We both decided on another hearty lie in today, Christmas is fast approaching and I think subconsciously we're beginning to wind down from our travels before we head to Australia. We begun the day by grabbing our majority packed bags, stuffing anything else we'd needed for the morning routine in and saying goodbye to the hotel before heading to the 11.30am bus around ten minutes walk away. we'd planned to find some breakfast on route to the bus stop, which we did, deciding on eating tuna toasties and egg toasties for around 1 pound and they were delicious.
As always our backs and shoulders took a battering from all of the luggage, so it was a relief when we reached the bus station. We waited for around half an hour for the minibus to come, late as usual but were used to it. Fortunately this was one of the first buses we've taken since being away that wasn't full, I fact I would only say it was half full. Once everything and everyone was loaded on we begun the voyage to the Cameron highlands.
Well, it sounds a lot nicer than it was.... I think we managed to get some shut eye for half an hour until we made a toilet stop for twenty minutes at a service station. After relieving ourselves and grabbing some water we spent the next two hours gripping our seats and wiping faeces from our legs as the bus driver was literally falling asleep at the wheel on the motor way. Every twenty seconds his eyes would drupe completely closed, until A. Someone made a noise or B. the car went over one of the cats eyes style bumps in the road waking him up. lets just say I was false coughing every twenty seconds, in order to survive the journey.
Once we reached the turn off for the Cameron highlands he went back to being awake and driving semi okay, which was a relief as I don't think any of us had anything left in our bowels. He had to go back to normal now anyway, or we definitely would have died as we started climbing mountinas roads that twisted and turned more than jimmy savilles warped mind. We made another pit stop half way up the mountain, which was only five minutes for urine before travelling another hour and reaching tanah rata, the town we were staying in in the Cameron highlands.
The journey in total lasted around five and a half hour, much longer than the advertised 'four hours, fastest trip in the west' advert that we signed up for. bloody asia.
Once we arrived we were lucky enough to be dropped directly at our guesthouse and were greeted very heartily by the staff. Lots of free tea and coffee available (I'd hope so too with the Cameron highlands being the central hub for tea making in most of South Asia) and a very nice clean hotel with a good room for us for Christmas. No decorations up though which was sad.
We checked in, then settled in the room for an hour before agreeing we needed to explain the immediate surrounds and find some food before bed. Along a row of shops and restaurants we found a small cheap Indian restaurant, where we ordered Chinese clay pot (lol, I know right). It was a very delicious meal consisting of rice, veg and chicken cooked in a clay pot. Nicola polished hers off very easily however I struggled and only ate maybe half but have no idea why as I was hungry. I blame the rice for expanding rapidly.
We headed back to the guesthouse for an early night after food as we have booked onto a tour tomorrow taking us around the key attractions in CH. we watched a few tv shows in bed on my iPad before dozing off.
