Hello from Melaka, the third and final stop of my brief trip through peninsular Malaysia. As I write this blog I am in an internet cafe surrounded by hyper active Indian kids who are playing really cheesy trance music at full volume! Its not what I need at the end of what has been another energy sapping red hot day in Malaysia. Temperatures have once again been in the region of 35C, but it feels so much hotter with the humidity and strong equatorial sun. As ridic...

Hello from Malaysia's capital and largest city, Kuala Lumpur, which is currently in the midst of a heatwave for this time of year. Temperatures of up to 35C, coupled with very high humidity levels, have made it an especially sticky 1.5 days for me here. I honestly think I would sweat less if I did the London marathon as opposed to walking round KL in this heat! I arrived here on Wednesday morning following a smooth 5 hour bus ride from Penang. The comfortable coa...

Hello for the first time from Malaysia. I'm currently sitting in an Internet cafe in Georgetown - the principal city on the historic island of Penang. This place seems like a different world from Thailand, and its certainly a very different destination to the island of Phuket, which I left yesterday morning. The journey here was pretty gruelling even by my standards. My public bus left Phuket City at 7.30am, taking 7.5 hours to reach South Thailand's largest city...