Hello everyone, We are in the Cameron Highlands and really love it here. We arrived on Wednesday after a four hour coach journey up a very steep winding mountain road that barely seemed wide enough for our coach yet we regularly passed trucks and other buses. Oh, and did I mention that there was a sheer cliff face on one side of us most of the way?! It was hair-raising but the scenery is beautiful as you ascend 4000m through jungle. We are staying in Tanah Rata (meaning 'Flat Land'), one of the four towns in the area. It is tiny, mainly consisting of a parade of shops and restaurants, guesthouses and a bus station. The guesthouse we are staying at is an ex-British army outpost made of tin in the style of a swiss chalet - quite bizarre! Apart from the thin tin walls, it is lovely with a beer garden outside and a campfire which everyone sits round each night. On Wednesday afternoon we went up to meet Helen's parents and walked the 6km back to Tanah Rata. For dinner we had a local specialtity called 'steamboat'. They put a gas camping stove and a steamer on the table. The steamer has two compartments with different soups in (e.g. chicken stock or chinese tea). You are then brought plates of various raw ingredients which you add in various combinations and eat the stew when it is cooked, then add some more food and so on. It was really good fun. Yesterday we managed to wangle our way onto Helen's parents tour of the Cameron Highlands. They had a private driver taking them round and he took us to Brinchang Gumpung (the highest mountain peak in the area) but it was cloudy so the views weren't great, followed by a trip to a tea plantation, a butterfly farm (where I held a rhinocerous beetle, a gecko, a king grasshopper and various other creepy crawlies from the jungle!), an insect farm and a rose garden. This was followed by an Indian meal with various local specialities picked out for us. It was a fantastic way to see so much and we were lucky to have been able to tag along. Helen's parents have moved on now but we are here for another two days and are planning to go trekking in the jungle tomorrow. The Cameron Highlands are much cooler (around 10-20 degrees) than we are used to - it is a refreshing change. The scenery is very green with areas of thick jungle surrounded by miles of rows of terraced tea bushes. The architecture is all British colonial and all the cafes offer scones and tea - in places I could almost fancy myself in the British countryside. Today we are planning to get the bus to Brinchang - the next town - and see a strawberry farm, a temple, and walk back to tanah rata. I hope all is well at home, love Amy x