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Long day of trekking yesterday...

We got picked up in a 4x4 at 8:45 and driven along a windy road to the start point of our trek. The last 20 minutes or so was offroad and uphill! Our 4x4 was a Swiss Army Truck! Our driver kept telling us to look to the right, it was due to the bottomless drops on our left!

We stopped at 10:10:10 10/10/10 and had a beer! Nothing like drinking at 10 am before a trek through a humid jungle!

We were given hats made out of fern leaves before clambering through the jungle, up hills, down hills, over bamboo bridges, over fallen trees, under fallen trees, jumping on stepping stones (or in Charlotte's case just wading through the river!) This process repeated itself for about an hour until we came across the Rafflesia. It is the world's largest flower and is named after Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, of Raffles Hotel fame. (He may also have founded Singapore).

It is big and red and has a spiky centre. It is supposed to smell really bad, of rotten meat in order to attract flies but it wasn't as bad as was made out. After a few snaps we started our hour long trek back to the 4x4.

It was about this point that my arm was raped by a Malaysian Jungle Wasp. It is still sore!!!

Next stop was an aboriginal village for a blowpipe demonstration. They load up a pipe made from bamboo and shoot poison tipped darts through it for hunting. The ones used in the demonstrationwere not poison tipped and had a 30 metre range. Everyone had a shot of shooting at a polystyrene target, Charlotte is a natural! It is at this point we purchased perhaps the best souvenir in the history of souvenirs... Our very own blowpipe and darts!!!

After this we visited Boh Tea Plantation. The Cameron Highlands is a very famous tea producing region and there are plantations everywhere. The one we visited is owned by a Scottish Family! It hade a cafe with fantastice views over the tea covered slopes. We had a refreshing afternoon drink, I had a blackcurrant ice tea and Charlotte opted for a spot of Cameronian Gold. They washed down our scones and strawberry jam nicely!

Next stop was a butterfly and insect farm. We have a variety of photographs with us being attacked by bugs. We held millipedes, a three horned rhino beetle, giant weevils, a gecko, a moving leaf, a turtle and a big black nasty scorpion. The lad that worked there thought it was hillarious to grab a handful of scorpions and just chuck them on people's shirts! Luckily he didn't do that to me or he'd have found out how hillarious getting a punch in the puss is! I did hold a scorpion, just not for very long!

The last stop was a strawberry farm, we have all seen strawberry farms before and this one was no different. However the strawbs, jams and milkshakes to be found here were delicious!

This morning we left the Cameron Highlands at 7am and arrived here in Kuala Lumpur at 11am. KL is pretty cool so far and we are staying in China Town. This afternoon we visited Batu caves which is a Hindu shrine with a massive gold hindu god image outside (not sure which one). It is well worth a google image search as it was pretty impressive. The best thing about these caves is they were inhabited by packs of wild monkeys who try and steal your shit.

We are going to do some shopping in the hectic markets outside our hotel this evening before a busy day ahead tomorrow. A park, a mosque, a shopping centre, the worl's largest indoor rollercoaster, KL tower, the Petronas Towers, a traditional Malaysian dance show and an aquarium are all, hopefully, going to be squeezed into our packed schedule!

Hope everyone is sticking in and not doing any drugs. Take care,
Euan and Charlotte.

PS. Mother and Father Jackson, here are some instruction that I already gave you and wrote down for you but I will repeat myself. Firstly I work on ward one the telephone number is 0131 536 7876 phone between 11am-12, 2pm-5 or 6-11pm. Explain that you are my parents and would like to know what my shifts are. Please do this tonight. Thanks.