Almost another month has passed since my last blog and it still feels like a wrote it yesterday.

From the Cameron Highlands we headed on to Penang, an island off the west coast. We stayed at a great little guesthouse called Lazy Boys. It was run by two great Malaysian guys and had a very relaxed feel. Everyone sat around in the evenings enjoying a few beers and then we all went to the beach for a bonfire.

Georgetown is the main city on the island and is very hot, sweaty, and dirty. We spent a day wandering the streets and visiting the various temples, getting choked by the crazy amounts of incense, and haggling over 'aladdin pants'. One Bhuddist temple we entered had the most incredible carvings on the outside in stone and was beautiful inside. We met a lovely Chinese man who worked there and he was kind enough to show us around and even took us upstairs in to a room where they have 100's of small plaques. He explained that they do not visit graves as we would in the UK, but they pray to these plaques instead.

We caught a bus to a snake temple, which was a little dissapointing. A few snakes were draped over some candlesticks and not moving at all...we actually questioned if they were real but decided poking them to find out was not advised!

From Penang we caught a ferry to Langkawi which was freezing!!! Sometimes they seem to get rather over excited with their air conditioning here. Langkawi was lovely, very much a holiday spot but a nice one. We enjoyed cocktails in hammoks on the beach here and spent our first evening at a candle lit bar drinking 80p beers. Two of the staff at the bar spent most of the evening getting us to pronounce certain words and then arguing over which one of them pronounced it correctly. I actually thought they both sounded the same!

Our second night we met up with some guys we knew from the Cameron Highlands and found a great beach ber that had flame throwing and a live band. The flame throwers were rather drunk so we kept our distance and placed a few bets on how many burns they would wake up with the following morning.

Maddy flew in from the UK and so the three of us hired a car for the day on Langkawi. We took a trip to the cable car. It climbed about 700m up and the view from the top was amazing, you could see almost the whole of Langkawi and most of the surrounding islands from up there. From there we headed to the Seven Wells waterfall that gushed down the hillside. Where it has flowed with such power for so long you were able to slide down the now smooth rocks like a slide. There were also monkeys everywhere and they happily walked along beside you.

We had a great day snorkelling from the beach off Payar Island and saw baby sharks and all sorts of fish life. It was very very hot however so was nice to be in the cooler water for most of the day. Had a fantastic massage in the evening and left feeling very refreshed.

From Langkawi we headed to Butterworth, which is on the mainland, to catch an overnight sleeper train back to Kuala Lumpur. The train was great fun. You could tell that the bunks were definatley not made for westerners as they were rather short! Once we were settled we dug into some Malaysian products we had bought, not quite knowing what we were buying buy figuring we would give them a try. Amy had bought what looked like shortbread biscuits. We each had one, gave them a sniff and not being quite sure what they were I had a tiny nibble. They tasted sweet so I took a bite...not a good idea!!! There was an overwhelming taste of fish and sugar! I think my face said it all and certainly amused Amy and Maddy. Needless to say they didnt try them after that.

I awoke a couple of times during the night thinking we were going to de-rail as the train rocked so violently, but we had a very different problem awaiting us. At about 4.30am the train stopped...at 9am we still hadnt moved (we were supposed to be in KL by 6.30am). A local came down the carridge and informed us that the police had stopped all trains on the lines due to suspected terrorist activity! We were still on the train at 11am and were finally herded off and onto buses to complete the final 3hours to Kuala Lumper. So a journey that should have taken 7hours took 16hours and we finally arrived in KL rather hot, tired and slightly grumpy.

Luckily our evening made up for it. We took a trip to the Traders Hotel, a very posh place opposite the famous Petronas towers. The bar opened from 7pm and we were able to sit back sipping cocktails next to a clear blue swimming pool whilst looking out over the Kuala Lumpur skyline and lit petronas towers, worth every penny that we paid for the cocktails. That evening a fellow traveller has his Birthday celebrations so we met up with the same guys from Langkawi and partied the night away.

We travelled to Kuala Selangor for a night in the national park in a small wooden cabin. The cabin was great but the park had loads of mosquitos so we spent two days covered in suncream and mozzie repelent. Our first evening we went to see the fire flies along a local river. You took a boat out and the banks all twinkled with the 1000's of fire flies in the bushes. It was such an amazing sight and one thats very difficult to describe.

In the morning we walked the park and saw a huge variety of wildlife, otters, lizards, monkeys, mud skippers, wild dogs, herons and stalks. We then climbed a hill and met a man with a small cart full of bread rolls and green beans. We were able to buy some things from him and hand feed the silver leaf monkeys who came climbing through the trees to see us. They were very gentle and would climb up to sit on your shoulder and eat if you held bread above your head. They were not daft though and one soon realised the green beans were in my trouser pocket and hung off my leg getting them out. It was brilliant fun.

Back in KL we found a food stall where you picked up skewers of various foods and they BBQ'd it for you. You sat on tables on the street corner to eat an the food was amazing! We did get caught there in the monsoon rain, but the Malaysians were prepared and set about putting up giant umbrellas and guttering so that we didnt get wet.

Amy flew home from KL and Maddy and I spent a day relaxing. We decided we fancied a swim so made a visit to a hotel and asked if we could use the pool. We think that due to a language barrier the man on the front desk thought we were staying there and told us that "of course the pool is open, go to the 7th foor"...we didnt argue and spent the afternoon swimming and relaxing on the sun loungers, they even gave us a free welcome drink!

From KL we travelled south to Johor Bahru which was a funny little town, really just the gateway to Singapore. We got totally confused at the bus station when every screen said our bus would leave from platform 16, but on arriving there a guy sent us to plaform 19, yet every screen still said 16! Very confusing and seemingly a pointless screen system when sure enough out bus pulled into platform 19!

The hotel we were in was rather dingy, but fine for a nights sleep. We were glad to see that unlike other hotels on the road that this place did not rent rooms by the hour :)