SINGAPORE Everywhere in Singapore was full, when we arrived, because Singapore has been taken over by HERBAL LIFE convention (think over-fanatical slim-fast enthusiasts) so we spent the best part of an evening sorting out accommodation with different hostels in Singapore's Little India. Thursday, our first full day in Singapore, was Owain's last day before his mammoth trek back up to Bangkok to fly home, so we decided to spend it in the new Universal Studios. ...

SINGAPORE Everywhere in Singapore was full, when we arrived, because Singapore has been taken over by HERBAL LIFE convention (think over-fanatical slim-fast enthusiasts) so we spent the best part of an evening sorting out accommodation with different hostels in Singapore's Little India. Thursday, our first full day in Singapore, was Owain's last day before his mammoth trek back up to Bangkok to fly home, so we decided to spend it in the new Universal Studios. ...

Melaka and Tioman Island Our plan to catch the train South to Melaka from Langkawi got off the worst start imaginable. The man in the rail ticket-booth took one look at me and said, "bad news."He then said, "Where you going?"and then, "Train de-railed". And so we had to resort to our old favourite - the Malaysian bus. This one was as much of a fiasco as all of the others. Due to leave at 10pm for an overnighter, we were still wa...

Tuesday morning we were up at dawn again to catch a bus half way up Malaysia’s West Coast to a town called Butterworth, where we could then catch an onward ferry to Pulua Penang, apparently one of Asia’s most fascinating islands. The bus was scheduled for half 9, so were arrived, bright and early, were given the typical Malaysian help with direction to the bus we needed – a waft of the hand in a vague direction, and a number ‘4’ – we did eventually f...

Sorry it has been sooo long since we have done any updating on our adventures! I promise we are going to make an effort to fill in the gaps as soon as possible! We are now in Malaysia... a bit of a spur-of-the-moment idea which came about in Picton a couple of days before we left New Zealand - slightly tipsy, after having almost won a pub quiz (we didn't lose anyway, which was a first for me) - and we decided to trim Australia down to one week only and pull forw...