The bus to the Cameron Highlands was too good to be true! It was an amazing mini-bus with large leather seats with arm rests! I slept most of the way, so the journey passed in no time. We arrived in the main town in the Highlands, Tanah Rata and our drive asked where we wanted to be dropped, so we named a hostel recommended by the Lonely Planet 'Father's Guesthouse'. The girl who shared the mini-bus with us was from Finland and it turned out she was from Jyvaskyla (Alvar Aalto central) and she also came to the same guesthouse. It was in an amazing location on the top of a hill and luckily they had spare rooms!!!! We had some breakfast and dumpedour stuff in the rooms before going on a one of the routes (route 4) around the highlands which takes you to the nearby golf club and the oldest hotel in the area, the Old Smokehouse. It is reknowned for its cream teas so I obliged despite one scone costing nearly 2 pounds!!! (to put this into perspective our hostel serves 2 for about 1 pound!). The scone however was amazing but the hot chocolate that I also ordered was rubbish so I felt cheated there! The Old Smokehouse was surreal, it is just like an english country pub and reminded me a lot of the pubs we would go to on a Sunday after my dad played cricket when I was younger. There was even an old british red phone box outside! We walked back into Tanah Rata and booked a bus ticket onto Kuala Lumpur (or KL as everyone calls it here!). We went back to the hostel and chilled before getting dinner. At this guesthouse they show films every evening and they showed 'Little Miss Sunshine' which I have seen before and loved. The end, as anyone who may have seen it will know is the best, and the anticipation of seeing it was too much, as it started I couldn't stop myself from crying with laughter!!!! Once in a good mood after the film we booked a countryside tour for the following day (yesterday).

We got up for an early breakfast and were picked up for our tour. It was just the three of us and the Indian guide (there are more Indians here than any other nationality in the Cameron Highlands) was really good and really informative. Our first stop was a chinese temple. It was good, but nothing we hadn't already seen in China, and didn't surpass Wat Pho in Bangkok!!! We then went to a Rose farm - and I put my digital macro on my camera to good use, so expect many a photo of a flower!!! After this we went to a strawberry farm, where we got to try dried strawberries and homemade jam (I bought some!) and I bought a strawberry milkshake which was out of this world! We then went to the local tea plantation which is immense, the guide said many describe the area as being covered by a green carpet. The picture above really does not do it justice. We had a factory tour and then were free to have a cup of tea in the tearooms. I didn't, as I still can't really bring myself to drink it despite stomaching a few cups in China. The building that housed the cafe, shop and visitor information was amazing though and I spent my time taking pictures of that instead!!! After this we went to a Butterfly farm and Honey Farm. The butterfly farm had loads of insects and snakes too and we were allowed to hold (if we wanted to) some of them. I held a rhinocerus beetle (on a plank of wood!)....it was huge! The honey farm was nothing special - just a few bee boxes in a garden, although we did get a free sample. Our guide dropped us off at a recommended chinese restaurant for lunch and then we headed back to the hostel where I slept for a lot of the afternoon (the tour was only half day). Once I woke up we did the usual, read, eat etc and then back to bed!

One thing I should mention about the Cameron Highlands is that there are a large percentage of Indians here, with Malaysia being an ex-british colony this makes sense. As well as this though there are Malaysians and Chinese. Our tour guide was saying that everyone gets along....and there are no rifts caused by religion here. It is amazing to see Indians eating in a Chinese restaurant and Buddhist temples, Islamic Mosques and Christian Churches dotted around the area. It is really unusual to have no segregation but its also so nice.

Today, the boys are playing golf at the nearby resort as it is so cheap (20 pounds for 18 holes including the hire of all needed equipment) so I am having a chilling day, catching up on all blog stuff! Unfortunately the processers are not accessible here, so I cannot upload photos, but I will try and do this in KL, if not Singapore. Tomorrow we leave for KL on an 8am bus, although we have been pre-warned that this service is not very reliable, leaving late, and taking up to 8 hours (it should take 4!), so we were advised to book the earliest bus in the hope we might leave before lunchtime! We will be there for 3 nights and then onto Singapore for another 3 nights before OZ!!!

Hope you are all well, and I will endevour to update this again before we reach down under! Keep in touch! clem xxxxxx