Ok.... Many many apologies for not writing sooner but we have not had much time at all while travelling through malaysia and singapore but now we're in Australia, we feel we can relax and don't feel like we have to squeeze everything in to one day! What a welcome change!

So, Langkawi. Probably the highlight of Malaysia. It was almost all stunning but Langkawi was just brilliant. I can't remember if i introduced Emma in the last blog but we met her on the ferry on the way over from Satun (Thailand) and spent a few days travelling together until the Cameron Highlands.

Waking up in Langkawi for our first full day, we are persuaded by Emma to rent Mopeds for the day and take a self-guided tour (very well navigated by our seasoned map-reader, Sam!) of this wonderful place. We have a touristy map so we can aim for the attractions and our first stop is the cable car. Unfortunately it's closed but the little oriental village there was worth the visit in itself so no time wasted (of course). With sam on the back of my bike we were more than happy just riding around and enjoying the views so the attractions weren't so important today.

Next stop, the Crocodile Farm. There are hundreds of these reptiles kept in apparently good conditions (some of the pens contradict this) and it's scary how close we actually got to these 10-15ft dinosaurs. Lets hope we don't get this close in the Australian northern territory!

More fun driving around and we come to some disappointing natural hot springs. Nothing like cleopatra's pool in Turkey but probably hotter water.

Then it's on to Mangrove where we were lucky enough to see two native eagles flying overhead - meaning we didn't have to pay 150RM each for a one hour tour!

More driving and as the day gets on, we head to the ferry port and find a welcome KFC and Starbucks. There's nothing like local food i say!!! It was deserved actually because we hadn't eaten for most of the day. Nice to take ourselves away from rice and noodles too!

Driving back to our accommodation, we head west into the sunset and enjoy breathtaking views over the purple sky as the sun disappeared beyond the hills. A fitting way to end a great day driving.

The night is yet young, however! We go to a previously recommended bar called Sunba. This place is part of a chain of great places including Suncafe, Sunflower (art and crafts shop) & Sunkarma (a chilled out restaurant & bar). In Sunba, the locals all start chatting away to you, a group of Kuala Lumpur holiday makers are also very chatty and the whole place had this amazing friendly buzz. And to top it all off, i beat them all at pool in a stunning winning streak!!!!

Quite sad to leave Langkawi as we head over to Penang the next day. No one has had a good thing to say about Penang as yet so we're a bit apprehensive.

We arrive in Georgetown - the City in Penang. Maybe this speaks for itself. Penang is known as "the pearl of the orient" - a wonderful tropical island, yet it has a great, dirty, overgrown city that takes up almost half of it.

We find a hostel - 75 travellers lodge - and the owner "Loh" (not high but low, as he so naturally puts it!) is the real gem of Penang. He helps make this place enjoyable. If it wasn't for him, we may not of had a great time here. He acted as a kind of personal tour guide by telling us exactly where to go, how to get there, where to eat etc. A truly helpful guy. We take his first recommendation and go to a bustling chinatown restaurant for dinner. Most people wouldn't dream of eating here but if it's busy, it must be good, right? Right. It was excellent and only about 3 pound for me and sam. Can't complain.

We decide that the only way to enjoy Penang is to hire mopeds again and leave Georgetown. A great decision. Much more like Langkawi when exploring, only a little bigger. Found a fishing village where i sampled more local cuisine for next to nothing. Then to a tropical fruit farm where all the local fruits unquestionably had to be tried! Mostly enjoyed too, a few funny ones though!

We finally, after much more driving, made it round to Kek Lok Si - the biggest chinese temple in Malaysia. This was worth a visit and even the trip up to the giant statue at the top of the hill was a good see. From here, we drove round to Penang Hill train station where a 30 minute, very steep train takes you up to the top where great views of all around the island can be enjoyed, pleasantly accompanied by a very english restaurant serving none other than cream teas!

The sunset was great and watching georgetown come to light was also very cool. Managed to see a lightening storm over the nearby mainland too.

I'm glad we went to Penang but we only needed the two nights and it probably isn't worth returning to. The next morning we get the bus to the Cameron Highlands.....