Grand Kampar Hotel Perak

... then a few postcards to the post office and getting our bus tickets for the next port of call which is penang tomorrow..so finally after being in 4 destinations already and nearly 2 weeks on the road..we will get to see the beach/sea tomorrow...im sure your hearts bleed for us!

its been nice to get out of the big cities with the smoke/noise/traffic/people..and into smaller,one road towns...

... been informed about the history of tea, the cultivation and the production. interesting and not to forget the nice tea afterwards. than we went to see the mousy rain forest - another type, one of the oldest rain forrests in the world, as we all know from Lord of the Rings. Amazing! Great!

Francis was so kind and took me to another guest house as mine was booked and i stayed in the father's guesthouse up the hill. great place - the best i have been to so far.

... on a seat for two asian people (not nearly the width of a usual european seat). bevore she offered me the one-cheek-space i tried to sit next to an old man in the front - but stupid as i am i did not check that you cannot sit next to an old man in a muslim country... that was a little embarassing but well. anyway, as i entered, the bus was already crowded and god knows where this peoploe squeezed themselves in, there were at least 20 persons more entering... crazy!!

... been completely destroyed, most likely in a storm, leaving a huge pile of smashed up pieces of wood in a small clearing. I posed for a sarcastic photo.

We continued on into the jungle for three more hours. We climbed some very steep bits, densely covered in tree roots. We also encountered a rather fierce looking beetle, or, at least, its discarded exoskeleton. It was about two inches tall, gripping a tree trunk, and had a small hole under its face where it had probably crawled ...

... some sleep. It was interrupted by our driver then informing us that we had to change buses in Kota Bharu. Too bad no one told us that while buying the ticket or anywhere else. If we knew that before, we could have gone to Kota Bharu at a cheaper price with the Polish couple from the fast boat. All that time spent being frugal kicked us in the butt in the end. Oh well, traveling doesn't always work out as you want.

After around an eight hour ...

... swans if you like that sort of thing. There were some amazing old trees lining one of the roads, I have no idea what type of tree they were but they had the kind of branches that would scare the living daylights out of you if you happened upon them on a dark night. Outside the very colonial Tourist Information office was a red British telephone box, the kind we are ripping off our streets, which gives us a clue ...

... s ivory tusk stem. It was also interesting to note that the Sultan studied at the University of Nottingham!) We decided to have dinner in Kuala Kangsar, rather than Taiping, so we went to the 'Benteng Thai Restaurant' which is meant to be the best in the area, and it was also surprisingly cheap, which is always an added bonus! My meal was on RM5.40 and it was really good too (Tom: Mine was full of the largest amount of chillis I have ever seen. Great though! It tasted ...

Yup, its the school holidays again and this time we're off to Cameron Highlands. I must confess that I never liked Cameron Highlands because I hate the road going up there.

Every time I go to Cameron, I tell myself , I will only come back in 10 years time. Therefore when I went in jan this year for my silent retreat, I enjoyed the tranquil and the natural surroundings so much that I said that I would take the kids up there in March.

And so we ...

... We spent most of the rest of the arvo relaxing at the guesthouse and watching movies. We managed to down quite a few beer's with some crazy Germans and ended up at a bar around the back of the main bar to drink with the guy's that ran the guesthouse, they were really cool guy's and we got to see some cool singing and dancing as well!

... Spain, on Paths 7, 3, and 5 - a much easier and shorter hike than the 7 hour hikes I had done with the guys earlier in the week. As is my luck, on the easier, shorter hike I managed to slide in the mud, landing on a tree root that managed to rip a nice hole in the butt of my pants. Luckily I only need to wear these pants a few more times for hiking in Taman Negara and a little patch should hold them together enough for that. After another ...