So we have left Thailand and are now in Malaysia. To be honest I have not noticed much difference between the two countries except for the mix of people who live in Malaysia. I suppose because Thais don't speak english they are more interested in speaking to you as they want to learn.

Our first stop was Penang which is very culturally diverse with mosques, hindu temples and churches all on one street. I don't think we were staying in the nicest part of Penang but we were only there for 1 full day in which we went up Penang hill and had a Devonshire Cream tea. It is like a mini England up Penang Hill with little cottages and red post boxes like at home...it was pretty surreal! We also visited a house which was built by a famous Chinese entrepeneur whom I don't know much about except that his house was bright blue and the inside had some really pretty chinese artefacts in it.

From Penang we took a snaking bus journey up into the hills of Cameron Highlands which is renouned for its tea plantations and strawberries. We went on a trip to a tea plantation where a woman gave us a 3 minute talk and we couldn't understand a word she said so it was pretty pointless really. We then went onto a Butterfly Park where we saw lots of bugs and butterflies and I stayed away from the snake section. It was a much cooler climate up in the hills and I even had to get my jumper out. Grandma and Grandad Deighton you will be glad to know that I also had to use my waterproof and it did a very good job indeed!

From Cameron Highlands we took 2 buses (our 1st bus broke down before we even left the bus station) to Kuala Lumpur. As soon as we got off the air conditioned bus the heat and humidity of midday hit us and the walk to our hotel through the street markets was not pleasant at all and pretty hard with a big rucksack on your bag and a little one on your front too!!!

Everyone on our trip decided that the best way to get around was to hire a taxi to take us to the main sights in KL so off we went on a whistle stop tour taking in the National Museum, the National Monument, the Batu Caves (a sacred hindu place with lots of scavanging monkeys), the Royal Selangor Pewter Factory (they have the largest pewter mug in the world - pics to follow when I'm in an Internet cafe which will actually let me upload pics!), the Royal Palace and the Menaras Tower which I didn't go up but looked around an exhibition about the largest buildings in the World instead. My fear of heights just overtook at that point!

We then went to the KLCC shopping centre which is at the bottom of the Petronas Towers which has shopd such as Tiffany's, Jimmy Choo, Gucci and Marks & Spencer (Mum you would have loved it but you might have had to hire a plane to take all your shopping back home!). I also found the KL Hard Rock Cafe so that's another badge to add to my collection (I'm so sad but I can think of worse things to collect!).

We managed to catch the Sunday football at a Reggae bar in KL so saw Newcastle v. Middlesborough and Villa v. Fulham. So I'm still managing to keep up with my football fixes.

Gonna go now but hope you are all well!!!! Love C xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx