Sydney

Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok

Our Asia leg of the trip was finally over! We headed back through KL and up to Bangkok once more to catch our flight to Sydney. We were a bit more clued up on where to go in KL this time, and thankfully managed to spend less time on the street our hostel was located, home to more than a few shady characters. A couple nights in Bangkok were spent catching up on sleep and swimming in the rooftop pool before... Oz!

 

 Great paper lanterns displayed outside KL's Central Market.

 

 

Me being silly in the pool.

 Our view from the plane of the green lights of fishing boats, out at night around the southern Thai islands.

Mabul Island

After Kinabatangan was the killer Mabul Island, which I lounged around while Alfie got his open water diving certification. It was right next to the legendary Sipidan Island, which was where most people were headed after their cursory qualifications. This post would be a lot more interesting if we had an underwater case for the camera, but basically Alfie definitely recommends anyone who loves diving to dive this region if they get the chance. Apparently he saw a turtle the size of a man. That's pretty crazy.

We happened to be on the island for the Chinese Hungry Ghost festival. Traditionally, everyone is given a piece of moon cake (a round cake with a kidney bean paste filling) and Xiner, who was taking her open water SCUBA dive course with Alfie, was kind enough to share hers with us and their instructor Tom. Btw, mooncake is super yummy.

 Our great last night meal. Fishermen come up to the lodge throughout the day to display the days catch and sell lobster and crabs to tourists.

AWOL blogger

Once again I'm guilty of not blogging for ages! This time it wasn't my fault though - I got locked out of my account. To make up for it, lots of posts are coming your way.

First up is our trip to the Kinabatangan River, home to proboscis monkeys, Bornean orangutans, saltwater crocodiles, dwarf elephants and the incredibly shy tarziers. By a stroke of luck, we saw them all on our three day stay there (although I wasn't fast enough to catch the crocodile on film).