Hello everybody, it's the long awaited 5th season! It's been a while since we last wrote, and we have a lot to get through, so sorry if this is exceptionally long!

We last left you leaving Thailand. It was a sad day, and for the record, we are already saving and making our plans to go back! We may need a rest after our hard years traveling! So, if you can cast your mind back to (or just read our last blog!) early December, we were just about to make our way into Malaysia. We first had to cross the border, which required getting a bus to Hat Yai, just outside of Malaysia. We were hoping to avoid this place, as we had recently heard that it is famous for housing terrorists and other criminal masterminds! Luckily though, we did not see any bearded men carrying Bazookas. Once we made it there, Shonas card decided that it too needed a holiday, and refused to work. This was very annoying as (if you can remember) Craig had lost his card a few days before we left Ko Lanta. So, we were in terrorist country, with no money, and no means of transport! Luckily for us, there were two guardian angels also hoping to catch the bus that day. They came in the form of two young lads from Oxford. Thankfully they paid for the both of us to get out of there, and when we offered to repay them, they pointed out that it had only cost them about 4 quid, and being from Oxford, they had loadsamoney! So we went about our way to the border.

Once there, we were forced to get off the minibus and show our passports to immigration, as well as having a retinal scan. We were a little concerned as we had to leave all our belongings on the minibus. The driver was quite a young dodgy looking guy and we thought he would just drive off with our worldly possessions. Luckily though, he didn't! We got back on the bus and about 30 seconds later we had to exit again, this time taking all our bags through one of the x-ray machines. We were also made to get rid of any food that we had in our possession. Shona had recently bought a bag full of Satsuma's so we stood in line munching away, so that the authorities couldn't get their hands on our prized fruit! After managing to locate our bus again (thanks to Shona's good memory (which would become very useful at a later date)) we were back on the road. When we finally reached Georgetown in Penang, we were soon aware that the driver was dropping people off at designated stops, something we had failed to negotiate with the bus service before leaving (we were not actually told). We just sat quietly until everybody had evacuated the bus and were left wondering, where are we going to be dropped at 10 o'clock at night? After managing to find out the Thai word for hostel, the driver carried on driving until finally we ended up being dropped outside a place which the driver was obviously getting commission for. Doubt he would get much commission though because I doubt they got many people to stay there. It was a dump! We were in and out in well under 2 mins. The rooms were disgusting, and I'm pretty sure there were no windows to let out the smell of BO and other interesting whiffs! The bloke on reception also gave us the creeps, although he would turn out to be very helpful in the events to come.

After wondering down the street we were on, a lovely little place called love lane (which we later read was the epicenter of all the muggings and other crime in the city) we came to the Banana Hostel, which we had seen a flyer for earlier. It was a little more expensive than the previous place, but we don't mind paying for cleanliness! Having no money on us, we were able to talk the owners round into letting us stay the night and to pay in the morning. We then went to sleep after an exhausting days traveling! In the morning we went about trying to locate an ATM machine. After wandering around for well over an hour, we managed to source one, but it was in vain. Shona's card was still on vacation. After contacting Shona's dad several times, he finally managed to talk to Shona's bank who said that she hadn't written down Malaysia when she filled in the form before leaving, so they had temporarily barred her card, but they assured us it would be ready to use within 24 hours. So we went back to the hotel to let the owners know. They were very sympathetic and said not to worry.

We were then pretty much stuck there as we had no money to actually get anywhere to see anything, and we were also forced to eat at the hostel, and it was by no means the best food we had eaten. After sitting around for a little while, we went back to our room, here I decided to have a go on my PSP (Playstation Portable - for those out of touch with technology!). To my horror, I couldn't find it in any of my bags. I had clearly left it on the bus the previous night. I was gutted. I didn't think there was any chance of me getting it back, and I felt any attempt would be useless as it would be a great gift to find left on your bus. Shona somehow persuaded me to go to the first hostel we had been dropped at, as we figured that they had some sort of deal going on with the bus company. When I arrived they seemed very unhelpful, although I wasn't really able to give them a great description. I explained what I had lost, and said that it was left on a white… no, maybe a green bus. They looked puzzled and said without a registration number it would be impossible to locate as they deal with well over 100 buses. I thanked them and turned to go home, again it felt as though all hope had been extinguished. Having returned to the hostel, I told Shona what had happened. She then somehow reels off the registration from the depths of her memory. Albeit, it wasn't the right one, but it was enough to give us a clue. I raced back to the other hostel and told the reception guy what Shona had remembered. He had never heard of that registration, but said he would investigate. I again didn't feel very confident that I'd get it back, so I retired back to the Banana Hostel, kicking myself the whole way (not literally!). After sitting around for a while, we met up again with our two Guardian Angels. I explained to them what had happened, and they advised me to report it stolen to the Police. This way I could claim for it on my insurance. So I asked for directions to the Police station and made my way there. After explaining my situation to the Police, who didn't seem very impressed at all, they got me to fill out my own Police Report on the computer (I later learnt that Malaysian Police are very lazy, I witnessed this first hand!). As I sat there filling out my report, a lady burst through the door absolutely hysterical. She had clearly been robbed or something (though couldn't understand a word she was saying!), and it had clearly just happened. But instead of acting straight away, they told her to shut up, and fill in a Police Report (to add to the pile). I got the feeling that the woman wasn't impressed, and she carried on screaming and crying. I felt a bit sorry for her. It was at that moment that I got a call on my mobile. It was Shona. She told me that they had found my PSP and that it was on its way back to me. (I didn't know whether to call and make out Craig was lying to them, but on the other hand it was pointless him being there). I felt a bit stupid explaining to the officer that I had just found it, especially after telling him that it had been stolen! But I think he was just relieved that he didn't have to do more work, and shook my hand and said good-bye. When I arrived back, the receptionist from the other hostel was there, and he was telling Shona how stupid she was for getting the registration wrong, and how brilliant he was for locating it for me. (Great one!!). But I assured Shona that without her remembering some of the registration, we would have had no hope. So it was arranged that it was coming on a different bus the next day. We had planned to get away from this place but we ended up staying one more night. In the end, everything went well, and I managed to get it back, thankfully. I couldn't thank the receptionist enough. I was just glad that there are some honest people in this world.

Having waited 24 hours for Shona's card to work, and attempting about 20 different banks, it still didn't. We thought we were going to have to resort to using the credit card which came with quite a hefty charge in itself. After contacting Shona's dad again, he quickly phoned back the bank. He must have said something to get there arses in gear, as the next thing we knew it was done. We couldn't quite figure out why they couldn't have done that in the first place. But we were happy that now (just as we were planning to leave), we had access to money. So our experience of Georgetown was not great, we take away memories of being skint, angry at ourselves (well, just Craig), and having seen the most rats in one place! But it was all part of the experience I guess. Next stop was Kuala Lumpur (or KL).

Before leaving Georgetown, we managed to book ourselves both a bus to KL, and also some accommodation. The bus took a good 6 hours to get there, and as we left quite late, it had cooled down dramatically. But they still continued to keep on the air con. Every passenger on the bus started shivering, and complaining that it was too bloody cold. However, we couldn't persuade the driver to switch it off. It was a relief to get off the bus half way through the journey, not only because everyone was busting for the loo, but everyone also wanted to thaw out. We were told that we had 20 minutes to stretch our legs, so we went to the toilet and had a look around the small shop that was there. Shona wanted to look at everything in the shop, and was looking around for ages ( I was hungry, and glad we had money!), when I said that we'd better hurry or they'll leave without us. Just as we got out of the door, we saw our bus driving away. We waved frantically to try to flag it down but I think we were ignored on purpose. The driver finally stopped, and I ran to get on the bus where I was met with a very angry and unimpressed bus driver. Naturally, I was the one who got yelled at, (makes up for me being the "stupid" one in Georgetown), and not a word was said as Shona entered the bus. Typical. A few seats away was a crazy old woman. She seemed really excitable and eccentric, just the type of people that we seem to attract! In a few days time, after having met up again with Daz and Will, we would discover that they too had met her, and proceeded to hide from her as they didn't want to get into another conversation with her. Daz was convinced she was a psychopathic killer. We had our doubts though!

After getting off the bus, we were met by a tout trying to get people to stay at his hostel. Luckily we had already booked, but soon realized that the hostel he was advertising was the one we were staying at, so we had our own guide. This was quite fortunate as we had no idea where abouts we were in respect to the hostel. KL was quite a nice city, although it did seem to rain a lot (maybe down to pollution?). We had been quite lucky with the weather up until this point. On our first proper day, we decided to go to the local bird park, advertised as "the worlds largest free flight avery". Of course it was outside, so we got soaked, but we did get to see lots of exotic birds from parrots and eagles, to pigeons and a rare albino crow! We took lots of nice photos, and even visited one of those shows that bird parks put on. This included a parrot riding a bike, driving a car, and even one that could do maths, probably better than either of us could! We also witnessed a woman doing some original artworks. She was writing peoples names in colourful characters and symbols, which made for some nice gifts (this was placed in a hard case, that later proved as a good weapon).

After our long walk around we decided to stop for a bite to eat. We found a nice restaurant on the grounds and decided to sit outside, as it had stopped raining by this point. We also noticed that most of the people eating there were sat inside, but we thought nothing of it. So we made our way out to the balcony with our food. About halfway through we were joined by a local. This local was a bloody great Horn Bill (see Malaysia photo's). Shona decided she would take a photo as he was quite close to us, however she still proceeded to do so as it decided to invite itself to indulge in Craig's dinner!! We didn't really mind the first time, but it got a bit annoying and had to be shooed away with the weapon previously mentioned. But it kept coming back, and tried to eat one of Craig's fingers! After all this excitement, we decided to try to find a nearby lake garden. So we started walking in the direction we thought. After walking out of the car park, we were met by a gang of wild monkeys, all sitting perched on the edge of a fence. We stood there watching them for a while, and they all started jumping around on the floor. Again we found ourselves being attacked, and yet again the weapon proved useful (not for hitting them, but just for pointing at them - as a warning). We carried on walking and soon we were surrounded. I don't think they really liked Craig, as they kept showing their teeth and looking like they were about to pounce. A little bit further on, a taxi stopped and out jumped a little boy and his dad. The dad obviously thought this would make a good photo op, and instructed his young lad to stand right next to a bin which must have had the biggest, daddy monkey sat on it. He was just minding his own business, but the presence of the boy must have startled him and he soon became a little angry! He started growling and lashing out at the kid who was petrified, but the dad was very persistent and forced him to stand in the same position. I wish I could have seen the photo, the kid was very unamused. We never did find the lake garden, but instead we stumbled across a Hibiscus Garden which would have been great if you like staring at flowers. We didn't stay too long!

We had heard that there was a revolving restaurant at the top of the KL Tower, which sounded like a good night out, so we got dolled up and made our way there. Having got there quite late, we discovered that it was fully booked and also that the observation deck was now closed. We had a look at the menu which was very pricey, and also very fishy! So no loss there. Instead of it being a complete waste of time, we found an Indian restaurant in the building which was very nice. The service was excellent, and we got to drink out of silver goblets..... we felt like Vikings!

The next day we took a look around the local Chinese market. Here Shona found a purse that would make a nice present. When asked how much, and after having a demonstration on how it was fire proof, the salesman said it cost (the equivalent of) 50 pounds. After about half an hour of haggling, Shona managed to get the con artist down to 6 quid! Just goes to show that you shouldn't trust a dodgey Indian guy! Later that day, we met up with Daz and Will. We went for a wonder around the city, and at night we went back to the KL tower, a bit earlier than the previous night. Luckily the observation deck was still open, so we got to see the city from up high, and also witness a thunderstorm on the horizon. We both spent about an hour trying to catch a fork of lightning on camera. We got a few close ones, but nothing spectacular. For a short time, they had a small light show which lit up the tower in lots of bright colours, which was nice. Afterwards we went for a wander to try and find a bar and somewhere to eat. We found an Italian which had Utd playing on TV, so we were sold! (GREAT! - Shona) Daz and Will thought that they had a curfew from their hostel which said they had to be back by Midnight, otherwise they'd be locked out. This turned out to be false information, but we walked them back anyhow and said our goodbyes.

The next day we had planned to leave for Singapore, as our flight to Perth was getting nearer. So we made our way to the bus station with all our luggage which seemed to be getting heavier with every trip! When we arrived, the whole of the station was crammed with people trying to get away. It was made up of hundreds of different booths which were all separated into different bus companies. We must have tried about 10 companies, but they all said they only had one seat. We thought that we were going to have to stay another night when we got word from the grapevine that someone had more tickets. So we found it, and indeed they had some space for us. The only problem was it was more expensive and left quite a lot later than we had planned. But we booked it anyways, and then made our way back to the hostel with all our gear to store it. As we were now leaving later, we hooked up again with Daz and Will. Daz had just bought himself a new laptop, and I think he was quite eager to try it out. So we didn't see them for long. We said our long goodbyes, again, and arranged to meet up at some point in Australia. We killed some time, and finally got on our bus which turned out to be quite swanky! It would have been better if we weren't at the back, WITHOUT reclining seats. But we were just thankful that we managed to get a bus. And it would have been better if Shona didn't have an annoying woman in front of her who had to fully recline her seat when Shona already had the smallest of spaces to fit her legs.

Next stop was Singapore, but this is getting a bit long now, so we'll save it for our next blog. Stay tuned for episode 6 ..............