Final stint in Asia

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Hey,

We got to Penang and unfortunelty I havn't that much to say about the place. We only had 2 night there and we did various walks around the Malaysian Island but nothing really to note. The only real thing we did was to watch the first game of the world cup which was about as good as our experience in Penang. The British rule is obvious here as many signifanct buildings stand which is understandable since they only regained complete independence in 1975.

We left Penang and headed to Kular Lumpar hoping Malaysia would get better, and it did. Kuala Lumpar is an amazing capital. It seems to have so much to offer the hostel was also the best one we have stayed in by far it was unbelivably clean and the rain shower was just what we needed. We got to see the spectacular Petronas Towers and even visited the Batu Caves which were cool. The cave is home to a hindu temple and it takes 272 steps to get there, which also provide good views.

Our next stop was a relaxing time in an Island called Pulau Tioman which is a jungle island surrounded by white sandy beaches, our first Chalet was a bit of a dump. The bed was damp and smelt pretty bad and the bathroom didn't get much better. So we changed after 2 nights into to somewhere a lot cleaner but with ignorant staff it always seems a compromise. Tioman is a little gem if you know where to go, if anyone does go there I would suggest avoiding Tekek unless your planning on doing the trek to Juara which is awesome and takes about 1hr30mins at a reasonable pace. Juara is pretty cool but out of the way of everywhere else. We started at ABC not spectacular but we got to see lots of monitor lizards which range from 2 to 4ft long.

Martin decided to do his advanced course here which he really enjoyed, and I went for a snorkel not expecting to see much. Suprisingly Tiomans underwater life is even better than above ground. I only went snorkelling and the variety of species I saw was incredibly. My swim took me over to Monkey Island, and although I didn't get to see the desired turtle I did pass a 3-4ft black tip shark which froze me in amazement and fear. Then I saw a fish even bigger than the shark I forget its name but it was massive!!

Walking through the jungle is amazing but really humid, to really appeciate it I stopped and sat on a rock for about 20 minutes whilst the wildlife around me gradually became greater and greater. The main thing to watch are the monkeys, they mainly fall out of trees so there easy to spot.

We now are in Singapore and had dinner in China town which reminded us of the delights of Chinese food. We fly to Oz tomorrow can't believe we've come to the end of our Asia experience. Overall its amazing!!

Speak to you again in Oz, party time!!

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Comments

[Will]

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You went to monkey island?!!? Was it better than the game? Were there lots of puzzels to be solved?