Forest Trek

24th January 

This morning I had some nice news. I had written a long email to Motorhome Republic complaining that I'd not heard anything from them about the insurance duplication,  after phoning them twice and speaking to two different customer services reps. I thought I have nothing to lose by hassling a little. Their email reply finally came and it was quite long so I thought, here's the 'brush off' but to my surprise, as 'a gesture of good will' , they agreed to refund me the money I paid for their insurance policy! I couldn't believe it......so its always worth complaining!

Today we (Me and the nice Dutch couple Jisse & Michelle) took a walk up into the hills. It was supposed to be closed - like a lot of things seem to be - but Charan at the hostel said its fine as long as you keep to the path and don't go in the dark or when it's raining. 

It was a beautiful sunny day and the trek started at the end of the town with a climb  through the trees.

The views from the top were great.

Next was a walk down towards another tea plantation 

It was steep & slippery in places but good.

We reached another tea plantation and it was a pleasant walk through the tea bushes.

This was Cameron Valley tea plantation. 

We ended up getting a Grab back as it was a very long walk along the road to get to the town. 

Back at the hostel Charan was trying to explain stuff to an Argentinian lady who was checking in but only spoke Spanish. I think she was desperate and asked me to help - as I was the only one there at the time - but I said I only knew a couple of words in Spanish. Charan made us Chinese tea & we muddled through with Google translate. It was hilarious. 

I went out for dinner later with more people from our hostel & Jisse & Michelle. It seemed like a good idea at the time but we went to a Chinese and it was this weird 'steamboat ' thing where you cook the food in soup in the centre of the table and all share it.....It was carnage tbh with people throwing in stuff left right & centre. 

After pulling out a raw dumpling and a pork ball, I wasn't enjoying it really.....neither were Jisse & Michelle. We paid for our share & went to another place for dinner.

This I enjoyed! 

I felt a bit uncomfortable going back to the hostel after deserting them all at dinner but they were all sat around chatting & I just joined in & it was all cool 😎