Our first port of call in malaysia was the city of mallaka. This is a small city we used as a stop off place on our way up to kuala lumpur. Whle we were there we stayed in a very good hostel, which had the benifit of having an open air roof garden with a terrace, which was very good for relaxing on.

mallaka as a city does not have that many attractions, as we had been led to beleive by all the posters advertising it as the tourism capital of malaysia. While we were there we walked around looking at temples, and going to the ruin of st peters church, which gives a very good veiw ofn the city and of the coast. I also experienced my first few markets, which altho not large were good to walk around. The deffinate highlight of mallaka was when there was (another) tropical rain storm, while we were relaxing on the terrace, listening to music. The veiw of the storm from the roof was spectaculr as we could see all the lightening, needless to say by the end of it we were soaked trough.

After mallaka we took a coach up to KL. KL is a city on a completly different scale to mallaka. In KL we stayed at a pretty rubbish guest house in the centre of china town, who's one redeming feature was that it was situated right ontop of a regge bar!

One of the main reasons for going to KL was to get my thai visa sorted out, we went to the embasy and but as we had turned up on friday afternoon and the embasy closes over the weekend those planes went strait out of the window. We then went to look atthe petronas towers which were very impressive, even if it was pissing it down. On the second night we ventured into the regge bar just bellow our hostle. While we were there we got sufficiently enibiated, smoked some shisha. We also met a bloke called Adam, who we decided to clubbing with. From what i remember the clubs were ok but cost about a fiver each to get into, which doesnt sount like much but s when your living on a budget and you end up going to about five or six. WE arranged to meet adam the next morning outside our hostle so we could catch the same coach up to our next destination, the cameron highlands. So when we came down at around 6am, feeling a little worse for wear, we found adam sleeping against a tree (tured out he turned up at his hostel at around five and so couldnt be botherd to stay there).

While we were at the bus stop we managed to add another member to our merry band, and his name was dave. The bus ride up the the mountains was a very winedy road, this coupled with a bus with no a\c and a hangover did not make for happy stomachs. The buss was so old there was a hole right under Jacks and my seat strait to the wheel arch!. But after around 8hrs we finally made it, without any mishaps. The Highlands were blissfully cool after the heat, humidity and bussle of KL. We were staying in the attic of a hostle, which created, even for me space problems, but it was clean so we were happy. On the first afternoon we decided to do a short walk to a nearby waterfall. The walk started off badly as we de not have a clue where we were going and the map was not exactly what you would call detaled, but after asking alot of people for directions we were finally on the right track. The waterfall when we got there was not worthy of even the 20minuite walk we had done to get there. However on the other side of it there was a landslide which we climbed down, which made to walk not a complete waste of time. When we got back i took off my sandles and where i discoverd a little leach on my foot. I made a note not to walk through streams in the rainforest while wearing sandles.

The next day we set out on a more demanding hike that would take us up to one of the highest peaks in the area, and also give us a good view of the tea plantations onthe walk back. The walk up was only around 3 1/2 km but took us around 2hrs to compete as it was so steep. Most ofthe time we were having to climb up using tree roots as hand and foot holds. When we got tot he top we had some lunch, and decided it was a good oppertunity to getsome good pictures. so we climbed the veiwing tower and got a good group picture each, as well as some of the surrounding countryside which was manly just rainforest coverd mountains. On the way down, Jack and I were ahead to the group and so decided to climb a 30-40 m cliff. We also managed to piss around with a large boulder for about 30mins. The Boh tea house was next on our list, and there we relaxed soaking in the beautifull countryside and drinking tea that was picked at there own tea house. By the time we had finished there it was quite late and we were tired and so we hich hiked the rest of the way.

The Next morning we were on the bus up to Butterworth and George Town on the island of Pennang, to try for the second time to get my thai visa