Hello again!!

I apologise for any speeling errors but the keyboard i am on isnt the best ive used, my fingers are already dirty just from logging on!! yummy!!

Anyway, since we last blogged we spent our final day in Kuala Lumpur, we got up early and headed out to find the local bus to the Batu Caves (not batty caves reilly) and after a short walk we stumbled across the number 11 bus, just the one we wanted! We hopped a board and after an hours journey through the KL suberbs we came to the caves! The batu caves are a random lump of limestone on the outskirts of the city, with natural caves within, it is seen as a highly religious area and the caves are full of temples and shrines! We had to walk up 272 to the entrance to the caves but the most amazing part of it for myself was the amount of wild monkeys all over the stairs, literaaly hundreds of them jumping all over the place! at the top, the caves were pretty spectacular but not an awfull lot to see, so we pondered around for 10mins then headed back down!

Unable to work out where the bus came from in the other direction we hopped into a taxi and back to the centre of the city, had some good grub, walked around the central market and a few shops. i attempted by first bit of haggling, purchasing a watch...was originally 65ringits and i got him down to 50, was so happy with myself that i wasnt really thinking...firstly id seen the watch for sale earlier for 20ringits...and secondly i didnt realise that the watch was missing a button and was actually pretty turd...im learning though...slowly!! in the evening we went and sat by the petronas towers all lit up, before heading home for some sleep before our bus the next morning

The bus journey was pretty smooth, had some fun getting on the bus, with the police moving our coach on twice leaving us following a small chinese man who seemed to know what to do...luckily for us he did and we boarded and only about 15mins late! took about 5 hours to get to cameron highlands, the last two hours up real mountain roads with sheer drops either side, mum you would have hated it, but we arrived safely and checked into our hostel which was set up in the hills overlooking the local town of tanah rata! that evening we talk a walk around the town, had some food and grabbed an early night! this is when the jet lag kicked in and we both slept through till 4.30 in the afternoon, wrote off the day but was much needed! we took a small walk again, got some food and chilled in the hostel and watched the man city vs liverpool game! we tried to book ourselves on a full day tour the next day, which involved trekking into the jungle and seeing some big flower, a small village and the mossy forest, however with the rain even the tour guide wasnt keen, he had been out the day before and the hours trek took him 5 hours so we opted for the leisure tour....or as its known the lazy tour!

we got picked up by ravi bopara's twin and it proved to be a very lazy tour, hopping in and out of the mini bus at various sights, nothing to exciting but nice to see, went to a rose garden, strawberry farm (best strawberry milkshake ever!), a butterfly and bug farm, a temple and the best bit was the tea plantation. Steve you would have loved it, the plantation produces 5.5million cups of tea a day(!!!) and when you get down there and look out all you can see for miles is tea plants, and they do a cracking mug of slosh!! ive picked up some tea bags so in the next few days i'll send them back to kings hill to try yourself!! the scottish owner of the plantation is rumoured to drink 42 cups a day....he must actually live on the toilet of this is true!!

after taking the lazy tour....and sleeping the whole of the previous day me and chloe decided it was time to do some real walking, after consulting with the hostel owner we headed out on jungle trek number 9a, a relativly easy walk apparently!! the first hour was pretty easy, walking right through the rain forest down the side of a waterfall, it even had pathway for the first 15mins....but then our luck ran out....it has been raining since we landed in malaysia and it had taken its toll on the rainforest and inparticularily our trail...at some points it was less than a foot wide and if you trode on the edge it slipt away down the 100 foot drop next to us, other times we had to just sit on our bums and slide down as there was no way we could have stayed upright! we made it though, about 2 hours later we emerged in the middle of a farm and made the short walk down to the main road....covered head to toe in mud we sat in the rain and waited for the bus back to the town....and waited....and waited....but finally over an hour later a bus collected us and took us back to our lovely warm (pretty cold actually) showers! we were both glad we had taken the walk and proud we made it through alive...we didnt see any of the monkeys which are meant to live in the trees above that trail, but we saw a few froggies, and a fook off massive millipede!! hard work but worth it! not everyday you get to walk off into a rainforest!

when back we washed and headed out for some well earned food and a beer and then crashed out....and finally had our first full nights sleep!!! whoop!! but we slept a little too well, luckily chloe woke up when the air con turned off at 7.30...our alarm was set for 6.30 which we slept through and we had to be on our bus at 7.45!!! a mad dash saved us and we boarded our bus for penang where we currently are!

we got off the bus in butterworth and got the ferry across to georgetown sadly leaving mainland malaysia behinf for now... i can not say enough good things about the malaysians and their country, all very welcoming and helpfull!! we have been in georgetown now a few hours now though, and not too impressed so far, our hostel didnt have the aircon room with shower and toilet we booked so got a little room with just two beds in but for 4quid a night it will do us for today! we may look to move on tomorrow, or soon as not really taken with georgetown so far!! but thats the beauty of all this, we can move as and when we bloody like....and i tell you now...we will!!

sorry still no great tales to tell....all been rather chilled so far....but im gagging for my first night out on the sauce so hopefully this may provide some little tales to tell...alcohol is the spice of life!!!

anyway kids, enough for now, we are running short on the readies and cant find a cash point at the moment!! eep!! hopefully it will stop raining soon so we can go find one!!

much love as always!!!