Friday morning (24th April) at 7.30am the marina staff took us the half hour trip across to Johor Bahru (all free) to catch a bus to Kuala Lumpur. This trip took 4 ½ hours but the scenery was mostly palm oil plantations and was motorway all the way and all toll ways. We arrived there at 1.30pm and then had to get ourselves booked on another bus to Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. There are only 2 bus companies that go from KL to Tanah Rata so this bus was not in the same street as the first half of the journey. The bus left KL at 3.45pm and we finally arrived at 8.30pm and got a taxi to the Greenhill Resort (timeshare) where we were staying.

The Resort was part of the Heritage Hotel resort and all built in tudor style and from outside does look quite flash. Our unit was 3 bedroomed with two bathrooms and a partial kitchen which contained a 2 burner gas cooker and a microwave. While comfortable it was very dated, there was no plug for the sink, only a very grotty frying pan, no pots. The only hot water was in the second bathroom which was an electric instant hot water unit for the shower. The main bedroom's ensuite had a bath with a shower over it but only cold water. Sunday morning the staff actually asked me how we found the unit so told them a few things and when we arrived home that night found we had two saucepans and a plug for the sink! I had to buy dishwashing detergent.

The actual town was only a 10 minute walk from the resort so on the Saturday we had a good look around Tanah Rata and visited all the tour companies to see what they had to offer and booked a four wheel drive tour to see the third largest flower in the world, called a rafflesia. Sunday was going to be the last day to see it as they are very rare and only last 5-6 days. Our tour in an old landrover 4 wheel drive started at 9.30am and in our vehicle we had a Canadian lady and her daughter (Chris & Megan) plus a young English guy. Our driver was Vasu and we were in convoy with another vehicle who had another 8 tourists with an Indian driver (Francis). To see the rafflesia we were in real off roading country with a track going through the jungle and we did get stuck at one stage and did a few slides where it was wet. Further in we had to walk in the jungle for about 30 minutes to get to the rafflesia and en rout Francis pointed out all the various different plants and what their uses etc. were for - most interesting and he was a mine of information. We had to take an aborigine with us as they own that part of the jungle. From there we visited the aborigine (Orang Asli) village and were given a blow pipe demonstration. Blowpipes are used for hunting and are a good way to hunt animals as they are so quiet. We have one on board which Dave bought in Lombok, Indonesia although it is quite different to the ones used here.

From there we stopped at a Chinese restaurant for lunch and then went on to visit the Boh tea plantation and had a look through the factory and had afternoon tea there. The Boh tea plantation is the oldest tea plantation in Malaysia, started in 1929 with plants being 80 years old and cover an area of 4500 acres. I had already been buying some of their tea but they have a huge number of varieties.

From there we continued climbing in the 4 wheel drive to the highest peak ( Gunung Brinchang) which is 6666ft above sea level and give a good view over the Cameron Highlands, but unfortunately it was a bit hazy. We then did a jungle walk for a couple of hours and Francis enlightened us on more plants etc. and their uses. We finally arrived back in Tanah Rata at 8.30pm where along with Chris & Megan we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. All in all it was a great day and we also enjoyed Vasu's company. He is an agricultural consultant in KL but with the down turn he was helping his brother (who owned the tour company) out for the week.

After our big day on Sunday we had a quiet and restful day on Monday but on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we hired a motor bike each day for about 5 hours and did all the other tourist things that were there to see in the Cameron Highlands. The Cameron Highlands is one of the biggest vegetable and flower growing areas in Malaysia and we have never seen such big areas of greenhouses. We visited an Indian chrysanthemum grower who had ten acres of them all under cover plus he also grew tomatoes and eggplants. He gave us a bunch of yellow chrysanthemums plus some tomatoes. He didn't speak any English but we managed okay and he was only too happy to show us around. We visited a hydroponic strawberry and fancy lettuce farm, a butterfly and insect garden, a time tunnel (museum which gave the history of the Cameron Highlands), a honey bee farm, but got out of there quick as the bees were being quite aggressive and one of the staff members was badly stung. Also visited a cactus place, a Buddhist temple and Kea Farm which is a market selling fruit, vegetables, flowers etc. Also did a ticky tour down a side road where there were hundreds more greenhouses. They are built on steep terrain so it is an amazing sight. We also revisited Boh tea and I did a bit of a stock up as we did not have enough time to have a really good look in their shop when on the tour.

Strawberries sold for $NZ10 - 18 per kilo, honey is an exorbitant price $NZ35 for about 750mls!! We bought sweetcorn for dinner one night but cost $NZ5 for 6 small cobs, the larger ones were 2 for $5. However they were lovely and sweet. We ate out all the other nights. On Thursday night we treated ourselves to the local highland specialty, at a Chinese restaurant, to a "steamboat". We cooked it ourselves in a chicken soup on a gas cooker and it consisted of the following: 9 kinds of fresh vegetables, chicken, beef, crabstick, fish meat, fresh prawns, fresh cuttle fish, fresh oysters (more like mussels to me), jelly fish ( a bit leathery), fresh mushrooms, fish balls, chicken eggs, tofu and noodles - all for $NZ6.50 each. It was quite filling and we did not manage to polish off all the vegetables.

The temperatures in the Cameron Highlands are a lot cooler, more like NZ temperatures and did get quite cool at night and first thing in the morning. Much more pleasant for sleeping as well.

Friday morning we caught an 8.45am bus to KL, arriving there at 1pm and then we supposedly had to wait until 3pm for a bus to Johor Bahru as earlier ones were supposedly booked out as Friday was a holiday (Labour Day). However I managed to wangle it that we could catch the 1.30pm bus and we were on it at 1.20pm but would you believe it did not leave until 2.45pm! They wait until they fill up so finally arrived in JB at 7.30pm where the marina staff met us to bring us back to the marina. From JB to Tanah Rata is 508km and when we arrived back in KL it was like a heat wave hitting us.

Last night we had dinner on Pewter with Anne & Leo and had a lovely evening. They have been in here for several weeks and doing a few repair jobs.

Tomorrow morning we will go in the marina van to Juscoes to do a big stock up for our trip to Borneo, Tuesday night to the market and on Wednesday we will go across to Singapore for the day to renew our visas as they expire mid June and we won't be in Brunei until July which is too late for renewing our visas. We will head the few miles up to Danga Bay on Thursday and the rally starts on Sunday, 10th May.