I can not tell you how nice it is to be back to civilisation!! And yes I know we only went off to Endeu Rompin yesterday morning but it felt like we was there forever. it was a bit like a cross between a horror movie and an adventure holiday with the school you never wanted to go on in the first place!

it started ok. we went with a nice couple from france, (both doctors- so in safe hands!) had a nice big wooden chalet to stay in, (which on closer inspection contained massive spiders) and a friendly enough english speaking guide. the place is usually busier on the weekends but at the time we were the only four visitors (the national park is bigger then singapore, to put that in perspective) one guide, an actual 'special' and a weird guy with long hair who stared a lot.

we started off with the trek, which was fine because it was flat, so having done the trek to monkey bay we was all over it. being a bit concerned that everyone had tucked their trousers into their socks me and jess ran off and got changed. our guide then sprayed our trainers with heavy duty insect repellant. i really did not get the severity of the situation. i'd always imagined leeches to be big fat things, ie easily spotted! it soon became clear this was not the case and was regularly kicking these tiny creepy crawlies off of my trainers but unfortunately one crawled in through my shoelace hole which was gross and i may have been more than slightly alarmed!! it was a long trek, bout an hour and a half and the french dudes were moaning behind us, but me and jess actually enjoyed it to a degree. it was all worthwhile anyway when we came to our destination, a pretty waterfull, where we swam for a while at the bottom. we got to go to the top as well and i drank some of the water coming through the rocks where it had been naturally filtered.

when we got back the french dudes decided they wanted to leave which slightly alarmed me and jess, what with being ALONE and all! I did a little kayaking with the guide ( jess did not) and then we had some dinner, all along getting more and more scared and deciding that they would probally chop us into little pieces and chuck us in the river!

to be fair the worst thing he did was try and take us on a night trek. yeah as if, how are you suppossed to see the leeches then! he told us it was easier to see the tiger in the dark. as if this would make us more inclined to go. we said thank you, we believe there are tigers and its ok we saw them at the night zoo in singapore!

we retired to bed early and it was so scary, we were making ourselves so paranoid! we baracaded our selves in and everything. jess told the guide i didnt feel very well, and bless him, he came back with some aspirin but we was so scared to answer the door! he did get rid of some of our spiders but they was back again by morning, and jess reckons she has fang marks from being bitten!!

the morning was evil aswell. he got us up at 8:00am gave us breakfast and made us go kayaking down the river. before we just stayed in one place. i did not realise this place had rapids!! we was pretty laughable really, we kept getting stuck on rocks and i kept going down backwards!! not surprisingly i turned over and it scared me so much i made us turn back! seriously though we had no crash helmets and my legs are so grazed! going back was fun, against the current. everytime we came to the rapids we got out and walked on the rocks and our guide dragged our kayaks through. this guy is pretty tough to be fair. we'd been out for a couple of hours in all and my shoulders are killing. we have definately got our exercise in for the week!!

It was nice finally getting on the 'death bus' to KL. we had spacious recling seats which was a bonus. but me and jess were at the back, and our driver is mental. we were swaying for the whole five hours. I said a prayer everytime he overtook on a blind corner up a hill. which was a lot.

Any way we are safe happy and clean now. first impressions of KL are good. we are staying in china town and had some good chinese food for dinner. we're too tired to shop currently but i cannot wait to spend some money here. get my fake wayfarers and billabong boardies, maybe a gucci handbag?!

Jess is currently obsessed with going on facebook as she is chatting up some boy so we couldn't have an alcoholic beverage of which im in much need of at the reggae bar which has a lady boy on the door. although jess had to tell me this. i just thought she was weird looking. tomorrow we are going to the batu caves (hindu shrine) and then planet hollywood for dinner (yeah i know but it looks fun and im getting a bit bored with rice!). petronas towers are sunday morning and then maybe a museum. we are leaving for langkawi monday morning. we are so excited to have whole week on the beach. we really miss our little island!!

ash and jess xxx

23rd September.

Not really much to say about KL. Didnt really like it that much!! it was cloudy, and smoggy and sweaty!! the place we were staying was quite nice, really friendly owners and a roof top garden. looked a little bit like the smack garden!! so we enjoyed our tiger beers up there before we went out!! China town was my favourite. nice food, and genuine fake designer shopping!! came away with my most coveted items, a black pair and a lime green pair of ray ban wayfarers. loving them. we spent three nights in KL and onthe second night got quite drunk in the reggae bar and when i got home passed out on my bed ( sans sleeping bag with its special bug coating)

The next morning i woke up thinking i had been bitten by mosquitos, but as the day went through they got progressively worse an worse and they were unbearably itchy! happened to be the day we went to the petronas towers (which jess refused to go up i may add!) anyway turns out i'd been bitten to f*** by bed bugs which are disgusting and so so so grim, coverered myself in calomine lotion and had the worse nights sleep in the world. i won the comp for first tears and ended up sleeping in jess's bed. all in all have about sixty/seventy bites which are like mozzy bites but bigger and more swollen. look like a right freak! and they still itch now three days later.

anyway all is better now, just going to write a bit about langkawi so go to next blog!