Well we've officially arrived in the hot and sticky part of the world! Within 24hrs we went from sub zero temperatures in Beijing to thirty degrees and high humidity in Singapore!

After landing we quickly realised that the directions we had been given by the hostel on how to get to there weren't worth the paper they were written on! After a bit of map and sign post reading we sorted ourselves out and arrived on the road were our hostel was meant to be. This place was only due to open the day before we arrived so we already had concerns over whether it would be ready or not but when our first sight of the building was one that looked somewhat derelict our minds began to boggle! Luckily for us it was a large building and the work was still going on in half of it but the hostel was complete and for the first time this trip we got to stay in a brand new bed, sheets etc. We may even be on the hostel's website as they took plenty of opening day photos to fill it up.

Singapore is a great place to get some cheap electrical gear, we were shopping for a new camera and a friend of ours, who we met in China, was shopping for a laptop. Together we went round all the major electrical shopping malls and after much debate we decided against buying a camera, mainly due to the sales tactics being so sneaky and always trying to hide things if the price was worth looking at or in other shops things cost the same as in the UK so...

As we were in Singapore we decided that we couldn't leave without trying the famous cocktail in its original country and most famous hotel, so we headed for the Long bar at The Raffles Hotel for some Singapore Slings! Personally I can't stand the taste of Gin so I left it up to Jean-Marie and Rowena to taste test while I munched my way through rather a lot of free monkey nuts, it seemed customary to throw all the shells on the ground once you had finished as the bar floor was absolutely covered in them!

From Singapore we caught a surprisingly nice coach across the straits to Malaysia and up to Kuala Lumpur or KL as everyone seems to know it. The journey took 6 hours but we really didn't mind at all as we were sat in seats the size of arm chairs, driving down the road we were even more surprised to see coaches running the same journey in double decker buses with only 16 seats on board! Luxury.

Although the journey up was fine the arrival into KL was a little abrupt as in the pouring rain our bus driver decided the traffic was too slow moving and opened the door to let us all out before the bus terminal. There we were lugging our bags along the road, weaving in and out between the cars in the pouring rain having to avoid all the puddles formed by the large potholes in the tarmac, welcome to Kuala Lumpur!

KL was a good place to do some electrical shopping as well and we finally bought our new camera at the same price as we would have paid via the internet in UK but at least this way we can make good use of it for the next few months before we get home.

We didn't really have many plans for KL but the iconic Petronas towers had to be seen, we chose not to bother going up to the viewing platform as although it is free the platform is bizarrely only around a third of the way up and you have to book a time slot to go up before 8.30 in the morning, never mind, seen one tower you've seen 'em all!

The other main attraction in KL is the Batu caves, this is a really strange place, a couple large cathedral size caves half way up a cliff and then filled with religious shrines and temples! There is a massive gold statue in front of the 272 steps leading up to the caves and also a few other temples, shrines and large statues dotted along at the entrance to the religious grounds.

Having seen all we wanted to see in KL we went to the bus station to buy tickets up to Butterworth where we got the ferry across to Penang. We asked at the information desk where the best place to buy tickets to our destination would be and we were directed to a certain desk. Once we approached the desk and asked about the tickets we were then directed to a lady standing OUTSIDE a booth, thinking nothing of it we enquired about the tickets again and were quoted a price that we chose to accept. When the day of our bus journey arrived we made our way downstairs to underground carbon monoxide chamber that is Kuala Lumpur's main bus station, Pudaraya. The bus was due to leave at 0830 so by 0900 when no bus had shown we were asking all over and found the ticket had been sold by a tout but the bus should be here soon anyway, hopefully!!! Eventually a man appeared and horded us, and another couple waiting for the same bus, outside and over the road to a waiting bus which we boarded happily at this stage although we didn't end up leaving until 1015! After reading other peoples stories of Pudaraya bus station it sounds like this was just one of many similar tales and the same would more than likely have happened even with the fully legit companies!

When we arrived in Butterworth we had a short walk to the ferry terminal and then on to the ferry for a very short and cheap ride across the bay to Penang. It's quite a large island and the main town is Georgetown, a surprisingly built up place with very few footpaths, making walking around a little bit unnerving at times!

While we were in Penang we decided it was about time to unload a few of our heavy winter clothes as they won't be much use to us from now until we get home, hopefully! We didn't throw them away but it seems to be a matter of chance whether we will actually get to see them again, 3 months by sea mail we have been told but theres pretty much nothing we can do about it if there are any problems!

There are a number of temples on the island and we chose to visit three of them, the reclining Buddha, the Burmese temple and Kek Lok Si. The first two are on opposite sides of the road from each and where both pretty impressive to see, the first of many temples during this part of the trip tho so I'm sure we will be sick of 'em after a while. The third temple we visited, Kek Lok Si, turned out to be a bit of a disappointment as it had been made out to be a lot nicer than it was. The stairs up to the temple are packed solid with stalls full of all sorts of souvenirs and when you reach the opening to the temple there is what best can be described as a water filled pit full to bursting with tortoises and very little option if they didn't want to be in the water! The rest of the temple carried on the rather run down and over touristy feel to the place, there is a lot of building work in progress so hopefully it will be back up to its former glory sometime soon.

From Penang we took a boat up to another Malaysian island called Langkawi. This is where a lot of Malaysians go as a holiday spot and as its school holidays now it made things a little busy than normal but it wasn't too crowded. Langkawi has some beautiful beaches and quite a few other interesting sites however we only gave ourselves two nights on the island as we wanted to get to Thailand with time to find accommodation over Christmas. We struggled to find a place to stay when we turned up but after several failed attempts we managed to get ourselves booked in to a reasonable room not too far from the beach without costing an arm and a leg. We didn't have time to do any of the tours without rushing everything so we just took things slow for a change and decided to kick back and enjoy the beach.

NEST STOP: Thailand