Malaysia is very different from everywhere else we've been - mainly because it is so multicultural, where as most other places haven't had such a mixture of people. There are big communities of chinese and indians here, making for a great range of food! Also makes for a fascinating mixture of architecture, particularly if you add in the colonial influence of Britain and other European countries.

Our first stop was Georgetown, in the North West of Malaysia. It is actually on a large island called Penang, just off the main peninsular. We spent a couple of nights there - the accommodation was not up to the standard of Ao Nang that's for sure -and the addition of the prostitutes on the road outside made it all the more pleasing! However, Gerogetown was a nice place to spend a couple of days with traditional chinese and indian areas with temples and mosques, to modern nightclubs and bars.

From Georgetown we headed into the Cameron Highlands - it was so nice to get away from the heat for a couple of days. It was even cold enough to wear jeans and a jumper in the evening... bliss after weeks of 35 plus!!

The highlands are a major tea growing area, as well as being home to some beautiful jungle scenary. We went on a jungle trek up one of the mountains, which turned out to be more of a vertical climb using tree roots to pull ourselves up! It was great fun though (if a little muddy as it rains quite a bit up in the highlands at this time of year) and the views at the top were amazing! From there it was a 2 hour walk down the road (on the other side of the mountain) to the road where we could get a bus, but we took a detour into a tea plantation to have tea and scones which ended up adding another hour of walking to our day - so overall we were on our feet for 6 hours, with a two hour climb at the beginning... I think it's safe to say we were pretty tired by the time we got back to our hostel!

From the highlands we moved on to Kuala Lumpur, where we arrived yesterday to be welcomed by the hugest thunderstorm! Today has been spent taking in the sights, including the impressive Islamic Arts Museum. Unfortunately the Petronas Towers were closed today, so we'll have to save that for another time.

We're off early tomorrow morning to Sabah, which is on the island of Borneo (still Malaysia) where we're hoping to climb Mount Kinabalu, do some white water rafting and hopefully take a trip into the jungle - so an action packed 10 days ahead!

D&S xx