Cameron Highlands

We got up early this morning to get one of the first buses out of KL to Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. The hostel that we stayed at last night, Le Village, was on Petaling St (the Chinatown of KL) and was a fairly dodgy joint but it had a good vibe and was a nice change from the shoebox of Zass. It didn't, however, have air conditioning so we were ready to get out by just after 6am.
The bus out here was only RM28 (Malaysian Ringgit, about AU$10) and was spacious and only diverted once to pick up more people! [Our reaction after Friday's efforts: Not everything sucks!!!!]
We got to Tanah Rata at 1:30pm, hoping to get a couple of dorm beds at Father's Guesthouse (Lonely Planet's "pick" of 2009) but unsure because we'd had trouble booking it online last night. Father's is up a few flights of stone stairs, at the top of a hill looking over the town. It's awesome! And for only RM15 a night each (5 bucks!) it's super awesome! The people here are friendly and helpful, helped us out with a bus ticket to Penang tomorrow and got us on a countryside tour immediately! Half an hour later we were on a mini bus driven by a (very) informative Indian-Malay man called Rajesh. We went to Taman Rama Rama- a buttefly house with cool bugs, creepy snakes and spiders-, the Boh Tea Estate where we saw tea being made and stood in awe at the carpet-like tea plantations, a strawberry farm (this is the only area in Malaysia where you can grow them cos of the climate!), to a rose garden and finally to a big temple (can't remember the name) rebuilt a few years back with donations worth about AU$850 000. It is covered in lovely tiling and has huge buddha statues inside!
It has been another massive day again though and now it's time for bed. Sean has already hit the hay about an hour ago and I think I'm out of stories for now anyway!

-Y


Also, we just realised that today is Sunday. That explains why booking hostels has been so difficult (when we're trying to book a room at midnight for 2pm check-in that day! silly us!) and means that I should have already said.. GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR FINAL EXAM TOMORROW KIM, WE ARE THINKING OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!