December 12th

Up early to get a bus at 6am to the Cameron Highlands.Journey was pretty good and we managed to sleep most of the way.We did pass some amazing views of hills and jungles on the way.We arrived in Tanah Rata around 10pm and quickly found a hostel to check into.

Seemed to be a bit colder up here - climate was more like back home so that was a bit comforting. We grabbed some food and went off on a little walk to check out some nearby waterfalls. Managed to trek quite a way into the forest in a bid to find the bottom of a big waterfall we had been following but gave up as the path was getting smaller and smaller.

We then explored the town a little more and looked in some of the numerous tea and strawberry related shops. The Cameron Highlands is famed for some of the best tea plantations in Malaysia (Dee, you'd have loved it!) and had loads of strawberry and honey farms - all geared toward flush tourists of course.

We decided to book ourselves onto a 4x4 day trip which would take in most of the main sights of the Cameron Highlands and we were told we would also be trekking to see the world's largest flower - the Rafflesia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafflesia.

December 13th

Still no sign of Christmas in Malaysia!

Up early and off to the tour agency for our day trip. After waiting a wee while we were greeted by a rather enthusiastic Malay gentleman who would be our driver for the day. Paul's face was a picture when he caught sight of the Landrover - series two defender (whatever that means) that we were travelling in. In fairness, it was one of the proper old school landrover's and was pretty cool.

Took us about an hour to drive to the place at which we were going to trek to the Rafflesia flower. When we arrived our guide explained that we had to do some off roading so that we could get into the forest and reduce the amount of time it would actually take to trek to the flower.

Now, when he said off roading, I didn't realize that this would mean being thrown around in the back of a viechle like dice or something! IT WAS AMAZING. They didn't really advertise this part of the trip when we booked but this was proper 'off roading'. Our guide had some SKILLS and was driving us though this thick mud, a good half a metre deep, on steep winding ledges leading up into the forest. It was a good job that it had rained in any of the previous days otherwise we would have been swimming through the mud to get to this flower.

We finally got to start of the trekking area and we were off. This was a proper trek - no nice footpath, instead we were climbing up through the trees and foliage, I nearly went arse over tip a few times. What was even more impressive is that our guide was explaining that he goes trekking in the same area every day in order to find a fresh rafflesia to show tour groups. Apparently these flowers have a 'lifespan' of around 5days - once they flower they decay quickly.

It took us about half an hour of trekking before we finally got to one of the flowers and it was an impressive sight. The particular flower we saw was actually one of the 3rd largest of the same variety of flower. It took ages for the whole tour group to have their pictures taken with this thing and then it was off again back down through the forest with a quick stop at a waterfall - and yes, Paul naturally had to get his kit off and get in when he saw others doing it!

Then it was back in the Land Rover - more off-roading before we then we made a quick stop at a small village where the Orang Asli live (local tribes people). We all had a go using a 'blow pipe' - sounds dodgy but it was a traditional hunting method where you shoot small bamboo arrows though a long wooden tube. Naturally, I was better than Paul and hit the target on both occasions :o)

Next stop - a visit to the tea plantations and the Boh tea centre and factory (http://www.boh.com.my/ ) where the views out over the highlands were just spectacular. We then continued up to the top of Mount Brinchang, which is the highest peak in the highlands (again the views were beautiful, so serene). Final stop was a walk into what they called a 'mossy forest' - pretty self explanative really and a completely different type of forest to the one we had been at in the morning.

Finally it was back in the Land Rover and back to the centre of town! Knackered we were. We mustered up some energy to go out for tea at one of the many Indian canteen places. Paul ordered and it went a little something like this ……"I'll have a tikka masala, rice, poppadoms and……do you do chips?"…..waiter looks confused….."you mean poppadoms'……..Paul's face drops!! This was the second time he's tried this and it seems that half and half is not a common thing in Malaysia!