Right, so it's a long time since i wrote a blog. I think it's just beacvuase on my last tour i was doing alot and on the road alot so any chance i got to relax i just crashed out!

So since Bangkok..... I went to Koh Sok, which is next to koh sok national park. It was a beautiful area with jungle surrounding our 2 story huts with hammocks outside. Unfortuantly it rained quite abit, this was the beginning of bad weather that followed us all the way untill singapore. We went tubing down the river (floating in a massive inflated ring) which was a great way to see the surrounding jungle. Managed to get a few bruises from when my bum hit rocks, but no-one managed to over tip my tube so it was all good. Got very wet from the rain! The next day the others all went elephant riding which i had already done so i had a nice lie in. Then we went walking int he jungle to some waterfalls. Unfortuantly the really good swimming waterfall was closed off as rainy season had just finished and the path was too dangerous. But we got to dip in the river and cool off. However big leech problem on this walk, you constantly had to check your legs. I got 5 i think, one in between my toes (I had massive walking boots on! i dont know how it got in there).

Next place was Krabi, we arrived quite late so we just went out fior dinner. I was actually sensible that night and went back early whilst everyone else stayed out drinking. The reason being was the next day we were all going kayaking and i was going climbing in the afternoon. The kayaking was awesome. We kayaked trhough loads of mangroves and saw quite a few monekys. We stopped for linch in the middle of a limestone island and got slightly bombarded by monkeys. At first there was just one who would take pinapple off the front of the kayak but not out of your hands. Then several more came down and tey started to run all over our boats and my legs! They were not afraid to take whatvere they could off you! They were awesome to, if you gave them some fruit that was very muddy, they'd take it down to the water and wash it off then eat it. I then went climbing on my own in the afternoon, joined by a german guy staying somewhere else. And it was pretty cool. There were lots of routes not especially easy either, and there were some quite experinced climbers down there. Unfortunatly because I had been kayaking my arms were really tired so I didn't do so well. But it was still fun. The next day we went on an islands tour and got to see where the flim "the beach" was filmed. A pretty stunning place, as in fact all of the islands were. They also had very pretty coral around monkey island with alot of different fish.

Next was Malaysia. The boarder crossing was really quick only about 20 mins, but we were on a bus for 9 hours to get down to Penang. Did a mini trip around penang, saw were the chinese first set themseleves up in penage in stilt house along the ocean. Although idealic sounding, theiur the orginal houses and although malaysia is made up of 25% chinese they don't get many rights in the way of housing or jobs. So the stlit houses are actually one of the few places that the can live. We also went to a chinese clan house, apartley alot of opium was smoked hereby the chinese clans. Also where some of "the king and i" was filmed. Then went to yet another temple, but it did have a very nice view from the top of the pegoda. That night we had some very nice Indian food (i've surpirsing missed the good old balti) which we ate off banana leaves, our plates for the evening.

Next went to the Cameron Highlands which was where the British went to escape the heat when they first came over the Malaysia. This being the reason why you can get a good old cream tea! It has a massive area where tea is grown (also alot of starwberries thats to the Brits). The veiws from the highlands over the tea plantation were amazing. We saw tea being dried and ground to be ready to be packaged. (Tea does not look like what you'd expect it is just a bush) So I had the first good tea in 2 and a half months, it was extremly refreshing!!

Next we went off to Kualar Lumpur. We arrives in the evening and just went out for a meal when we first got there and went to see the petronas, aparently the talest twin towers in the world. They were impressive to see lit up at night. That night we went out as it was one of the members of the groups birthday. And so unfortunatly the next day we didn't get anything done as we all had hangovers (including our tour leader).

Next we went to Melaka which is meant to be an extremly hot place, but beacuse of the very odd weather it was quite overcast and bearabley hot. We went to an impressive smottie place with at least 60 different types of smoothie to choose from! Alot of history here as this was were the dutch portugese landed to make use of it as a port. The portungese who then got kicked out by the Dutch who were then replaced by the British I think. However i wasn't feeling very well that day (not as bad as one guys who was ill enough to have to get antibiotics from the doctor) and so other than seeing (from a distance) the remains of a portugese fort and a British church i didn't see much. This night was one of the hottest i've spent anywhere, it was so warm in the morning you had a shower and started sweating as soon as you came out!

Finally reached Singapore and the reality of how cheap asia was hit us all. Singpaore is pretty much the same price as Australia (with more expensive beer). We went out for our last night drinks, however i didn't drink anything. The average price for a bottle or pint of beer being $15 (about 7 pounds!)

The next day, having said goodbye to half of our group me and a few other went to the zoo. It is an amazing zoo, there is so much to see. It took us 3 hours to walk around pretty quickly to see everything. It's also good because the encosures for the monekys aren't caged in in the tree tops. They just have their own patch of trees to use. It's also the right temperature for most of the animals (I think the polar bears would have to be excluded) so you didn't feel mean looking at the lions thinking that they must be freezing to death. Then 3 of us stayed on for the night safari which was pretty cool, although I expected the animals to be more lively which some where but the lions and leopards were still laying around not doing much. The day after we went down to Sentosa island to check out Singapore's only beach. It was a great place to sit and watch the mass of ships going around Singapore, or the one's going into port. Again weather wasn't great beach weather. We actually got a lighting warning so everyone had to get out of the water!

Then my flight for Sydney, had to leave at 6 in the morning. But it was made more bareable as the person in the bed next to mine in the hostel was on the same flight! So I had someone to chat to whilst trying to kill time in the airport.

Sydney was pretty cool. I spent the moring searching for flipflops as mine had broken at the airport and all i had to wear were massive walking boots! But i met someone from one of my trips who invited me to her work christams drinks (with the bosses permission) and so I got to go out in sydney with free food and drinks for the night! Next day went on a boat trip to manly and lay on the beach for abit. It was a great way to see Sydney beacuse you got great photos of the opera house, harbour bridge and the skyline. Unfortunaly didn't have enough time to go to the botanical gardens or the zoo which i would have liked to do. But I got to walk around and see the opera house and bridge lit up at night. I also went for a walk around darling harbour at night wihc was beautifully lit up (the picture above).

I am currently in Byron where i met another freind from another trip who lives in Brisbon. Its been a great place to chill for the last few days. It's a very hippiefied town with stunning beachs (i've been told still not the best). So i've caught up on my tan and my lazing so now prepared for Fiji where i'm hopefully doing a open water diving course!