Wowwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Is it just me, or has it been a crazily long time since I last updated. Just me? Ok. Never mind. The last time I did tap out a few words on ye olde blog though, I was in Kuala Lumpur n'est pas? And I notice that my journal rating (not that I look at such things, I would never be so vain) plummeted. My apologies for letting the side down....hopefully sometime in the next few days I will regain a little of my lost form. Unfortunately, probably not right now though ;) From KL (which I loved - the Batu caves which I think I may have written about, were fairly impressive, but it was the general feel of the city that was so special - the hustle and bustle of Chinatown and the sights and smells of Little India - loved 'em all!) we went north by bus to Cameron Highlands, joined by the delightful Sam, a Yorkshire (I think, oooh please forgive me if I'm wrong Sam) lass we'd met in Singapore. The Cameron Highlands were incredibly chilled out - Father's Guesthouse providing an awesome location atop a hill looking out over the valleys toward the tea plantations and colonial style buildings rising on the other side. When it rained, though, it really rained. Still warm enough to not worry about trousers and jumpers, but a few metres and you'd be drenched - every single evening, starting around 4pm until darkness, it royally peed it down. How eloquent. The highlight of the Highlands though, apart from semi detoxing, was probably the hike to the Boh Tea Plantation and the tour of the factory we got there. The hike wasn't particularly spectacular, nor was the tour incredibly engaging, but the 15 minute video we watched explaining the intricacies of tea manufacturing and the five step method to making a perfect cup of tea was perhaps one of the funniest, I mean, most riveting pieces of footage I have ever had the fortune to view. If you are particularly interested in the 5-step method though, please contact Samuel J. Guy, Esq., who will doubtless be able to educate you. From Cameron we missioned it across to the Perhentian Islands, where I spen the best part of two weeks - Farida leaving a few days before me to come up to Thailand a little earlier. We both did our PADI Open-Water Scuba courses there, and despite some problems at the beginning equalizing my deaf ear, alll was groovy. The coastline of the two islands that make up the Perhentians is littered with dive sites, including a couple of wrecks, and the diversity of marine life was incredible - from the ubiquitous nemo fish to 2 metre reef sharks (and even one leaopard shark), lion and puffer fish to blue spotted stingrays, huge shoals of barracuda to solitary needlefish. Awesome, excellent, genius, swell. I don't know if you can tell, but I kinda liked it. Within ten minutes of stepping off the boat on to the shore, Fariday and I were trekking along the jungle path to the other side of the island when all of a sudden the ground in front of us got up and moved. Farida jumped out of her skin while I was cool, calm and collected. Not. Turns out it was a big old monitor lizard - around 2.5 metres tip to tail, and it scared the bejeezus out of me. I'm over it now though. For anyone thinking of going to the Perhentian Islands, I have to recommend Azela's cafe on Long Beach - the dude with the red bandanna, Mazelan, cooks a mean roti and plays an even better slap-guitar. Tell him you know Dave ;) Seriously though, the locals on the island were pretty much 100% awesome - chilled out, helpful and friendly...and the main reason I stayed on for so long...another main reason being the chilled-out atmosphere at the dive shop I learned at - sorry for hanging around so much Ravi and Amber, but you make a mean cuppa tea ;) For anyone wanting to learn to dive in Malaysia - Sea Dragon Divers in Panorama on Long Beach is the only place to go - tell them I recommended you and I'll get a free dive! Do it! A big shout out to Sity, my boys Cory and Jamie, the beautiful Namezlo and the West Wickham Massiv, Tim Westwood eat your heart out it's gangstar time. Ahem. Now though, after a bit of a mammoth journey across the Thai border, where I'm fairly sure I was lied to every step of the way in order to coax more and more money out of me, I have rejoined Farida and Jeremy on Ko Pha Ngan, where we await the arrival of the infamous Full Moon Party on the 12th. Carnage. My chalet is sweet as, with a little verandah overlooking the sea, and the scooter I picked up yesterday is also pretty groovy, if slightly more dangerous to ride with two backpacks and a guitar than I had at first thought it might be. Still, we live and learn. Time now for the beach and some breakfast though my friends, I hope you are all well and I wish a speedy recovery to my biggest bro who's not doing too good right now. Be strong Burly Jon Gorvett, you can do it. Tout de suite. Mucho amore, Dave/David/Davey G or Dangerous Dave if you're not into the whole brevity thing. No you're not wrong Walther, you're just an... One love. xxx