided in the gardens which looked slightly out of place among the somewhat sophisticated planting but made for some interesting photos!

Next on the list was a visit to a strawberry farm. Strawberries are grown here all year round via a hydration system, growing them in a mix of soil and coconut husks. I indulged in a strawberry milkshake to cool off and resisted buying enough jam to last the rest of my trip (the jam I've experienced so far in Malaysia has been of bitter disappointment).

A windy drive led us to stop number four: Sungai Palas 'Boh' Tea Estate. We went on a tour of the factory where we got to see how the leaves are picked, dried, sorted and packaged before trying a cup in the 'umph' tea shop. Boh is owned by a Scottish family who own over 1200 hectares of tea plantations. They even provide their own community with housing, schools, shops and a medical centre all on site for their workers and their families. Workers earn a measly 20cents/kg of leaves collected with experienced cutters earning up to 40RM a day!

Moving on, we visited the Butterfly and Insect Farm home to hundreds of butterflies in a large, walk-through aviary and insects from all over Asia as well as snakes, lizards and even hedgehogs. I had fun taking photos of the butterflies and our guide was great at sharing his knowledge on the insects.

Just across the road we visited the Bee Farm, which was basically a garden housing the bee hives and a shop selling the honey. After a quick look round I headed outside to the market stalls and brought some of the local jam (at a slightly cheaper price than the farm) and browsed the fruit and vegetables on sale.

We then hopped back on the minibus for the last time and headed back to the guesthouse for a late lunch. I popped into town to enjoy a roti and noddle dish from a local Indian café before a gentle stroll back up the hill to use the wifi at Father's.

Dinner was a lazy meal at the Guesthouse's café of a massive portion of sweet and sour chicken before an early night.