Hi Everyone,

This is a little overdue but better late than never!...

After arriving at the Malaysian border we stopped over for the night in one of the border towns. The following day we got the bus (which was packed full of school kids and a woman who was carrying her cat in a plastic carrier bag) to the port in Kuala Besuit. From the port we got a speed boat to Kecil one of the Perhentian Islands and checked into our chalet - which was basically a glorified shed painted Barbie pink. The following day we went for a run and Christina proceeded to trip over a boats mooring rope and fell down face first - much to the amusement of those eating their breakfast on the beach. This was swiftly followed by Josh getting stung by a jelly fish. Not the best start but the beauty of the island more than made up for it - we have never seen water so clear - it was paradise (if paradise also involves being eaten alive by mosquitoes). On one of the days we decided that we had done enough beach bumming so we hired a kayak and paddled all the way around the island (well actually much further considering Christina's incapability to paddle straight - we zigzagged around). It gave us a great opportunity to see the island…the jungle parts were reminiscent of something out of Jurassic park (just missing the dinosaurs). Josh jumped out and did some snorkelling; Christina didn't dare in case the kayak capsized! We really enjoyed our time there.

We then continued by minibus to the Taman Negara - the world's oldest jungle. We went on a canopy walk through the jungle and admired the views. We even saw a bit of wildlife - some GIANT ants and some monkeys - for some reason people spent quite a while looking at a squirrel too (they mustn't be that common where they were from!). On the afternoon we went rapid shooting, they said to be prepared to get wet so Christina dressed wisely in her waterproof jacket. We weren't quite sure what rapid shooting entailed - it turned out to be a wooden boat with a motor going over the rapids. Christina got soaked but Josh somehow got the dry seat. They then pulled up on a river bank and the driver told us it was time to go swimming. We was a bit dubious as the water was completely brown but went it anyway - which rendered Christina's waterproof jacket completely pointless! The following day we headed to Kuala Lumpur.

After a three hour mini bus ride through the Malaysian 'countryside` (there's actually none of the natural habitat left, it's all rubber and palm oil plantations), we made it to KL, the capital of Malaysia. As usual, we asked around to find out which part of town had the cheapest digs and as always, the answer was Chinatown. Luckily, the bus dropped us off right in the centre so we had no problems finding some suitably cheap and fairly cheerful accommodation. On our first night we decided to try some of the famous KL street food. We went for roast pork and roast duck with rice and gravy, it was one of the tastiest meals we had eaten (up to that point anyway…). The following day we headed out to see the PETRONAS Towers, which are the city's main attraction. After walking for miles and getting lost dozens of times we eventually found them and proceeded to go on a manic photo taking spree, we put the Japanese to shame! We wanted to go up to the viewing platforms but we needed to book in advance so we decided to book in for sunset the following day. Later that day, we went to Central Market, which is one of the oldest and most well-known of KL's market areas. It was full of the usual tourist souvenirs that we'd seen at every other market we'd been to, but Christina still deemed it necessary to look around every stall. All that shopping had left us hungry so we went to the 1st floor of the market which was dedicated to local and other Asian food vendors, we had another beautiful meal of mutton curry. That evening, we returned to the market as our map/flyer had promised nightly dance performances, we arrived and walked over to a where a small crowd of spectators were watching a dismal dance performance. We were not impressed! Our spirits were lifted when we noticed a man with a pet chipmunk on his shoulder; they lifted even more when it did a wee on his shoulder. He kindly let Christina have a hold and it seemed to like licking her arm (must have been remnants of the earlier curry). He offered Josh a hold too, but after witnessing its tendencies to wee indiscriminately he politely declined. The following day, we went back to Central Market for breakfast and had some more great food; from there we caught the Sky train to central KL. After walking around the city centre sites, we headed to the KL Tower which actually has a higher viewing platform than the PETRONAS towers! As we arrived, the weather took a turn for the worse so we decided not to waste money going up as the visibility would be bad. We had The PETRONAS towers to get to anyway! We arrived at the towers early but got distracted at the gift shop so ended up at the back of the queue. First stop on the tour was the sky bridge connecting the two towers; this was timed perfectly as we got to see the sunset beyond the hills in the distance. Next we went up to the 86th floor where the night time views over the city were amazing, although the windows could have done with a clean. The rest of night was spent walking around the park which surrounded the two towers. The next day we caught the Sky Train to KL's main station and then continued onto Melaka, the next destination of our Malaysian odyssey.

We caught the train to Tampin and from there we got a taxi to Melaka. We didn't think we were going to be able to get rid of the taxi driver at first, he chatted away for the most of the journey but we couldn't understand him. He ended up coming into the hotel with us, no doubt trying to get some sort of commission but we were a bit worried he wanted to stay with us or something. We did lots of cultural things in Melaka. We visited various museums, including one about body customisations around the world which was interesting, although the pictures of the Chinese feet binding made us feel sick! We also explored the town and the fort but we eventually ran out of things to do. As the train to Singapore was fully booked for the next few days, we enjoyed a few guilty pleasures from home, we went to the cinema to watch Ridd*** (it's awful so don't watch it) and Elisium (brilliant), we even went for a Papa Johns Pizza (although the beef peperoni was a little bit peculiar!). Don't worry though we also enjoyed some more traditional food, including a salted duck egg (yuck). On one of the evenings we went for some tandoori chicken and fresh naans - delicious.

In order to catch the train from Tampin to Singapore, we had to get another taxi from Melaka to the station. Unsurprisingly, we decided to get a different taxi driver to our previous one! Once we arrived at the station we paid the driver and sat in the waiting room waiting for the train. Five minutes later the driver came back into the waiting room with local banana cake and drinks for us! We were really touched by his generosity - you wouldn't get that in many countries! To sum up, Malaysia is a beautiful country full of tasty and varied food, it's also home to some of the friendliest people we've met.

We hope everyone at home is ok, we will hopefully catch up on the Singapore and Bali blogs in the next few days.

Lots of love xxxx