It actually took 7 buses to get the short 3 hours/170k from Penang to Ipoh which was a little unexpected, although it turns out the transport by road is much more comfortable that the sub-zero air-conditioned boats we have endured so far. We lucked out in the sense that the first hotel we tried was cheap at 35 ringgit (£7) and not too shabby, an improvement on the last one, at least, and the same price. We didn't hang around and headed straight out to see what was around town as we didn't plan to stay long. Ipoh is a small town split through the middle by a little river which is lined with beautiful artificial trees that we discovered lit up at sunset. After taking the lift up to the top floor of the luxurious Kudai Riverfront Hotel to view the town from above, we just wandered round town for a few hours where they have a little mall and some good dinning options in the way of hawker stalls and Nasi Kandar, which is a kind of canteen style buffet of curries and rice which we have grown to love since we arrived in Malaysia and have eaten over 50% of our meals at! We actually stayed in this particular one until 2am for Ben to watch the football, although they don't serve alcohol in these outlets, so the games were subsidised by Indian chai instead of beer!

We took a taxi to the Lost World of Tambun, a waterpark just out of town, and had a really great day out. They have a big petting zoo with a family of big friendly fat fluffy raccoons which you can feed as well as prairie dogs, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, snakes and birds which sit on your arms when you feed them... Ben even ended up with a fully grown peacock on him eating from his hand although he said he pecked at the food pretty violently! All of the animals looked well cared for, but they did have a few domestic cats in enclosures which seemed a little strange, and they played loud music near the open tiger area which I didn't think was great for them but it didn't seem to bother the tigers at all. They did a feeding show or the tigers which opened with a parrot flying through a hoop, they picked on Ben to do trick with the parrot too but he didn't seem to like Ben and wouldn't fly through his hoop! After we went to check out the natural hot springs which are supposed to have a huge amount of health benefits and I thought they were great, although the top temperature of 43 degrees was a bit much for Ben. After watching the second tiger feeding show we did all of the water slides and then managed to get back to see the raccoons one last time before the park closed. I needed to get some new underwear, which turned out to be a bit of a nightmare in Asia as they only really cater for tiny Asian ladies and i ended up with some very small shorts which leave me with constant builders bum, but even this was fun experience as the sales girls in the mall were so friendly and willing to help. They couldn't provide bigger knickers or make my arse smaller but at least they tried! After another dinner in the Nasi Kandar we headed back to our room absolutely knackard! We really enjoyed this little town but were now off to the Cameron highlands for few days of strenuous hiking. The bus was 16 ringgit each and took just over 2 hours winding through the jungle and up the mountains. We arrived at the bus station and took a walk to the other end of the small village before finding a decent backpacker resort for £11 a night with a hot shower and a big bed- real luxury after the last two places! You can really notice the drop in temperature here, it never gets much higher than around 20 degrees and we've been experencung 35+ every day for quite some time so it was a little shock to the system, but also a welcome break from the humidity too. We're aware its been snowing at home (and also that Tesco put horsemeat in their burgers) so we tried not to feel too sorry for ourselves! Klang's Place turned out to have a nice vibe with lots of other travellers and a cool little bar with a open fire at the back, although the walls were super thin! A few beers and a glass of wine helped us to sleep heavily so the noise didn't bother us that much.

We were up early the next day for a full day of trekking, starting with the taxing "trail 7" which was uphill for over an hour to 1812 m, in preparation for our mountain climb in just two weeks up the highest mountain in south-east Asia. We were joined by an American girl, Lauren, and when we managed to get our breath back at the top, we spent the rest of the day having some really interesting political and religious based discussions during thr completion of "trail 8/trail 9", while monkeys swang from the trees above us. After a full 4 hours of hard going we went for a late lunch back in the village in... You guessed it... a Nasi Kandar! We took the trekking level up a notch the next day and headed for the highest point here, Gunung Irau, which is 6666 ft above sea level. The Mossy Forest surrounding this peak is estimated to be 155 million years old and have over a million species of plants, insects, reptiles and animals within it, including the largest flower in the world, Rafflesia Arnoldii which weighs up to 9kg and is over a metre wide and is actually a parasite, similar to fungi. We didn't manage to find it on this trip but it also graces the forest around Mount Kinabalu so we knew we hadn't missed out and still had another chance. We were joined by Mia on this trek, a photography student from New Zealand, and her parents were international school teachers so she has moved around her whole life, living in Oman and Hong Kong, to name just a few. We ended up trekking for a total of 20 miles, through the tea plantations and strawberry fields which was hard going but really calming and scenic, and there was plenty of interesting topics of conversation from our little diverse group of travellers. After a Chinese dinner and strawberry deserts, we had a few well earned beers and glasses of wine and ended up meeting a couple from Basildon around the fire until 2 am! We had another early start to catch a bus back to Ipoh again to move on to an island retreat for a rest after all of the trekking, but the Cameron Highlands really were a highlight of our Malaysian trip.