So the time has finally come for me to fly home and I can't help but feel both sad and excited. I'm sad that the adventure is over but very excited and happy to get home and see everyone.

The last couple of weeks have been great. Maddy and I spent a night in Johor Bahru which is at the southern tip of Malaysia. We took a local bus to a nearby village to go to a Kite Museum. Our walk to find the kite museum proved eventful! We ended up getting quite lost and being bitten by unidentified bugs before taking refuge in a McDonalds to steal the free wifi and attempt to locate where we were! Luckily we were heading in the right direction and eventually made it.

From Johor Bahru we travelled across the boarder (and tiny stretch of water) to Singapore.

To begin with I was not sure how much I liked Singapore. It seemed just like any other city to me (except a bit cleaner). But as time went on it grew on me. We enjoyed a couple of days wandering the streets in Little India, China Town, and Arab Street. Gazed at the amazing Christmas lights on Orchard Road which is packed full of giant shopping malls and also visited the Botanical and Orchid Gardens which were stunning and we were even lucky enough to see some moss maintenance going on in one of the cool houses, a man on a ladder with a glue gun sticking the moss to the stone...not sure that's the best thing for moss but it was amusing to watch.

One evening we went up the Marina Bay Sands building and somehow managed to do it for free. Lots of people were paying $20 to go up to the observation deck but we decided we would rather head up there and pay for a drink each and admire the view than just pay to go up. So we joined the queue for the bar and were given a token and told to take the lift to the 76th floor. Once out of the lift we were immediately captured by the amazing view of the Singapore skyline at night and began to wander around the decking infront of the bar. After about 20minutes and having had no one ask us to buy a drink we decided to leave and no one said a word! The sad thing for the people who paid $20 was that we were on exactly the same viewing deck as them and hadn't paid a penny, it was great!

Once Maddy had left Singapore to head home I took a bus back into Malaysia and to a town called Melaka. It was a lovely place with a very very busy night Market on the weekends. My hostel was great, very relaxed and open and I met some great people there. The town had a lovely river running through it that you could take a boat along and all the buildings overlooking the river were covered with amazing graffiti depicting various scenes from Melaka's history and culture. There was also a sultans palace which is now a museum, but the whole wooden structure had been made with no nails and I'm fairly sure that at the time of building that 'no nails glue' had not yet been invented so it was pretty impressive.

I spent a good hour with a lovely Chinese man in his tea shop drinking tea. It was great to watch the world go by and chat to a local. He even gave me some magic tea, I'm supposed to drink it with a man I like and apparently he will fall in love with me. I'm a little sceptical but also now afraid to drink it with anyone I dont like!

From Melaka I returned to the Cameron Highlands for one last weekend to drink lots of tea and enjoy the great Indian food up there. Was a little confused when arriving at the bus station in Kuala Lumpur we caught the bus to the Highlands from 3 weeks earlier only to be told the buses no longer ran from there and that j had to turn around and go back to a bus station I had passed on the train about 5 stops earlier! Frustrating yet a seemingly normal occurrence in Aisian countries.

So now I am back in Kuala Lumpur where I have spent the last couple of days pottering the shops and haggling over Christmas presents. The last 7 months have been an incredible adventure and the ups have majorly out weighed the downs.

Someone on my travels said to me "Travelling isn't just about the journey of miles, it's also about the journey within yourself". They could not be more right. I have met some amazing people, seen some fantastic things and taken on some huge challenges (jumping off a cliff, rafting a 7m waterfall, and not forgetting crossing the road in Kuala Lumpur's rush hour traffic), but of course all journeys must come to an end at some point. Anyone who is reading this and considering putting on a rucksack and heading off into the unknown I can only say do it! The road won't always be a smooth one, sometimes it will be damn bumpy, but one that's very worth taking. I'm hoping it wont be too long until I'm on it again.

Merry Christmas! Xx