Thoughts on our travels through SE Asia So we've now reached the end of the '2nd part' of our travels and its hard to believe that 3 of the 8 months have already whizzed by. As we did at the end of the European leg we thought this would be a good time to reflect on what we've seen in the last 6 weeks or so. Again, this is more of a reminder to us than an interesting blog entry - it isn't intended as a definitive guide to anyone else! As before, these are ...

Kuala Lumpur & Singapore Unlike the Cameron Highlands, we weren't exactly sad to leave Taman Negara behind with its leeches, frogs and, somewhat surprisingly, the rubbish food on offer. After a much needed rest day in the uneventful town of Jerantut (even the LP says not to bother with it) we headed by coach to Kuala Lumpur, or KL as its more usually known. In some ways it was good to be in a city again and we approached the sightseeing ahead of us ...

Taman Negara It was with some sadness that we left the coolness of Cameron Highlands to head to Taman Negara National Park. The trip was scheduled for a five hour minibus journey followed by a two hour boat journey. We departed in a reasonably roomy air-conditioned minivan with two other couples in relative comfort. However, as we are finding is often the way in SE Asia, after an hour we pulled off the main road and were met by a much smaller van with no airc...

Cameron Highlands Cameron Highlands is located in the centre of Malaysia, its altitude is around 1500 metres above sea level which means it has a significantly cooler weather than other parts of Malaysia. During the British colonial times the region was first used to grow tea, fruit and vegetables, and was also a popular retreat for the rich to have a break from the oppressive heat elsewhere in the country…end of geography lesson. The reasons for the visito...

Penang Our journey across the border into Malaysia started before sunrise with a boat ride back to the mainland, even though Raillay beach is on the mainland (we never quite worked it out either). Simple enough you would have thought, except that it was low tide which meant that the boat was a moving dot on the horizon, a good 700m away from the shore. There followed an interesting walk across sinking sand, sharp rocks and knee deep pools of water, making sur...