Ladies and gentlemen, this time I have managed to get a PC where I can use my photos so be sure to check the previous entry as well for me!

Well, Malaysia's been a blast so far, we arrived in Kota Bharu from Thailand and followed our Rough Guide's directions to 'the most pleasant place to stay', if this was the most pleasant then I would really hate to see the others. There were a couple of mangey rabbits roaming around the concrete garden and a number of turtles in a variety of containers, all with next to no space to run around! It was a small border town so not a lot happened.

From KB we made our way accross to the Perhintian islands for a bit more beach, it was nice and reasonably secluded. I think the atmosphere on Malaysian beaches is different to Thai beaches because of the difficulty and expense of getting hold of beer! We did a couple of dives, saw some good, well populated coral, a couple of trigger fish and had fun. We also did a wreck dive, not too old (2001) but still ok, unfortunately the visibility was bad (2-4m), my equipment went wrong and I had to ascent in a panicy but controlled way while the rest of the group carried on swiming, not realising I was in a spot of bother! There are procedures for this and I just waited at the surface and managed to correct my equipment. They resurfaced and we went down again! I don't think the dive master was really listening when I told him I had had a problem. Because I had lost so much air, I ran out at the end which is never a good thing! Fortunately the irresponsible DM was keeping an eye on me and knew I was low on air, I was able to breathe on his alternate supply as we surfaced. A real adventure dive!

From here we moved accross to Penang, a town with a good atmosphere. We managed to find a pub which was spookily like the Marquis Wellington on Granby St. in Leicester, a really typical British pub. We left soon after a nice Finnish girl started telling us about a night club called Slippery Senoritas! We just couldn't afford it!

We also went to a museum in Penang which was like most museums. It was interesting but I have forgotten most of what I read. It's pretty cool to get a feel for the history of the country though, even if you don't remember the details, maybe.

From Penang we made our way to the Cameron Highlands, another place of adventure........

We were there for 3 days and stayed in a really nice Guest house called Daniels Lodge, it had loads of movies which was a bonus because it rained most afternoons! We did a couple of treks, some really good walking and not too easy, the paths were hard to find in places but we got through (heros!). The first day went without a hitch but on teh second day, after a lot of sweating we arrived at teh top of a hill with two paths and no sign. Of course the path we took led to absolutely nothing after 15 minutes of down hill so we had to scramble back up to take the alternative. Back at the top of the false path, Steve stopped to pee and I went to look at the other path, I heard a slight buzzing and next thing I knew I was being stung! I ran back to Steve yelling and he had no idea what was happeneing, they were under my T-shirt so I threw down my hat, glasses, camera and bag, ripped off my shirt and threw it down and fled down teh path we had originally come from waving manically and yelling for teh bees to leave me alone.

I made it around 300m down before the bees stopped stinging, there was one stuck in my hair and two trying their very hardest to penetrate my trousers, I cleared them with some frantic swatting and called out to a stunned Steve who was still at the top, not getting stung. He decided to attempt a running collection of my stuff but as he liftem my shirt a few stragglers attacked him and he recieved his punishment! To his credit he made it halfway to me with the shirt so it was the first thing to be recovered as it was away from teh nest. It took nearly an hour to reclaim my things, involving me dressed in Steve's jumpen and rain jacket with teh hood pulled tight, circling around the hill to come up on teh other side of teh nest where I had discarded my things. I managed not to get stung again and we decided to go back teh way we had come rather than cross the bees again so we trudged home, took a wrong turn and added about an hour onto our journey, and it started raining. All said and done, not a great day. On a brighter note, the CH have loads of 'Pluck your own' (I think that should be a place to buy chicken) strawberry places and serve good old tea and scones!

We journeyed next to Taman Negara, the oldest rainforest in teh world (apparently 300 million years), also possessing the longest canopy walkway in the world. We took a 3 hour boat up river (sore arse) to Kuala Tahan, a town at the edge of the forest. That afternoon we walked the canopy walkway. Its high, and long. It also offers some really good views and I peed off it! (Respectful!)

We stayed in our first dorm room that night and went on a night safari which sucked but I did get to ride on the roof of a 4x4 for 2 hours. We saw lots of cows and a brief glimpse of a monkey. Also some eyes identified as being a leopord but we couldn't see the body or even teh head so it may as well have been solution to the world's energy problems for all I know!

The next nioght we stayed in a hide with 10 other people, we hiked for 6 hours to get there which caused unprecidented amounts of sweating. We got bitten by leeches and there were more of my favourite creatres (the beloved bee) nesting at the hide! Fortunately I didn't seem to excite these in the same way as the ones in the Cameron Highlands and no one got stung. We saw a Tapir at 0430, most missed it because they were asleep, it's really hard to be awake when staring into pitch black in a silent room and shining a torch every 10 minutes or so to try and caatch some beasts out! I had been up for about half an hour and the Aussie couple swept the torch around, he gave a small gasp and pointed. A rotund Tapir was waddling towards the salt lick, bulls eye!! Steve was asleep but he stirred and I whispered that there was an animal, it's hard to talk in teh hide because you're frightened of scaring the animal away.

The next day we got the boat back and waited for our boat home, the nice lady at teh guest house let us shower and she'd looked after our bags for us over night. Back in Jerantut, the maing access town for TN we bought a ticket for teh 2359 sleeper train to Kuala Lumpar and just waited. And waited. We were so tired and when we eventually got on teh train we passed straight out and slept like babies. Unfortunately the ride was only 7 hours so we were still tired when we arrived. We found our way to La Village, recommended to us by some girls we met while waiting and slept until 1300! When we woke we wandered around, exploring the local vicinity for a couple of hours and thinking about what we were going to do with our time in KL. We spent most of that day (yesterday at the guest house, watched a movie in the evening and chatted to the other people staying there, if you go to KL, go there, it's really cool.

Today we have been to see the tallest twin towers in the world, the Petronas towers and Steve went up the observatory tower (I was too tight and had an ice cream instead!). KL is a really nice capital, mainly shopping based and our 3 days will be plenty as we have no money but it's a lot nicer than Bangkok and we don't feel like there's a back packer area like Khao San Road, we are actually in the city. A better experience of real life.

That's your lot I'm afraid and I'm afraid it was quite a lot! Well done to all those who amde it to the end!

Take care,

Dave