The bus to the Cameron Highlands was too good to be true! It was an amazing mini-bus with large leather seats with arm rests! I slept most of the way, so the journey passed in no time. We arrived in the main town in the Highlands, Tanah Rata and our drive asked where we wanted to be dropped, so we named a hostel recommended by the Lonely Planet 'Father's Guesthouse'. The girl who shared the mini-bus with us was from Finland and it turned out she was from Jyva...

Once in Penang we got a taxi to take us to one of the recommended hostels in Georgetown (the island's main city) from the Lonely Planet. It was full, so he drove us to another. We looked around and it was really dingy. The rooms had no windows (which is the norm for there), and the beds were literally a matress. The bathroom facilities didn't look great either, so we found another a few doors up which in comparison was amazing! Although there were no windows...

When we arrived in Langkawi we went through a relatively painless customs (compared to Thailand!), we got through in about 30 mins. All four of us (including Mikel) then got a taxi to the main beach resort on the island (Pentai Cenang). We had a bit of difficulty finding accomodation, in the end settling for somewhere which was really experience in comparison to what we had been paying in Thailand. Langkawi is a holiday resort for many Malaysians though, so th...

We were met off the train at Chumporn by a woman selling ferry tickets to Koh Tao, leaving at 7am so we obliged and got on the coach (sam had to run down to a cash point and be picked up en route!). The ferry, which was meant to take 1.5 hours took more like 4 and was the worst journey in history. We had already been warned by Katie in Kanchanaburi that the crossing was rough and to take sea-sickness tablets but we had no time to prepare ourselves going straigh...

Once we got to Kanchanaburi we got a taxi to a hostel recommended by the Lonely Planet - 'Jolly Frog Guesthouse'. The location was amazing! Right on the banks of the River Kwai. In fact, it reminded me of a spanish/portugese holiday resort, with rooms accessible from the outside looking onto a massive lawned area. The only thing missing was a pool! We also got a really good deal! We payed for a twin room and they put a third matress in the room, rather than...