Malaysia and SingaporeWe caught a minvan from Hat Yai to the Malaysian border, which we actually crossed by foot. It felt like something out of a WWII movie, passing through no-man's land with its barbed wire and armed guards on the other side, and we couldn't help feeling slightly nervous as we trudeged up to the immigration desks, clutching our passports. We cleared immigration ok, and caught a bus from the Malaysian side to Kota Bharu, which is well-known for its traditional local handicrafts. The following day we got to see some of these crafts which included ornate kites, spinning tops, shadow play puppets and batik fabrics. Our visit to the town's cultural centre coincided with a demonstration of the traditional 'rattan ball' game which Sara took part in and also some kite flying, which we soon found to be harder than it looks! We finished off the day with a visit to the night market where we sampled some regional specialities for dinner.Next we went to the beautiful Perhentian Islands for a few days, reached by speedboat. These two islands are really remote and undeveloped with no roads, and the only way of exploring them was to get a water taxi to the other beaches, or to treck through the jungle. We were staying on the smaller and least developed island, Pulau perhentian Kecil, with only a few restaraunt and 'chalet' setups. Refusing to pay the extortionate prices being asked for some of the accomodation on the island, we opted for the most basic huts, complete with its own wildlife in the form of ants and a resident chameleon! The famed beauty of the island more than made up for our basic living conditions, though - white sand beaches, turquoise crystal-clear waters, and a complete lack of commercialisation. We spent a couple of lazy days on the beach reading up on our next destinations in the guidebooks (Australia here we come!), enjoying simple evening meals in one of the beachside restaraunts and making sure we were back in our hut before the generator conked out for the night and we wre plunged into darkness! It was all pretty basic and rough-and-ready, but absolutley gorgeous, and we made the most of the Perhentians, our last beaches for the near and forseeable future. As we left for the mainland we looked back wistfully at the idyllic postcard picture we wre leaving behind.Back on the mainland, we caught an overnight bus across the peninsula of Malaysia to the capital Kuala Lumpur. This built-up city with its towering skyscrapers was such a contrast to the island paradise we had just left behind, and a bit of a shock to the senses! We spent a few days soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the city life as we did some sight-seeing, including a visit to Petronas Towers, the world's tallest twin towers. The view from the 'Skybridge' halfway up, looking down onto the city spread out below, was fantastic. We did our fair share of national and historical sights, a couple of day trips to places outside the city, and, of course, shopping in the huge malls and sampling some of the tasty treats from the many street vendors that set up in our part of Chinatown each night. We really liked Kuala Lumpur and actually decided to spend an extra day there than we had originally intended. Perhaps being in a developed city with all its modern comforts after so many weeks of living quite basically was too much for us! Reluctantly though, we had to leave and push on to Singapore where we'd arranged to meet people, and more importantly had a flight to Austrlaia to catch!On our way down from Kuala Lumpur we spent a night in Melaka, a really quaint historical place with interesting streets and beautiful architecture. We enjoyed wandering around the old streets and admiring the Chinese shophouses with their beautifully decorated walls and shutters, just as they had been for centuries in one of Malaysia's oldest towns. The morning we left we were 'lucky' enough to witness a Hindu festival taking place at the nearby temple, which involved devotees piercing their cheeks, backs and skin with hooks and skewers before dancing feverishly to the music of drums and pulling cages of spikes as a thanks to the gods for some answered prayer or cured illness and a demonstration of their faith. We watched in morbid fascination at all this self-punishment, and then feeling more than a bit nauseous we maded our way to catch a bus to Johor Bharu at the tip of Malaysia. Very excited at the prospect of visiting Sinagpore, which was just a short distance away across a causeway, we looked around Johor Bharu, spending our last Malaysian Ringitt and eating a delicious local speciality laksa, which was quite different to the one we tried in Penang. One of the great things about Malaysia is the sheer variety of delicous food available, influenced by all the different nationalities that have helped shape the country's culture, and we'd love to come back just for the culinary experience alone!We've spent the last few days in Singapore, staying in a hostel which is really centrally located and only a few blocks away from the world-famous Raffles Hotel. It's an amazing city, very clean and compact with some great sights and things to do. Plus some FABULOUS shopping opportunities... we've both gained a couple of things in our (already quite full) backpacks so packing for the flight to Australia's going to be interesting! Some of the more educational and cultural sights we've seen include art galleries, the Merlion, the National Museum, Chinatown (great food and lovely buildings) and the historical colonial part of the city. We also did the more touristy thing of going to Sentosa Island, travelling over by cable car, and visiting the big aquarium Underwater World and witnessing a show by pink dolphins. Some sailing friends of Jess' have been extremely kind and hospitable and have been showing us some of the city's sights, spoiling us rotten and inviting us for dinner on Bob's yacht 'Fleur de Singapour'. We were treated to our first Sunday roast dinner in 3 months, capped off by a chocolate fountain...as you can imagine we thought we'd died and gone to heaven! Today is our last day in Singapore before taking an early morning flight to Brisbane, and we plan to celebrate the completion of our Asian travels with a Singapore Sling cocktail in the Raffles Long Bar.Asia was fantastic and although we keep writing this, that we're sad to leave a place, it really is true each time; now more than ever this feels like the end of a chapter, and we now have the next one, our Australian adventures, to begin. We can barely believe that we're halfway through our travels already - time is flying and we know that now we're in the 'second half' it's going to seem to speed up! We're sure though, that we'll manage to fit in plenty more exciting adventures, and will have some interesting tales to tell on this journal...PS Unfortuantely we're experiencing technical difficulties and Sara's photos haven't uploaded properly into the album, so we do apologise! We'll try and fix it later, so please excuse the half-finished album!