Haunted Hotel, Highlands & Penang

Haunted Hotel

I had the worst night sleep last night in our rickety old run down hotel. As we came back from eating the steamboat, and walked back to our hotel, which is on top of the hill, lightening struck behind it and bats flew from the belfry setting the scene. It's like the shining. Our room even comes complete with blood stains on the carpet.

There's also a strange convent in the village that's owned by 3 American families that live there and come down into the village to eat with their student au pairs who stand around the table whilst the families eat. It's like earie Indiana (google it) or the twilight zone with a secret cult that runs the town.

By the way last night was Friday the 13th.

Malaysia as a country is very green, it's also very wet. The sun shines up until around 5-6pm and then it pours down none stop all through the night with Hollywood style lightening.

Cameron Highlands

BOH Tea Plantation
Bee Farm & Markets
Butterfly Farm
Strawberry Farm
Rose Garden
Buddhist Temple

BOH Tea Plantation

Another early start. First to the tea plantations where we stopped half way up the mountain for photographs of the stunning views. The pyramid hills blend into each other for miles and look like someone has come along and dropped a velvet jade blanket over them. We then got taken for a tour of the little factory and then had teacinos on the viewpoint (big wooden balcony that struts out over the tea plantation.

Bee Farm

The sign reads "the bee farm will not be responsible for any injury caused entering these premises" and if that isn't enough to put you off the bee hive boxes have neon orange stencils of bees on them to warn you.

Butterfly Farm

There was an additional entrance fee for the butterfly farm, and the last one we went to in Chiang Mai had 3 butterflys in it, so we didn't bother, we went shopping instead. There were also snakes & scorpians. Having said that we got to see all the butterflys and scorpians in the end - they were all pinned up & framed, ready to buy in the souvenir shop!

Strawberry Farm

You could pick all the strawberries you wanted and pay for them by weight - if only they weren't green and had finished growing. The little cafe made a really nice strawberry ice cream and the views from the roof top terrace made up for it.

Rose Garden & Buddhist Temple

Again there was an additional charge for the gardens, so we didn't bother. I should point out we wasn't being tight with our money (not that it's a bad thing if we were) but, we were more interested in the rice paddy fields across the road.

Our final stop was at the Buddhist temple. Even though I still felt templed out, it was still very impressive. There were roof slates with prayers on them stacked up against the side of the wall, I assume the monks will make them waterproof and eventually place them on the roof. (Or wash them clean for next years tourists).

We made it back in time to catch our 2.30pm bus to Penang (which turned up at 3).

Penang

It's taken 6 hours by bus to get to Penang, hence the long post..

On our journey to Penang I said to Bev I thought someone was standing near the bedroom door back at our spooky hotel. She said she did too but wasn't going to mention it. But then she also said the strangers from the convent probably come and do experiments on us in our sleep.

At least we made it back down the mountain in one piece!