So am in the Cameron Highlands, and went on a tour this morning of all the key sights!
It was a tour run from the hostel and there was a group of ten of us - 5 brits, Emma, a Swedish girl I've met here, a swiss woman and a dutch couple, but they all spoke pretty good english and was a nice group. The first stop was to a rose centre - apparently they call the Cameron Highlands 'the rose of Malaysia'. Not something I've ever heard it called here but neway....! It was pretty anyway, and they have this gross green rose native to the cameron higlands - its really weird, barely looks like a rose! They had some cool flowers too.We also went to a tea plantation - run by a scottish family!! The views were amazing and it was quite interesting to hear all about their tea production, but we also had a tour of the factory which was hilarious cos the tea factory guide (not our tourguide - he was cool!) was so unenthused by the whole thing, and just rushed us round the factory pretty much just reading the signs to us, and when she'd finished, sighed really loudly and walked off! Then we went to a butterfly house and there were loads of other insects and snakes and stuff - was pretty cool- my fave bit i think. I held a scorpion!!!! I was so scared, and it really shows in the picture that i just wanted to get it off me, but felt quite proud of myself after! also stroked a huge rhino beetle and various other insects and things - plus of course hundreds or gorgeous butterflies!

We also stopped off at a buddhist temple and at a little malaysian food market, where we bought a cameron pear - which apparently tastes like honeydew melon!

We also went to a bee farm but it was raining and all the bees were inside in the dry so not that exciting really!

Plan to go on a trek tomorrow if the rain stops, but will have to see......

Sunday 7th January

So the rain carried on, but we went on a (short!) trek anyway - walked up to a nearby waterfall which was nice, and then booked a bus to Penang for tomorrow morning. Spent a lazy afternoon at the hostel playing cards with a couple of dutch guys we met, and then Me, Emma and Lil and Luke, an English couple we met at the hostel went to the night market at BrinChang. It was pretty cool to see all the stalls, and my god are they obsessed with strawberries around here! Every other umbrella ( cos surprise surprise, it was tipping down again!) was a strawberry umbrella, and every other stll was selling strawberries, dried strawberries, strawberry icecream, strawberry milkshake, strawberry jam, keyrings, umbrellas, cuddly strawberries...I could go on!! Also saw some pretty weird thinkgs...like a chicken plant, which actually looks like a dead chicken in a pot with a bone sticking out of it - nice! Tried some funny little ball things, which were apparently sweet potato, deep fried I guess - some were yellow and some were purple and blackcurrant flavoured - apparently this is just because of the different species of sweet potato...hmmm!! was a nice wander round, despite the rain, and stopped for a dinner of rice and veg, and then spend ages getting soaked trying to find a taxi, as everything closes here at about 9! Crazy! Eventually got one and headed back to the hostel to pack for Penang.