Hello Everyone!!

Firstly, many thanks for all of your kind wishes for my birthday. We had a lovely day, catching up on some retail therapy and eating some lovely cupcakes! :)

Last time we wrote, we were in Kuah Town, Langkawi. The beaches of Langkawi were nice and after a couple of nights in the 'pink palace' we moved to 'The Cabin Langkawi'. The pool at our first hotel was pretty impressive with slides coming down the rocks from a waterfall and about 5 pools all joined together. We tried to swim in the 'lazy river' but it was actually as dirty AS a river, so we got out! The Cabin was very nice - almost brand new, and very stylish. It was a sort of metal freight container, inside of which was our room! We were a little scared at some points because we didnt think a huge metal box was the best place to be during the many thunderstorms in Langkawi. There was literally a thunderstorm and rainshower every day and night, though they only lasted a few minutes. They were really impressive to watch with fork lightning and some of the loudest thunder ever! We got caught in a rainstorm more than once!

From the duty free capital of the world we flew (hooray!!) to Kuala Lumpur! KL is a cool city and there are MANY MANY malls here! There are soo many that we could not see all of them in 7 days! We went to malls shaped like egyptian pyramids and malls with entire theme parks inside them - they are really something else! At the Berayah Times square mall we went on the rickety roller coaster, which was actually TERRIFYING! It actually passes over the shoppers below, and does loop the loops and barrel rolls! We also let Tom loose on the bumper cars where he proceeded to bully a fat child mercilessly. I sat in the passenger seat having nothing to do with it, wishing the seat belt was tighter, although secretly loving it!

On my birthday we spent the morning in the pyramid shopping mall and had a lovely chinese meal in the most packed and frantic cantonese restaurant ever! In the afternoon we had a little rest before going out to a nice Mexican feast (pictures to come!) at Pavilion KL mall. I had a lovely surprise in the morning when I woke up and Tom had blown up balloons the previous evening in the bathroom (BLESS) and threw them on me in the morning. He also got me a little party hat to wear and some presents too! :) We went down for the usual chicken nuggets for breakfast, and when we came back up to the room, the hotel staff had added MORE balloons and there were roses and champagne and chocolates on the bed - Thanks Dad and Mum! I think the hotel staff were very excited about doing this as they were scurrying around all day looking very pleased with themselves!

In the afternoon, whilst we were resting and just after I had called home, the entire staff force knocked at the door and barged past Tom, and proceeded to sing happy birthday 'Miss Lucy' and presented me with a cake with 3 candles! My cake read "Happy Birthday Lucy Corbet". It was a stodgy chocolate cake - my favourite! We are still trying to finish it now!

Today we went to the cinema to see 'The Lovely Bones' and are eagerly anticipating getting to Singapore to watch 'Shutter Island'! Tomorrow we fly to Khota Bharu and will stay there 1 night before going by bus to the dock to sail to the Perhentian Islands. Hopefully we may do some more scuba diving there, but if not, the snorkelling is said to be great!

We will post the photos of KL (of which there are many courtesy of D. Bellamy!!) asap. The computer we have managed to locate is from about 1956 and won't hold up to such new fangled technology!!

Lots of Love to everyone,

Lucy and Tom xxxxx

(p.s. THE BEARD IS STAYING!)