Hi Y'all,

Wowee, its been a long time since we have blogged... feels like a lifetime since we were in the Cameron Highlands drinking tea, exploring the Jungle, and shivering! After we last wrote, we visted the 'BOH' tea plantation, which was absolutly beautiful, have never seen anything like it.... and would definately recommend a visit to any fellow tea lovers =)

We caught a bus to a turn off (somewhere along the mountain road, called Kea Farm), and then started a 2-3km walk down to where it all happens, the tea factory. The walk was amazing, taking in the endless miles of tea as we went, and even snapping a few shots of the workers picking it... pretty breathtaking really, and much more of an experience than all the other backpackers who were crowed into 'Land Rovers' would have gotten. By the time we got down there, it was fairly late, so we had a wander around the factory and then went to refresh at the cafe! While we walked around the factory, we learnt quite a bit about how the tea is made... blasting with hot steam and cold steam (if there is such a thing), then a lot of shaking and filtering to give the end product. Also learnt that good tea has large bits of leaf in the bag, and cheap tea has all the fine stuff..... so if you get bits of tea dust in your cup back home, you know you've bought the wrong bags =)! Was also quite amusing to see the quality department, which was basically a selection of kettles and cups... Nina's perfect job lol!

The next day we had a good hike up the mountain for about 5 hours! Pretty much non-stop clambering up and down. It was quite amazing, after about an hour we felt so isolated and it was silent exept for the wind in the trees and a few monkeys jumping around. We discovered by the hoot-ish call they made that they were gibbons! It really felt like we were properly in the middle of a jungle (which we were lol). Strange atmosphere aswell. Huge trees draped with vines and massive leaves the size of me (nin)! God knows what was living in them. After about 3 hours of going up and over a peak we got to a little shack with a bench and sat for a wile re-hydrating and listening to the monkey calls and birds and very loud bugs. Was incredible. We decided to head back down the otherside rather than up to the top peak as it was getting fairly late. By the time we got back we'd been walking and climbing for a good 5 hours and were very achy so went and had some more tea!! Was so good drinking proper tea with real milk lol.

The following day we got a bus back down to KL. The bus driver was a complete nutter, literally screeching around the tiny tight mountainous roads and we were literally hanging on to the seats so we didnt fly to the other side of the bus! Thought it was going to topple over on a few occasions, fearing for our lives as on most corners there was a 200-300m drop.. ahhhhh! Got there OK in the end though, and went and stayed in the China Town area, just down the road from Jalan Petaling (Big street market) where we ate some WICKED Chinese food, the Singapore noodles were divine lol! The main reason for staying in that part of town, was so we would be nice and close to the bus station, for our trip to Melaka the next day. However, when we woke up, it dawned on us that we had walked past the bus station we were supposed to be leaving from on our previous visit.... and it was being knocked down. Ahhhh! We figured out, after a bit of investigation, that we needed to get a bus out of town for our onward journey... when we got there it was the usual hustle and bustle of Malay bus stations, with a million and one people trying to sell you their bus tickets all at once, except this time it was in a MASSIVE tent, like the biggest one EVER, and you had to hunt down your bus amongst about 200 others!!! We eventually found it, and started our next journey to the 'historic' city of Melaka.

When we got there we bumped into a South African guy at the station and we helped him get into town by bus and find a hostel as he didnt have a clue lol. We booked into the most amazing little hostel. You went through the front door and into a garden, stepped over a fish pond and got to these little wooden chalets. So beautiful, it felt like we were back in the jungle with palms and ponds everywhere and even a pet rabbit lol. However the bed was rock hard and dead ants kept ending up on our bed, not sure where from! We explored the town and saw the few sites, museum and church situated in the Dutch Square... dating back from when the Dutch colonised Melaka back in the 17th century.. alothough I think they stole it from the Portrugese... Also went down 'Jonker' street, which is Melaka's chinese markety bit.. but not really all that impressive. Even went on a little river cruise! Quickly discovered that we were'nt that impressed with the town. Saw all the sites in one day and couldn't find anywhere decent to eat, after walking round for 2 hours in the evening with no joy, we ended up having a McD's! lol. After another restless night on a very hard bed we left the next day for Singapore!!!!!

Check out the next blog on that!

Much love and hugz xxxxxx