An Alexander Green kind of day

As it has been for the last week, breakfast consisted of toast and jam this morning. However, I could tell these jams were cheap as they were far too sweet, nothing on Bonne Mamman jam. Nevertheless, we filled ourselves up nicely ready for our tour that we'd booked yesterday. This tour would involve jungle trekking, looking at a large flower and a mossy forest and checking out another tea plantation. 

We were picked up by a lovely old defender (the first indication to the name of this blog) and taken a good forty minutes drive north to the edge of the highlands. From there, we joined another group of people and started our walk to find the Rafflesia flower, the largest flower in the world. I'd say if you weren't the fittest this tour wouldn't be for you as the walk was done at a rather fast pace. I swear my heart rate was raised the whole time. It was nice walking through bamboo trees (as well as other trees), over streams, up and down hills and under and over fallen branches. Something I think Alexander Green would have enjoyed. 

It took us nearly two hours to reach the flower, longer than I thought it would take, but eventually we got to see its beauty. It was huge as well. They only flower for five days at a time so the guides have to keep searching for a new one. It kind of felt slightly underwhelming though as we'd walked all this way to see it and then had to walk the same way back. I'm not saying the flower wasn't impressive just more that the walk became tiresome and ruined the excitement of the flower because it was the same route back. However, we all got our Tinchy (stride, Tinchy Strider) on and returned (it was mostly downhill) in just over an hour. 

When we made it back to the cars we were shown what the locals use to hunt animals. They make a blow pipe out of bamboo so they can shoot an arrow through it by breathing into it. A few people had a go at shooting it at a target before we got back on the road, heading for a well deserved lunch. 

Lunch consisted of an array of things you could pile your plate up with. I had some chicken curry and rice and green beans and a samosa which were all really nice except the samosa was a little bit greasy. My legs were a little tired at this point (apparently I'm very unfit) so I welcomed the idea to go and look round a tea plantation rather than walk some more. First, the drive up to the plantation was pretty spectacular with the tea bushes spreading for miles over rolling hills, even more beautiful than yesterday. Next we had a tour round the factory, the smell of tea filling the air (something I know Mr Green would love). It was very interesting seeing the different processes of the tea and how different environments and weather affect the taste of tea. We then had the opportunity to buy some BOH tea (the tea they make at this plantation) which I regret I didn't do. Still, there's loads of tea at home and nothing quite beats a nice cup of Yorkshire. 

Back in the defender, we drove a little way from the tea plantation so as to look down on it from afar and check out the stunning view. Climbing further up a hill away from the tea, it became very misty meaning it was impossible to see more than twenty metres ahead. We pulled over on the side of the road and climbed up some rocks into the mossy forest. The mist just added to the look of the forest, making it seem even more spooky (very much like the forbidden forest). It was also very spongy underfoot so we kept jumping up and down just too feel the softness. There were two Irish girls that amused me greatly here as their sarcasm was not quite understood by our guide. The moss covered the area and the trees which was just incredible; something worth seeing. 

The last stop of the day was a strawberry farm which we weren't too bothered about as we can visit the Balloon Tree each summer and pick strawberries. However, I welcomed a strawberry float that consisted of fresh strawberry juice and vanilla ice cream. I don't think I need to say any more about it. 

We were dropped off back at the hostel at around 6pm so changed and headed out for tea to a curry house we'd passed a few times already. We saw the Irish girls in there who looked clean having just showered. Stupidly, I decided to admit that we had only changed and therefore were still disgusting. Does that make us real travellers? Nevertheless, we sat down and were advised by an elderly Malaysian couple, who had already eaten, on what we should order. We took their advice and had a chicken curry (with a name I can't remember) and a tarka dhal. This place was a little pricier than we were used to so we were expecting big things. We were disappointed. The dhal was too salty and the curry was nice but we've had better. Maybe we should stop comparing everything to the curries in Thailand.