Started my journey at 6am from Lankawi Cottage hostel to Kauh where I got the ferry to Kaula Polis and then a 5 hr journey on to the closest town where I was supposed to get a local bus however the tickets were sold out.

Thankfully there was a local girl that was also going to the highlands and went with her to another bus station where we waited for another bus. I arrived in Cameron Highlands, Tamah Rata at 7pm...more than a 12hr journey during the day...not that nice. I booked into the Cameron Inn as one of their touts were the first to approach me and I was shattered. Even though I was tired I went for a run, was a bit scary in the dark, but I knew I was to run 10km in Penang by Sunday which meant I only had 3 days to train. It half killed me, but was good.

I met Giorgio an Italian guy in my Dorm. We went for dinner after my run (and a shower). Seemed like a lovely town. I booked onto a mossy forest tour for the next day, which many of the people there were also going on.

Had I known how tired I was going to be I would have left the tour for another day, however it was good and met some really cool people, along with Giorgio, Matt (Swedish) and Saskia (Swiss). The mossy forest was something else, almost like something out of a ferry tale, the trees with long strings of moss grown from it along with the ground that was covered. There were bouncy parts where one can almost jump on, but there's literally about a 10m drop below it. Was really pretty, but for some reason I expected more of the Mossy forest!

We went to tea plantations (known as 'Boh' tea) which the highlands is climatically well suited to and known for. Was discovered by a Scottish guy many many years ago. Since then though the forest has changed dramatically as much of it has been cut down to make way for vegetable growers, it's usually cut down illegally too. It is rather sad as the temperature has increased by 2 or 3 degrees over the passed few years already, making one think what's going to happen in the future.

We went to a butterfly and insect farm, there were really interesting creatures we saw there. Then it was the best bit, we went to the Strawberry farm where I had the best Strawberry juice ever! The tour took us to a tea factory as a grand finale. Interesting to see how they produce these teas and the history that's left the legacy of this process.

The four of us new found friends went for Indian after the tour. So weird there are loads of Indian and Chinese restaurants, apparently the 2 biggest ethnic groups in Malaysia after Malaysians of course. I had Tolsai, an almost roti like massive pancake with various sauces, was divine.

Saskia and I went for a trail run in the highland mountains, passed waterfalls, streams and over tree stumps in the path. We were following a map given to us by her hostel. We realised at a point though we weren't quite where we thought we were and it was getting dark quite rapidly. We put our heads together and of course sped up our run and finally found a place that looked like we could exit. It wasn't quite an easy exit, but down a hill through vegetable plantations and over a stream, passed a Chinese temple and onto the main road, where we figured we were about 7km from Tamah Rata (our town).

It was now dark and started to rain. At this point we realised that neither of us had cash on us. Hitch-hiking was the next logical solution, quite a few cars passed us by, but one stopped! We got picked up by a lovely local teacher couple, bless them!! We got home safe and sound and was rather fun!

I also met Greg (American whom was in my dorm with Giorgio too), we all went for yet another Indian but different restaurant and was lovely.

I quite enjoyed the people so decided to stay another day. The 5 of us went on a full on trek after breaky, to the next town along. The only snag was, it was over the mountain. Just when we thought that we were close and the up hills were done, along came another turn and yet another uphill. At points a bit of climbing ability was tested too. Was good fun though and we finally got to the temple which was the end destination. We had some strawberries and took a cab straight back.

Even though I had the 10km race on Sunday I saw this as strength training and gave a run a skip. Instead we all went for massages. It was probably the best things as my quads were really tight and I had the best massage ever which made me really happy. Of course the "training" would not have been complete if we didn't have the chocolate pancake next door. Training day...tick:)

At this point everyone knew I had to go to Penang for my race and so Matt, Giorgio and Saskia agreed to join my up north as they had not been and saw the detour fitting. I was thrilled and so we bought bus tickets for the following day.We agreed to meet for breaky and before our 8am bus ride. And so off we went on our new road trip.