Well hello, g'day, howdy and hey to you all.

How are you all?

We are good, and very much enjoying our travels. It is very liberating just traveling where you fancy, booking a flight, finding a place to crash and experiencing different people and cultures, and for Wayne and I especially its the awesome FOOD! Malaysian food is really fantastic! Please don't expect Wayne and I to be thin, trim, food deprived travelers when we return as we feel like we have died and gone to heaven at the moment! Lots of gorgeous curry, roti and naan, tom yum and spicy soup and nasi goreng etc, etc. And that's pretty much 3 times a day! The more authentic, local places are the best too, with things like triple spice chicken and nasi goreng (fried rice with veg and meat in) for RM10 which is about 1.60GBP.

As you can imagine, that pretty much rules our day, 'where shall we eat and what shall we have'!

Apart from being foodaholics we are exploring the islands and chilling out. The weather has been pretty varied but always hot. As the saying goes, its either 'hot, hotter or hottest'. Its hot and humid all the time, both day and night and rarely drops below 20_C at night, usually around the 30_C mark in the day. But it feels a lot hotter as its about 90% humidity. Its the end of the monsoon season too so we have had quite a lot of rain, it sometimes lasts on and off all day, sometimes its just a brief torrential downpour , which normally cools things a bit! November is the start of the high season here but you wouldn't know it at Langkawi as its very quiet and a small tourist island.

We have been exploring the island of Langkawi, which is the main island in a cluster of 99 islands, 30km off the coast of north west Malaysia in the Andaman Sea. The island has long sandy beaches with jungle and paddy fields in the middle of the island. Its apparently one of Malaysia's best known holiday destinations but its very small compared to European resorts. Its also very cheap at is has been declared a duty free area. Alcohol is generally frowned upon in Malaysia as its predominantly a Muslim country but as always they cater for us boosie Westerners in most of the hotels, touristy restaurants and there are a few bars on the beach etc selling Tiger beer and dodgy spirits!

We hired some mopeds the other day and explored the sights on the island. The main town of Kuah is a bit ramshackle and hectic, like a very mini Kuala Lumpur. There are a few pretty waterfalls and rock pools, some which you can slide down and stand underneath to feel the cool spray. The island has quite a bit of rainforest so its great to cool off on the the really hot days. There's also a cool lookout from the mountain, Gunung Raya, where you can see over most of the island and on a really clear day across to Thailand. We attempted this winding road through the jungle on our mopeds. Mine was fine but Wayne's had such dodgy steering that it turned out to be a bit of a nightmare! It took ages to get up to the top which is when he realised that something was not quite right about the bike. Then on the way down he had to go so slow as the thing kept veering off the road. A bit nerve racking but all turned out fine.

There are loads of monkeys and lizards and geckos too. Sometimes the lizards are lying sunbathing in the middle of the road. The monkeys all have a slightly crazy look in their eyes and all I keep thinking of is that song ' Where's your head at' with the video full of scary monkeys with human faces. They look ready to pounce most of the time! One nearly went for Wayne one day when we stopped to have †closer look.

We are thinking of doing some snorkeling soon. There a few tours which take you around different islands for diving and snorkeling but up until now the weather has been a bit too rough. We did go on an island hopping tour which was good fun. It toured around the local islands which are steeped in legends. The island of Langkawi itself means 'strong eagle' and there are tons of eagles feeding and living here.

We have been staying in a place with its own little beach front and its been great to roll out of bed and have brekkie on the front overlooking the view. However we have now moved to a place which is half the price and a nicer room. I seemed to be attacked by bugs and mossies in the first place as it was surrounded by tropical gardens. I have actually just been to see a doc here as I was bitten the night before last and have had an allergic reaction (what a surprise) to whatever it was. It got me on the right little finger and the left upper arm - this now looks like a big fat sausage and is enormous! We don't know what it was but it was some insect that I †haven't hit it off with. I am now on steroids, anti-histamines and anti-biotics! I give up! I think one of these days I will be allergic to fresh air! I'm good though, just keeping cool and stocked up on food and water! Poor Wayne is thinking of wrapping me in some kind of protective outfit!

The Malay people seem lovely, very friendly and easy going and always happy to help. We really like the place. The staff at our first hotel where very sweet and kept saying ' Heeelooooo Wayne and Linsee ' when they saw us (about 10 times a day!). Wayne went to see them one day about a problem with the aircon and the girl kept calling him 'Linsee'!!!! Most entertaining because then I had to pretend I was Wayne! Even we got confused.

We have a few more days in Malaysia left. We were supposed to be going to Penang today or tomorrow but I think that we will have to see how my fat arm is. We would really like to see it though as its still one of the main remaining authentic cities, with a big colonial influence as well as a strong Chinese Malay culture. We shall see though.

We leave Malaysia on the 9th November, a weeks time, and head to Bali. We then have a month to explore Indonesia. We have done some reading up in the Lonely Planet but its a massive place, some 15000 islands, so we need to do some more planning! I think we will start in Bali and see how we go from there. We are looking forward to doing some surfing in Bali and checking out more of the Balinese culture.

Anyhoo, that's about if for now! Sorry if you are asleep by this stage, just wanted to let you all know what we're up to.