Cameron Highlands

The bus ride's not so great as the road's immensely winding as it climbs the mountains/hills? Lush scenery though. We stumble off and head for some lunch while looking for a hostel. Indian, which I'm not completely in the mood for after the stomach churning bus ride. I opt for the mushroom soup, which though out of place on the menu, is welcome.....Until it arrives and tastes like dishwater. Yuk! My fault for trying to eat western though.

We get a 4 bed dorm room at the Cameronian Inn all to ourselves, which is very nice. Guided walks daily too. We head out to explore the town and get some internet time, it starts pouring with rain and our waterproofs are very much required. The next day we head out for a half-day landrover tour. Taking in the tea plantation, Boh tea making factory, mountaintop viewpoint, ancient (5?million years old?) moss forest and butterfly/insect deathtrap. Mark gets to hold a beatle (I think it was Ringo) and Innes gets a scorpion. Totally loved the tea plantation and even enjoyed the cup of tea (how posh were we with those little sieves) and the moss forest was amazing. We head to a really cute lil cafe and treat ourselves to scones!

When we get back to the hostel after our evening meal the couple we met yesterday Tom and Charlotte are watching Casper in the tv room. We join them and after a bit of a chat agree to go on the guided walk the next day with Charlotte while Tom was more adventurous. It wasn't to be though and the guide sneakily gave us the slip and we didn't catch him before he disappeared into the trees. We returned to the hostel, had a bit of a moan about him, picked up some maps and headed out on our own. It must've been the steepest trail on the maps, felt like I was about to collapse for most of it, and it was a relief when it started to rain. We made it to the top though and going down was easy, and fast. We helped ourselves to a sample from the strawberry farm the path ran through and fully deserved the scrummy strawberry freeze pops when we were back in the town. Lunch in the same cute cafe (or pud in my case as I'd already scoffed crisps on the top of the mountain mm cheesecake). More internet and Innes gets a haircut.