Since our last installment we've finished off our Thailand leg in Koh Samui, done a paradise island and a rainforest trek in Malaysia, spent half a day in Singapore and pretended to be Swiss in Indonesia.

Koh Samui - party island, definitely the most commercial of the islands we visited, and a bit seedy ("wha' you name, me love you long time"). The big plus point for Koh Samui was the arrival of our knight in shining armour, Mark (Sare's boyfriend) as he brought out a package from the UK of towels, pillowcases and books - luxury! We spent a couple of nights with Sare & Mark before leaving the island on the 14th Sept, K's birthday.

A memorable day for all the wrong reasons - lying Thais ripping us off, and an all-day journey from hell!

The VIP big air-con coach to Malaysia we'd paid for never materialised - it was replaced by 4 separate minibus rides, with a few extra charges thrown in for good measure. Travelling by bus & boat from 6am to 9pm wasn't great, but arriving in Penang to find the first 5 hotels we tried were full was the icing on the birthday cake.

After our forgettable entry to Malaysia, the first thing to hit us was the difference in wealth - more civilised, really helpful people. Maybe its due to the far heavier religious influence, as this is a very Muslim country (just try finding a place that sells beer was an ordeal).

The hilarious thing that struck us about Malaysia was the advanced state of McDonald's - they have McCyber cafes on site, and even offer Home Delivery! But we digress...

Moved from mainland to Perhentian Islands on the East Coast. Absolutely stunning tropical paradise, beaches of white coral and white sand, completely crystal clear water with amazing reefs. Have to say it knocked the socks off the Thai islands, which were great. Spent an amazing 2 days snorkelling and diving; swam with giant turtles, saw all manner of big & colourful fish, of which the highlight was a baby reef shark - a huge buzz. Our accomodation was remote in the extreme - accessible only by boat, jungle forest out back, coral reef out front, resident 3ft monitor lizard and bats in the restaurant, and frogs in the toilet.

Since then we've travelled from the top to the bottom of Malaysia, pausing briefly in Taman Negara, allegedly the world's oldest rainforest. Did a fantastic 7km/4hr trek up hill and down dale - only saw a couple of small monkeys but the rainforest was dark, noisy, big and, well, impressive. Wobbled across a fantastic canopy walkway, Indiana Jones style bridges linking the treetops, 40m high. The only downers were the leeches that managed to infiltrate both our footwear and the frog that tried to sleep in K's shoe.

We left the rainforest on a travelling mission - at 1.30am we were in central Malaysia, by midday we were in Singapore, and by the evening we'd flown into Indonesia - 3 countries in 24hrs. Singapore was a shock to the system, loads of high-rise and air-con shopping malls, but we didn't really have time to explore, except for enjoying the obligatory Singapore Sling at Raffles (one between us, such cheapskates!). Our journey ended in a sense of nervous anticipation at Jakarta - we were aware of 2 shootings at protests in Jakarta which happened the day we landed and the day before. Hence we just laid low in a hotel near the airport for 2 days, pretending to be Swiss (the most neutral country we could think of, as there seems to be a lot of antagonism at the mo between Indonesia and Australia/the United Nations).

Next stop - Bali!