Louise's Section 'God has been good to me but it looked as if H'w l'andonne me now. Mavhe H was angry because He'd already done the best for me; He'd eve'. 'ne free' - n real '-dom and a community that adcn'jted we completely' Welcome to the world of my reading leisure, Papillon, as re-written by the Malaysians in this pirated copy...can you tell? I still think the best line was 'the chief then opened his anus, I knew then he understood' and 'the chicken being cooked on a snit'. So, we moved on from Canberra to Pretty Beach on the East Coast, north of Batemans Bay. We stayed in a nature reserve that was beautiful and had loads of wild Kangaroo's hanging about and birds squawking all the time. Still think the locals are mad ... read more

Chris's Section Australia was a shock. The temperature rather than the change in cultures. Bloody freezing! After nearly 5 months in 35C+ heat, 15c was like going to the North Pole - or should that be South Pole?. Melbourne itself is a pretty cool place. We found a great hotel in South Yarra (Claremont Hotel). Yarra is a pretty upmarket suburb. Lots of trendies/hipsters live here. As a consequence most restaurants/bars were way out of our budget, but it's a nice area and well placed for transport. The next couple of days were spent looking for a campervan to rent. Not that exciting a story, but we went all over Melbourne. It really pays to shop around as there's a massive difference in quality and price. We went to all the main suppliers and Hippie ... read more

Chris's Section We had an easy journey to Kuala Lumpur (KL). 1 hour flight, quick hop on the airport bus, one stop on the train and just over the road. Seriously, that was an easy trip. The guesthouse (Matahari Lodge) is very nice and well positioned in bustling Chinatown. The first day was Lou's birthday so we went off to the KLCC Mall (under the Petronas Towers) for a bite to eat and some cinema. At the mall we went to the food court and witnessed something strange. The place was absolutely jam-packed. It took us 20 mins just to find a seat. All the people had bought their food but weren't eating. Took me a minute to figure out why - ramadan. They were waiting for 7.25pm before they could eat. We arrived at ... read more

Chris's Section Our first impressions of Malaysia are positive ones. You can tell it's much more developed than other parts of SE Asia. We got the boat from Satun, Thailand and made our way to the guesthouse we had chosen in Pantai Cenang, Langkawi's biggest beach resort. The heavens opened and more biblical rain came down - Asia really knows how to do rain! We were shocked to discover our guesthouse was closed, so we had to walk about in torrential rain to find another place. We struck gold with Sweet Inn. A really nice place close to the action. Actually, there wasn't much action. Not only is it the rainy season, but it's also Ramadan, so the resort was pretty quiet. The beach in Cenang is good, but no where near as nice as ... read more

Chris's Section Koh Phi Phi, what can I say? It pissed it down for three days. Not all of the time mind, just when we wanted to get on the beach. The place itself is pretty cool, albeit over-developed and touristy (which we expected). It has a good vibe and a great nightlife. We found a great set of bungalows called Garden Home. Fairly basic, but very clean and cheap with funky 'jungle-style' bathrooms. It also had Thailand's fastest internet connection! We downloaded loads of films which will be much appreciated in the future. Phi Phi is a beautiful place, the Viewpoint is definitely worth the hike, but all of this was spoiled by the dodgy weather. A major disappointment was not being able to go on our cruise to Maya Bay ('The Beach'). The ... read more