A really early start to the day (6am) to finish up packing and grab some breakfast before setting off on a long journey to Penang via the Cameron Highlands.

After a bit of mincing getting our luggage across the river, Tony set off to collect the car. It turns out the car has a dodgy battery and was flat. He hunted around for help to get the car kick started and it seems like a common practice as low & behold there were 2 men already on the corner of the road jump starting another car. 

We finally get on the road just after 8.20am and made our way to the Cameron Highlands. The roads were surprisingly well maintained and not a bad road surface. You get get a few cows mincing in the roads as you drove by. 

The kids and I managed to catch up on 40 winks {about 2 hours!} while Tony drove but soon woke up as we climbed the large hills of Cameron Highlands. 

The view was lovely in Cameron Highlands and we even tried out the local tea grown in the area (however I think Tony preferred his PG Tips still though!)

Rebecca had a good go with the camera as well

Tony took Rebecca strawberry picking as strawberries are very famous there. We stopped off for a bit of lunch in the town before heading on to Penang.  There also seems to a lot of flies around in general which was really off putting.

Rebecca has been subjected to squat toilets throughout the journey and has decided she finds them quite difficult. She doesn’t seem to understand why there isn’t ‘normal’ toilets about.

As we left Cameron Highlands, Tony plotted a route to get us back on to the motorway. We ended up driving through a Chinese vegetable farm area on an oversized pavement and we were getting quite a lot of dodgy looks as I think only trucks generally come through to collect the goods. However after weaving through these greenhouses we finally managed to get back on to a decent bit of road.

However we were surprised how cheap the toll charges for the motorways compared to UK and other places we have been to. The QE bridge crossing back home cost more than what the trip from Cameron Highlands to the bridge for Penang.

Many hours later as we got closer to Penang , the weather turned quite dramatically. There was lots of lightening and rain as we approached the island. The suspension bridge was quite long to cross and we couldn’t see much as it was dark outside. The lightening at one point was very impressive when it struck, it was so bright & blinding. We now  also know why the drains in Malaysia are so deep as the downpour was immense for short periods of time.

After a long day of travelling, we checked in to our hotel around 10pm and everyone was exhausted especially Tony. Bless him, he did pop out to go hunting for food to bring back. He did get a very tasty Indian curry and with 3 dishes and rice plus some poppadoms & nann, the total was less than £9 (bargain!!)

Kids finally put to bed by midnight and we followed not long afters.