We entered Malaysia after a long day traveling through the south of Thailand. We could tell immediately that we were in a different country, it feels more developed with it's complex road systems and newer modernised buildings. Our first stop was the small western island of Penang where we spent a few days in it's main city of Georgetown. A kaleidoscope of cultures fuse together in Georgetown to create this diverse little place; a mixture of Malay, Indian and Chinese communities roll into one. Taking a walk through the streets of Georgetown feels like you are passing through 3 different countries. One moment you will be wandering past the peaceful, incense lined paths of Chinatown when suddenly you turn into the next street to be bombarded with bollywood beats being blared out of huge speakers and ... read more

The past three weeks have flown by far too quickly! We have had an awesome "holiday" in the middle of our trip, we've seen so much, relaxed so much, and loved every minute of it!  At first however we weren't sure if we would make it to the southern islands, they were struck by severe floods and the government was advising against all non essential travel to the area, at one point we were thinking we would have to fly elsewhere. But after long debates and worries over the weather it eventually cleared up had we great fun in the sun in the accompanied by friends and family!  After arriving from Vietnam, we met Ben in Bangkok and decided to go to Ko Chang, a small island 6hours from Bangkok near the border with Cambodia. At this ... read more

The next stop on our Vietnamese route was Halong bay. We decided to this differently to the standard tourist tour from Hanoi and instead stayed on Cat Ba island ,the only inhabitable island within the Halong bay NP. Cat Ba was brilliant, really prehistoric looking with mountains and karsts filled with impenetrable jungle, just great!  The majority of the island is made up of the Cat Ba national park and we had read about a "challenging 18km trek" that cuts right through it so we booked onto one straight away! Although tough in parts the trek was amazing, the forest is so dense still and full of wildlife. Our one wish was to see a Cat Ba langur (they are endemic to the island and there are only 62 left in the wild) but we knew ... read more

Hoi an.... Cool, calm and colourful, old rustic buildings line the small roads and tiny walkways that only pedestrians and cyclists are allowed to venture down. Street sellers sell corn drinks and  donuts and the market is alive with every food type imaginable; squashed mangled pigs heads to metre long cucumbers! It is a gorgeous place.... That  is until the tourists arrive and the town turns into one huge bustling sales pitch! 'hey mister, you look in my shop, you buy suit'! That is when this place becomes dangerous... One pair of shoes turns into three and the idea of designing your own tailor made dress is just too tempting! We told ourselves we would be sensible, just a suit for rikki (that he had been planning on getting for ages) and just a dress for ... read more

Mui Ne is a small beach town on the east coast and is described as 'the best all round beach in the country' so we had high hopes for the place... Unfortunately it didn't live up to our expectations! The town has been taken over by big resorts and is over-run with Russian holiday makers! In between the resorts and russians however, It does have a great kite surfing and windsurfing scene, which we spent most of our time watching, in awe of the kite surfers stunts! To have a great kite surfing scene you obviously need a lot of wind which Mui Ne had in abundance. This was great for the surfers but not so great for us! We couldn't sit on the beach because it was like a sand storm, it would have been ... read more