Hi Everyone, hope all is well at home,

We are now in Malaysia where we plan to spend a few days before heading to Sumatra, The Philipines and Bali over the next two months. We are staying in a colonial hill station called the Cameron Highlands, which is up in the mountains surrounded by tea plantations and farms. Its supposed to be like olde England but its not except for cream teas and the rain. We have been trekking in the jungle today and got covered in mud and soaked but it was a good walk anyway. Off to climb a mountain tomorrow and then we will be heading for the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

Since the last journal we have spent most of our time relaxing on the beautiful Thai island of Koh Tao. We ended up spending a week in the same place cos we liked it so much and the weather was great. We now have something resembling a sun tan, about the colour of Pearson during a very cold winter. Graham stayed with us on Koh Tao as he was taking a diving course then the two of us went out for a days fun diving on new years eve leaving nicola to enjoy the beach. Diving was really good again and definately a highlight of Asia. We also rented a motorbike for a day to explore the island. This ended in shame when we were evicted from the one beach we had planned to spend some time on because I was caught eating a pie near the beach by the miserable cow who owned the land!

On New Years Eve we were invited by Grahams dive school to a free barbeque. We ate our fill and had a few drinks before stumbling onto the beach for the rest of the night. The local people set off fireworks (about five feet away from us) and sent fire lanterns up into the sky while we drank local rum from buckets and watched the crusty fire dancers.

We spent our final day in Koh Tao snorkelling at three nearby islands that are joined by a strip of sand. We left the next day for Krabi, a small town on the mainland, so that we could meet a fellow Hatherleigh cricketer, James Stacey, who's birthday it was. Whilst waiting for the taxi to take us to the pier a mate that I worked with called Duncan strolled down the road having just arrived on the island. Only had time for a quick chat and we had to go, so that was bad timing.

We spent a couple of days in Krabi in order to go out for a few beers with Stacey and to Kayak around the shore line for which the area is famous. This was a really good day and the scenery was pretty spectacular. You also paddle into mangrove swamps where monkeys climb onto your boat and nick your water and try to find food. The next day we left for Malaysia and the island of Penang. This took most of the day as the Thai travel agents couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery. We arrived in Georgetown late in the evening and then spent the next three days consuming as much of the food as possible. Its so cheap and tasty that its very difficult not to keep ordering from the menu as you eat. In one Indian I tried nearly every dish and the next night I managed to eat Malay, Chinese and Indian food all for dinner and from different food stalls. Total cost of about one pound. I loved that town! Its been raining since we arrived in Malaysia as its the monsoon season, the first rain we have seen since X'ian in China three months ago. It actually makes a nice change.

Thats the story for now. Take care.

Michael and Nicola