hello the last blog from Malaysia!!!!! Ok so we left Sipadan in Sabah and headed to our last destination Tawau Hills National Park! We werent expecting much as its rather unknown but it turned out to be great! We stayed at the park and had a dorm to ourselves, right in the jungle. It was busy with local tourists at the first waterfall which is at the park entrance, but as nobody seems interested in trekking in Malaysia we had the trails to ourselves, which was so good as after about an hour of trekking through the jungle really quietly Chris saw a wild boar! They were actually crossing the river and coming towards us, and we realised it was a whole family! Six rather fat babies, the mother and a massive giant father with big tusks! They came right towards us upto a couple of feet away (i think they must have been poorly sighted) and they suddenly legged it back across the river! Also saw a GIANT spider (truly hideous) lots of macaque monkeys having a huge fighting tournament and groups of Rhinoceros hornbills! We did two long teks, one to a really nice but freezing waterfall and another to some hot springs. I dont think anyone had attempted this one in years it was seriously overgrown and involved a lot of climbing! Also trekked to the biggest tropical tree species in the world, 88 metres high couldnt quite see the top! The morning before we left a lovely local botanist called Steven showed us around the trpical gardens where they have ventured into the forest and collected thousands of species to preserve one of each plant or tree from the jungle! He was so intelligent and well informed and explain all the uses of the plants ranging from medicine to edibles to roofing! He also told us about a certain sepcies of the Cicada insect (makes a very high pitched sound by rubbing its wings together) which starts off in chryssallis type form ina a kind of termite mound underground, takes upto 7 years to prepare for the outside world, gets outside, reporduces and then dies within 2 weeks!!! doesnt sound like the greatest quality of life to me!

We were stuck in Tawau for 2 days before flying to KL which was a seriously dead end town so we spent a ridiculous of time on the internet (hence why all the blogs and photos have been updated!)I got forced to the cinema to see two horror films (thats the only choice in malaysia, they love the gore) and I think I was rather brave, seeing as they both centered around hideous unrelenting massacre in hotel rooms!

On the flight to Kl met Delilah, a really sweet malay girl and talked about English pop music for 3 hours (chris headphones went straight on!) and arrived in KL around midnight. The last couple of days were supposed to be spent in Melacca, but there were some protests on around the British Emnbassy which meant crazy traffic all weekend! So we went to the Aquarium which was really good marine life and a cool walk through tunnel with sharks and manta rays and a moving floor! We bumped into our friends Claire and Tel and went to the 3D cinema which I'd been wanting to go to since the last time i went (about 14 years ago!) Things have moved on in the technology world and no longer do you get two roses wrappers in a cardboard frame oh no! check out the fetching eyewear in the photos! The film ocean underworld was so good sharks coming to eat your nose and fishes all aorund you, was a lovely reminder of the wonder that was Sipadan! Of course, we couldnt leave without doing some shopping and we now have next seasons wardrobe!! the shopping centre had a big fashion show on so we watched a bit of that, although we failed to see the appeal of tight white trousers, white pointy shoes and a lime green silk shirt for men! Bangkok was more expensive and not as good for clothes so we are going to skip shopping there so there ive justified my spending!! Had a treat in the hotel yesterday as i heard chinese orchestral music from sonewhere in the hotel, rambled up a few flight of stairs and there was a rehersal of a big orchestra on the top floor, the music was incredible!!

Were just about to catch our flight to Bangkok but this morning took the bus to the Batu caves which are beautiful and the scale of them is awesome. Cheeky monkeys everywhere (perfect photo op passed me by as the batteries went in the camera just as a monkey took a can of coke from the bin, and drank it then licked his lips!)the temple must get so stressed because even when we were there they destroyed the place chucking rubbish everywhere!

So we say goodbye to Malaysia and Sawadee to Thailand again! cant wait to see our friends in the village and plans to go to a paradise island for the last week are underway so we can be jaffs orange on our return to you white shiny people!!lots of love and we shall see you all very soon!! XXXX