The views in and around the Cameron Highlands can be summed up into one word - spectacular. The journey there on the bus was actually one of the highlights! After leaving Penang we were halfway through a 5 and a half hour journey when we left the highway and started the long, winding climb to our destination which was 2000 metres above sea level.

After what seemed like hundreds of twists and turns we got to a point where we tuned a corner, looked out of the window into the valley below us and saw clouds! Rather strange to be sat on a bus looking down at clouds, but a very cool experience!

The Cameron Highlands is a place where they grow lots and lots of tea, and lots and lots of strawberries. As far as the eye could see were green hills full to the brim of tea plantations, as well as various 'farms' which are the homes to the strawberry growers. Now you would think that there would be a few local restaurants scattered around in a very rural place, we thought that too but upon arriving in our town, we were surprised to see a Starbucks! Is there anywhere they won't go?! Talk about monopolising!

We were in the highlands over the period of Ramadan, so the town was pretty busy as everyone heads back to where their families live. This meant we weren't quite sure what would be open or closed, and not having pre-booked, whether we could find a room at a decent price or not. Fortunately upon arrival there was someone who offered us a double 'attic' room for £4 a night, the cheapest room available anywhere. We took it but wondered what was meant by attic room and went to have a look. Andy went to look first, and when Nikki went to see also, she found Andy stood in the corridor looking into it.
The reason he wasn't inside the room...was because he couldn't fit in it! The owner had converted the roof of his hostel so that a corridor ran through the middle with rooms either side. The fact he had a slanting roof didn't seem to matter! From the top of the door the 'ceiling' sloped down to where it met the outer wall about a foot off the floor, so Andy couldn't actually stand up inside the room! Not that he needed to, because the room, although clean, simply contained a double mattress on the floor, and that's it. Snug to say the least! This was ok though, as being so high up meant that the temperature was actually really cold, hoody weather for sure. Quite a shock, and it meant we spent our first night there shivering!

On our first full day we continued the theme of Khao Sok and went for a walk to find a waterfall. This time however, there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, as we finally found our first 'proper' waterfall, third time lucky! Other than that, we had a little wander around the town and that was about it. The cold meant we were happy to sit in our little cupboard for the night and read - VERY rock 'n' roll!

For the following day (our only other full one there), we decided to do and see as much as possible so we booked ourselves on a bus that toured the area. We went to the following places:

• A huge tea plantation and factory. Easily the best part of the tour, the scenery was beautiful with hill after hill of tea plants/bushes. You could also spot dots in the hillside which were the workers picking the tea leaves. The factory was really interesting, with the viewing areas separated by a plexi-glass screen so you could see everyone and all the machines at work. We now know how what we drink gets from a green leaf on a bush to a teabag in a cup, fascinating stuff!

• A bee farm where they harvest honey. Really interesting BUT, we were only given 15mins here as we were running very late due to a game of traffic tetris on the hillside roads - a long story for another day I'm afraid!

• A butterfly farm, not a very nice place. There were some beautiful butterflies but there were also plenty of dead ones stuck in various nooks and crannies that nobody had bothered doing anything about. There was also a reptile/insect section (that we weren't told about before we went in) which had various snakes, scorpions and the like in very cramped 'enclosures' when there was just one or two, and others where there were just far too many animals to the point they were climbing over each other. Complete exploitation, not good at all and put a downer on the whole thing unfortunately. (Luckily we were only given 20mins here).

• A 'strawberry farm', which we must point out didn't actually have any strawberries. Well, not that we could see anyway! We were given two rows of plants (out of hundreds) to look at which had only small green buds on them. We assume it was to stop people picking ripe ones, but there wasn't even a factory. The 'farm' consisted of simply these 2 rows of plants and a shop/cafe so it was just a big ploy to get us to spend more money. (Upon discovering this we just got back on the bus - we were allowed 30mins here).

• The last stop. We were ushered toward a cactus garden, which for a baffling reason we were given an hour to look at! So, 15mins at a bee farm but an hour to look at cacti?! We decided to rebel, and headed in the opposite direction toward some shops so we could eat some lunch! We ended up having one of our most expensive lunches yet, 'indulging' in a nice mushroom soup, potato wedges and a couple of drinks. It was worth it after the let down of our tour!

Essentially we paid to be rushed around for the day to then have lunch somewhere different. Had it not been for the tea plantation we would seriously have considered asking for some money back, the organisation of the whole thing was abysmal. So good old tea saved the day, we were happy we'd been somewhere we really enjoyed even if the rest of it wasn't so good.

That's all there is to report about our couple of days there really! A really nice place to see with regards to everything they grow, but a shame such a rural area had a Starbucks, KFC etc. We were hoping to be mixing it up with the locals but for them, they make money from tourism so assume we all want western food and shops. A shame but understandable.

Onward to Kuala Lumpur!