Ok so i've been a little lazy this week and only just managed to get round to writing the blog. However I also just realised that as of today I've been travelling for 6 months so this is sort of a celebration blog. Thankfully this milestone hasn't been spoilt by enthusiastic travellers, hawkers or hellish bus rides....well.....maybe just one...you can't win them all. Anyway here's what i've been up to.

After the Perhentian Islands I decided a little trekking through the forest was in order mainly as this would not add to my increasingly red skin and I could have a break from the sun for a few days. I had to catch the famous Jungle train which goes through the middle of the jungle (would you believe it) at 6am. The LP really bigs this up as a must do experience, it's a place where you "can happpily chat to locals and watch the magic scenery roll by". The only local that I got a chance to talk to was a woman who came and sat next to me. Being an observant muslim she wasn't that keen on sitting on her own with a male next to her. This I can understand of course as a part of the culture and I would've made an allowance for this by moving to another seat if it weren't for the look of disgust she gave me when she had no other choice but to sit there. I gave her an evil back at this point and then made sure that I was an irritating passenger by having my I pod on loudly and occasionaly giving the odd look of contempt to my left. How bloody rude. Anyway the scenery was in fact pretty cool but not up to the amazing write up it recieved in the book. After 8 hours I changed onto a bus and headed to Taman Nagara the base camp town for trekking. I teamed up with two guys from the bus and we found a cool dorm to stay in for just a pound each and then we headed out to dinner.

We mananged to lose ourselves on the way to dinner, which didn't bode well for a trip into the jungle. Anyway, a nice Irish girl started talking to us and showed us the way. It turned out she'd only been travelling a week, and she enthusiastically began to tell us about her adventures. She just wouldn't shut up at all. We tried to make a get away citing the mossies that were eating away at us, at which point she says "I know, will you look at the bites I have on my arse there" promptly pulling her skirt down her bum and showing us the bites. The white spotty expanse we were presented with really put us off our noodles that night! Anyway she gave us her torch so we could find our way and said we could drop it off to her the next morning. We forgot and now we have an extra torch wahoo! We met up with Naomi and some of her friends from the Islands and decided to forget the organised treks and go on our own....with a local guide of course.

So the next morning we set off up half an hour up the river enthusiastically talking of the joys ahead of us and spotting the local wildlife which included otters and some monkeys which hilariously started going for it as we pulled up. Anyway we made it to the starting point and after a quick safety talk from our guide Bard, we headed off into the jungle. We were told that Leeches were a problem in the jungle and how to get rid of them. All I can say is that they are a bloody pain in the arse. I managed to have them all over my feet in no time. The strange thing is you can't feel them but you know they're gonna be there. Being a group of brits we quickly lapsed into shouting loads of obsceneities and giving Bard a pretty strange impression of british people. Perhaps we should've turned back when we were confronted by another brit who emerged from the jungle completely lost and looking a little tense. We pointed him back to the river though and continued in. If anyone here is missing a Jon he is trekking in the forest in Taman Nagara. After a couple of hours, the terrain began to get harder at which point Bard declares it's time for lunch and a break. He then proceded to tell us that actually, we were lost and he didn't really know where we were. So off he went to pick up the trial leaving us wondering if we would get out of this place alive and flicking leeches off every two mintutes. At this stage we thought this would make a good disaster film and we quickly made up a plot and chose actors to play us. I of course was torn between Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise or Jude Law to play me but quickly decided that one of Chuckle Brothers would suffice. You always need a bit of comedy in times of peril. It was quickly decided though that my character would die first! Charming, no-one obviously appreciated the comic stylings of the chuckle brothers!

Afetr an hour or so a sweating, worried looking Bard re-emerged from the jungle nervously laughing saying he could'nt find the trial but would go the other way and try to track it down there. We started to get a bit worried now but thankfully Bard came back back in 20 mins and we soon headed off. About 1km down we realised we were actually going back on ourselves. Arrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhh. Thankfully Mark in our group spotted the trail and we were back in business. The 12.5km trek was only meant to take 6 hours but we finished it in 9 and needless to say our enthusiasm waned a great deal as we plodded on. Bard even heard a tiger in the distance but we were too tired to stop and only wanted out. We emerged form the jungle demoralised, devoid of a couple of pints of blood and smelling a little funky. Still looking back it was great fun although I'll gladly give the leeches a miss.

Next up was the Cameron Highlands. Basically it's a huge area that's famous for tea plantations and some trekking. It was a cool place (literally, the temp was 20 degrees) and the guest house was awesome. I of course reverted to my English self and sampled all the teas and ate loads of scones. yum yum. I didn't manage to do any of the big walks though on account of the fact I couldn't find the bloody start of the trail. I ended up by a hospital somehow which although very nice wasn't quite what I was looking for. Thakfully a local guy gave me a lift on the back of his bike to the start of the trial (the wrong one although I found the beginning of mine in the end) It lasted all of 10 mins which I thought was sufficient and then headed back for more tea at home. I ended up spending 4 nights in the CH just chilling out. It was quite nice as there were a load of Brits there so we could all revert to type together.

After 4 days though I really had to get my arse in gear and head to KL. The bus was OK although Pukey Sue kept us all entertained on the long winding road back to sea level. Blimey. I made it to the guest house in the afternoon to find the guys who I'd been trekking with all still there. They were chilling for the day on the sofa watching films and I fell into the lifestyle quite easily. I managed to get off the sofa though and check out the local area and the market. I managed to buy 2 kilos of mangos for 1.50. I didn't quite realise how much 2 kilos was and eneded up giving half of them away. Never mind. After the guys left Naomi and I managed to drag our arses out of the hostel and see some of the sights. The Petronas Towers are an awesome sight and the city is realy cool to which is quite good as I have 6 nights here. After the towers went back to the hostel to watch a film. Naomi ppicked a film called little children which was vetoed by the group the previous day. She got her choice though today and we watched the film. It was really embarrasing as it was quite a bad film with some weird themes and loads of Sex scenes. This didn't go down to well with our Muslim hostel owners and it was quite funny introducing ourselves to some new guys who came to the hostel while the actors were getting their rocks off. Naomi therefore, wasn't allowed to pick anymore fims while she was staying. haha

We also managed to go to Malacca on a day trip and discovered we have a similar style of travelling in that we didn't want to actually see anything, just walk around, get lunch and b***** off. Which we did. So KL has been really cool and today I'm just chilling out before heading off to Java tomorrow which should be a real change of scene.

Seriously has it been 6 months? Now the end is getting closer which sucks but there's still loads to come.

Adios

Will