The Ocean - Somewhere Off Thailand

In a bit of a strange turn of events we have spent the last 11 days all at sea... that's not to say I have been drunk - but we have actually been living on a sailing boat! After our animal experience on Langkawi, the girls bumped into some South African guy who owned a boat and was heading in the vague direction of Thailand. There was no way we could refuse the chance to island hop, so added our names to the crew list. Those of you who know a thing of two about sailing may have heard that it is very bad luck to set sail on Friday - and for that reason we planned a boat party Friday night, leaving in the early hours of Saturday morning. However - and here is the big however - we still had to take a dinghy to the boat which was moored off shore. In not sure that technically counts as sailing, but it sure was the beginning of our bad luck...

You might get a good idea of the things likely to go wrong, when you learn that our dinghy sunk before even reaching the boat - our bags and most of the girls on board! The boat righted and everything rescued myself and Conor had to paddle to the boat with a saucepan and bucket. That was until some smart alec (aka Canadian Rob) realised he was sitting on an oar. Next to go wrong was allowing Conor to sit on the beer fridge; but we'll come back to that later...

All aboard; sailing commenced. This was until Estonian Pete played wheel of fortune with the steering wheel, and disconnected the rudder. Conor is still sitting on the beer fridge. However his shirt has vanished, gotta really want a beer to get one now...

Next up, I fell down a hole (actually my second in a week); one of the hatches on the boat deck. This was shortly proceed by rain... such stormy seas would become a common affair. Conor is sitting on the beer fridge, but a bit wetter...

Bang - the engine has overheated and gone pop. Nevermind we have sails - or had - one has now ripped in the wind. Slow progress from now on. On the second day of sailing we made our second island stop on a place called Koh Rock (Koh means Island in Thai). A totally isolated place, and somewhere for our anchor to get stuck in the down position requiring everyone to aid it's rescue. Conor is still stilling on the beer fridge, more clothes are missing...

We decided to head to Phuket, Thailand to make repairs and officially enter Thailand (we until this point were illegal immigrants). However the storm finally gets lost, leaving us with no wind, thus leaving us stuck! Conor finally leaves the beer fridge; the beer has run out...

I write this update from dry land. We did finally limp into Phuket where we got stuck for the best part of a week fixing the engine and sails. The bad luck continued as Steph (an American girl who looked uncannily like Natalie Portman) badly cut her hand on a bottle and covered Andy in blood. We did finally leave Phuket where we sailed to Koh Phi Phi (location for the film the Beach), and finally to the main land. Even with all the bad luck - this really was one of the best times of my life. And I even learnt a thing or two about sailing :-) For now goodbye and Merry Christmas! xxx

Malaysia

A world away from India we began our tour of SE Asia in amazingly clean, calm, and peaceful Singapore and then Kuala Lumpa. However, in an apparent oversight in planning it appears that we arrived during the tail end of monsoon season...oops! So whilst I would love to take the mick out of you all stuck in wet england - I finally made good use of my rain jacket. The craziness of India behind us, we took the opportunity to have a well earned break in the Malaysian highlands. High above the clouds we paid visit to Fraiser's Hill and the Cameron Highlands; appropriately named partly due to the tea and strawberries that grow on the surrounding hills. It was also somewhat odd to find tea rooms offering scones, strawberries & cream, alongside stunning views. All rather rah rah!

Heading northwards towards Thailand we decided on two further Malaysian experiences. We began with a visit to Penang Island; a busy fun place with a cheap China town, and paid visit to a Buddhist snake temple with attached snake and monkey farm. The guides kindly pointed out how the King Cobra would like to poison me, how the Giant Python would like to eat me (and how I would nicely fit into his mouth), before giving me two Monkeys to hold. Having always wanted a pet monkey I was thrilled... that was until they both started nibbling my nipples.

My other ideal pet would be of the Penguin variety... currently very much in touch with the animal kingdom I got my chance to see a large number of them being fed in an awesome aquarium on the island of Langkawi; our next and last stop in Malaysia. We rented a car with some fellow English girls Sophie and Jess and explored the island, adding crocodiles, an elephant and plenty more monkeys to my nature experience. Unsurprisingly the monkeys continue to torment me with their cheekie ways, by chasing us and trying to steal Jess' Christmas hat.