Hello there,

We have now left Penang, but still have a few bits to fill you all in on from the last couple of days....

WOW! The spice farm was amazing, not quite what we were expecting, it was actually part of the rainforest.. and not so much a farm. Wandered around it for about 3-4 hours and saw literally every herb and spice you could think of! Loads of massive palms, and beautiful flowers, even saw some white faced monkeys in the tree tops (very cute, with lots of babies).. think they were 'Saki Monkey's'?? Also saw Mahusive butterflies, dragon flies, and a few different types of lizard! Eventually though, we got bitten to the extent that we couldn't stick around for much longer... literally had about 15-20 mozi bites each (despite drenching ourselves in Citronella).

We were planning on going camping the following night, in a rainforest/beachy national park about 10kms from the Spice Farm, but after being bitten so much in such a short space of time... we decided it was probably best if we didn't! Had a wander around Batu Ferrengi (the main beach resort on Penang) after the spice farm, but it was very disappointing... the beach was dirty and stunk, and the sea was dishwater grey (with sewage going into it)! Were hoping to eat in a restaurant I (Ben) remembered, but it had completely changed from the small shack-like place it used to be, and had gotten a bit pricey... well for us!

The next day we had a great day, decided to have a bit of a lie in... caught the ferry across to Butterworth to scout out some cheap bus tickets to the Cameron Highlands (Ended up doing a two part trip to save oursleves some cash) and then chilled for the rest of the day =)....

Finally bought a battery charger for Nina's camera, as we forgot it in Langkawi lol. Bit grumpy that the place we were staying (Rainbow Lodge) hasn't gotten back to us.. but oh well! Great here though, went into the shop and the shopkeeper made a few calls to figure out which battery charger we needed... he then sorted it out for us, and told us it would be RM120... after a bit of bartering, we managed to get it for RM70!!.. It's great, you can literally barter anywhere.... for bus tickets, rooms, shopping etc. It's great!!

That evening, we had a very English night... got ourselves a McDonalds and went to the cinema! Lol! Watched 'Robin Hood' which was an awesome film... and the whole night out only cost us 8GBP in your money!!!!!! Ahhh, they even have the 'MEGAMAC' here, which is a double Bigmac.. couldn't possibly have eaten one as they are huge, but they did look good lol! Ahhh, they even have McDelivery over here... how good is that??? lol

The next day we got a ferry back over to the mainland, then a 2hour bus to Ipoh and after waiting a hour or two got another bus up here which took 3 hours! The most amazing drive up though, the views as we got higher and higher were incredible. Its proper rainforest jungle, with tea plantations along the way...and saw almost whole villages of fruit farms. Think this is where its all grown! Eventually we got here (1387 meters above sea level!) We wandered round looking for a hostel and a guy stopped in a mini bus and took us to a place called the Cameronian Inn. Was a bit pricey so we just stayed one night and went next door to the Hillview inn. We have a lovely and extremely clean room! Have been for a coupla walks through the rainforest and seen some beautifull waterfalls, although there is alot of rubbish everywhere. Went for a wicked banana leaf curry last night. Thought it was going to be a small light meal and we got loads! Some chicken and about 5 different veggie dishes, some popadoms, rice and some banana bhaji's which were so good. The staff were really friendly and kept topping up our food everytime we finished a bit and offering us loads of things to try that they had just cooked.

Today we went for quite a long walk and saw some amazing views. Was quite hard work as some of it was soo steep and had to clamber some of the way! Headed toward what was signposted as an observation tower on the way up, the sign was very old, stating there was maitenence work going on, so we figured it probably would have been finished!! We eventually got to the top, after a very long uphill climb, to find that the obervation tower needed a bit more than some maitenence work.... it had completly collapsed!!!! Continued up higher past it, and discovered the maps apparently aren't very good at all (Did find an AMAZING view though) so we turned back in the end as we were'nt really sure where we were and it was getting late. Didnt want to end up sleeping in the jungle! On our way back down we bumped into an English old guy who lives here, and was very friendly and he told us about people getting lost up there on walks, some of them not getting found. Told us about a Dutch guy who was staying in one of the guesthouse about 5 years back, he left in the morning to go for a walk without telling anyone where he was going, and never came back! Took the place a couple of days to discover he was missing.. and he was never found.. despite search parties with dogs going up and looking for him! We have been telling our hostel owner where we are going, just in case!! He also told us about the forest spirits that the locals here believe in, they say that because the lost hikers had disrespected the spirits, the woods wouldn't let them be found!!

Then we went for tea and scones! Proper english style! It was soo so good to have a proper cup of tea. First one in almost a month! Ah i miss tea!

Going to go for another walk tomorrow, but leave earlier so we can have a proper explore... and also to see a tea plantation, which should be quite interesting. Hope we get some free tea =)!!!

Off to have some noodle (Mee) of some sort for dinner now, Yum! Haven't managed to upload any photo's =( as the connection is too slow up here... think internet 10 years ago, and that's about as quick as the web pages load!! There are many to come though, so will sort it out as soon as we can =)

Hope all is well with you all, and the sun is still shining in sunny England!

Lotsa love to everyone

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