The last couple of weeks in Malaysia have been pretty chilled. We started in the Perhentian Islands off the north east coast. We stayed on Palau Kecil (the smaller of the two islands) which was apparently the cheaper one - we're not so sure!! We had 6 nights here on Long Beach, the backpacker area. We had a very basic hut with just a bed, mozzy net and electricity at night. We were paying 35 ringitts a night which is about 5 pounds a night which was pretty expensive in comparison to other countries in South East Asia. Everything on the island was expensive and not that good value for money - the food was sh*t! Apart from that the islands were lovely, the water was so clear and blue and the sand pearly white!!!!!!We were in paradise! Apart from jsut lazing around on the beach and improving our tans we did do two fun dives which werent that expensive - 10 pounds per dive. Our first dive was a wreck dive to Sugar wreck. This was 65m cargo ship that sunk in 2001 while transporting sugar to Singapore. The visibilty wasnt that great but the it made the whole experience quite eery. We did see quite a lot including bamboo sharks, blue spotted rays, puffer fish, scorpion fish and a lion fish. Our next dive the following day was to Temple Pinnacle which is one of their best dive sites. Again the vis was pretty poor and there were loads of other divers but it was a cool site and we saw loads of clown fish (nemos) which was cool! There was also a large trigger fish that followed us to the surface. Diving is meant to be amazing here but unfortunetly due to the full moon and high tides the water was quite murky, still we enjoyed our dives and now have 13 under our belts!

We were kinda gutted that we werent able to stay in Thailand for the full moon party on Koh Phangan, however the Perhentian did hold their very own party on the larger island - probably the worst party we've ever been to! We got a free boat over there but then due to the tides the organiser said he couldnt send a boat back (which was such a lie) he just kept telling us we should be honoured to be at "the biggest party the islands have ever seen" - what a joke! There were quite a few of us wanting to get back so in the end we had to pay a local cafe owner to take us back in his punt! Cost small fortune but we were just relieved to back to our little hut!!

After our 6 nights here we headed back to the mainland and spent one night in Kota Bharu the regions capital. There's not much to do here but we did find a really good supermarket which sold Ribena - the highlight of our week! Early the next morning we got the Jungle Train to Jerantut - this was a 6 hour journey through Malaysia deepest jungles. Jerantut is the gateway to Taman Negara National Park - the worlds oldest rainforest at 135 million years old. To be honest it was just like an over sized Forest of Dean but with less wildlife - we saw 3 leeches and 1 squirrel during our 5 hour trek to the Bukit Tresik view point!!! The only real highlight of our time here was the Canopy Walk - apparently the worlds longest at 500m. We stayed here for 2 nights in the Tahan Guesthouse, decorated like a nursery, and situated right next to the local mosque - we were woken to chanting at 5am every morning! So far this has been our worst dorm experience - the room was tiny and smelt of damp. There were two bunk beds squished together, far too cozy, especially when we had to share with two fat, smelly German guys who insisted on parading around in their super tight boxer shorts and flashlights strapped to their heads!!! It wasnt pleasant so we decided to leave a day ahead of schedule and head back to Jerantut.

From here we took a bus to the Cameron Highlands, our favourite spot in Malaysia. This is a former English hill station situated in the highland jungles. The weather was really cool here, a refreshing change after the heat of the rest of Malaysia. We got to wear a jeans and jumpers and had 4 blankets at night time. We stayed at Father's Guesthouse - which was a really lovely place with lots of other travellers and had great views over the countryside. The dorms were in corrugated iron bunkers and it had a real school camp feel to it especially when we got told off at night for talking!! We had 5 nights and 4 days here - loads of time to chill out and enjoy the English weather! The Cameron Highlands is famous for tea, fresh fruit and vegetables, flowers and honey so on one day we visited the local market and strawberry farm. This was good fun but we would really loved to have bought some vegetables and cooked our own food as we're getting pretty sick of eating out all the time! Another day we visited the Boh tea plantation. Boh is Malaysia's leading tea company - if you have any questions im sure we can answer them, after watching the very detailed video all about Boh tea!!!!!!!!!The tea plantation were really scenic and there was a really nice (and expensive) tea rooms. We also had a quick tour around the working factory. The rest of our time here was spent watching flims, taking advantage of their lounge, hot drinks selection, playing Scrabble and Monopoly and generally being lazy - very rock n roll!

We are now in Kuala Lumper after arriving here last wednesday. We are staying in Chinatown, the backpacker area of the city. We have a cheap dorm room right off the main market area. Chinatown is pretty crazy with a very intense market where they try and sell you knock-off designer bags, watches etc... There is lots of cheap food stalls around with Chinese and Indian meals so we've been making the most of the first decent food in a while! We quite like KL - its a nice size city which is easy to walk around. On our first day we went to the KL Tower the forth tallest telecommunication tower in the world at 421m. It cost 20RM to go up to the observation level (276m) which ahd fab views over the city. You get an audio tour which points out all the sights and expalins a bit about the building of the tower. After this we hit the shops at the KLCC shopping (below the Petronas towers) to stock up on some essentials before we hit the western world in 15 days - not that we're counting!!! After 6 hours of essential shopping at Topshop etc.. we headed back to Chinatown and the Reggae Bar - a shrine to Bob Marley, we jammed here for a while then hit the sack! The next day got up really early and went to the Petronas Twin Tower, the tallest twin towers in the world at 503m. It is free to visit the Skybridge and tickets are given out on a first come first serve basis from 8.30am. We arrived at 8am to find a huge queue already going. We were quite lucky and managed to get a 9.30 am time slot. The tour included a Petronas 3D promotional video and then 10 minutes to visit the skybridge situated on the 41st floor. Unfortunetly it was raining but the views were pretty good. Not as good as the KL tower but you cant come to KL and not visit the Twin Towers. It looks really good all lit up at night so we're hopefully going to go there tonight to get some pics. Yesterday a group of us from our dorm went to watch Malaysia V Uzbekistan in the Asian cup - Asias equivalent of the European Cup just not quite at the same level! Malaysia were rubbish and lost 5 - 0 but it was quite a good laugh. It was held at Bukit Jalil National Stadium, which was purpose built for the 1992 Commonwealth Games and seated 100 000 people - we reckon there were only about 8000-10 000 at the match! We not up to much today as its raining pretty hard - just getting organised for Bali tomorrow afternoon!! Cant wait to get to Bali and back to the beach - it has been 10 days! We will be surfing pros in 2 weeks time - fingers crossed!

Really enjoyed our time in Malaysia but maybe had a few too many days - have enjoyed travelling at a chilled out pace though but now ready to pick it up again when we hit Bali tomorrow!

Hope everyone's well and the weather has picked up a bit for you. We are feeling a bit un-loved so some messages please!!!

Lots of love Becky and Charlotte xxxxxxx