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Published: January 9th 2007
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I had just finished typing this entry, when I lost it all - Arrrggghh! So I will start again recounting our tales............
We enjoyed our last couple of days in Gerorgetown.
We visited the fort, the highlight for both of us was a swing that they had attached to a tree there - I don't think that was supposed to be the highlight, but nevermind, we both enjoyed ourselves!
We visited the toy museum on Penang - Rob was in his element. They had various figures, from numerous films over the years.
Rob was suffering a severe deficiency due to a lack of television watching (we haven't seen anything significant since leaving Vietnam). So we went to the cinema and watched, 'a night in the museum' which we both enjoyed. I even stayed awake for the whole showing which is unusual in itself!
From Butterworth, we got a bus to the Cameron Highlands. As we climbed the hills you could feel the temperature drop, and the clouds came closer, covering the top of the hills. We were both pleased to see the grey damp weather as it reminded us of home, but the novelty soon wore
off!
On the first morning we decided to go out on a walk despite the rain as we had been carrying around our waterproofs and had hardly got them out at all! We struggled to find the start of trail we wanted to take as once again the map was useless - each map we have seen of the area has been different! The trail start off paved, both of us thought that this would make for easier walking intially, but soon realised that the combination of path, moss and rain was not a good one! The path went past a waterfall, and we continued on our way, until our path was blocked by fallen trees and we couldn't see a way around. So we headed back the way we had come, and took another route down to the powerstation. You could hardly call it a walk, as Rob spent most of his time on his bum!
We were able to rejoin the road, and make our way upto the tea plantation that we had read was only 2km. The start of the plantation was only 2 (uphill) kms away, but that was not where the factory and
more importantly, the tea shop was. We carried on uphill for a further 1km, when we spotted a sign for the teashop. That was a welcome sight, until we realised that this sign was telling us that we had a further 1km to go!
We made it to the top, where we had the best cup of tea we have had since leaving the UK, and a slice of cake. There were 2 other drowned rats at the top, who had also been made enough to walk to the tea plantation. We wandered round the factory with them, and then decided to share a taxi back to Tanah Rata. We asked the lady in the shop to call us a taxi, and she told us that none of the phones were working in the Highlands. So with that option gone, we had to walk. At least to the main road this journey was down hill. At the main road that changed, and it was uphill again, around snaking roads. We hoped to be able to flag down a taxi, but there was little traffic going in our direction. But then, the one an hour, bus came by, and stopped
for us. We have never been so pleased to see a bus, as we still had an 8km uphill walk ahead of us at that point.
We deserved a good meal that evening after all that walking - We had steam boat. This consists of various things e.g. fish balls, crab sticks, chicken, beancurd, prawns, pork skin (not a fan!) vegetables, and noodles that you cook yourself in two types of soup. Tasty!
Undeterred by the previous days walk, we headed out yesterday, hoping to do a relatively gentle stroll. We struggled again to find the trail we wanted, and then had to make a few educated guesses as to which path to follow - the trails really are not well marked. The easier option had decided to follow, soon became a no go, so we were forced into climbing to the top of the hill - knackering!
At the top of the hill we met another couple who were struggling to find their way back down to the other village we were aiming for. We set off together, after a few false starts finding our way. We ended up at the bottom, the wrong side of
a fence, with a gate and a heavy padlock. The thought of having to climb back up was too much! We saw a guy working a few hundred metres away, and got his attention, and we were able to squeeze around the side of the fence and escape!
We went to a strawberry farm, and had refreshing homemade strawberry ice poles. We then wandered around the golf course and took another trail back home. A lot more pleasant, as the sun had decided to come out!
After all of that energy expenditure we needed a feast - so we ordered a banana leaf meal each (consisting of popadums, pickles, rice, curry, vegetables, salad etc) and two Naan breads - the man stopped us ordering anymore at that point! But we proved the point that we were hungry by finishing it all, even if we couldn't move from our seats for a good half an hour afterwards!
Tomorrow we are heading to Tanam Negara, for more jungle trekking. We are gluttons for punishment!
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Let them eat cake....
Lovely photos, ghastley sounding walks, fabulous sounding food - well earnt! Perhaps a guide for your Rainforest walks....please! Enjoy. xx