Howdi ho!

Well thankfully we caught up we some rain again (as you can probably make out from the pic...and that is a car heading down a road, not accidentally driving through a river as it appears!), the sun was starting to get a bit much so we thought we could do with a cool off! Of course this isn't quite how we were thinking when we woke up this morning and had to wade down the road to breakfast. Every cloud has a silver lining though, and my silver lining came in the form of Joe losing his leg down a drain which was hidden by all the rain water this morning...it sounds cruel i know, but he survived (though my camera in his pocket nearly didnt!). It really was the funniest thing either of us has experienced in a while (this may be one of those episodes you had to be there to appreciate but bear with me and try and picture it...it really was great!). So, story goes, we were heading down the pavement/road/shallow river this morning and noticing Joe isnt beside me i turn around to see, what looks like, he has tripped over in the rain. My first thought is to check he is alright and that he must be pretty peeved off to now have a soaking wet leg, but i am soon totally distracted by the thought that i might actually wet myself on the side of the road as i notice that he is actually pulling his leg back out of a drain and trying to retrieve his flip flop which has floated off and away!!! I'm literally doubled over laughing. Joe gets his own back later when i slip over in the travellers lodge in front of one of the other guests, sprawled on the tile floor almost wetting myself again!

So, an eventful first day here in Penang! After all that excitement we didnt really fancy another soaking so sought out the safety of the cinema in town and watched the new Batman film. I pestered Joe almost the whole way through trying to figure out what was going on, i thought these comic films were supposed to be easy to watch?! He isn't able to get too annoyed with me this week as i keep reminding him that he needs to make the most of me before we are apart for 7months - so he is trying to make the most of my incessant questions, my habit of shoving whatever i am eating or drinking in his face and insisting he try it, etc, etc...lots of other pestering habits which i am sure he is going to be lost without! Same goes for me also :( I am trying to get the hang of this independence thing though, for eg. when Joe went diving the other day on Perhentian Kecil (our second stop in Malaysia before arriving here last night) i had to sunbathe on the beach on my own - that was tough. I then had to head up to the restaurant, sit on my own, order my lunch without any decision-making aid (possibly the hardest part of this whole episode) and then had to pay...this was when i really realised how much trouble i was in! While we have both taken it in turns to draw money out whilst we've been away, joe has been in charge of all the money and so whenever we pay for anything he is the one to work out the exchange rate, find the right bills, and all that malarky. I think investing in a calculator will stand me in good stead for Oz! Another point at which i was particularly concerned about my chances of survival on my own was when i came close to burning my foot off in our hut in Kecil - it wasn't until Joe pointed out to me that i was standing on our lit mosquito coil that i realised how much my foot hurt. All in all, im not convinced of my chances out in the big wide world on my own! I will continue to keep you all posted on how im getting on!

So having left Phangan last monday, we were in need of some serious impressing to be won over by Malaysia as we had really fallen for Thailand in general but specifically Bottle Beach and the great bunch of people we met there. Particularly 3guys who you will see in some of our pics - Glyn, Alex and D.C. who kept us thoroughly amused and helped Joe feel like less of a lady boy as i applied eyeliner and mascara to him for our Pirate party! This was possibly the most fun i've had in a while - make upping and nail painting several boys! Joe realised just how good guys have it later that night when he had to remove all the warpaint and exclaimed that he 'could never be bothered to be a girl'!!! Bottle beach was really like no where else we have been yet, such a community there and a great atmosphere, we had so so much fun and met so many great people...despite my terrible skills at friend making (another concern for Oz) best illustrated when i went far-too-far off on one explaining to a girl we met on one of our first nights just how strange it was that a guy we met in Cambodia happened to know the sister of one of my sisters best friends. Confusing enough as it is, but for some reason i felt the need to explain the background of how my sister met her friend and how i also happened to know the sister of the friend quite well from school, etc, etc......and so i went on and on until this girl hastily dashed away explaining that she desperately needed to talk to someone who had just entered the bar. I don't blame her, i would have run away too if i had had to listen to me. Mum, i love you, but i think this is your terrible need to explain everything in HUGE depth that has rubbed off on me!

Right, owner of internet cafe is turning off lights so will have to wrap things up here.....i can hear you all breathing a sigh of relief! Perhentian islands were also FAB - beautiful beach, awesome diving and snorkelling, sharks, jellyfish, stingrays, nemo's, turtles, etc, etc.....COOL stuff. Diving instructor didn't beat Phangans on the beautiful eyes scale, but the fish and water were millions better!

Well, hope to hear from you all soon as home will feel even further away when joe comes back.

Love to all,

Vic and Joe

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