Hello! We are currently in Penang in Malaysia - we left Thailand yesterday, crossing the boarder in a little minibus which took us about 12hours! We are all really sad to leave Thailand because we loved it...i'm sure we'll all be back at some point though! Our last few nights in Thailand were spent in Ko Lanta, a little island in the Krabi province. It was really lovely- the bungalows we stayed in had a nice swimming pool and were right on the beach- they even had hammocks in the bar area (which Ninny took full advantage of of course)! Whilst we were here we also spent a day on Phi Phi island. This island was quite badly hit by the tsunami - you can still see some broken down palm trees and there is quite a lot of building work going on too. There were also pictures up of the damage caused and a memorial site. It was still a beautiful island though and we made the most of our day, baking on the beach! On the way home it started to thrash it down and the sea started getting really choppy - yet again we were caught on a boat during a rapid weather change! Its so funny here because when passengers have to change boats, they don't do it by going to land and sensibly changing...no, they pick a random point in the middle of the ocean, draw the two passing boats together and hope for the best!! Thats what appeared to be happening to us anyway! This was quite funny in the choppy sea beacuse our boat (which was a bit damp and smelt of old fish) kept smashing against the other one... ! Our evenings in Ko Lanta are something of a blur however because we did drink many a Long Island Iced Tea! So we are now in Malaysia. First impressions of Penang...rats & rain! Not all that nice. We were also a little spooked out last night when we arrived at our hotel - its a really old, creeky building with really tall ceilings and looks like something out of a horror film! I don't know if theres even anyone else staying there?! Haha, its all good fun though. Last night we went out with Laura & Heidi, two American girls that we met on our coach journey and who were actually staying at the same place as us in Ko Lanta (although we never actually met them then!).... it was pouring it down with rain so we were all drenched but we decided to go for something to eat. Whilst eating, we discovered that it was 'ladies night' at 'Slippery Senorita's' ;-)!! Can you believe it, that actually meant that not only was it free for us to get in but it was also free drinks all night (well that was until the vodka ran out, nothing to do with us tho of course!!!). Unfortunatly it had been a travel day for us so we were a bit wiped out so we couldn't quite make the most of the free drinks. Never mind!! Today we have been very cultural (well, we thought it was about time seeing as though we have been lying on beaches for the past five weeks!) - we explored the fort in Penang, went for a little walk down the esplanade, and even went to the museum!! It was quite interesting actually, and we decided that Penang in the day we quite liked!! (We thought you would be very proud of us Loll!!) For tea we went to Little India to try some local indian food...all a bit bizairre really, we were given big leaves to eat off (?)... nice though! Tonight we plan to go up Penang hill where the views across the city are supposed to be really good.... Tommorow we head off for Kuala Lumpar so more from us in a bit!