Hi

Day 17 was another early start. We had to catch a public bus from Penang to the Cameron Highlands at 8am. The bus ride was a very long and windy one. Thank goodness the bus had air conditioning. The ride was split into two parts, the first part was 2.5 hours to Ipoh and then the second part was the windy 3 hour drive to Tanah Rata.

We walked to our guest house accomodation from the bus stop, it is very quaint being set in the hills. Once we had dumped our stuff we went in search of a late lunch and some scones, a local speciality here! The town is very small and definatley has the feeling of a holiday resort.

The temperature is much cooler in the hills, a pleasent change to the stickiness of the cities.

In the evening we went out for a group meal.

On Day 18 we did a half day tour of the Cameron Highlands. The first stop was the BOH tea plantation, which we travelled to in style, in an old Land Rover of all things. We drove through the plantations and saw the workings in the fields picking the tea leaves with machines. We got some classic photos of the rolling hills. BOH is the leading tea grower in the country, owned by a Scottish family, who are minted!!!

First we had a tour of the factory, which just smelt of tea leaves! After we had a cup of tea and cake (very English!) on the terrace with amazing views of the plantation behind. After we stocked up on tea from the shop, we went to the butterfly farm.

Here we got to handle all types of creepy crawlies! Rose held a scorpion and we both held a "moving leaf" insect. We ended up with a million pictures of butterflies, flowers and insects!

We ended the tour at the strawberry farm, where we endulged in fresh strawberries - the first time this year for us two!

In the afternoon we caught the bus down to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital city. We didn't arrive until early evening after walking through a million people in utter choas trying to get through the Copycat market in Chinatown. We went out for a group meal at a Chinese then went to a local Reggae bar - a shrine to Bob Marley! Ended up at a club on KL's main clubbing strip.

Love Hayley and Rose