The following day, I got the bus to Tanah Rata (Cameron Highlands) for 4 hours 35 ringgit, and this was well worth a visit. I found a great hostel (Kangs travellers lodge AKA Daniels Lodge) for 10 ringgit a night (2 pound) and immediately met a load of people in the dorm all travelling on their own and we all went out for an indian which was great. Really fun people, Ann (Ger), Anneke (Dutch), Julien (the intellectual American), Ryan (another yank), Sabiah (Dutch). We stuck together for the next few days. The following day we were heading to the tea plantations, which is what the highlands are famous for. But we decided taking a tour was much too easy (and boring) so we managed to hitchhike, and catch a ride in the back of a big open air truck within minutes of sticking our thumbs out. It was so funny all of us packed onto this truck. We then walked through the tea plantations which were absolutely amazing, huge rolling lush green hills with loads of neat rows of bushes with tea leaves (see pics: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.576886141250.91235.285901371&l=617220e85f )

Ann and I were playing out with camera settings and basically acting like idiots in the middle of all the bushes which amused us for a while, we then walked through to the main area with a tea café, were we bought some Cameroonian tea, which was actually really nice. One of the girls told me that on their previous tour they had been told that the tea leaves, after they have been strained are really good to prevent bags forming under your eyes, so I put some of them under my eyes in the cafe and everyone thought this was really funny and took photos, and we then took some silly pics of the tea pot infront of the backdrop of tea plantations. The views were really amazing, a little like New Zealand!! After this we managed to hitchhike with a another truck, this time we waited about 10 minutes, and the ride was a bit hairy around the corners.

That night we all went out for a meal and sat by the bonfire. Lots of different characters in the group and really interesting conversations. The next day we just hung out in the hostel and had lunch. Its really relaxing here, and the temperature is so much cooler than the rest of Malaysia due to beinghigh up in the mountains, a nice relief.