Last time I wrote I was still in Koh Tao, which seems ages ago now. We celebrated Hettie's birthday there at the beach bars and during the day we trekked through a mountain to get to another beach which was paradise, absolutely beautiful, perfect blue sea and so deserted. On the way back we had to trek back a different way but we had all run out of water and were so thirsty and so hot, the way back lead through a super posh resort with a pool that you had to pay 10pounds just to swim in, was really nice but we felt quite out of place dressed in our sarongs and boiling hot from the walk! We also did a snorkelling trip around Koh Tao, we swam in Shark Bay and Claire saw the shark but I missed it, doh! and i had the disposable underwater camera that we'd brought, but more on sharks later!! Me, Claire and Hettie got the overnight boat and bus to Koh Phi Phi - it took 17 hours - 7 hours longer than it should have!! the boat had big rooms full of mattresses and you all sleep alongside eachother, woke up in the morning realising that we should have been there by now - the boat had run aground!! so we had to wait for another boat to come out which we moved onto, we finally got to Surat Thani and from there got a 3 hour bus to Krabi and then another hour and a half on a boat to Phi Phi!

Phi Phi was stunning! We spent lots of time chilling on the beach and went out in the evenings where you can get free buckets on the hour every hour - lots of fun! We also climbed the viewpoint which is on the Tsunami escape route, its really steep and long but has spectacular views but its very sad to see the photo at the top of how it looked after Tsunami, it really is so hard to imagine especially as Phi Phi wasn't one of the hardest hit but its devastation was incredible. The local people believe that it has allowed them to begin again, they no longer allow mopeds or cars - only bicycles and there are restrictions on how built up it can get. Another day we did a snorkel trip (yes another one but the sealife here really is amazing!) it was in a longtail boat which was fun and took us to a beautiful little island with the most amazing beach - it was like a desert island, we also went to where The Beach was filmed - was soooo excited about this, we had to jump off the boat and swim upto a cave which we climbed through then walked through some jungle and came out of the trees onto The Beach, it looks so cool (not quite the same as the film, i guess they must have superimposed some of the cliffs), the limestone cliffs are spectacular and of course the sea is perfect with white sand!

On that Friday we all went our separate ways (Claire to Oz, Hettie to Blai and me to Malaysia). So after a very long bus journey and crossing the border I arrived in Penang, stayed in a place called New Banana, it was quite late so just went for the first guesthouse, the rooms wre pokey and the beds hard but i was knackered so didnt really care, the next morning I found a beautiful guesthouse - Old Penang Guesthouse - was traditional with big wooden rooms, free internet, free breakfast, DVDs and a big social area - my favourite guesthouse of the trip! Here I met 2 girls who live in Boxted (something liek that) which is near Colchester!! small world, a whole big group of us went out in the evening to Upper Penang Road. During the daytimes I walked around all the historic sights and climbed a lighthouse and also went to Penang Hill. Here you get a funicular Railway up the hill and then you can cream tea in a restaurant overlooking the view - was really nice!

On Monday mrning (5am!) I got a bus to the Perhentian Islands, it was only me and one other girl on it who also happened to be from Essex!! yay!! she's from Southend (Emma), we were staying at the islands for the same amount of time so we stuck together and went to D'Lagoon for a night (dingy rooms but nice secluded beach - only good for 1 day though) then moved to Coral Bay - a longer beach with a bit more going on. We met 2 other girls from Bristol here so there was a good group of us. We spent the evenings over at Long Beach as it has the best bars, had to get a speed boat there an dback - v funny as you get soaked! The days were spent sunbathing and swimming. We also did a snorkel trip here too!

I swam alongside a turtle!!!!

one of the most amazing experiences!! we also saw some small sharks (they are friendly reef sharks that dont eat you, not quite sure why!) the coral was amazing and saw so many different types of fish!

I then went to Taman Negara and Emma made her way to Bali (im really considering making time for Bali later in the trip). Taman Negara is a huge rainforest/jungle with the longest canopy walkway in the world - I walked along it and trekked up a huge mountain with spectacular views, it was absolutely sweltering though but well worth it. After this I got a 2 hour boat journey along the river to catch the bus to Kuala Lumpur on which I played Uno with an Australian father and his 15 year old children - pretty random but they were a cool hippy family and he was talking about how he'd been there 16 years earlier and how different it was with no guesthouses.

I arrived in KL last night and stayed in a tiny dorm room near Reggae Bar, have found a nice guesthouse today called Backapackers Travellers with a balcony, got my own room for tonight as fancied a change from dorms but I will get a dorm again tomo night. On wednesday morning I fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia to meet Laura (from volunteering) so really looking forward to that! xxx