Well I nev** thought I'd wind up h**e. As you all know, China are *******s. I spend a few more days in Hanoi, recharging my batt**ies and visiting the nearby mountain retreat of Sapa wh**e th**e are some more lovely views and rice paddy t**races ev**ywh**e you look. I obviously had to fly out of h**e, no matt** how tempting it was to just do Lao...

Dr T is playing with his laptop at 7. It is Monday, so his computer game returned ;-))) My alarm clock is at 9. We leave at 11. We are going to do 2 of the top 10 in KL: the Lake Garden and the National Museum. The Garden: http://visit-to-kl.com/visit/Lake_garde n.html And very convenient: the National Museum is IN the garden: http://www.museum....

After receiving three different pieces of advice we somehow managed to get a public bus to Kota Kinabatangan, a tiny town which is the gateway to the Kinabatangan River, a great place for wildlife viewing. We arrived 3 hours early so sat in a mamak stall eating noodles and watching TV before we met our fellow travellers and hopped in a van for t...

Our first day in Kuala Lumpur was spent sleeping late and exploring the city on foot. We left Wednesday night just before midnight. It was dark when we left and dark when we arrived in Malaysia. We had a 5 hour trip to Dubai with Emrites Airline. Nice service, but economy sucks. I felt as if I was in steerage of an ocean vessel. The seats are cr...

There is one concept I cannot fully grasp about men, moles, and facial hair in South East Asia. For some reason, men find it attractive to let their long, stringy, black hairs grow out of the moles on their faces. By the time I left Vietnam, I was ready. In all seriousness, the Vietnamese are the loudest Asian's ever. I must say through the real...

I'm starting to miss rice. Kate and I have been staying with Ted, an acquaintance of my grandmother's, and have been fixing our own meals in his kitchen. We've enjoyed PB&J, microwave popcorn, broccoli, baby carrots. But we didn't buy any rice from the grocery store and yesterday when Kate and I were eating at a Malaysian restaurant and my f...

Arrived in KL safely after a cold bus trip from Pangkor Island - the Malay bus drivers seem to think that cryogenically freezing their passengers is the way forward! Booked in to our nice 3 star hotel just off Chinatown and decided to drop the bags and get out straight away to explore. Had a good look around Chinatown, then it was off to Jalan S...

Back in Kuala Lumpur for our Christmas hols so we've upped the budget and checked into somewhere a bit more luxurious, with a bathtub to boot! Lots of shopping done here and it was absolutely chaotic but we managed it. We had tasty turkey Christmas lunch in an Irish pub called Finnegan's, watched the Premiership and went for a better look at the...

Back on board the welcoming Malasia Airlines business class to KL & Sydney

Me and Brian were the only people staying in the ancient Coliseum Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. We were probably the first people to stay there in a long, long time. In our three nights at the Coliseum the only other living creature we saw in the hotel was the cat. We think it was in charge of cleaning. Not that we could complain - the queues for the s...