Hi Everyone!

Just a little catch up to where we are now...

We arrived in Penang and quickly made the most of being so close to little India and ended up having 5 curries in a row... oops! It was really bustling with loud Indian music blarring from shops, brightl;y coloured clothing shops and insence buring on the streets. We spent 3 days in Penang. We explored China town and little india and a few of the many hindu and buddhist temples. We went on a walk to try to find the botanical gardens but ended up going the wrong way and walking up a huge hill! However on this accidental detiour we saw, macaque monkeys and dusky langurs and on the way back down we saw a brightly coloured snake that Rich narrowly missed stepping on! In our final day in Penang we escaped the heat and went up Penang hill on a really slow tram and had a very English cream tea on the top which was nice but slightly odd and out of place!

After Penang we went to the Cameron Highlands, it was so nice and cool and a real welcome escape from the heat! We did some jungle treking but got caught in a really heavy downpour so cut it short and got the bus back! Again they loved their cream teas there too??

From the Cameron Highlands we headed to Taman Negara national park. We did a 2 day one night trek in the jungle with a Swedish couple and our guide. We walked a total of 16Km but it seems a lot longer when your in the jungle! Our accomodation consisted of a cave! It was quite eerie and you could hear many unknown noises clicking and bats! On the walk we saw tiger tracks, elephant, tapir and malaysian sun bear tracks! However we never saw the culprits.

We headed to Kuala Lumpur after 3 days at Taman Negara. We took advantage of the cinema with films in English! We also went up a large tower with views over the city.

We flew into Kuching, Borneo after 4 days in Kuala Lumpur (our current location). The city is really pretty with a relaxed feel to it. From here we went to Semenggogh. This was a pretty unique place that had semi-wild Orangutans. They had been introduced to the jungle and thier diet was supplemented by the centre. We got there at the morning feeding time, just in time to see them swinging in from the jungle to get some food. We saw a huge male Orangutan whose name was Richie! The next day we headed to Bako national park, it was an amazing place! We saw really unusual looking proboscis monkeys (photos to come soon), macaques, silvered langurs, bearded pigs and a snake! The trails led to some really nice beaches too!

We are currently in Kuching and are planning to move east towards Niah caves, the largest caves in the world soon!

Miss you all,

Zoe and Rich