Hello from Malaysia!!!

My attempts to get to a computer as often as possible have failed completly, and it has now been another week since I wrote. However, good news is that I am next to the quickest computer I have seen for a month and a half, so not only do I intend to update everything I have done but I am also in the process of getting all of my pictures up at last!

When I last wrote I was in Bangkok, and staying the most amazing hotel room I have seen for my entire trip. We spent our last 2 days both shopping around Bangkok's huge malls, and gradually saying our goodbyes to everyone on the tour as people gradually left to start the next part of their travels. Our last night altogether was great fun, and it was strange to return to the bars that I had spent my first evening at over a month before. After saying a very sad goodbye to my roommate Nadina, myself and Sara (who I am travelling with now) wasted our last day hanging around before getting on a bus to Phuket.

Our journey to Phuket started as it was to go on, with the coach turning up to the station an hour late. When we finally got on the bus there was little communication, and we were shown into a small room at the front of the bus, seemingly the VIP area. Initially we couldn't believe our luck that we had seats and a small sofa to ourselves, but as another five people were put into the room with us it became ridiculous. Luckily as we were the first on we had chairs, but we were so cramped in this tiny box with the other people that I wasn't sure how we were going to get through the rest of the night!

Sleeping on the bus was obviously ridiculous, and when I did finally get to sleep we were woken at 6am to the bus driver telling us to get off. We were then left at another station before being put onto a tiny smelly minibus which we were to sit on for the rest of the morning before finally arriving in Phuket at 11 in the morning. Luckily the hostel we were hoping to stay at had availability to we went straight there to put our stuff down and have a much needed shower!

Phuket was great and much better than people have told me. This might be because the day we arrived was the start of the towns festival/carnival, so we spent the day wondering around the hundreds of stalls and shows that were lining the streets.

By the evening though I was exhausted and slept surprisingly well considering we were in a dorm room. However, I woke the next morning with the most horrific bites covering my legs. This got progressively worse throughout Sunday, and I was to find our that I was suffering from spending a night lying on a mattress filled with bed bugs which is certainly not pleasant.

However, not letting this put a downer on things, I was very excited that we were leaving for the much anticipated trip to Phi Phi island. As soon as the ferry came into the port I couldn't wait to get off the boat. Had it not been for the hundreds of tourists literally shoving each other to get off it almost could have been mistaken for paradise.

We found a hotel pretty quickly, and after dropping our stuff and going to the pharmacy to sort out my legs we were straight on the beach! The beach was incredible, and although over-crowded the sea was crystal clear and I was so happy to spend a day lying there.

In the evening, Phi Phi comes alive with the bars that line both the beach and the little streets. Although I was looking forward to a party, it is quite a shame that such a beautiful island has been ruined by being covered in bars and Irish pubs!

Me and Sara spent the evening at several bars and barely spent a penny! There are people constantly giving out flyers advertising free drinks for 10minutes that night, so timed correctly we managed to go to several bars and claim many free drinks!! Happy days!! It was a really good night, especially as it was the night of the half moon party.

The following day we booked to go on a cruise around Phi Phi Lay, otherwise known as Captain Bob's booze cruise! It was an incredible day, and although it was a bit pricier than some of the other trips, it was unlimited beer and all of the other people on it were the same sort of age as us.

I spent the first five minutes of our trip plastering myself in factor 50 suncream only for us to stop and monkey island and be told that the boat couldn't go that close so we would have to grab a snorkel and swim the rest of the way! I didn't mind though when I saw the amazing coral and fish that were in the turquiose waters.

After several other stops including cliff jumping which I declined, we heading to Maya Bay, famous as the setting to the film 'The Beach'. We again had to swim to shore before walking through the trees to come out on the beach and it certainly was a sight! It was the most spectacular thing I have seen, and although smaller than the film makes it look it was beautiful. Luckily we were able to put all of our cameras in a dry bag to take across, so I have got some great pictures!!

By the end of the day, and after several Chang beers we went back to shore. It took a while however to get off the boat as several of the guys were too drunk to stand and had to be carried off before being left to sober up on the sand! We spent the rest of the evening getting food and packing before falling into bed exhausted. It was a shame to leave Phi Phi as it was so beautiful and I would have loved to have stayed there for longer but we had to move on to Malaysia.

Yesterday we took another epic bus journey across the border. Although not as dodgy as I had been told, the trip was long and sweary and was spent with two rather arrogant drivers who constantly stopped to pick up their relatives and mates and the stop to by themselves dinner whenever they fancied! The journey took us 14 hours in total and by the time we arrived in Penang I don't think I had ever been so sweaty or dirty in my life. Stupidly we had not managed to find anywhere to stay in Penang, so here we were at 10pm walking around with our backpacks trying to find accomodation. After an hour of walking and looking in several horrible rooms, we found a little hotel only to be told they didn't take visa. We spent at least another hour trying to find an ATM before giving up and trying the larger hotels. Unfortunatly for us the Citadel was a little too expensive (and I can't quite believe they even let us in the door to talk to them considering the state of us) so we settled on one across the street which we thought to be expensive, but when working out the exchange rate only turned out to be 8pounds a night!

We hae spent today looking around Penang and what there is to do here. It is very strange coming across the boarder, as it is dramatically different. The city is very built-up and Westernised, with everyone speaking perfect English. Today we took a long walk to see the fort, where the British founded the island. However, it was over 30degrees outside and the humidity was ridiculous so we soon decided to make our way to the huge indoor shopping centre instead! The centre was massive, and it was great to see so many Western things such as MacDonalds and Starbucks which was bad because I should be enjoying the culture! Although we have spent some of the day trying to sleep off the heat, we are off tonight to look around the city's many markets and stalls.

Well, that's it for now....

In the morning we are heading for Kuala Lumpar.

xx