Hi All,

Here goes with the stories…

Koh Phi Phi, Thailand:

We left Krabi for Koh Phi Phi Island and the weather did not look good. As we approached the island the sky looked stormy, and alas we were greeted by rain when we arrived. The accommodation was all quite pricey but we found a great room for our budget that was in a central location. The island from first glance seemed nice, namely as there was no traffic where the roads are pedestrianized apart from the odd motorbike or moped!We headed straight for Long Beach, a short walk along the coast, to do some diving at this recommended site. The water was too murky and much of the coral we could see was dead. We saw a blue starfish though! That evening we ummed and ahhed about a diving trip (the um and ah from me as I dislike deep water!) and eventually after hours of deciding we agreed on a snorkelling trip. In the ensuing excitement of signing up, we bought a cheap underwater camera…

We grabbed a 'diver's' breakfast early the next day - scrummy bacon sarnies! We were kitted up into our wetsuits, equipped with our snorkels and introduced to the rest of the group and then jumped aboard the long tail boat. Driving further and further out to sea I was starting to get more and more apprehensive. We arrived at a clear bit of water in a lagoon and tested out our equipment. All was fine so we went along to our first snorkel spot where Jonny got to fulfil one of his lifetime ambitions to be an extra in a film…Finding Nemo!!

The coral attracted allsorts of fish in allsorts of colours; yellow, black, white, orange, blue! We even saw a turtle!!!! Both Jonny and I were amazed to see a turtle, it was so cute! Jonny followed it for a long time and eventually captured a cracking picture of it! Our guide also spotted a Leopard Shark which thankfully stayed at the bottom of the sea! I watched it from above while Jonny sought a closer look. We were both so happy to have seen such a great number of fish and even more chuffed to see a turtle and a shark!!

Our guide took us to Maya Bay where the film 'The Beach' was shot. The bay was beautiful aside from the mass profusion of tourists and boats! We took the classic picture of the bay then immediately left. We were due to stop at another spot to find some more sharks but the water was too rough so we dived in another 'nemo' like spot. The trip was excellent - we had a great guide, the group were really friendly and we saw a lot more sea life than we had expected. I still worry about diving but snorkelling was fantastic!

Penang, Malaysia:

After a nifty border crossing and a long journey we arrived at our first stop in Malaysia. It took a long time to find accommodation as a lot of it was very grotty but settled on an 'ok' place. Just outside our guesthouse, there was a large street food area where we tried some actually quite nice food! While eating we met a nice Chinese guy who we arranged to meet with the next day to see some Taichi.

We decided to see some sites of Georgetown so headed to Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. Commonly known as 'the blue house', because its exterior is painted a rich indigo blue, was built by Cheong Fatt Tze who was a rich Chinese businessman years ago. We had an interesting tour of the place from a very eccentric and charismatic tour lady. We also went to the 'Chocolate Boutique' which was a shop where you could taste a whole host of different flavour chocolates! Heaven! We tried lots including white choc and strawberry, apple, sesame seed, dark, coconut, peach, passion fruit and pineapple. The white choc and strawberry was delicious but expensive so we brought some passion fruit ones which we ate in one sitting!

We met with the Chinese guy (forgotten his name- oops!) at a Chinese temple where we had a detailed chat with this Malay/Chinese man about the English monarchy! We headed to the pier area to see the Taichi which turned out to be the man we talked to about the monarchy teaching a german girl. This was a let down as we had wanted to join in but we couldn't. We sat for a bit watching the ferries and boats.

We left Penang the next day as we were not impressed with it at all. Maybe we missed the main things or something but we really didn't like it. Not a good start to the country.

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia:

Having heard that the Highlands were beautiful, our next stop took us to the middle of Malaysia. Sadly, for the duration of our stay here it rained and rained and rained and rained and rained and rained. Did I mention that it rained? Jonny thought he was in the Lakes! Because of the rain we couldn't do all the trekking that we had hoped to do. On one of the days we did a short walk with a lovely Scouse guy named 'Joe'. We got absolutely soaked and the view from the top of the hill was …misty.

Despite the bad weather, we went out to BOH tea plantation which was fantastic. The landscape was beautiful with rolling hills of tea plants. We enjoyed a walk around the factory then relaxed in the café drinking the delicious 'Best of Highlands' tea.

The Cameron Highlands were pretty. We were sad to not to have seen much of it but the rain and the cooler temperatures were refreshing. We felt so relaxed and it just felt so bizarre to be in this 'England' like environment when only days ago we were in the humid heat. Alas, due to the rain and the damp room in our guesthouse, we both caught colds!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:

Back in the humidity of Malaysia, KL warmed us up a bit! On our first day here we headed out to see a lot of the tourist sites. First Stop at 8.30am was the Petronas Towers where we had hoped to go up to the 41st floor to walk the sky bridge, but the tickets were all gone. Feeling dejected and annoyed as we got up so early we treated ourselves to a McDonald's breakfast!! Aren't we bad and fat! Out of curiosity, we went to the National Mosque where we both had to adorn these hideous lilac robes to walk around. Jonny looked awesome! See picture! We had a talk with a muslim man about Islam which was insightful but rather long and… boring.

Next, we went to KL's Bird Park which is the World's Largest free flight walk in aviary. It was ace! There were millions and millions of all kinds of birds - peacocks, flamingos, love birds, parrots, owls, ducks, and ostriches and more! It was just incredible. We got so close to a lot of them and so there are a million photos for you to endure! Sorry! We posed for a photo with loads of birds where we both had birds on our heads and arms. Jonny had an eagle on his shoulder! We also got to feed some tiny birds which just flew onto us to get to the seeds. They weren't afraid to nip us when they wanted more to eat! Blimen hurt! A really great park!

We went to see the Hibiscus and Orchid Parks which were a bit of a let down but the flowers were pretty nonetheless. We also saw the National Monument which comprised a statue of workers with mosques/minarets in the background. Quite accurate as there are a gurt load of mosques and Muslims over here! We also saw the Merdeka Square which was a huge patch of grass in the middle of the town and grabbed dinner in Chinatown. Our feet were killing us from the amount of walking we did!

Ok so we were up at 6.30am this time to make sure we got our hands on some free tickets to the sky bridge. We got to the queue at 7.30am and waited. The experience wasn't awful but a group of Asian men tested our patience after their many attempt to overtake us. Grr! We told them off a few times! Lol! We got the tickets - yay! We watched a rather rubbish 3D film about the towers and then we waited a bit longer then we got in the lift. We were only allowed 10 minutes on the bridge. The views were good but nothing in comparison to Hong Kong or Shanghai. The rest of the day was spent on a shopping spree in search of a new camera for me. I got a new one which is wicked!

KL is a nice city - one of the best Capitals we have been to on this trip. Its clean, modern, and busy. But there were a large number of irritating taxi drivers that seek to scam everyone, well tourists, who just lie to your face to get all the money they can. Luckily, we weren't born yesterday!

Malacca, Malaysia:

We wanted to make a stop in between KL and Singapore so we went to Malacca. We got a great room - the best we've had in Malaysia - in Chinatown. The area was preety with narrow roads with gift shops and cafes. It's a quiet place and there isn't much to do. Unfortunately, we arrived on the public holiday so the place was heaving with Chinese tourists! We went to a bustling night market and found a great café aptly named 'Geographer Café', where the apple pie is amazing!

Love Jonny and Kirsty xxxx