Cameron Highlands

We are currently in the Cameron Highlands which are famed for their amazing hilly scenery, tea and strawberry farming.  Apparently they cover an area about the size of Singapore (thank you wikitravel).  We figured that if we stayed in Penang any longer we might never leave, so we should go somewhere else.  We took 2 buses from Penang starting at about 6am and arrived around 5pm.

Komtar bus stop Penang.

Whilst on the bus I had taken my feet out of sandals and tucked my feet up on the chair.  When we arrived I put my feet down and one sandal just wasn't there.  Everyone including Andy had gotten off the bus by this point and I was there alone searching for this shoe.  Eventually passengers going back the other way start boarding the bus and I start to panic.  Andy then gets back on and joins the search and we were literally on our hands and knees with a torch becoming more and more stumped.

  Then a lady from the bus company also joins the search whilst a really drunken couple of German men start singing 'Vor ist da Shoooo' at the top of their voices with their arms in the air.  It was all very funny and everyone got a really good laugh searching for the shoe.  Some nice Swedish girl offered to give me her spare pair of shoes which was super nice.  I eventually gave up though and hobbled off the bus with my one remaining shoe.

Then the nice helpy lady shouts to me and had found my shoe on the opposite side of the bus wedged under the seat.

I haven't a clue how it ended up there, but I was so thankful and thanked everyone on the bus, because I felt like we'd bonded.  Helpy lady was laughing quite a lot and said she'd remember that for a long time. 

I should probably mention that this shoe incident was doubly concerning because someone stole my other pair of flip flops whilst I was in Laos.  I probably should have reported that to the police...

Anyways these are a few shots I took from out the bus window to subdue my boredness.














The highlands have a weird feel to them.  It does feel at times like I'm back in Wales or somewhere in the English countryside because it's so green, there are mock buildings everywhere and it's a lot cooler up here.  So cool in fact that we haven't needed a fan and are using a blanket at night.  Very green, very dense jungle woodlands surround us.  You can hear crickets and dogs howling at night and the mosquitoes have tripled in size (slightly frightening).  Ooo and there are daddy long legs around which scare the bejesus out of me.  When I was at home I'd always get my granny to come into my room and get them out. I'm just so irrationally scared of them - they're like spiders with wings - blurgh!

 The one thing you have to always be mindful of in Asia is random holes in the road.  We're not safe even out here in the highlands.

We have found a slightly damp but ok room in a guesthouse just a little out from the main road running through.  It's great and has a window - woot!  As I write we've just returned from a strawberry farm excursion.  It was about a 4k walk out of Tanah Rata where we're staying and we went there on the promise of strawberry picking, but when we arrived nothing much was happening and we just had some ice cream to drown our sorrows.  A lil' bit disappointing but a nice walk.

Anyways here are some shots below where you can see what I'm talking about in regards to it feeling like home and just how full of strawberry farms it is!

We managed to sneak some rum and strawberry juice from the farm into the guesthouse.  I'm sure the guesthouse owners wouldn't mind but we snuck it in anyway - far the danger I guess...  Now I'm sat here typing away with a sort of strawberry daquiri affair in one hand with the rain pouring down outside.

Dont be too jealous though as I am just recovering from travellers lergy.