After leaving the cool of the Cameron Highlands we set off to visit Cameron and Alex (I worked with Cameron in Melbourne) in Penang.

Although Cam and Alex were away for a few days they had gerenously offered us the use of their apartment so we set off on a local bus from Georgetown to try and find it. The bus driver obviously did not have any idea where it was and dropped us off at the wrong stop.

We took the 5 hour bus trip (the last hour and a half of which the road is really windy, and the bus driver charges up the mountain like a crazy man) up to the Cameron Highlands, to do a couple of days jungle walking. It was so relaxing we ended up spending a whole week there.

We arrived in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, after a short bus ride from Malacca. We were approached at the bus stop by a local guest house owner who convinced us to go and have a look at his guest house, Wheeler’s Guest House. Sometimes it’s easier to do than trying to find a place on your own and this guy did not look too dodgy! Wheeler’s turned out to be clean and reasonably priced so we booked in four 4 nights (as we got a discount for paying ahead).

We spent a lot of time in K.L. just walking around and getting a feel for the city, however there were a few highlights which I’ll tell you about….

After four days of total and utter laziness on Tioman Island we thought we had better get on with the trip and keep moving! On 3/6/02 we caught the ferry back over to Mersing on the mainland and then had to wait for four hours to catch a bus over to Malacca on the East Coast.

Thanks to everyone who has been emailing us, checking our web site and posting comments to our entries. It has been really great to hear from everybody and we hope that you are enjoying keeping up to date with our travels.

We are running a bit behind in our posts but will eventually get there, so stay tuned.

We spent 3 and a half pleasantly drowsy days on Tioman Island, lazying on the beach, swaying in hammocks and floating in the bath-warm South China Sea. We also snorkled along the coral reef straight out from our hut.

Tioman is a slow 3 hour ferry ride from Mersing, on Malaysia's South East coast, 4 hours bus ride from Singapore.

We stayed in a village called Air Batang, which is really just a collection of shanty restaurants and beach huts (actually, they call them Chalets, but to me, snow is required for this), occupied by locals, some Malays and a handful of backpackers (with whom we gladly exchanged travel tips).

We stayed in Singapore an extra day. Kamlesh talked us into an extension of his Singapore Culinary Tour begun the night before (he tempted us with food, what could we do?).

He met us for lunch and took us to an Indonesian / Malay restaurant on the 2nd floor of the Rendevouz Hotel. He ordered a selection of foods, including Chicken Pendang, some beef thing, Chicken Korma, and Eggplant Sembal, chased down by the refreshing desserts Ice Kachang (with strange little white fruits) and Chendol (love those little green worms...).

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