Highlands and Islands

So, Malaysia is pretty awesome. Had good fun crossing the border as, for the first time, they checked my passport photo... The lady behind the desk thought it was quite funny.

We had a hellishly long travel day to get here. We departed our hotel at 0630 to take a minivan to the pier, where we boarded a public bus. The bus then drove on to the ferry and we got off the bus. We were on the ferry for about an hour and a half back to the mainland. The public bus drove for about 6.5 hours to a bus station where we boarded another private minivan and drove an hour to the border. After going through the border shennanigans we were back in the van for a supposed three hour drive to Georgetown.

Georgetown is the main town on the Malaysian island of Penang. You can see the European, Chinese and Indian influences everywhere. Almost as soon as you cross the border from Thailand, you can tell that you are in a more prosperous nation. From the state of the roads, to the cars driving on it. It was about 2030 when we arrived there on Thursday.

Yesterday we used the free hop on hop off bus that goes around Georgetown to get a feel for the place. In the morning we went to a chocolate boutique and may or may not have bought some presents here. We went to Fort Cornwallis which was a fort built by an Englishman called Francis Light at some point in the 18th Century. It was far too hot to be reading everything! There were lots of cannons though, which was cool.

We then went to explore little India. It was quite dissapointing as we saw no little indians. Or Cowboys.

In the evening we went out for one of the best Indians ever. I had Chicken Tikka, which was very hot and Charlotte had a prawn Massala. She was very dissapointed that there was no Korma on the menu! In theevening we went to a massive shopping mall called Komtar and ended up going to the cinema with Katie and Jess to see some awful movie with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman. It was OK actually. It works out well because next time we go to the cinema, I get to choose the movie. Charlotte promised!

This morning we left Georgetown on a minibus bound for the Cameron Highlands. The drive was ok, it only lasted about 4 hours but the roads were very winding. The views were amazing, more so than the other countryside we've driven through so far. The mountains are much bigger and there is greenery and trees as far as the eye can see. The place we are staying has literally one street. And there is a Starbucks. Boo.

Tomorrow we are going in a 4x4 and then for a trek where we will see the world's biggest flower, the Rafflesia. We will go to a butterfly and insect farm, a strawberry farm, a tea plantation and get a shot of a hunting blowpipe!!!

We took our drowned memory card to a camera shop today and all of our photos are present and correct! Yay!

Hope everyone is well, take it easy and we'll be home in about a week!!!