Last Day

A lazy morning spent enjoying our Greek breakfast. We have decided Greek yoghurt is 'the best'. When we eventually decided to venture out we walked to the free bus at the cultural centre. There was some disruption with the 040 bus on the road in and the free bus took a different route.

We decided to grab a few items for lunch at Lidl and carried them with us on our journey to the centre. The free bus was great and it travelled fast with very little stops. We jumped off at a park and had a short walk through the pretty gardens. Next we went to the Parliament building to witness a very strange goose step, tango and waltz kinda thing by the two soldiers outside. It was getting hot so we took refuge in a chocolate shop. We chose to exit through a different door which led us into the foyer of the Grande Bretagne, a rather exclusive hotel.

We then headed to Plaka, a pretty pedestrianised area, past the Roman Agora and The Bath House of the Winds, all in the foothills of the Acropolis. We took a different route back to the main square and came across Athens Cathedral.  A very grand building with extremely ornate decoration inside.

Next we headed to an area called Exarhia.  There is a lot of political history in this area, which used to house the main university and possibly the most graffiti we have ever seen.  There were many little side streets with coffee shops full of students.  The drink of choice for most was what sounded like a 'freddo' which is an iced, sweet, frothy expresso. After sampling a freddo we headed to catch the free bus, via a road full of many ornate buildings and back we went to the cultural centre.  There was a concert in the park so we took a quick look.

Back at our accommodation we had a bite to eat, packed up our bags and at midnight headed to catch the tram to take us to the bus for the airport, ready for our flight in the morning.  Once safely at Athens airport we found some comfy chairs and managed to get a couple of hours sleep. Next stop France!

Shock and Surprise

A short walk to Lidl to buy some Mediterranean style breakfast.; cheese, bread,fruit and Greek yoghurt. On return to our accommodation we enjoyed our meal on the balcony overlooking Athens. A very beautiful scene.

Following breakfast we took a relaxing walk to the nearby park and cultural centre. From here a huge set of binoculars allowed a close up view of the Acropolis. Whilst we were enjoying the view from the top of the cultural centre, we were in for a surprise ...

The building started to shake, people in the cafe started to move from the balcony to be away from the edge. They seemed to be in a hurry, a mild state of panic. The building stopped shaking after approximately 20 seconds and people slowly returned to what they were doing before. We stood rather confused. We could see the lift shaking inside it's channel so assumed it had been travelling fast and hit the top too hard causing vibrations. There was no other logical explanation OR was there ...

We asked the local people what had happened and their answer was rather worrying.

THAT WAS AN EARTHQUAKE - 5.3!

We were a little stunned but everyone else seemed back to normal so continued to explore. We felt other tremors as we looked around but the building seemed to flex and respond well.

We sat inside and ate our lunch next to a piano. Different people came and played some beautiful tunes whilst we sat enjoying an incredible panorama of the ocean on one side and of Athens on the other.

Wwt couldn't take the lift back down as it was now out of bounds due to the earthquake, so we walked. We looked around the National library next which was very shiny and new. When we eventually got back to our accommodation we ate a lot before finishing off some Japanese tea we had been given in Bali. 

At 9pm we headed back to the cultural centre for a free concert. It was a mixture of traditional jazz mixed with a series of electric modern sounds. It didn't last long so we went one floor higher to the lighthouse for a night view over Athens. Here we listened to some phenomenon piano players in the luxury lounge.

A fantastic evening and as we left we watched the musical fountains dancing. A cool breeze accompanied us for our walk back to our accommodation.

Athens Explorers

Our flight landed at around 8.30am.  We had both managed to get a fair amount of sleep on the 11 hour flight.  After making our way through the airport we found bus X96 which took us to our accommodation.

We dropped our bags, freshened up and had a great breakfast of cucumber and tomato salad, olives, feta and Greek yogurt, what a treat!

We then caught the bus (040) into the centre of Athens, which dropped us at Syntagma Square where we saw the parliament building. On the way we saw some ancient ruins and a spectacular archway. We made our way down a long pedestrian street to Monastiraki Square where we caught our first glimpse of the famous ancient Greek Acropolis high up on the hill.  

We walked in the general direction of the Acropolis and along the way saw the Library of Hadrian and the Roman Agora.  We then followed a path up Areopagus Hill for our fist proper sight of the Acropolis and also amazing views over the whole of Athens.

We walked around the slopes of the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon.  In the Acropolis museum we saw videos of how they had taken statues from the Acropolis to renovate and preserve in the museum.  It was interesting to watch these enormous stone statues being manouvered by machines, knowing that when they were originally carved no such machinery existed.

We continued our walk around the slopes of the Acropolis walking through pretty, narrow alleyways full of cats, quaint little houses and churches and eventually made our way to the Plaka District.

We wandered through the narrow streets in search of an ATM and food! Since July 2019 each ATM in Greece charges a usage fee of upto 3 Euros for foreign cards. A nice little money maker considering how many tourists visit Greece! Having found an ATM we decided to try something traditionally Greek to eat, a gyros and souvalaki. This is meat and salad in a pitta but the pitta is nothing like the ones at home. It is soft and fresh and they cover the contents in a delicious Tzsatziki sauce.  It was very satisfying!

By now it was getting dark and we were tired after our long journey so headed back to our accommodation for some sleep.

Day of Travel

After our forth different breakfast on the final morning at our hostel (spicy omlete)we decided to skip the local bus for 3 Ringgit and take a Grab taxi. It would take us 10 minutes rather than 45 plus. We would normally take the cheapest option ... local bus, however this time Grab was the cheapest. We used a new user discount voucher and the total journey came to 1 Ringgit (20p).

The journey was quick so we arrived early. This gave us enough time to explore Tesco and buy some snacks plus visit the Aeon Mall to use the post office.

We changed our mobile ticket for a boarding pass at Melaka Central and we paid the 70c terminal fee. We waited patiently for our bus. The terminal screen showed all of the buses arriving but ours wasn't displayed. We tried to confirm with the staff if the bus was coming but they didn't seem too concerned and told us to wait. The bus did arrive but it never made an appearance on the screen.

It was a 27 seater with massage seats that were huge. The massage seats didn't seem to work but the seats were very comfortable. The driver drove relatively fast but stopped for regular comfort breaks about every hour of this 4 hour journey. Well, we thought it was 4 hours! We arrived at the immigration post for Malaysia, we left the bus passed through in 2 mins and off we went again. We next travelled quickly in the bus through 'no man's land' before being told to grab all of our belongings for x-ray as this was the Border post for Singapore.

Inside there were huge queues. It appeared we had entered just at the wrong time and stood before us were soooo many Chinese tour groups! We had to queue behind them for over an hour. Once we finally made it to the front we were stamped entry to Singapore. Next we went to find our bus. There was a big bus parking lot outside but no bus. We checked every one but no bus! Eventually we spotted a man also from our bus and he couldn't find it either.

Panic! 

Well not exactly, but our bus had indeed left. However, we found another one from the same company and climbed aboard. They were going to the same destination and it appears this is totally normal and happens all of the time. Our journey across the bridge to Singapore continued. We travelled past many of the Singapore attractions. Marina Bay Hotel ( the big ship skyscraper), Gardens by the Bay etc, etc, etc

We arrived at Beach Road, our final destination after about 6 hours. This meant a small change of plan. Instead of walking around a few of the attractions as we had planned, we just had time to eat! We had changed our remaining Ringitt for 5 Singapore dollars, about £3. This was enough to buy 2 chicken rice meals at the busiest restaurant we found, located just across the road from the bus stop.

Now with all our money spent, we headed to the MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) station, Lavender, by walking the streets of Singapore. We thought the best way to get a ticket would be at a small ticket office. However, we were in for a surprise. We were expecting to buy the tickets on an ATM card, as being as advanced as Singapore, we expected this would be easy. Wrong! First the ticket office didn't actually sell single tickets and second, cards were not accepted for single ticket purchases. 

We had to take money from the ATM, but double what we needed as this was the minimum withdrawal. This meant we were stuck with an extra 5 dollars. So, what we decided to do was eat again! We ordered Chinese dumplings, cups of tea tarik and a bowl of noodles. Delicious!

The MRT station was easy to navigate, fast and efficient. We navigated the change of lines easily and arrived at Changii airport, the best airport in the world! We had a long wait as our flight was 2 am the next day, so we explored the butterfly garden, rode the SkyTrain between T2 and T3 several times to view the world's largest indoor waterfall and went to the movies for free. Singapore has 2 free movie theatres and one was showing Mary Poppins 2. It was ok but not as good as the original.

When the movie had finished we made our way to our gate, boarded the plane and were off on our 11 hour Scoot flight to Athens.

Free bus

After breakfast (today was fried eggs with a variety of mushrooms and rocket with crusty bread) we had some chores to do! We headed to the laundry with a huge sack of washing.  Once this was done and hung out to dry and headed out to catch the free city tour bus. 

We were not too sure where it went so just hopped on.  We followed the route on our GPS and discovered we were near a famous floating mosque, so jumped off to take a look.  We soon discovered it was quite a walk but after crossing a field of the strangest, bounciest grass we eventually arrived.  The mosque is built on a jetty over the water.  We had a look around (it wasn't hugely spectacular) and then headed back to catch the bus.  As we walked along the huge long road a man stopped and kindly gave us a lift to the bus stop.  We were very grateful as this meant we could catch the next bus rather than waiting an hour for the next one. 

Back in town we had arranged to have dinner with some people we had met in the Cameron Highlands.  We headed back to same hawker stall and shared many different dishes including sesame chicken, pork noodles, cuttle fish, various little chinese cakes and some black glutinous rice with coconut milk, quite a feast.

Walking Tour

It was one of those days where we needed to set an alarm to stop us over sleeping. We didn't need to be at the tourist office to register for our tour until 9am. However, we did not want to skip the excellent breakfast served at the hostel.

Breakfast was great, followed by delicious coffee. We walked to the tourist office, registered and joined the 9.30am Melaka Heritage tour. The guide was very nice and she took us around many places in the old town from the old Governors House, the fortress destroyed by the British and Harmony Street. We saw great views from St Paul's Hill, the church with no roof and visited many other religious buildings: mosques, Hindu temples, Chinese Toaist-Buddhist temple. Yesterday we also went to a Sikh Gurdwara but although it was beautifully lit they had closed the main gate to entrants.

When the tour had finished we walked through the streets of the old city looking at the British, Dutch and Portuguese buildings. We also visited a few boutique art shops before walking to a small Indian restaurant. We ate quite a spicy chicken curry, rice, vegetables and poppadums. The waiter was really nice and other staff helped answer our questions about the milk in tea tarik.

We moved on to the air conditioned luxury of the mall. We were in search of a special gadget to take to France. A mosquito zapper. We knew the Mr DIY store had them so this is where we headed. We didn't manage to get the tennis racquet style we had intended to get but a very cool 'owl version' that lights up. We have tested it and it zaps mosquitos really well!

Next we headed back to our hostel via the cookie stall, Dutch graveyard and sweet shop. We picked up a few snacks for tomorrow when we leave Malaysia and head south to Singapore.

After a short break and a chat to 3 English girls fresh out of uni, we decided food was required. A short walk to our favourite hawker stall where we shared chicken satay and a bowl of noodles. We finished off with sweet glutinous black rice with coconut milk and a cup of iced Chinese tea.

Our last night in Malaysia - complete!

A Day in Melaka

At our hostel breakfast is included.  Luckily for us the chap who runs the hostel loves cooking and promised us a different breakfast every day.  Today was the fluffiest cheese omlete we had ever had with a 'superfood' side salad and a big chunk of fresh bread and fresh brewed coffee, a great start to the day.

We wandered into the main town and headed for the tourist  information office  to see if  there was anything on whilst we are here.  We found out there is a free bus which  goes around the town and  a free heritage walking tour at 9.30am tomorrow.  We then walked around the Dutch area and along Jonker Street, which looked so different to last night's tourist filled night market.  We looked in a gadget shop and found a little waterproof bluetooth speaker which we bought as this will be good for on the boat. 

We then headed slightly out of town to a hill for sunset.  On the way up we noticed lots of very old Chinese graves.  The view of the sunset was slightly blocked by a very tall block of flats and there were lots of mosquitos so we made a quick decent via a monument to the people killed by the Japanese during the war.

After our big breakfast we didn't feel the need for lunch so had an early dinner at a hawker stall. We had the most enormous bowl of noodles with chicken, luckily we had only ordered one with a view to trying something else, but were so full we didn't need to!

As it got dark we walked along the river which was all lit up with coloured lights.  We passed lots of little restaurants and at one there was a couple and it was the girl's birthday, we knew this because her boyfriend had decorated the table with balloons, candles, flowers and a picture of her, how romantic!

As we turned the corner we came across a street food market.  We walked through the market looking at all the lovely food and heard some music playing.  We took a seat to listen.  The singer welcomed us and explained it was a charity event to raise money for children born with heart conditions.  

As we sat and listen we decided to have a dessert after our huge bowl of noodles.  We choose a shaved ice dessert called a cendol ABC (we are not sure why) but it was very tasty.

Once the music had finished we strolled back along the river, lit with neon lights to our accomodation.

Sleep on the Bus

We were not that tired considering we only had a few hours sleep. We went out for breakfast of dim sum and Chinese dumplings washed down qith beforeoxal sweet coffeee before heading to the TBS bus station.

We changed our online ticket to a boarding pass at the small counter as directed, then waited in the departure area for our bus to arrive. We didn't have to wait long before we boarded and were whisked off to Melaka.

We slept all of the 3 hour journey, with our extra layers of clothing to survive the artic bus temperatures. As with all the buses with aircon, it was freezing! After our arrival we scooted through the station to find the local bus number 17. This would deliver us the 4km to the city centre where we were booked onto the SunB Residence.

The SunB is an old heritage building with a friendly owner who loves cats. We took our bags to our room and relaxed a while before heading into Melaka.  We walked all Ng the river and then to the weekend  Jonker Street night market. It was so crowded with tourists from every corner of the planet, local people and weekend visitors from KL. We searched for interesting things and cooled ourselves with a huge mango slushy. It was a nice atmosphere just packed. We eventually made our way back to our room where sleep was definitely calling!

Full

We decided breakfast probably wasn't required after yesterday's gigantic meals, so we skipped it for once. The morning was a fairly lazy one but we did test out the swimming pool and sauna!

Lunch was very special. We went to quite an exclusive coffee shop in a different area of KL. It is where the world champion 'latte artist' often resides. In fact he wasn't here today but one of his senior helpers was there to impress. Along with the extraordinarily beautiful coffee, we had a delicious meal of salmon, rice and wasabi mayo. Truly delicious!

In the same street we found a gadget shop. We spent a long time in there fiddling with all sorts of exciting things. Our favourite has to be the Chinese robot for kids. He could understand what you said, follow basic instructions and sing and dance! The only trouble was ... we couldn't really speak Chinese. We asked the Chinese shop assistant to demonstrate. He put the robot on the counter and asked it to turn left and walk. The robot thought about it for a while and momentarily the shop assistant was distracted. The robot turned and walked straight off the counter! Luckily, the shop assistant caught it just before it hit the ground and smashed into 1000 pieces.

Our next adventure was to the Batu Caves on the edge of KL. It took a little while to get there as the traffic was terrible but eventually we arrived. We walked up to the gate and the man closing up the counter had just one word to share ... CLOSED!  We had missed it by just 2 minutes!!

No problem, we saw what we could from the outside and the highlight for us was witnessing a Hindu wedding ceremony at the temple just before the main colourful steps. We spent quite some time looking around the beautifully decorated temple at a huge number of different Hindu gods. Finally, we decided to leave and headed back to the other side of KL.

Next stop was dinner at a famous satay restaurant.  We shared a mixture of chicken, beef, pork and fish skewers with the most delicious satay sauce.  All washed down with a refreshing watermelon juice.

As this was going to be our last night in KL, we decided to venture into the centre of KL to find a secret bar - The Deceased! We found an indiscriminate doorway, rang the bell but no answer. It appeared no one was there. We tried several times and a lady even helped us to try using a special code on the door lock. It didn't work though. No answer ... Eventually the lady went through the hostel next door and let us in.

As the door opened Christine jumped at the sight of a model of a ghostly man sat in a wheelchair. We continued up a creeky staircase and slowly opened the door in front of us. There was the rooftop bar and a number of people enjoying the spooky cocktails and ambience. We stayed a while chatting and sampling the cocktails. One cocktail came with an Asian themed fan, another with a ghostly mask and a balloon. The bar staff lit a sugar cane cigarette in the mouth of the mask and asked you to inhale the aroma. We were a little suspicious and didn't get too close. Once we had smelled the sugar cane they asked Darryl to take a sip of the cocktail through the straw. He wasn't keen on the idea, not that he didn't like the taste but because he suspected a little mischief! Eventually the bar manager came along with a mini blow torch and lit the cane again. He said that as soon as you smell the sweet delights of the burning sugar cane you should take a sip. As Darryl reached forward, about to put the straw in his mouth .... the manager burst the balloon!

We stayed until about 5am and chatted to a new group of English people staying in the hostel downstairs before heading home to sleep!

Meeting a Travel Companion

One of the nice things about travelling is you get to meet so many amazing people from across the globe. It is even more fun when you can meet them in their home town later in your trip.

Today we spent the day with a friend we met earlier in Indonesia. Chong picked us up and we hit KL! We went for lunch in Little India where we ate a banana leaf meal. It is just like a thali in India ... unlimited! We ate a lot for a bargain price. In fact too much and all felt totally full!

We walked off our lunch with a visit to the very tall KL tower and Eco Gardens. They were pretty nice and in the centre of KL. We wandered along a board walk that nestled amongst the trees before heading back to the air conditioning of the car.

Back at base we watched our friend May bake a birthday cake. She even made a small one for us to test. It was really, really nice.

We then headed out to the Thursday night market where we tried lots of different things, even though we were still full from lunch.  We even tried 'stinky tofu', a very acquired taste which we are not sure we were ready for! 

First Full Day in KL

Today we took the LRT train to the centre of KL. We arrived at the Masjid Jamek station on the edge of Chinatown.

First stop was Petaling street where a large market runs end to end. We couldn't find what we were looking for at the right price so we continued our journey. We found a nice little museum of the world's China towns and we were surprised how many cities have them. We then visited a colourful Chinese role and a famous Hindu role.

When we last visited KL our hostel was in Chinatown and we happened to wander past. We also remembered an Indian restaurant on the corner and couldnt resist a quick stop for lunch. Central market was our next stop, where we did manage to negotiate a good price for some trousers. 

Afterwards we visited the KL City Museum, watched a light show on a huge model of KL and admired the spectacular buildings of Medeka Square.

We strolled the streets of KL enjoying the mix and diversity of the big city before deciding to head back to our base. What we didn't really consider was that it was time to finish work for most people ... Rush hour! There were queues for the LRT we waited in line. There was a train in the station packed with people. We did notice a few people from the queues try to wriggle their way into small gaps on the train. It was our train, so we followed suit. The train eventually left but it was slow for some reason, probably due to the weight of people on it!  We eventually got a seat with one stop to go.

A short walk back to where we were staying, a short rest we headed back out for dinner.  A special treat in an area called Sri Petaling - a special hot pot meal called a 'steamboat'! You have a gas burner on your table for cooking and a huge pot of stock bubbling away. You then order from the menu; meat, vegetables, virtually anything you can eat! You then cook it in the hot pot. It was an amazing experience! We stayed out late chatting and laughing together.

Morning Madness

It looked like we could be in for a spot of rain so we skipped breakfast in favour of staying dry on our 20 minute walk to the bus stop. It meant we would be way too early for the bus but meant we didn't need to use our new black bin liners as waterproof covers. In fact, it didn't rain!

We had just decided to have breakfast at a small cafe as we had plenty of time as the bus wasn't expected for another 45 minutes. Just as we prepared to cross the road to the restaurant, a car pulled over and a man asked us where we were going. We told him that we were going to catch the bus to the centre of Ipoh. He then told us to jump in and he would take us there. In fact we had a great journey with our driver to Ipoh. He told us he volunteered to help the local people who lived in the jungle to travel to Ipoh to work. He explained that they couldn't live off the land anymore because of deforestation. There were now no animals to hunt! He was really interesting and not only did he help us get to the train station but he also took us for local coffee and toast with local coconut jam.

We were now about 3 hours early for our train so we went exploring the heritage area of Ipoh once again. We saw lots of street art that we missed yesterday with the help of a cute old lady. It was quite funny because she was looking down on us from high up on her balcony. She would clap her hands to gain our attention and then point in the direction we needed to go. We weaved our way down the Heritage Trail from side to side taking our orders until we reached the end of the street. We looked back to wave a thank you message but the lady had gone. Maybe it was a ghostly image or she had gone back to her famous Ipoh White Coffee.

We were in luck today as the famous tea museum Ho Yan Hor was open. The refurbishment was done and the door was open. The museum was amazing. It told the story of Dr Ho Kai Cheong. He started with a very simple Chinese medicinal street stall. He had no money to open a shop so he sold his medicine to the local workers. He started off being able to make just one pot of tea with the money he had. He sold all of the tea for a small amount but made enough​ money to buy more. His business grew and grew. His wife took over the tea stall in Ipoh and he travelled the length of Malaysia on his bicycle, selling and promoting his medicinal tea.

The business really took off and the story of success continued; growing farms, transport vans (VW split screen vans) and factories. It was a great story and so well told by the museum. At the end of our tour we were treated to cups of medicinal tea. One that helped you sleep, one that fixed many ailments and finally the original blend from way back in the very beginning. Needless to say, it was quite bitter and fairly disgusting but we are sure it would cure everything!

We decided that lunchtime would be spent on the train, so thought we would squeeze in a quick meal at the restaurant next to the central mosque, where we ate yesterday. A great chicken curry with mixed sauces. Mmmm. As we were quite early for lunch the restaurant was quiet and the friendly man who served us and spoke good English came over to talk to us.

He explained that the restaurant was very old and owned by his father. He told us many interesting things and we would liked to have stayed longer to talk with him. However, we were now rushing to catch the train and had to leave.

A 10 minute walk plus a game of chicken to cross the busy road and we were back at the train station. The entry gate to the platform was closed and we waited to be let through. The time came and our tickets checked as we were let onto the platform. The train was waiting and our coach was straight in front. The train was very clean, comfortable and quiet. What a great way to travel. Choo choo! Hmmm, maybe that's only the noise steam trains make and this one is electric travelling over 120 kmh.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur 3 hours later and decided that rather than get off one train straight onto another to our accommodation we would go for little walk first.  We saw huge skyscrapers, a colourful street market and the Masjid Jamek Mosque.   We then caught the train to our accommodation, dropped off our bags, freshened up and headed back out to a famous street food area, Jalan Alor.  This is one long street with restaurants down each side ranging from Malay, Chinese, Thai, Vietnam, to name but a few.  We chose one and tried lots of new things.  Fried carrot cake - not at all what you would think.  This is a Chinese dish made from turnip (which we understand is called carrot in Chinese) which is cooked, mashed with flour then stir fried​ with beansprouts and a tasty sauce!  We also tried oyster omlete, curried stingray, duck and chicken rice - what a feast!   On the way back we tried a local dessert called putu piring, a steamed rice cake and chatted to a man from Manchester.

Back at our accommodation we took the lift to the first floor to check out the swimming pool and then to the 25th floor for spectacular views of the KL skyline at night. We chatted until we realised it was 2am and then Zzzzz.

Bus Stop

We set off for the bus around 8.45am to go to Ipoh centre.  We checked with a local lady and she said the bus should come around 9.30.am, just wait outside. She was serving an Indian breakfast dish of Apam. As we had a little time we thought we should try one.  It's texture was a little like a crumpet and it was served with a dish of coconut milk to dip it in - very nice. When we went to pay, the lady would not take our money, she said it was on her - how very kind. 

We were told we could stand anywhere on the road and flag down the bus, so we waited.... and we waited ... After about an hour with no sign of a bus we decided to walk on a little further.  We asked another local and again were told to just stand at the side of the road and a bus will come .. so we waited ... and we waited.  After another half an hour we decided to head to the main road in Bercham, where we actually found a bus stop.  Again we asked if there was a bus due and this time we were told it would be quicker to get a Grab car however we don't have data on our phones so we waited ... and we waited. After a total wait of 2 hours, when we were just about to give up, along came a bus!! The 32B to the rescue.

By the time we got to Ipoh it was lunchtime so our first stop was a Chinese restaurant for some soy chicken with rice and veg.  We then followed a heritage trail around the old part of Ipoh where we saw lots of beautiful old colonial buildings, old Chinese tea houses, and a Little India.  We headed to a beautiful colonial building which houses a tea museum but unfortunately when we got there we discovered it was closed for renovations.  We also followed a street art trail, much like in Penang with lovely paintings on the side of old buildings. 

Before we knew it it was time to catch the bus back again.  The bus left straight after we had purchased our tickets from the driver. We followed the main highway most of the way back. We passed a huge shopping mall and Tesco Extra.

Christine prepared dinner of a baked egg dish with tomato sauce followed with fresh pineapple. Darryl had a lesson in how to cut the pineapple into a fancy spiral.

Later in the evening we had a small snack of chicken satay and boiled peanuts, just to ensure we were were totally full, all washed down with local coffee.

At least now we know where to stand for the bus tomorrow!

I....Ipoh

An early start as the vintage market starts quite early. Fuelled with Laksa we headed to Ipoh to find the market.

As we explored the market we saw some interesting things we had not seen for a while. Old records, grammar phones and loads of other old things left over from when Malaysia was a British colony. Around the market there were a few stalls selling modern items and even fish. We looked in a few pet shops but we didn't like the way some of the animals looked.

We took refreshments at a small stall. Drinks, durian and a mix of other small treats including Chinese dumplings. Following our mini lunch break we went to the Kek Look Tong Chinese temple, hidden in a huge limestone cave. There were lots of stalagmites and stalactites, a beautiful garden and fish. The fish were in picturesque ponds where they kept the small turtles and ducks company.

Next stop was a local supermarket to stock up on food for the next few days. We visited a 2 Ringit shop, a bit like Poundland but everything is 40p.

We watched a Johnny English movie, made some military models from a cardboard set and ate delicious quick chicken soup.

Wedding Day

Today we skipped the porridge and opted for Chinese tea and layer cake. We were very lucky to have been invited to 2 Malaysian weddings today, so dressed in our very best clothes and flip flops. We tried to avoid our muddy trekking gear and dirty shoes.

First stop was to pick up some other wedding guests where we were invited to try lots of home made sweets and goodies before heading to wedding number one.  We went to a small village called Kampong. Malaysian weddings are often held at home, as was this one.  A marquee was erected in the garden and one room in the house was decorated beautifully with followers and drapes and used for the photographs.  On arrival we were greeted as if we were old friends and invited to eat an amazing aray of food.  We then met the bride and groom and had our photos taken and handed a traditional gift which included a boiled egg.  Before we knew it, it was time to leave and head for the second wedding and on departing we were given another gift bag containing a bottle of water, some noodles and a mini dessert.

At wedding number two things were slightly more underway so this time we met the bride and groom first, had our photos taken and were then invited to eat .... again!

The food at both weddings was delicious and consisted of rice and various curries with meat and vegetables, followed by black glutenous rice pudding. We got to try buffalo skin, many Malaysian sweets and ate far too much!

The next stop on our amazing Malaysian adventure was the countryside; Towering limestone casts, jungle as far as the eye could see and a famous cave. However the cave was closed so we continued to a special event at the river. It was an international whitewater rafting competition. It had been raining so the river was high. We spent some time talking with some of the local whitewater guides whilst they relaxed in their hammocks. They showed us how to play a game just like draughts and we put up an England team to play the Malaysians. It was great fun.

On the way home we stopped to eat just one more time, just to prove we could fit in even more food. More Nasi Goreng any one?

Not this bus!

We had a late night chatting to the new arrivals at the hostel about their adventure to China by train. They had some interesting stories to tell.

In the morning it was time to leave the Cameron Highlands. We set the alarm to stop us over sleeping as it is so quiet in the hostel we might not wake up.

A quick breakfast and a 10 minute stroll to the bus station. The bus wasn't there but soon arrived. It left on time and our journey began. Not long after we had started the journey, a rather flustered man came to speak to the driver. It turned out he wanted to go to Genting. However, the bus was going to Penang, which is in the opposite direction.! The bus stopped, he got off. So did his wife, 4 kids and most of the luggage compartment! His new adventure was about to begin as we were sure there was no bus direct to Genting.

Amanjaya was an efficient bus station outside the centre of Ipoh. This was where we arrived. Let's just say we couldn't have arrived soon enough because we had finished off our chocolate drink that morning and our bodies had taken on a little too much liquid for a long bus journey with no WC.

Opposite the bus station was a huge shopping centre which we visited before catching the local bus to the centre of Ipoh. The  bus we wanted had just left but they ran every half an hour so the next one soon arrived. It was busy but we managed to get a seat. In Ipoh we decided to walk to the train station to buy a train ticket for 4 days time. It is an electric train that runs to KL so we thought it would be an interesting experience.

The station was a beautiful colonial building. Very big and very white. Outside the ticket office a noticeboard displayed the available tickets for the next few days. As we checked it, we had a surprise we weren't expecting. Sold out Saturday, Sunday, Monday ... Yikes, the train was a lot more popular than we had anticipated! We queued to check if there were any tickets left for the day we wanted to travel. Fortunately there were, although it was a little more expensive than we were expecting and almost twice the price of a bus.

We started to walk back to the bus station as we needed to catch an inward bus to our accommodation. We didn't get very far and a man stopped us. He asked if he could help us. We explained we were just walking back to the bus station and would be travelling by bus to our destination which was far away. He insisted he would take us. We insisted it was too far. He insisted! We climbed in and were whisked off to a famous hawker market. Here we were treated to a range of sweet Chinese dumplings with a variety of fillings; Butter, chocolate, coffee, pumpkin... and tea tarik! We talked about travelling and he explained he had taken his BMW touring bike around the whole of Asia and was now planning his trip to Europe. He also told us about his business in Malaysia and about the machines he was responsible for that could dig holes for piles 74m deep to support huge flyovers for traffic. Not only did he operate the construction company but also owned a tea plantation in Thailand! A really interesting man and very kind. He dropped us where we were staying and invited us for lunch in a few days time. We are not certain if we can make it but certainly will try.

After dropping our bags we headed to a local food market. Everything was a little lower priced than we had experienced in other cities. We bought a range of noodles for dinner and some sugar cane juice. Dinner was followed by a movie night - The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe!

Tea

Yesterday was strawberries, today was tea. After our energy giving porridge breakfast, we walked a short way along the road. We then took Trail 10 towards the high peak, Junung Jasar.

The start of the path was a little unclear but we eventually found it and headed off into the jungle. We are using Maps.me on our smartphones as a guide to each route. However, we have to be a little careful because some of the dense jungle can interfere with the GPS ie. We might suddenly be lost!

It was a steep but interesting climb to the peak of Gunung Jasar. The views from the top were great and the range of plants we saw on the way up was spectacular. From the top we decided to take Track 6 down which cut through the Cameron Valley tea plantation. The route was a little narrow with a few very slippery spots. The views of the valley were spectacular.

We stopped at the tea plantation for a short rest and were very kindly treated to a hot cup of tea by our trekking companion, Varun. A very generous offer. We enjoyed the tea in a small garden area before heading to the tea shop. We then continued our trek to the main road and a very kind man gave us a lift back to town. He was actually taking lots of rice, about 10 bucket loads to a college celebration. It was a bit of a tight fit in the car but he saved us a very long walk.

Lunch was at our regular Indian restaurant plus we ordered a take away meal box for our evening meal.

We spent the evening chatting to Kym who was from Malaysia and staying in the hostel. During the evening there were some frightening screams outside and dogs barking, as though someone was being attacked. This happened a few times but each time we looked outside, the street dogs seemed to be asleep. We couldn't really work out what was happening but ... there were some people on a nearby hill. We think they were jumping out and scaring their friends. When their friends screamed, the dogs started barking.

A Slow Start

There seems no reason to rush here in the Highlands. The temperature is very pleasant, there is no noise to wake us at night.... So we slept. We had a very British breakfast of Porridge before leaving for our jungle trek.

We are just taking the easy tracks today because our legs are a little weary from the climb up Penang Hill. Though it was an easy climb, it certainly took its toll on our legs! The first place we were heading was Robinson falls. A small track left the main road and headed into the jungle. It was a well trodden path and easy to follow. We only saw 2 people, so it was nice and peaceful. The waterfall was very picturesque but we decided it looked too cold for swimming in the small pool. 

We traced our tracks back to the centre where we demolished an Indian meal of Banana leaf thali and udupam. After lunch, it was time to follow another easy trek along track 4. We walked through the central gardens and joined the path. This time we saw a lot more people, in fact we saw 4! Apparently,  the Cameron Highlands gets really busy at the weekends but we have manged to avoid it. We came to another waterfall, the Parit Falls before the trail led us to a junction. It was decision time. Follow the road back to our hostel or take the start of Track 6. After we had decided to take track 6, it disappeared into a fenced camping ground and we couldn't find the next part. We decided to turn back and follow the road. We explored a couple of strawberry plantations before continuing back to Tanah Rata for food. 

As the food at lunchtime was so good, we went back for dinner.  This time we shared a banana leaf Indian thali and a thosai (dosa) both delicious. 

Cameron Highlands

The bus left at 8.30am, so we made an early start to the station. We had to visit the ticket office upstairs to collect our tickets. We had booked them online this time as there was a huge price difference between the online price and the ticket office price. The lady at the counter wrote on a scrap of paper the new bus time (8.45) and the bus registration number.

The bus arrived, did a quick stop and left to whisk us off to the Cameron Highlands, home of British colonial buildings, tea estates and strawberry farms. The journey took all morning and the last part of the road had more than a few bends as we wonud our way up the mountain. 

The first thing we noticed as we left the bus was the temperature. From the super hot and humid Penang, this felt rather cooler. We found our hostel, the Garden House just outside of town. It was in a beautiful setting nestled amongst the hills. In the past it appears to have been a farm and still has great views over Tanah Rata. The hostel seems as though it is slowly going through conversion from a farm. Some things are not finished quite yet. However, there is no denying this is a beautiful spot! 

We explored the town for food. We ordered a delicious rice dish which was pretty filling. Next we just ambled around the town before returning to our hostel, where we sat in the garden until night fall. After we had put on a jumper and long trousers, we ventured out to find dinner. On tonight's menu was chicken fried rice at one restaurant followed by Nasi Lemak at another. We shared each dish, we didn't have one each because that would be greedy!