hey everyone!

We made it to Malaysia after a long bus journey from hell into the Cameron Highlands were we spent the last week in the cool mountain air. We took a tour around the tea plantations which were stunningly beautiful and had tea and scones bizzarly! But its all very colonial you see, the tea plantation is owned by a jock who arrived in Malaysia last century and the family still own and produce a rather lovely cuppa with real milk. yes real milk, not this powdered whitener that we've had to put up with for months now. That said, the guide book made out the town to be a lot better than it really was so we only stayed a few days.

After that we had another hellish bus ride to K.L with a driver who had a really squeaky voice and got irrate really easily so you can imagine the laughs we had! We have been in Kuala Lumpur since Saturday and too be honest (ems) i've had enough already!

It started out well, we arrived at 4pm found a hotel, went shopping in the massive shopping malls they have here, then went for a lovely meal and then on to a club which was brilliant though very expensive (same as at home). Since then it has gone down hill. The people are not friendly, or very helpful which we found out very quickly. We took the bus tour of the city yesterday and we asked someone where the bus stop was for the tour, (maybe we shouldn't have asked the taxi driver) he told us there were no more buses that day and we should take a cab (his cab) tour. we told him that we wanted the bus because it would cheaper and we are on a tight budget, plus the ticket was valid for 24 hours. He became very hostile, told us that you cannot get a 24 hour ticket and repeatedly said you are too late, you are too late. With this we walked away, and found the bus stop a few metres away and the bus turned up only minutes later and we stayed on four hours taking in all the sights of this massive but very new city. Oh and it IS valid for 24 hours.

So in some respects we have done it already but don't leave for Singapore until Saturday. Since then we have found people to be quite rude. They keep staring at us in a hostile way, don't know whether its because were two white western women travelling alone, or whether they are homphobic, OR BOTH! But its really scarey especially at night. We stayed in our hotel room all day today because we are fed up with it. We really miss Thailand where the people are soo friendly and kind, and that sense of humour they have which you take for granted after a while but makes your visit there really fun. Also, its just rained here since we arrived and is very sticky its almost unbearable. And they don't sell Chang here, Dan will understand!!!

Anyway thats enough of a moan now, we hope you lovely people are having a really good time and excited about christmas we really miss you all terribly. We posted a lovely crimbo box home for each family with instructions to give ou appropriately, hope this reaches you all in time. oh yeh, we were really naughty and booked ourselves in the kings Copthorne hotel which is really expensive but thought that could be our christmas treat! cool eh?

Please sned our love to Sharon and Georgia, its horrible whats going on for those guys, we are thinking of them both. It makes me really angry, especially at Christmas it sounds like revenge not love.

Cantbelieve its so close to crimbo you must be all rushing around buying the last of your pressies trying to get in and out of Tescos with massive queues out the door! It seems a million miles away, but we are both thinking of you all very much.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!!

Em and Sarah xxxxx