Hi all,

Decided to start this travel blog type thing as I could feel myself becoming rather repetitive over e-mail, facebook, skype etc. Thought I'd just do some brief updates every now and again for those who're interested (hi mum, Rosie, grandad). Sorry if my spelling/grammer's atrocious; weird keyboard + 30 second typing delay + no spell check = where English goes to die.

So I'm on about day 9 of the trip now. After leaving Heathrow (and a mother who could've been on the way to my funeral) behind, I arrived in Bangkok last Sunday I met up with my 'Gap Adventures' tour group to begin our two week journey to Singapore. We traveled down to Krabi by thai 'sleeper train', a strange experience involving a lot of cockroaches and smelly bedsheets.

Krabi was beautiful and a day of island hopping around the Phi Phi Islands was a perfect way to let go the few weeks of pre-travel panic. Some stunning deserted islands including one where they filmed 'The Beach', although unfortunately a topless Leonardo DiCaprio seemed to have been replaced by hundreds of Swedish people in snorkels.

After Krabi we traveled down into Malaysia and stopped at 'Penang', an Island just off the coast of the mainland. V. strange island... 'Georgetown' (where we stayed) seemed to be neither fun in a beaches/pools/bars kind of way, nor historically or culturally interesting. It was just kind of run down and depressing. Wouldn't recommend.

Making a swift exit from Penang, we arrived yesterday in the Cameron Highlands. Much cooler with a lot more wildlife, the Camerons are famous for strawberry farming and tea plantations... hmm. I've found it quite strange that even in one of the highest, most remote points of central Malaysia, I am still able to sit here typing this whilst enjoying a grande iced Caramel Macciatto from Starbucks... Globalisation, much?

Ok well I'd better go as this hasn't really been brief at all and I want to go buy some chocolate-covered strawberries.

Tomorrow we head to Kuala Lumpur for a couple of nights, then Malaka and finally Singapore. I'll try and update again over the next few days.

Much love xx