After a great few days in the 'big smoke' with Jo, it was time to head back to nature, namely the Cameron Highlands. Despite it being only 200 odd kilometres from KL, it ended up taking me most of the day to get there. First stop was to the KL bus station (by train, not taxi!!) and navigating through the mayhem of the ticket counters, with touts yelling at you and trying to accost you as you make your way through. Despite what the website said of there being a 10:30am bus direct to the Cameron Highlands, I was told the next bus wasn't until 12:30. I wasn't keen to stick around for 2 hours, so I instead bought a ticket to Ipoh, which was a town near to it that offered connections.

Of course when I arrived into Ipoh at 1:30, I was told the next bus didn' leave until 5pm. Again I refused to accept that, and instead found out about a bus that left from the inner city at 3pm. That worked out perfectly allowing me enough time to grab lunch before the bus arrived Quite often the buses don't actually stop here - you need to run alongside and jump on board. This is made all the more difficult when you're carrying a large backpack, which you then need to navigate down the very skinny aisles to a seat! It was on this bus ride that I realised the latest book that I'd grabbed from the hostel, Paul Theroux's "Railway Bazaar" was in French!!

At 5:30, we arrived into the Cameron Highlands. I didn't have a reservation and was a little worried given it was a) peak season b) a week-end and c) a holiday, as well as pouring with the rain. Luckily we pulled up in front of a tourist desk who were able to guide me to a guesthouse, where I scored my own room for just 35RM (about $13). Of course being 35RM, I sat down on one of the beds and it collapsed underneath me!!

The atmosphere here is amazing, quite similar to Kinabalu National Park. Set in the hills about 1700m above sea-level, mist and cloud looms below the hill tops and rain is frequent, with temperatures between about 12-20 degrees. A nice escape from the heat and humidity of KL! It's made up of picturesque villages and a distinctly British colonial feel, with tea plantations and strawberry farms abundant (scones with strawberry and cream are the flavour here!) I went for a walk through the village I'm staying at, Tanah Rata, and had Indian for dinner (grand total of $1.50), before retiring to my room. There's just something about reading under your doona whilst the rain patters against your window pane!

On Sunday morning, I decided to book myself onto a half-day tour of the area. Given its size, touring by myself would have only allowed me to see the town and maybe one tea plantation, whereas the tour would show the highlights of the area. At 9:30am I was picked up from my hostel and along with 10 other tourists (mainly German), we set-off to the highest point in the area for a great view of the rolling valleys and tea plantations. Next up, we had a half hour 'introductory' walk of a mossy forest. This was hell! The underground was extremely slippery and covered in mud puddles, so my new white Asics runners ended up completely covered in mud!

Following this we had a tour of a tea plantation. This was really beautiful, just like the ads you see for Ceylon tea in Sri Lanka. We had a tour of the factory and had half an hour free to explore the area. Our final stop was at an Aboriginal re-settlement area. Apparently the indigenous people can't live in the jungle any more and the government are helping them to re-settle by building villages for them just outside the main towns. It was an interesting overview - the medicine man and chief are still the key people in the town - but the culture has mainly been lost, with hunting for food now replaced with trips to KFC and satellite TV! It was quite uncomfortable to be there looking around - it felt like they were animals in a zoo. Luckily we didn't stay long.
The end of the tour coincided with the afternoon's downpour, and given it was 2:30 I headed for lunch (yaki-udon, and of course I had to try out some scones!)

Tomorrow I head to Penang for a night followed by Langkawi for Merdeka (Malaysia National Day), but I'm really just hanging out for Thursday when I arrived at Phuket for my stay at Le Meridien!