Hey yall,

I thought i would tell you how are fist week has gone...i forgot to mention about the hostel we stayed in...or rather the one opposite....which was called the reggae hostel that had its own bar...a mini shrine to bob marley, writing all over the wall, blaring out the classics and the biggest backpacker magnet ever! Anyway, one guy definately did look like he was once a backpacker that never returned....had found himself and his place...probabaly on some beach and his people all those many years ago before or after uni on a travelling trip with friends ...you are all probabaly envisiging this guy, long baggy trousers and shirt, along with head scarf, well he sits down and starts rolling a joint...little weird as it is the death penalty here in ,alaysia....our hostel was very similar with writing all up the wall telling us that everyone was special and great...blah blah blah....but engough about KL....we left pretty quickly to got to the cameron highlands...a very weird place...towns in a plateau in the higands, surrounded by jungle...with tudor houses, tea plantations, as well as strawberry plantations, roses, bees, honey and scones....we felt like we were back in england, especially as the weather was ten times cooler. Howervewr the next day really didnt feel like it...we went on a trek to find the rafelesia flower, a parasite that grows off vines, stinks like a rotting carcass and blooms for 4 days....so there we trakeed uphill in 35 and humidity, after a very hair rising off road landrover drive, where de and i saw us come scarrily close to the edgae at certain points...sweating....niice (eeewwww grroooooosss (patch patch))... in places i didnt think i could sweat in...anyway after seeing said parasite we all walked to the river near by with a waterfall, which was freezing but so refreshing. We then had to walk back to the landrovers, for another near death car journey, had a blow pipe demonstration in the loacl indian village, before going to see the tea planatations, seeing how they refined the tea leaves and had tea and cake. Very civilised and british. The planations tho were beautiful, making lined, very green patterns all across the hills and the valleys. We then walked in another forest, where the ground was completely made up of moss about 4m thick and very bouncy. OUr guide francis also gave us a survival guide to the forest and showed us many plants that had medicinal properties, what made this serious talk slightly amusing was his mobile that started ringing in the panpipe titanic theme tune....which had most of the group in stiches.

What i am loving most aboput this country is the food...the food is sooooooo good ad cheap, either indian where today from a stall we hd samosas and onion barjy and a sweet bananery thing...to chicken satay...in KL the guy on the stall had been cooking the satay for 28 years! To chinese dumplings and noodles...mmmmm as welll as the fruit, weird, but the juices, i have especially become attached to lime juice!

We also celebrated de's birthday which was fun...we got her some very silly presnets from the area...and also managed to organise a very choclatey cake which was delicious and went to a strawberry farm.

What we are still getting used to is the religious saspoects fo the country, taking shoes off to go inside, eating with only your right hand for certain dishes, not showing your shoulders (and in this heat!!!). Also to other aspects, in particular their habit of spitting everywhere, as they believe its healthy, and their own sense of humour, which we do not find funny in the slightest!! For example, in the hostel in kuala lumpur, the guy at the reception tols me i shouldt be going to the cameron highlands but too the beach as i was too white and i need to go brown...io think he though this was highly amusing....i did not. Also the guys in the marklets trying to sell pirate dvdsm shout 'he baby...i love you' or start making kissing noises...whther they think we're going to buy somehting from this or turn around and run into the arms and kiss them i dont know...but it makes us walk away even more quickly tham before! However on the hwole the general people are lovely and very helpful and friendly.

We are now in georgetown and here is another whole kettle of fish which will have to be saved for another blog.

I hope you are all well and i shall speak very soon xxxxx