At last!!! We have finally found what we came all the way to Asia for - the tropical islands with the gorgeous beaches, clear water and SUNSHINE!!! Yes thats right - we have had our first few days of actual, real, blazing sunshine, and .... we were on the beach to enjoy them!

It was a bit of a nightmare getting to Pulau Pangkor a little 3km by 9km island off the West coast of malaysia as we had to get a bus to some S**THOLE called Ipoh, then catch another bus - not from the bus station where all of the buses are going to every corner of the country - oh no!!! We had to walk for ages in the stuffy heat to some random ... well, lay-by pretty much to get on the scummiest bus we have seen so far! Then it was another few hours before reaching the port of Lumut, where we had to walk again for a while to find the port and get a ferry across to the island! Add to this some constant pestering from the locals trying to give you taxi rides etc and the disgusting staring (which seems to be getting worse) from the sleezy (mostly indian) guys!

Eventually though we hit the island, and jumped into a taxi to go to the little village that we were staying in. Our day decided to take another turn for the worse when our Rough Guide (amazing in NZ, but the SE Asia one is rubbish, it is the latest edition but 2 yrs out of date!!!) gave us a few ideas of places to stay, so we chise a couple to look at ... only to find out that they have now closed down!! That meant more lugging our backpacks around the place trying to find a half decent place to stay. We eventually found one, it was a bit expensive but we were so tired that we did not care - oh the joys of travelling!

Anyway, after all of this commotion it turned out to be a lovely little beach, with pretty clear water albeit with a fair bit of rubbish in the water at certain tides. This did not take anything away from it though!! Just around the corner of the main beach lay Coral Cove, a secluded beach with pretty much no one but us 2 on it, so we could sunbathe and swim in the sea for a few hours every day - then head back to the air con in our room and watch a few films!! Lovely!!

The cool thing about the main beach was that there were loads of rope swings hanging from the trees, so when the tide was in, you could swing into the water - very tropical!!!

On the 1st full day we spent a few hours sunbathing but didnt want to destroy our skin so we headed for some food and decided to rent a motorbike for a few hours as the island was pretty quiet - perfect time to try it out! I told Sar that i had ridden one before and it will be all fine (i didnt lie - i just didnt tell her that it was about 3 yrs ago on my bro's little, but new, 50cc moped!! In a field!!!) and it was!! Pretty Much!!

In all fairness it was a pretty shabby old thing, and ... shall we say - it took a little bit of getting used to, up all the big hills and around the hairpins!! It took us no time at all to get around the island, and the 2nd time we tried we were fine!!! Whizzing around like a local, even attempting some overtakes!! Was good fun!!

We are now actually in Georgetown on the island of Penang, its pretty much another dirty malaysian city, needless to say, we are not staying here for long! Off to Krabbi in thailand on Tuesday hopefully - a minimum of 8hrs journey!! Cant wait!!!!

x