Hey everyone

so i think this will be my last ever blog as i only have 14 days left! argh!! i cant believe how quick it has all gone, i feel like i've never been away! alas the last couple of weeks have been very eventful, meeting a wicked bunch of people on my tour and moving from city to city every other day has kept me busy!

on the day the tour started i visited a childrens orphanage and day care centre in Bangkok's slum district (yes it is really called this) and it was a relief to see that alot of money has been donated to such needy causes and that children suffering with aids and/or poverty are being well looked after.

The gist of the thailand/malaysia tour was this.... Bangkok to khao sak, one of thailand's national parks, where we spent our day walking around the jungle and taking a thai cooking class - so now i can cook u all some lovely thai food, yummy!

next stop was Krabi, a beach resort in the south of thailand. I had already been here with ben earlier in the year so it was strange to go back with a big bunch of people but it was nice to walk around and see the beach again! stupidly feeling brave the tour guide and i decided to attempt the 1700 steps up to tiger temple.. the tour guide has climbed mt kinabalu twice and even he admitted this climb was hard work! it was boiling hot and we sweated absolute buckets, hufffed and puffed lots, refused to climb any further and then managed to force our way to the top! it was a beautiful view and what made it even better was the ice cold water they provide! phew! never to be done again though!

Next stop was Penang in Malaysia so we got up early and caught a bus to the border where we passed immigration quite quickly and without a hitch and reached penang's (an island off of the west coast) chinatown in the evening. we started the night off with a yummy dinner at an indian restaurant just outside of china town and then we had a sufficient amount of drinks in the cheesy 'slippery senioritas' bar in town! very drunk and the last two standing alex (my roomate) and i made our way back to the hotel for some sleep. 3 hours later we're up again to explore penang and its HUGE shopping centre and the temple at the top of Penang hill (a frustratingly slow and stuffy tram takes u up there, not good with a hangover!) but the views were amazing!

Next day we're off to the Cameron highlands, the land of tea and strawberry farms! the main town consists of a few shops, restaurants and one bar so we spent out night in with a dvd and next day we visited BOH tea plantation to see how it is made. I hate tea so i didnt sample it but i hear it was tasty!?! i made do with the chocolate cake instead! it is however a very pretty area of malaysia, just miles and miles of tea plantations!

By evening we were pack on the bus and arriving in Kuala Lumpur! i was so excited about this as ive always seen the picturs of the Petronas twin towers but never in my life did i think i would get to see them in all their glory! they really are impressive! unfortunately we arrived on a monday and they are closed on that day so we could only view from the outside but it was fun nonetheless. instead we visited the KL tower and got to see KL from hundreds of metres up which was lovely!

Next day we arrived in Melaka, a pretty town split between indian and chinese culutre as is most of malaysia. We spent the day riding on the rickshaws that are beautifully (read tacky) decorated with flowers and driven by VERY old men who seem to have the strongest legs in the world! we visited the the sultanate palace, the independence museum, had a tour of an old chinese house that has been standing for over two hundred years with all its orginal furniture in place (very pretty) and a chinese temple that was amazing with all its gold decorations. You could really appreciate the indian and chinese history present in malaysia when you visit Melaka and it summed up my trip perfectly.

Last stop was singapore and we spent our day strolling around the many shopping centres and appreciating the clean streets... and we visited yet another chinatown!! At night we all got dressed up and visited Raffles hotel, an extremely expensive hotel where the first ever singapore sling cocktail was made, so we felt obliged to buy one at 20 dollars!! but it was suprisingly tasty despite the fact i dont like any of the alcohol thats in it and we quickly departed before we wasted anymore money on more cocktails!! As it was the end of our tour some of the group had booked their flights home or to Oz and it was time to say goodbye which was really sad as we have had such a good time together!

The remaining group stayed behind and in the morning we all caught the bus to Sentosa island, on the south coast and i finally got my chance to swim with dolphins and pink dolphins at that!! they were absolutely gorgeous and i had such a good time, especially when 'splash' the baby of the group gave me a kiss on the lips!! i still cant believe i got to do it as im writing this now! il have to look over my pics again to make sure!!

Afterwards we made our way to the night safari and took a tram ride around the park getting to see animals in the dark! the funniest bit of the night was when we were watching the 'creatures of the night show' and the animal handler made out they had lost an animal somewhere! so the whole audience starts panicking and we all started laughing at how silly everyone was being. next thing we know they are asking us to move and opening up the latch beneath mine, laura and justin's feet... only to pull out a 12 foot python! oh my god, we were laughing so hard that it had been there all along and we hadnt given the latch on the floor a second thought! yuk!

i said my goodbyes last night and got up early this morn to make the 3 hour trip back across the border to malaysia as it was cheaper to fly to borneo from there. The journey was long, with 5 different bus changes, almost an hour wait at singapore immigration and nearly missing my stop (dappy white girl on the bus full of malaysian's, luckily they took sympathy and stopped for me!) i made it to senai airport and am now sitting in sandakan. On the flight we got to fly over Mt Kinabalu which was amazing, it is so so big and im so glad that i didnt take my tour guides advice to book a tour and climb it! maybe next time....

so tomorrow i am finally going to live one of my childhood dreams... to visit the orangutans at Sepilok sanctuary! i really cannot wait. i cant believe im actually going. i learnt about the sanctuary years and years ago and it wasnt till i booked to go back to asia that i realised i was so close to borneo that i could actually make my dream a reality! so here i am about to visit them....

after that i go to turtle island and stay overnigt on the island so that i can watch the turtles who migrate back to the island lay their eggs and also watch the handlers release young turtles into the sea! its a highlight of many peoples trips so im really looking forward to it.

my last stop will be in semporna where i will spend 3 days learning to scuba dive so hopefully when i return home i will be a qualified scuba diver!!

miss you all and see u in 14 days, argh!!!! il leave u with my top ten, ok 13 cos there's been too many, moments from my trip! not in any order cos i cant decide what was best!!xxx

1. Climbing and exploring Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

2. Partying at the Full Moon party, Thailand.

3. boat tour of Halong Bay, Vietnam.

4. sky diving in Taupo, New Zealand.

5. Scuba diving and feeding a turtle at the great barrier reef, Oz.

6. Glacier hiking in Franz Josef, New Zealand.

7. Dolphin swimming on sentosa island, Singapore.

8. Seeing the organutans at sepilok orangutan sanctuary, Borneo.

9. Boat tour of whitsunday island, Oz.

10. Tubing in Vang Vieng, Loas.

11. Zorbing in Rotorua, New Zealand

12. watching baby turtles released into the sea at Turtle island, Borneo

13. phi phi island tour and night out with ben, crazy irish boys and charlie and steve!