After 7 days on Ko Hai we planned a days ferry journey into Malaysia. Plans of viewing the coastline were scuppered by a rather smelly ferry which meant we had to sit on deck on the metal floor for 5 hours, surrounded by the b****iest bunch of Italians. Happily, we changed boats at Thailands border, ditched the Italians and, to Owens silent delight, boarded a speedboat for the last leg of the journey to Langkawi. Another vehicle for Os list! A very long wait for our passports meant that H could illegally sneak O into the local hotels swimming pool - (in the end we opted to stay here!)

Having breakfast the next morning gave us our first glimpse of Malaysias mutli-culturalal mix. Hindu, Buddhist and Muslims - some Ladies in full Burkha, some in skimpy halter-necks. It seemed to work well.

There's racial harmony for you!

Had an interim budget review after 18 days, to find we had been living on just over half of our daily budget so a bit in hand for more expensive areas - Japan or NY shopping!!!!

Next morning saw another trip to the pool before catching the boat to Penang/Georgetown. This boat a step up from Thailands, although the stereotypical Asian penchant for showing violent movies of their transport meant Owen was made to face the back of his seat for the whole journey ( Would Chris think this was like the Deer Hunter story??)

Staying just off centre with great street foodmarkets all around us. We spent a wonderful 3-4 days just moseying round Chinatown,little India and the paradox of Hindu temples next to Chinese palaces and Muslim mosques. A heady mix of Indian and chinese cooking smells, music and the ever present call to prayer. Owens comment was 'why is that man singing so loudly?' Khoo Khongsi was a spectacular clan house with magnificent ornate carvings and frightening Guardian statues.Found an elegant old part of Penang where fortunately the beautiful old buidlings, seemingly reminiscent to New Orleans style architecutr had been preserved. We purchased a piece of glass sculpture (hope it travels well!), and treated ourselves to an equally elegant tea in E&O, the ultimate in ex-pat grandeur. As a last-minute decision, Hayley in her cut-offs and J in his 2 day old t-shirt were a little surprised to be let in! Little India was a riot of colour that H and O loved but J found a tad 'Bolloywood' . Irony of ironies, this was the one place we couldn't find the street food area,so we lunched in a westernised air/con, posh waiters Indian restaurant ....and got food poisoning! So a day extra in Georgetown to recover, causing us to pass up our planned trip to the Cameron Highlands.

Instead, recourse to the dreaded Hertz (didn't feel tums were quite up to public bus yet!) to drive to Kuala Lumpur with an overnight to see the fabled fireflies of Kuala Selangor.Long drive down the coast road, mainly through Sime&Darby palm trees. Advice to take the 'scenic route' was ill-advised as we basicslly saw the tail-end of lorries for 5 hours and constant palm trees. Quesera! We were rowed up and down the river after sundown where the millions of fireflies put on a wonderful show for us on the trees along the bank. Quite stunning. Amusingly, the 4 year old take on this was 'i'm bored now' after 5 minutes! Fair play - after you've seen one twinkling tree, the rest look pretty much the same. Less stunning was that night's accommodation with it's cockroach, unwashed sheets, foul food and surly service. Very glad to escape the following morning and ready to tripadvisor that one! O enjoyed the fact that there were loads of monkeys in the trees so there was one good point!