We landed in Penang and went straight to the beach as we needed a rest after traveling India and China. The first beach we went to was Batu Ferrengi in Penang and spent a week there, eating, relaxing and reading. We then headed back to Penang George Town and stayed in a lovely Chinese Mansion. The food in George Town is great, we ate in the local food hall with food from all over Asia. From Penang we headed to Perenthian Islands, this place is great. The water nearly as nice as in the Andaman Islands. We shared the each with the local wildlife, huge monitor lizards. The snorkelling there was good to we were able to swim with sharks(which scared Keely to death), turtles, huge puffer fish, massive corals, squid, Angel Fish and thousands more. The turtles were the highlight of this place. Rhamadam is being celebrated here since we arrive so the local muslims can not eat from sunrise to sunset and because of this sometimes it was hard to get food at some resturants. But we survived!

Next we got a luxury bus, which was very cheap, down to Kuala Lumpa and saw the Petronas Tower and rode on the mono rail. From here we flew to Borneo and met Jo in Kota Kinnabalu, as she wanted to climb Mount Kinnabalu, the highest mountain between the Himilayas and South America. The weather was terrible at the mountain, howling winds and terrential rain, so she was unable to get to the summit. I know Jo will be back to climb the mountain again. When Jo left we then went to Sepilok in the jungle, well what is left of it!! to see the orangutang sanctuary. From Sepilok we hired a taxi for the day with a portuguese guy, Tiago and his partner Agnes, we had to bargain hard to get the price of the taxi down. We went to see the Gumatong caves where they collect the birds nest for the soup. The cave was massive and so was the pile of bat guano that stank of amonia and was coverd in huge cockroaches. Not keely favourite place !. We then headed to the river where we met a river guide and then had to bargain hard to get the price down again for the boat. He let us cook noodles in the kitchen for us all and then we headed onto the river. The river was surrounded by a pathway of jungle bordered by the hectares of palm oil plants. But this pathway alloed us to see orangutang, probiscus monkeys, long tailed macca, many different hornbills and a herd of pygmy elephants. The elephants are not scared of the tourist boats and we were only a few metres away. The orangutangs were scared of us, it was good to see wild orangutangs rather than ones that look at humans as a free feed. The boat trip was the highlite for keely and i in malaysia. Now we are in Sandakan waiting for our flight to Singapore. Sandakan is a crazy mixture of cultures from all over Asia, Phillipino, Thai, Chinese, Indian, Indonesian and Malay.

Malaysia a great place for wild life and jungle experiences. Borneo is much harder and more expensive than main part of malaysia. It is sad to see where thr jungle has gone and replaced with Palm oil and rubber plantations. What will be the future of this place and its wildlife.