Tea and sympathy

Hi All, we're now in the Cameron Highlands enjoying the cooler temperatures and lack of humidity. It is about 20c here so compared with the mid 30 temps we've being experiencing it is really pleasant. We will stay here for 3 night's before we head to Butterworth for a night just as a stop over ready for our border crossing into Thailand, whoopee!!

All the time we were planning our trip Thailand was THE one place that I was really looking forward to, and now almost a year later we're nearly there. It is rainy season in most of Asia at the moment so it's not glorious sunshine every day as you might be expecting. We have had our fair share of rain this week but it soon clears up once it stops. We have experienced all elements the last 7 months so rain to us is like water off a ducks back ;o)

The couple of days we spent in KL were a bit hectic. It is an extremely busy and noisy place with lots of built up areas and sky scrapers, it is also a filthy, smelly place too. The drains are just full of rotting food and stagnant water, and in the kind of heat they experience you can imagine the effects. All that aside though it is a really exciting place to spend a couple of days although I don't think I could manage any more than that. It is also extremely humid here and even just ambling around the place was hard work. We did get a great deal on a hotel room though, 10GBP for an A/C room with our own bathroom and T.V. Where in London could you get that kind of deal?!

The bus station in KL was very similar to those in Sth America, you are pounced upon as soon as you walk in and everybody wants to know where you're going and to sell you a ticket. We were ushered to one of the many ticket desks and told how much it would be, what time the bus leaves etc. Anyway Matt being the worldly wise traveller that he is now decided to try his hand at a bit of bartering, and told the guy that is was too expensive (4GBP each!!!!) and that we would try another operator. We went to the next desk only to find that it was exactly the same price there too. We paid our money and scuttled off embarrassed that we had tried to get one over on the locals. It's all part of the fun though!!

The drive to CH was pretty spectacular once we got off the main highway, the road was one of those full of hair pin bends and right at the edge of a massive drop (if you dared to look!) It was just like driving through the jungle as all we could see for miles and miles was trees and forestry, with a few indigenous communities scattered along the way.

CH is a busy little place, with emphasis on the little. It is full of tea shops (surprise surprise) and curry restaurants. Needless to say we have no complaints, it's like we have died and gone to heaven. Tomorrow we will go and visit the tea plantations and go find out what it's all about (Alfie) There are also lots of strawberry fields, and cactus farms so we will be taking in some of those and sampling anything that is going, although I don't think the cactus is necessarily for eating, I'm sure it's more common for it's healing properties? No doubt I will find out just what you can do with a cactus tomorrow.

We're in an internet cafe at the moment and again they are just like the South American ones, full of young kids who would be better placed in a classroom, but instead playing beat me up games aimed at 18+'s. They can't play these games quietly either, they screech at the tops of their voices while they pound away at the key board. So I'm now sat with a pair of Mickey Mouse earphones on listening to some "banging choones" on Facebook (AC/DC Whole lotta Rosie) and as noisy as this song is it still can't block the little blighters out.

We have both really missed listening to decent music while we've been away. We decided that we wouldn't bring our ipods as it was just one more thing to keep our eye on in addition to money, camera, passports etc. But I think it's safe to say that next time we travel our ipods will be high up on our list of things to bring. Matt has already been chatting to Ben about going to a music festival at Benicassim in July next year. It's like "a posh version of Reading" apparently. Anyway hopefully there are two tickets with our names on, posh Reading or not we need a fix of loud music. If it is like Reading I'll be "Dancing with tears in my eyes" (Only old people will know that song)

Gary we're looking forward to a noisy weekend at your place when we get back too ;o)

Have a nice weekend all!