On Thursday we had a pretty lazy day. I spent most of it in the house watching Band of Brothers with Kristian. It’s really good and now I want to see the rest of the episodes we didn’t have time for. We decided to have a night in too as it was our last night in Phuket and we had a game of poker. We each put in 200B which is a few pounds but I didn’t have much luck with my cards.

In the morning we all packed our bags and were out on time as planned. So we went to pay our bill, 2500B a night between the 7 of us… to be told by the lady that it was 3500 a night so we owed 1000B a night more which worked out in total to be £50 more than it should. We DEFINITELY agreed on 2500, as the lady well knew, she was just trying to rip us off. The disagreement wasn’t going anywhere and before we knew it she’d called the police and they arrived on their bike. Neither of us had any proof of an agreed price so it was just her word against ours, though I’m sure the policemen believed us though it was easier for her to argue as they spoke the same language! Our minibuses came to pick us up to take us to the boat whilst all this was going on and the evil woman told the drivers in Thai to leave so they did without us. In the end we had to write a letter to be given to the manager and they took copies of all our passports.

But now arose the problem that we should have been arriving at the pier and we hadn’t left. We ran out onto the street and got the first tuk-tuk we could find (which took ages, normally they’re to be found in abundance but there were none around – typical!) I told him to drive fast and he didn’t do too bad a job as although we arrived 20 minutes after departure time we somehow made it onto the boat! I fell asleep on the sun deck for the whole journey so woke up nice and red, just in time to see the island where the film ‘The Beach’ was filmed. We found a bar on the island where half of us stayed looking after the bags while the other half, including myself, explored and found the best/most suitable place to stay. Whilst exploring the island you start to really see the damage from the tsunami which is quite shocking. There was a lot of building work going on everywhere, you see lots of cement bags etc on the roadsides and most of the buildings are new as not a lot survived. We chatted to a dive instructor near the beach; he pointed to a large open, empty space and told us how there used to be 450 bungalows there. It makes a big difference seeing the damage and destruction first hand. We ate out in the evening which was quite expensive (the whole of Koh Tao is quite expensive) and then went to a bar. Got a few buckets in and watched the fire show which was performed by kids about 10 years old which is a little worrying for their safety! On the way home that evening Joe stopped to get a sandwich at a roadside stall and the lady there started accusing him of stealing a tin of tuna. He clearly hadn't so denied it and a bit of an arguement arose, but in stead of resolving it like sensible adults the lady had a better idea and threw a machete at his head. He was lucky as it only hit his ear but he still needed 3 stitches at the doctors the next day.

I was the first to wake the next morning at about half 10 and walked out onto the beach. I felt like I was on a different beach to the one I had been on the night before; that beach has the largest tide difference I have ever seen. There was only about 5m of beach before the water started and you only needed to swim out another 5m before you were completely submerged and it was really beautiful. By midday the others had joined me on the beach/in the sea where we spent the rest of the day, following the tide out. Every half an hour or so we would move further out to stay in the water so by the time we came back in we had a good 100 – 150m walk! In the evening we went to a restaurant to have dinner and watch the football, which turned out to be disappointing on both accounts. I did however bump into Emily from Koh Phangan which was unexpected, so we had a bit of a catch up chat. On the way back I bought my ticket off the island…

… and away I went at 8.30 the next morning. Boat to Krabi to start where I slept for the entire journey. Then a minibus down to the Malaysian border dosing off every now and then. Everything went smoothly at the border and we were actually going to be early for the first time… but something had to go wrong! On the motorway we hit a bump pretty fast and it did some damage. Not quite sure what, but at every cycle of the wheel there was an unhealthy thud. We slowed down to about 60kph and shortly after stopped at a service station. Naturally we assumed this was to fix the problem, alas we were wrong, it was simply a toilet break. So once the 2 girls who were sat next to me had been to the toilet as opposed to pooing their pants through fear we continued. 10 minutes later the sound had got louder, the driver was repeatedly looking in his mirror and we had slowed further. I took a look in the mirror to see smoke coming from the rear wheel! We soon stopped and the driver had a look but decided it was still unnecessary to seek help so continued yet again, this time in the hard shoulder at 20kph. Not only would this have taken several hours longer but it was also really dangerous. The 2 girls next to me were pretty much having fits by now; saying to the driver “Oh my goodness this is ridiculously irresponsible and outright dangerous” which he clearly didn’t understand! So how might the story end? We make it to our destination several hours late? We transfer to another minibus? Nope. It caught on fire! We came to a stop and the driver started shouting “OUT OUT” so we all jumped out and got to ‘safety’ on the side of the motorway while he poured our bottles of water over the fire slowly putting it out. He was the most unhelpful guy ever and was happy to just leave us there. Luckily there were 2 really nice Malaysian’s traveling on the bus and they were able to call their relatives who picked us all up and took us to the pier. I eventually got to the hotel in Penang, Malaysia, where... I was meeting my parents! They had been sat in the lobby for hours getting worried, especially my mum so we were all glad to see each other.

My dad's out here on business and my mum tagged along for holiday (and because she missed me so much?!) The hotel was really, really nice, as has been every hotel we've stayed in since. As dad's here on business his company are paying for the hotel rooms; so I've gone from staying in dirty, smelly 2 pounds a night rooms with just a bed to staying in luxury club suites in 5 star 200 pound a night hotels! Buffet breakfast is always included so I normally fill myself enough to last until dinner.

My time in Penang was spent mostly relaxing and lying around, though I was more active than my parents. The first day I played a bit of table tennis, 'swam' in the pool and had a wander around the local area and found a cap I liked (blue one in photo's) and a nice bakery with fresh cakes and doughnuts. My wonderful mother did my laundry which had built up to basically all of my clothes! There was a really nice sunset in the evening which we watched from the beach before heading into the restaurant for our buffet. It was probably the best buffet I've had since I've been away, if not ever! I had... numerous main courses followed by several desserts and fruits etc etc; definately got my moneys worth. After dinner we raided the DVD market stalls and I got all 3 seasons of family guy and season 3 of the OC for 7 pounds - bargain or what, Penang is the cheapest place I've found for DVD's.

The next day I wanted some adventure and excitement! So it was down to the waterfront to talk to the watersports guys and negotiate some prices. Got a good deal on some jet-skiing for myself and dad as well as paracendingfor just me. While we were waiting to go we saw a hotel worker catch a snake from the bush right next to where we were lying! Paracending was really good despite the fact it was the most uncomfortable harness I've ever sat in, think the views helped me forget about it! But I enjoyed the jet-skiing more; had a race against my dad which I clearly won (backed up by my mum) and did some good donuts. I then watched some family guy on my dads laptop by the pool and in the evening did a bit more market shopping, getting a couple of Ralph Lauren polo's.

My parents were going to KL next and I decided to go with them as I’d only spent 20 hours there previously. I wasn’t able to get the same flight though, but I didn’t mind especially as they left at about 6am whereas I got to have a lie-in till midday. Flying to KL, I made the assumption that I would land there, but in actual fact the airport is 80km from the city. It was a lot easier to get to the city than I feared, a bus took me most of the way. Not the best journey – for a start I picked the only seat on the whole bus where the person in front reclined their seat. There was no leg room as it was so I was left crushed. This seat also turned out to be the only one with a hole in the roof above it, as I found out as we passed through a massive thunderstorm. I was awoken by the water to find my bag drenched and a nice wet patch on my shoulder. Then to add to the excitement our bus got struck by lightening! It was cool! The whole outside of the bus lit up we just kept on going. I eventually met my mum at the hotel; almost wasn’t let in when they saw I was a backpacker it was that posh! I took her to Chinatown to do some shopping and I bought a polo shirt, another cap and a pair of trainers for a tenner :-D I bumped into the girls I know from Cheltenham again which was surprising! We tried to get a bus back but all the drivers were rude and unhelpful so we just got a taxi in the end.

On Thursday dad had business all day so it was just me and mum. I took her to the Batu Caves. My CD with half my India photo’s and Singapore photo’s is broken and I copied the CD at the Caves so was hoping the man might still have my folder on his laptop. Unfortunately not; I’ll be really disappointed if I loose all those photos (maybe it’s recoverable if the scratch can be removed?) There were loads more people visiting this time and I was attacked by monkeys who took a liking to my cap! We caught a bus from the caves and watched the school kids swinging in the trees; the bus took us back to the city centre. I went up the Menara Tower which I hadn’t last time, it was a much better view than from the Petrona’s. That’s where we went next so mum could see them and I bumped into the girls again! While we were there the daily storm started so we had to abandon the rest of our plans and went back to the hotel where I watched a couple of episodes of The OC. Dad came back in the evening and we were all taken out for dinner by someone dad’s working with and possibly the richest man I’ve ever personally met - among other things he owns 33% of KFC! Sadly this isn’t where he took us, in stead we went to a seafood restaurant which sucks as I don’t like seafood. But I got to try things I definitely wouldn’t have done otherwise – river fish, crab and clams for example. After the meal we got dropped of in Chinatown again briefly and when walking down the streets afterwards mum was horrified by the cockroaches and rats running around!

We had to be up within a few hours of getting back at 5.30am, ready to fly to Singapore. This time we were on the same flight (yes, I’ve been able to fly everywhere in stead of taking buses that catch on fire!) Dad had more meetings so me and mum got some lunch from a supermarket and then had a nap/watched some more OC. When he got back we went to the Raffles Long Bar where we shared a Singapore Sling, the most famous place to drink one as it’s where it was invented. Everyone eats monkey nuts in there and throws the shells on the floor, which ends up literally covered in them! Then we went down to Boat Quay and had a nice curry on the waterside. At about midnight in the hotel I decided I wanted to go to the Ministry of Sound club there so off I went! I didn’t take any ID though and for the first time since I’ve been away I got ID’d. I was a bit gutted but convinced myself I wasn’t up for it anyway and started to walk back. I stopped in a quiet park where I listened to my music for a while but was distracted by the sound of nice cars in the near distance. I went to have a look and along the main road through Singapore they were having street races so I watched the cars going round for about an hour! My taxi driver in Penang was telling me about the street races they have there too that he used to take part in for around £1000 a race.

We were leaving Singapore the next day but not until the afternoon, so in the morning we took the cable car ride over to Sentosa for some nice views over the whole city. We ended up rushing for the airport thinking we were going to be late but actually ended up being nice and early, ready for our flight to … Hong Kong! We didn’t settle into the hotel until late evening and then went out to get some food. We went to a very traditionally Chinese restaurant where we were the only foreigners. Everyone there had hot pots, where you get a pot of boiling water in the middle of the table and cook at the meat yourself. The meat is things like chickens feet, intestines, hearts - all kinds of weird stuff.

Woke up the next morning just in time to fill myself at the breakfast buffet - very good though not the best. Then we walked down to the ferry crossing to get over to Hong Kong Island. The views from the ferry of Hong Kong Island are really good, but nothing compared to what we were yet to see. Once on the island we caught a tram up to the top of a mountain which I didn’t really even know was there. The views from there were amazing, you can see all over. Once back at the bottom on the mountain we took a taxi to the harbour with the old fishing boats and took a little boat ride which went along the waters edge and in between all the fishing boats. We crossed over the water again and got a bus to the market area further North of where we were staying. Dad was feeling pretty crap so both him and mum went back to the hotel and left me at the market. The only thing I bought was a new camera case for just over a pound.

Walking back to the hotel I went past the 'largest nightclub in Hong Kong' and started thinking about going to make up for missing out in Singapore. It was a Sunday though and almost £10 to get in so I wasn't sure; I asked a doorman if it was busy and he said it wasn't but by 1am there would be 1000 people. I also saw I got 2 free drinks with my entry so was convinced! I went back to the hotel till 1 and when I got to the door a bouncer came over and talked to me; he let me skip the queue, personally took me upstairs in the lift, got me a seat at the bar and called a barman over for me! I soon realised I was literally the only non-Asian which explains my 'special' treatment. The music was about 2/3 Asian and 1/3 American/British. I felt a little singled out at first, I stayed sat at the bar watching the football on TV as well as people dancing (some very, very strangely!), but soon enough a guy came over and started chatting to me. He was nice and friendly and disappeared after 5 minutes... 5 minutes later he reappeared and with a bucket full of beers to share! A few girls were going past waving to me and we talked to a few, then we started talking to a girl sat next to me at the bar. A group of us formed including me, the guy, the girl sat next to me and her two friends and two other girls and their one guy friend. So I spent the night with them, dancing, talking, etc. We didn't leave until 7am so I walked out into the daylight which I totally wasn't prepared for! I went back to the hotel and breakfast had already been going for an hour so I had some before going to bed.

I slept till about 3, picked up my passport complete with Chinese visa and we were on our train by half 4. Got here late afternoon/evening and wrote some blog, explored the hotel which is massive and has its own cinema, then explored the streets a bit. Got a pizza in a place opposite the hotel which was interesting. They weren't officially open but let us eat there, they had no customers and not much stuff actually listed on the menu and in the first slice of the pizza I came across a nice piece of plastic! One guy there was French and spoke perfect English, he was very apologetic and got me another pizza straight away and another complimentary beer. I ended up talking to him for an hour, he was quite interesting and I forgave him! He invited me back for a beer tomorrow so I will if I have time.

That FINALLY brings me up to date, it's now 3am and I'm pretty tired. I really do need to write more regularly, even if not for your benefit then for mine becuase I don't want to miss out any days but it gets difficult remembering everything! Come back soon!