Cameron Highlands

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Hello again - this time we are doing two blogs at once - one for the Cameron Highlands, and the second for the Perhentian Islands. We havn't updated for a while and this way we can keep the pictures seperate. Sorry for the delay, we actually wrote these blogs a few days ago but have had difficulties getting the pictures online. Anyway here they are...

So after we left Penang we were hoping to get a bus across the country to Kuala Besut where we could then catch the boat to the Perhentian Islands. We arrived at the bus station about 1pm and the bus didnt leave until 9pm so we got the old book out and decided we would stop off in the Cameron Highlands first. This turned out to be a good choice as it is really nice up there, and its cool as well. No sweating for 48 hours solid!

The Cameron Highlands are in the middle of Peninsular Malaysia about 2 or 3 thousand feet above sea level. It is where the old colonial British used to stay, building hill stations to avoid the humidty along the coast. They set up many tea plantations in the region that are still going strong today and these are the main reason for the tourist visits.

After a 4 or 5 hour bus journey up the winding hills we arrived the bus station in Tanah Rata. From there we went to Daniels lodge which was a good little hostel/guesthouse where they had a bar and a bonfire out back which was lit every night. First night we met a few people from Scotland and Donna sat chatting around the fire while i entertained the locals on the pool table. We had a few beers again and then booked our half day countryside excursion for the next day. This invlolved visiting a honeybee farm, butterfly farm, rose flower farm type thing with a great view of the surrounding valleys, Boh tea plantation where we sampled the local delights, strawberry farm where we also sampled the local delights, and a reptile/insect farm. It was really good half day, especially for the price which was 3 quid each including transport. I let a huge horned beetle thing walk up my arm and we both filled up on strawberries and cream and strawberry shakes. At the tea plantation we had a cup of Boh tea and a scone - typically English right? Well actually Donna had the scone and i had a strawberry tart. Very good. Loads of strawberries. I was hoping to pick our own so we could find all the big juicy ones but the only part they let us in to they weren't ripe yet. Bit of a cheek if you ask me. Anyway that night we chilled out again and watched Hot Fuzz - Yarp thats right - more English movies, pretty funny actually you should see it.

Daniel's lodge could arrange to take us all the way to Perhentian Islands with a bus/boat combo ticket so we booked that for 7am the next morning. 7am was really tough. We were up at half 6 which the earliest since we have been away but we just about scraped oursleves from the bed and packed our bags in double quick time. Donna has a really annoying habit of emptying everything out each time we arrive somewhere, and then instead of folding them into her bag she folds them into a neat little pile before putting them in. aarrgggh! She is getting a bit quicker with all the practice we've had so its not too bad now.

We'll tell you about thejourney on the next blog - PTO

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Comments

[Mum J]

Beautiful Islands!
How beautiful it all looks and Donna, you look stunning in your orange sarong on the beach, just like the girl in the Bounty ad. I hope you scrambled up a tree to fetch her a coconut Laurie!! Love to you both. x x