Hello all!

We finally reached malaysia - wooo hooo!!

So the last blog was from ko tao - the paradise island in thailand. We left there and had an extremley choppy boat journey back to the mainland. We headed into the nearest town and took the train to Surat thani - a hub of transport links in the centre of thailand. From there we were hoping to get out to a national park about 100km away but we had missed the last bus and were forced to stay a night in the town. It was a hole! The only hotel was a stinky victorian building with creepy dark stairwells and more cockroaches than guests. Anyway we got some street food for tea and had an early night. In the morning we managed to get a bus that took us out to Khoa sok national park, at the entrance to the park we were dropped off and met by a group of touts from the hotels trying to get us to go with them. They were all really pushy and annoying apart from one, who was pleasent and made us laugh, he also had quite cheap tree houses so we decided to go and take a look. It turned out to be a great decision!

The guys name was mr bao and he and his wife ran a very basic little resort behind the main road and all the fancy hotels. He had built four tree houses in the jungle and lived in a larger version beside them. The tree house was beautiful and cost us 4 pounds a night. For the first 3 days we were the only people there and in the evenings we sat at the family dinner table playing with their four year old daughter jasmine and blethering the night away. Jasmine was wonderful fun and had kezz wrapped round her little finger! Baos wife is an excellent cook and each night for a couple of pounds we were presented with feasts. During the days we would go off exploring and she would cook us up a delicious lunch and have it wrapped and ready to go with us at breakfast. It was so nice having such friendly people around us!

Whilst we were there we hired a moped (hot rod from the gods) and explored the surrounding area. Central thailand is stunning, limestone cliffs jump out the jungle meaning lots of caves to explore. We also drove out to a beautiful lake and visited a few local towns. Great fun but very hot!! The national park was superb as well, tracks go for miles through jungle and across waterfalls. It was like something out of george of the jungle!!

The last few days at the park kezzs leg became infected by sohme mozzie bites - very painful so our next stop was the town of krabi to buy some antibiotics. They have worked a treat and kezz is on the mend. Krabi, apart from a beautiful guesthouse that we stayed in was krappi!!

So the next morning we packed and decided to get to malaysia although we knew it might take a few days. Luck was with us for once and we managed to georgetown in malaysia by that evening. We did the 14hour journey in two minibuses, more expensive than taking the 5 local buses we would have needed but sooooo much less hassle. Had a bit of a drama in one of the minibuses, the windscreen smashed as we drove along a malaysian freeway, we think it was a stone but the entire thing shattered. The driver managed to pull over and kezz helped him smash the windscreen out so we had a breezy drive to our final destination!

Malaysia much richer than its northern neighbours. Brick houses and tarmac roads, landscaped gardens and fantastic infrastructure. It almost felt like we were driving in the uk, very eeiry after so long on dirt tracks and seeing only bamboo and wooden houses. Our first destination was georgetown, the main town on an island on the west coast of malaysia. It is an incredible place with a huge mix of cultures and backgrounds living there. Most of the buildings went up whilst the british ruled and the little alleyways with stunning victorian houses made for brillant photographs. We spent 3 days there, wandering the streets, shopping and eating the amazing food. Stayed in a terrible hotel, noisy until one in the morning and rat droppings in the bathroom - but it was a lovely old building which made up for the bad points!!

From georgetown we went east to the other side of the country to the perinthian islands, a 7 hour bus and 1 hour ferry got us to kecil - the cheaper and smaller of the groupl We are still here after 5 days and loving it! You have never seen water so blue or sand so white. We hit it lucky with one of the few cheap wooden huts that are on the beach front, right at one end of the beach. For 5 pounds a night we open our door and have a view of a white stretch of sand, the sea and the jungle above. Its out of this world! Made a few friends here - the transvestite manager of the hotel "didi" loves us! And kezz helped one of the boatman fix his broken engine the other day so he is a local hero! A danish couple staying in a posh hotel on the beach gave us the wifi code for their hotel so we can sit at night on the beach and use free internet - brillant!!

The snorkelling here is phenominal, much better than ko tao. We have swam with huge beautiful turtles (kezz even managed to hold on to the shell and was pulled through the water on its back!) we saw black tip sharks and lots of colourful coral and fish - just wonderful. Will try and upload some of the photos as we hired an underwater camera for the day.

Any hoo - leaving tommorow for the tea plantations of the cameron highlands and then to kuala lumpur, its all going so fast now; india is just round the corner (eek!)

Miss you all loads,

Cant wait for a decent cup of tea and a clean toilet!!

Love kezz and mo x x x