Leaving Krabi and Thailand behind we headed down over the Malaysian border to Penang. Our first full day here we got up early and caught a bus to the National Park for a morning of jungle trekking which once again ended in a sweaty, muddy mess! From here we went to Penang Hill and got a jeep to the top for fantastic views of the island Penang and the mainland. On way to find the jeeps we walked past a Hindu centre where the brother called us in & fed us all delicious noodles, sweet water and indian sugary sweets for free before showing us around the centre and explaining a little of the Hindu culture. It was one of those rare moments ou get when travelling where you stumble upon something completely unexpected, it was a real feel good experience and everyone there was so welcoming and friendly. We left donations for the food and all went away in very good moods! After Penang Hill we headed back down to Georgetown, a UNESCO world heritage city and armed with a guide map & me acting tour guide we spent a couple of hrs wandering around the sights.

From Penang we head up hrs of winding mountain roads to reach the much cooler Cameroon Highlands. Feels like i could be in England with the dramatically cooler weather & landscape of green trees, fields of grass, strawberry & tea plantations with golf courses & mock tudar buildings, also lots of tea houses offering tea & scones which is funny to see in Asia but the area was founded by an Englishman so a lot of the hill resorts have an English village charm feel. If it weren't for the majority of people walking around looking distinctly Malaysian/Indian, you could be forgiven for thinking you're in England if you squinted your eyes a little to ignore the Malaysian flags & Indian restaurants & hawker stalls surrounding every tea house! Took a full day tour which started off with a visit to a tribe of indiginous people where we had a go at blow pipe hunting, which i have a natural talent for apparently! Then with 13 of us crammed into 1 landrover we took a 3km off-road adventure into the jungle to take us to our trekking spot. Had a 2hr round hike in the mountains over streams & waterfalls, stopping at a spot where these huge red plants flower, i forget what they're called. the ones we saw ere only 3 or 4 days old so pretty small, about a foot and a half across but they grow to a mtr in diameter & are only found in certain parts of SE Asia.

After lunch visted a 200 acre tea plantation (the smallest!) to sample local produce & then to a butterfly farm where we held massive butterflies and beetles. Also visted a strawberry farm to do some picking (& sneaky eating). So tired after bust day, it was nice to put my feet up with some local market Indian food for dinner & an early night! Although it's been a nice respite from the heat i'm looking forward to Kuala Lumpar as I'd forgotten what it's like to feel cool and have to wear trousers & jumpers and i dont like it!

Kuala Lumpar is a much nicer city than i expected, it's clean and green and although busy it's not so chaotic as Bangkok as much smaller population. On first afternoon, we went for a walk to Central Market for lunch and to Petronas Towers for some touristy pics. As it was Selina's birthday (one of the girls on tour) our tour leader organised a card and cake which we gave to her outside the Petronas Towers & all had a slice which was fun and in the evening we all went for our first proper big night out, it was really exciting to get dressed up again & do out hair & make-up as normally dont bother as it's just not worth it in this heat! Was really fun night dancing away although so much more expensive than i'd gotten accustomed to as drinks & entrance to clubs are western prices as being a predominantly Muslim country they don't drink alcohol. Suppose i'd better get used to it as i'm heading to New Zealand next! Spent next day wandering around exploring the city, Chinatown, Merdeka Sq & Lake Gardens which were nice to chill out in with a book.

From the capital we went down to the smaller city of Malacca which has a real European feel as has been under Dutch, Portugese & English control. Went for city walk to check out some sights then some of us girls went to a riverside cafe where we spent 2hrs drinking iced coffee & having girly gossips sitting outside on the river, could have been in Venice or Amsterdam but didnt feel like we were in Asia at all, you can really feel the move into Western influence as you move further south. A couple of us took a sunset cruise along the river which was so pretty and we saw som,e huge moniter lizards! In the evening me and another girl, Pia, went to the Chinatown area which really comes alive at night with hundreds of stalls for the night market. We spent our time sampling all kinds of foods from stalls, Popiah (fresh, unfried, spicy spring rolls type things), chicken satay, frshly fried potato chips, pineapple cakes, soya bean cakes, fried ice cream and fresh lemon juice! We thought we'd better take the opportunity to try everything we wanted as last day in Malaysia...good enough excuse anyway! There were hardly any tourists there so was authentic experience we had been looking for. Bustling with locals, music playing, lights glittering on stalls, gorgeous smalls from food stalls, dance performances - all in all brilliant evening!