I thought this was meant to be a holiday??

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Hi all!

Thought we should let you know that we're still alive and have made it to Georgetown, Penang safe and sound.

We last wrote to you from the highlands preparing to visit the tea plantations. We had begun walking up the the Sungai Boh plantation, passing a strawberry farm on the way, until we realised that it was about a 10km walk and would take us about 4 hours - so decided on heading back to town for a cheap cab ride (the driver even offered to wait an hour for us and take us back down) The views on the journey were incredible! Rows and rows of bright green tea trees covered the entire landscape. We had a spiffing cuppa and blueberry scone on the veranda cafe after learning a little about the tea making process before heading back to Tanah Rata (the town) for a meal. The meals were goood. (Just to warn you now this blog may be heavily food related - one of Georgetown's specialties). Having had Indian served on a banana leaf the night before (each member of the family who ran the place bringing out a course, but no cutlery! we got our hands dirty), we opted for a 'steamboat' - a sort of D.I.Y. dish which was a lot of fun, even if the raw seafood may have put Emily off a little.

Strawberries. Strawberries. Strawberries.
Having spent a little time in Cameron Highlands we thought that it should be renowned for its strawberries rather than it's tea. There are strawberry related goods everywhere. Strawberry farms, strawberries dipped in chocolate, strawberry ice lollies, strawberry juice, strawberry milkshake (we tested all of the above) as well as an ENORMOUS amount of strawberry related tat on stalls every 100 metres. Strawberries are the Starbucks of the highlands.

Our second day was unfortunately spent mostly indoors as it rained heavily. We had planned on walking along one of the many trails through the hills and checking out some waterfalls, but this time took a rain-check, and thank god we did in view of what was to come. Following an unexpected announcement that Emily's blue denim short shorts would no longer be traveling with us, there was an emotional goodbye to both the shorts and the highlands.

Georgetown

Following a very long, uncomfortable bus ride (and a short taxi), we reached Georgetown. Our first impressions were not quite how we had pictured the seafront town. A little more run down and worn out looking than we had imagined. However we've grown to love it!

The first couple of days here we explored the town, walked down to the beach, and checked out some of the temples they have here. The food that we've had here has been incredible! Easily the best so far. Much like a smaller, less busy Kuala Lumpur, the town has its own Chinatown and Little India. Just wandering around Chinatown we stumbled upon an alley that had a stage set up with a live singer (in chinese) and a group of about 20 people playing music and dancing with a chinese dragon. Just as we were leaving they set off a load of fireworks and some firecrackers - we're not really sure what it was in aid of but it made for an exciting first night.

Yesterday we decided to take on the challenge of hiking up Penang Hill. It's claimed to be 5km up and takes 3 hours. With our rations of 2 small bottles of water and 1 pack of Oreo's (don't worry they were double stuffed) we began the climb. At a short break point (only 1.2km up) whilst trying to catch our breath and summoning up the energy to continue - a small Malaysian woman (who must have been at least 50 years older than either of us!) ambled past casually and gave us a quizzical look as to why we had stopped. Shortly after this we were met by a large family of monkeys, and by coincidence a man turned up to feed them - which took the attention off of us. We took a small detour off-piste at the half way point which added at least an extra kilometre but lead us to a breath taking view of the city. After much sweating and panting we reached the top of the ridiculously steep, winding track - now understanding why the locals at the bottom had laughed at us when we stated that we were walking to the top. To be honest the summit would not have been worth the 60 Ringitt tram fare so we were glad that we took on the challenging climb. After a quick re-fueling we began the much quicker descent.

The plan was now to leisurely look around the botanical gardens which sat at the bottom of the hill (more like mountain.) However this was cut short by our level of exhaustion and a freak attack from a pack of savage (possibly rabid) monkeys who had Emily in their sights.

Another amazing meal and a good nights kip prepared us for today. Feeling slightly wobbly in the legs we caught a bus up to Teluk Bahang. Described as a lazy fishing village with vibrantly painted boats to see and a nice beach we thought this would be a pleasant day of soothing our aches. We didn't read the small print. 'with the beach being too small to attract any kind of resort being built most backpackers take a walk around the Penang National Park to take in the sights...' ...so another trek.

Mustering up the strength we hiked another 7km round trip to 'turtle beach', seeing a tiny breed of deer and a couple of wild dogs along the way - we were wary after the previous day's attack and swiftly continued the trek (with a large stick in hand in case of emergencies). Once we reached the beach - we again had a quick turn around before heading back to the information centre to catch the bus, due to the rain and forgetting our swimming attire.

So far on our jungle treks we have seen: numerous types of butterfly, even more types of not so attractive insects, 2 breeds of monkey, a tiny (rat) deer, many many strange looking wild/stray cats and dogs and a green tree snake.

Tomorrow we are heading across Penang to Tek Lok Si Temple and Snake Temple before boarding a flight to Surabaya. We plan to stay in Surabaya one night (apparently most backpackers don't manage to stay even that long there) before heading to Gunung Bromo - a volcano - for more trekking before hopping to Bali hoping for some free and easy time.

We were going to leave you with some photos as we head off to grab a Mountain Dew slurpee and play some extreme uno - there's no time for wild evenings when your schedule is as jam packed with activities as ours! However this computer won't let us. So you'll have to wait in suspense until next time. Oh and we are getting your messages and posts, thank you and we will reply to them!

As a footnote - we're really enjoying our trip (just in case you didn't get that vibe!), we've already met some incredible characters and everyone is ridiculously helpful and friendly. Also, if you're interested the beard is growing at a superb rate.

Lotalove x

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[Clare Drummond]

Photos
please take pics of where you stay too - you know I like the detail!!!!