Hello again... We are still alive! Treated ourselves to an elephant ride on our last day in Thailand :) it was an "experience" went through the jungle and the scenery was amazing! Saw a monkey and a gecko... Which was kind of offered to us on a stick, but in an attempt to stroke it, Lauren managed to push it right off his perch. Feeding the elephants afterwards was really good fun... Even if one did try to eat Lauren!!
Wandered around Ao Nang looking for lunch, and we ended up with a croissant for Jen and some sausage rolls (with custard!!) for Lauren :P
Managed to both fall asleep that afternoon cos we were so shattered! Had a lovely Thai curry for tea :) yellow for Lauren, red for Jenna, no-one was brave enough to go for green :/

Left early Thursday morning for Penang(Malaysia) and it took us 9hours!! Including a 13.5 km bridge-the longest in south east Asia! Had noodles for lunch and rice for tea... surprise surprise ;) that was another "experience" we all ordered from different counters in this courtyard type place (with entertainment) and then the food was brought to us :) Georgetown is grimy... That's the first word that came to me. Dark alleyways, open drains, but we have air-con in our room, even if the shower curtain's mouldy!
First impressions of Malaysia?! Very similar to Thailand. It's hot. It's smelly (sometimes in a good way) and you have no idea what people are saying, but at least they use the same letters as us here ;)

Started the day with peanut butter AND marmite on toast ;) wait for it... The food gets worse and worse. We reckon after a week of rice and noodles we can resort to home comforts for a day! So, the world heritage trail was very interesting :) went with our tour guides and had a little R.E lesson along the way ;) surprisingly the art and religion went down fairly well with both of us uncultured people! Saw lots of Buddhist temples, Hindu temples and a Mosque (but we did have to leave that one pretty quick!) McDonalds for lunch (I did warn you) and then had to consume an icecream in about a minute cos we had to catch the bus!! Made friends with a cricket, who afterwards we decided was probably en route to the Kek Lok Si temple, but was rather harrassed off the bus at the next stop as he was very tickly :/ Went up to Kek Lok Si to see the tallest lady buddah in the world (very impressive) and there was a pond literally heaving with turtles on the way up!
Waiting for a jeep to the top of Penang hill, we found a carpark dominated by monkeys!! Who were extremely uninterested in us!! Aimed to watch the sun set, but we must have arrived about an hour too early :/ amazing view though, we must have been able to see about 30 miles away!? Saw a snake up there and ate some chick peas then sat in the back of the jeep back down!! It was very steep and both filthy at the bottom!! Now in the middle of an enormous thunder storm. Proper thunder and lightning but no rain and still ridiculously hot!

Hope all is well where you are :)