We finally managed to tear ourselves away from the comfort of Amanda's
flat and headed to the bus station to get on a coach to the Cameron Highlands in the middle of Malaysia. We went in and booked our ticket for one that was leaving in 45 minutes and then were told to go outbof the bulding and across the road to wait in a shop! 3.30 came when we were due to leave and a man came in and shouted at everyone waiting in Malay. A kind Chinese guy from Singapore turned to me and said "we must walk down the road" I retrieved Charles from buying sweets for the journey and we put on our 20kg packs and set off in the 32degree heat. Now I know it might be hard to feel sympathy for us in the heat
whilst it's freezing at home but it was not pleasant at all. We trekked down the road following the others and eventually stopped at a mamak selling Indian food. We all stopped and waited there for ten minutes until the man came and shouted at us again and then we put our packs back on and started walking again. Eventually we ended up at the end of the road to Amandas flat where the bus was waiting for us! Half an hour after the scheduled departure we set off in the old coach that maxed out at 60 kph...The driver obviously thought this meant accidents weren't possible and spent the 4 hour journey reading the
newspaper behind the steering wheel!

We arrived in the dark of night-time and headed up the hill to the guesthouse we had booked. It was very basic and our very damp musty room had a toilet and shower inside it (not attached but actually inside the room!) Still we settled down for the night in the cool air appreciating not being roasting hot and not even needing a fan! The next day was very admin like- we went out, got some food and spent the afternoon in an internet cafe sorting things out for the rest of our trip- you have to have days like that occasionally or you suddenly realise you have nowhere to stay tomorrow night.

On Saturday we got up and headed to the BOH tea plantation. We decided to get a cab there as there are hardly any buses and headed down to the rank. What we learnt about Malaysia as a lot of places are that the taxi drivers are very 'entrepreneurial' ie the price is set at what they think you can afford- a good few time in KL we went up to drivers to say where we wanted to go. "15 Ringett" they would say "no- meter meter" you reply pointing at the meter. Then one of 2 things happens- they shout in exasperation, refuse to take you and drive off or they look annoyed, nod for you to get in, put the meter on and watch the fare go up to 5 Ringett, a third of what they would have liked. Anyway I digress and it was worse in penang where they had all joined together and decided that oone would use a meter.... back to the tea plantation- BOH are the biggest Malaysian tea producers although it was started by an English guy. The tea plantation is absolutely huge- it took our very sweet driver in his ancient Mercedes 160D with bench seats half an hour to get up the driveway whilst directing al the traffic. Whilst we were there we had a good look round, saw inside the factory and ate some very nice cakes with our obliagatory tea!

On Sunday it was time for us to leave to go to Penang. A four hour jurney but this time in a smaller minibus and although the journey down was beautiful through the lush cool countryside the only major excitement was seeing two baby elephants on the back of a pick up truck! After our accomodation in the highlands and having spent ags trying to find somewhere decent to stay in Penang we gave up and went for an amazing offer at Traders, a really nice hotel that was doing a special deal of 30quid a night- a bit over our budget but a nice treat. We found a scrumptious night market and stuffed ourselves for a pound to make up for it then settled into our extremely cozy bed! That was after accidently walking into a Chinese restaurant where everyone stared at us as we waited by the door for about 15 minutes (I mean everyone- the whole place went quiet) and then we realised it was actually a wedding party and left!

We spent the first day just walking round Penang soaking it up. We walked to the Penang museum which was really interesting and well presented, showing all the different nationalities and culture that have shaped the Island. We then walked to the sea, had a lychee juice and a bird pood on my leg before taking the long way home and wandering through little india with music and bollywood films blaring out from every shop. For dinner we went to a Nyonya (Chinese-Malay) restaurant where we were the only white people and the waiter stood over us fussing over telling us about every dish and looking surprised when we ordered it. It seemed he was also trying to put us off "This is spicy yes? and coconuty you like coconut?" When the food came he stood next to us and watched very closely whilst we tried it all and said "I have been watching you and I think that you like Nyonya food yes?" It is very sweet but definately a common theme her- all of the locals seem completely shocked when you say you like the food "it's not too spicy for your tastebuds?" is what you hear over and over again- even from a flight crew that saw us outside the airport in the locals place. it makes you wonder if everyone who visits here complains about the amazing food or they have visited England and tasted how bland most of our stuff is!

On Tuesday we made the most of our hotel which had a free shuttle bus to use the facilities and their sister shangri la beach resort. We spent the day there relaxing and playing table tennis etc which felt lovely. On our last day in penang we got the two funiculars up Penang Hill on the outskirts of the city which goes up to 800m and gives you an amaing view. There is also a very nice temple up there. After coming back down to earth we went for some Penang Laksa and Chicken Rice at the night hawker stalls for the last time.

We were sad to leave the luxury of our hotel on Thursday but we went to the airport to get on a flight to Langkawi. I hadn't quite realised how close it was- the shortest flight I had ever been on- not even any drinks served as it just took off and then landed again- 18 minutes in total. Hmmm not great for our alread gigantic sized carbon footprint. Anyway we arrived on the Malay Island at 1.45pm. The idea was to get across to the Thai island of Koh Lipe we had heard great things about however the boat left from the harbour 25 minutes away at 2.30pm. A mad dash followed whilst I rang up and secured places on the boat and we paid a taxi driver extra to go super super fast then shut our eyes as he overtook everyone on blind corners. We made it though and it was so worth it when 2 hours later we arrived to an immigration bamboo hut on a powdery sand beach with crystal clear water.

Not being sure whether we would make it we had not booked any accomodation but knew that we wanted to go over to sunrise beach which is the much quieter side of the tiny island. We met 2 girls who seemed to have done a lot of research and decided to go with them to see if their place had space as it sounded nice. Some ingenious local boys have put a sidecar on their scooters to make the trip across the island however have decided to charge by the person not the trip. This causes a problem in that they will obviously try and pile as many people in as possible. 4 of us, our 2 20kg rucksacks and the two girl's bags was pushing it a bit though and the journey was quite hilarious with Charles pushing up the hills and us all falling onto the nose of the bike as we toppled over going down! Luckily the place had room for us and we are now the proud owners of a beautiful simple bamboo hut with a lovely platform outside for watching the world go by. There's no flushing toilet and a cold shower but the surroundings are such luxurient beauty it is more rich than a lot of other places I have been. This is the "undiscovered" beachy thailand everyone wants to find when they go to the islands but they choose Koh Samui where there is a McDonalds and Starbucks. This will probably be like that in 3 years but right now it's perfect and beautiful and we are soaking it up until Tuesday! Wish we could stay here for weeks and weeks!