So as a birthday treat, I had a lay in till 7am!! A final opportunity to have a shower in our own bathroom, then pack and ready to leave by 9am. Today has mostly been a travel day, with a long drive past endless miles of palm oil plantations as far as the eye can see, along bone jarring made and unmade roads. A quick stop for lunch (you guessed it rice and chicken) then on and upwards towards the hills for our overnight stay in a longhouse at the Sabah Tea Plantation. One highlight during the journey was to open my cards and my Tiffany's gift box from Jon. At the Tea Plantation we stopped for afternoon tea, then went to our longhouse which is charming and much nicer than I anticipated. We even have individual rooms (although the Walls don't reach the ceiling) and the gaps in the bamboo floor provide additional natural air con, in addition to our ceiling fan.
In the evening we walked down to the tea house restaurant for another set meal with rice - our leader Henry had organised a cake for me as a surprise, so all the group sang happy birthday and we all tucked in to the cake after dinner. Another surprise he had arranged was a bottle of viognier wine, which all the girls in our group enjoyed, while the boys stuck with the Tiger beer.