We went to Mantanani Island on 17th May.. It's a really tiny island (1.5km by 4km) about an hours boat ride off the coast of Borneo, near Kota Belud. The journey there was pretty horrendous - it was very bumpy and we'd all had a fair few drinks the night before, so not ideal! Mantanani looked like anyone's idea of paradise.... white sand and turquoise water! When we went snorkelling later on there were loads of cool fish and lots of blue starfish. We were given a short tour of the island - there are 2 villages, with about 850 people living there in total, and lots and lots of palm trees. The sunset that we watched on the first evening was amazing. We had to be shown the tsunami evacuation route, as there had apparently been tsunami warnings recently, which took us to the highest point on the island - 20 metres. Not really going to help us too much if a tsunami did hit...... We used parangs to get in to some fresh coconuts, which are soo good! A cow broke in to the kitchen that night and stole loads of our food! Most of our first week was spent 'mapping the island' (although the police actually have maps so we weren't 100% sure why we were doing it!) and we did a litterpick.. Very pointless as the police were meant to be helping and set the plastic on fire. They claimed not to know it was bad when I shouted at one of them (he was very apologetic) but I'm pretty sure they did. The aim was to get everything looking nice, and maybe stop the cows from munching the plastic bags! (Which didn't actually seem to affect them, they looked like they enjoyed it....) It was a shame that for most of the first week the guys at the camp were quite shy, but Albi, the village chief, is a legend. We had a traditional boat making lesson from him - which involved trying to hack out the middle of a log with an axe - and we thought he was quite old, and probably quite frail, but he managed OK lifting a log that took 4 of us to lift!! We all of course managed to fit in plenty of tanning, too!

Our second week was when we were doing our diving, and when all of the leech bites that I'd got in the jungle started to get infected! Everyone else was doing their PADI open water qualification, but as I already had that I was doing my advanced open water. This involved doing 5 out of about 12 choices of dives. Underwater navigation and deep dive were compulsory and I chose to do a boat dive, underwater photography and peak performance buoyancy. The navigation consists of following a compass so that you swim in a square, swimming out on a bearing, and swimming back to your starting point, and counting how many fin strokes it takes you to swim 30 metres, and for the deep dive you must dive to deeper that 18 metres (we dived to about 23 metres, the deepest point around the island). The boat dive and underwater photography are pretty self explanatory and the peak performance buoyancy is controlling going up and down just by whether your lungs are almost empty or almost full, so when you breathe in you should rise, and when you breathe out you should sink. The corals were actually best when we were around 10 metres, but when we were deeper we saw stingrays and a sea turtle! There were loads of really bright and pretty fish, it's just a shame that my camera had broken by then! My waterproof camera that is supposed to be able to go to 10 metres had leaked at 2 metres.. The only thing that wasn't good about that week was that because I was doing a different course I was doing different dives to everyone else, so I spent a fair bit of time on the island pretty much on my own..... but I really got through the books! I finished 5 while I was on Mantanani! By the time we finished the diving on Thursday my cuts were pretty bad, despite washing them at least once a day, and I was sick on Thursday, probably because of the infected cuts.. Tom had an ear infection and Tash had a nasty cut on the bottom of her foot, so on Saturday it was decided that we'd get a boat back to Kota Belud, and then a bus to Kota Kinabalu so that we could go to the hospital. Tom was first to be seen, and was straight in and out, being diagnosed with a middle ear infection and prescribed antibiotics. Tash was next, and was in for a few minutes and then sat waiting outside to have her foot dressed while I was called in to see the doctor. He had a quick look at my legs and then I was led off to another room down the corridor. I was laid down in a bed while he had a more thorough look at the cuts. He decided that he needed to hack one of them open a bit, so violently gave me a local anaesthetic underneath each one he would cut - it's pretty painful having a needle poked about in a cut and he wasn't very sympathetic! He didn't seem to be very good at the dosage either, as he kept starting to cut my leg when I could still very much feel it! Eventually I'd had enough anaesthetic and he 'drained' 3 of my cuts. The two smaller ones weren't too bag, but he cut a gash next to one that was just over an inch long and probably over a cm deep! Don't think I've ever seen so much blood coming out of myself, it was horrible! There were a few other cuts that were probably as bad (I say cuts, they started off as leech bites but kind of grew when they got infected.... nice) but after what he'd just done I didn't really want to point them out to him!! He put non-stick dressings over them, and then noticed that I had a nasty cut on my ankle, too. So he scraped off the skin with a scalpel, no anaesthetic this time! He then used bandages to hold on the dressings, rather than tape every single one. Then he turned his attention to my other leg...... Luckily he decided none were bad enough to warrant slicing open, but I imagine he'd got bored or something by this point as he just scrubbed my leg. He used hydrogen peroxide to clean them, which is quite sore when it's being rubbed in to cuts! Then he dressed and bandaged that leg, too. Finally I was done, and prescribed a week of antibiotics (3 times the regular strength!) and paracetamol, as well as being told to stay out of the sea. When I walked back in to the waiting room everyone burst out laughing, and I was told that I looked like a racehorse.... with the leg supports. At this point the anaesthetic was still working, so I also saw the funny side! we spent so long waiting for them to print our bill, and get our prescriptions that the anaesthetic was wearing off by the time we left (having had to fork out over 70 quid for the fun of it all).. We made a quick dash for the shopping centre, so I could buy a replacement centre and then food and bed.... We went back to Mantanani early the following morning, in extreme amounts of pain! even with the paracetamol it was extremely difficult to walk and I looked ridiculous anyway! However the shark attack story did go down well with any locals that asked what happened!

I think the main events of the third week on Mantanani were a cooking lesson from Hilda, on how to make roti (really good but it turned in to a bit of a flour fight!), kayaking (without getting my foot wet of course), and painting the side of the building. I was getting pretty hot, bothered and frustrated by the end of the week about not being able to go in to the sea (although the plastic bags over my legs for showering were a pretty good look!), as it's impossible to do anything without being baked, and then of course all you want to do is go in to the sea to cool off... Our painting the side of the building was pretty fun, though. My sea turtle paintings were pretty epic!

We left for a few last days in KK early on saturday the 5th. Bella and Lu were climbing Mt. Kinabalu on Sunday/Monday, and Tash was leaving for Long Pasia on Monday, so Kate, Tom and I figured we needed to find something to do..... We went to visit Howard at his house on Sunday, as he'd recently come out of hospital having had malaria (I was pretty worried when I first heard as I stopped taking my malaria pills when I was in the jungle with him, but all is good!) and stopped at Tinangol on the way back..... They got us on the grade one rice wine at 3pm, and we decided there was no going back! we'd stay the night! We were all horrendously drunk, but it was a really good night! great seeing everyone again, and the puppies!! which have grown sooo much! We woke up feeling pretty rough on Monday, and we were originally going to have a big night, as the last night, but none of us were feeling up to it! Kate, Tom and I weren't really feeling that we could stomach alcohol, and Bella and Lu were knackered from the mountain climb. We had a pretty early night which was probably just as well as I had to leave at 7am from my flight to Kuala Lumpur.

Managed to meet up fine with Sam in KL and then we had to decide what to do.... We had thought that we'd have a day or so in KL, but decided it was too much hassle and not very interesting so we bought a flight at the airport to Kota Bharu. We knew that this was the closest place to the Perhentian islands, although when we got to the airport at Kota Bharu we were told that we were too late to go that evening, as the last boat leaves at 6.. an hour after we got there. We got really lucky, as we just caught the last boat across! It was a ridiculously bumpy ride, and where I had been extremely hungry before I definitely wasn't by the end! I was a bit worried that I might fall overboard too, as I came a long way out of my seat each time the boat went over a wave! We struggled to find somewhere to stay, but luckily there was a room at the last place we tried! It was the equivalent of 7 pounds a night each, so not too bad! We went out for some much needed food, where we managed to secure a nicer as well as cheaper room for the following night, and then on to a shisha bar, that had a man spinning fire - really cool! We spent a few days on the Perhentien Islands, just relaxing and snorkelling. Unfortunately the weather wasn't brilliant, though. It didn't rain much but it was very cloudy. We randomly bumped in to a friend of Sam's and his girlfriend, though - very weird! Sam and I both saw sharks when we snorkelled - one about 2 metres away from me, pretty scary! - but I think you needed to go deeper than we snorkelled to see prettier things. We also thought that we might kayak around the island...... quickly decided this was a bad idea, so thought we would snorkel over to the other island. Definitely a very bad idea, it took forever and we barely made it back! don't think either of us will be doing much kayaking again in a hurry...... Or at least Sam won't be doing it with me! We left on friday (June 11th), pretty early on. We got a boat back to the mainland at 8, and then had to wait till 11 for our coach. It was supposed to be a 5 or 6 hour journey to Penang, but took more like 8 hours!

We got to Georgetown, Penang island at about 8pm, and had to attempt to get a taxi to the resort. It was difficult enough to persuade a taxi driver to take us there, but then it was just annoying! The taxi driver had his wife in the car, and she got upset everytime he tried to drive at a semi-normal speed. So what was supposed to be a 2 hour drive turned out to be a 3 and a half hour drive! And we were of course very tired by this point, having been travelling for effectively 15 hours by then, so not very happy! Everything got better once we got to the resort, though, as someone came to take our bags for us and we had an upgraded room for no extra cost. We got room service for a very late dinner - amazing! Don't think they were quite used to people like us staying there, either.... as they asked me while Sam check in whether I was studying, as I was very young. I told the man that I was in September, and he asked about Sam. When I said that he had finished university he asked what he did, was he a doctor? Ha. We spent most of the week relaxing, either in our room or by the pool. We had a look round the golf course too, which had stunning views. We also went to a sea turtle sanctuary, which was cool, and obivously it's good that they're doing something about it! Mainly the things to do in the area were very expensive, as it was quite secluded, so we just chilled. We were looking at ways that we would get to Bangkok after, as our flight had been moved to the next day, and we had almost just accepted that we'd just have to miss a night in our Bangkok hotel, when on a spur of the moment decision we decided to leave a day early. We got a taxi to Lumut, and then a bus to Butterworth. We were feeling quite disappointed when we got to Butterworth, as it took a fair bit longer than we thought, and we were told that there were no buses or trains until midday the following day, so we thought that we'd just left the resort a day early for nothing.... We got a ferry across to Georgetown, and then waited for ages for a bus, only to discover where we wanted to go wouldn't have been much more than a five minute walk anyway! Luckily, from Georgetown, they offered buses leaving at 5am, and although it would be a ridiculously long journey, we wouldn't have to miss a night in Bangkok, which was already booked. We booked in to a very cheap hotel - RM40 for us both, about 8 pounds - and then went out for food. Everything was much cheaper than at the resort, and we could afford to drink again!

We were picked up by a minibus at 5am, that took us about an hour over the Thai border. Including all the passport stops etc, we got to Had Yai in about 4 hours. We could have gone in the minibus all the way to Bangkok, but we'd decided before that we'd switch to a coach at the first available stop! We just missed the 8am bus (hour time difference) but got the 9am one, having been shouted at by various people trying to get us to take their bus - I definitely hadn't had enough sleep to be patient and nice to them! It was one hell of a bus journey, and almost impossible to sleep as they had decided to show shitty Thai soaps, acted out on a stage, extremely loudly! so loudly that it hurt my ears infact! Not good...... But we got to Bangkok at about 10pm, which was a few hours earlier than we'd originally been told, so all was good! We got a taxi to the hotel, which we were originally pretty annoyed that he seemed to be a complete retard and had no idea where he was going, but when the fare was under 4 pounds, having taken us about an hour to get there, we decided it wasn't really too bad! We checked in and went up to our room - easy to see why it's voted best hotel in Bangkok! It's incredible! As you walk in to the room you see a dining table, with a small kitchen area on your left. At the other end of the room is a lounge with sofa, armchair and 37" flatscreen TV (with internet, over 6000 songs to choose from and a large choice of channels). Also is a door to our balcony, with an amazing view of Bangkok city skyline (we are above most things as we are 30th floor, so not much blocking it!). Also we have a huge bathroom, with a shower double the size of most, bathtub, etc and a bedroom with a king sized bed and 32" flatscreen TV! We had a glass of our complimentary bottle of wine while we waited for our dinner to arrive. Unfortunately there was a limited menu as it was after 11pm, but it was delicious nonetheless!

We got up yesterday morning and got the sky train in to Bangkok. We got off next to the river with the intention of walking up and seeing what we fancied doing... We got a boat, which we somehow didn't have to pay for, which had some amazing views. I took full advantage of the picture-taking opportunities! We got off where it seemed most people were getting off and wandered in to the market. It was pretty cool, although they did seem to be selling a lot of false teeth, and it was very claustrophobic! We walked alongside a Monastery for a while and then ended in another market. We could see a really cool looking building so decided to head in that direction... It turned out to be the Grand Palace, which we couldn't look in because you needed to be wearing full length clothes, which neither of us were. We were wandering along next to it when a Tuk-Tuk driver, named Tong, stopped next to us and offered to show us some of the cities' best sites for 20 Baht (about 40p!). We hopped in and were driven to a Giant Buddha statue - really was giant and very bright in the sun as it was gold! He seemed to be very good at the shortcuts and next took us to the TAT (Thailand authority of tourism) where we arranged our transport to Phuket and accomodation on Koh Phangan, where the full moon party is held. We were in there over an hour and Tong waited patiently outside! On the way to the marble temple he asked us if we would go in to a shop so he could get a fuel voucher. We didn't really understand so walked in, had a brief look and walked out. We worked out later that you had to be in there for ten minutes and then he would get a voucher for free fuel, and two if you bought something. The marble temple was cool, and apparently has the tree where the buddha achieved enlightenment, but my camera had an accident. It was on a ledge, on self timer, and fell off on to the floor! I think it was from someone walking past, but either way it fell on to the marble floor and now won't work as it has a lens error. Very annoyed! And Sam can vouch that this wasn't even my doing - dad! (and of course nowhere is open to fix it till tomorrow......) I was pretty grumpy as I was so hungry anyway, but this of course made me even more grumpy! We ate next and although we were going to carry on the tour, we asked to be taken back to the hotel. Tong asked that we go in to one last shop for his fuel vouchers, and for driving us around for 4 hours for 40p we didn't really mind! This one was a tailor, where Sam ordered a shirt (to be delivered to our hotel the next day) and we later found out was no. 1 tailor in a national geographic book of the 10 best of everything in the world! The concierge at the hotel was extremely helpful and called round lots of different camera shops for us, but the only canon one isn't open till monday. He told us lots about where was good to go in the evening, and kept mentioning that there were 'ladies' in certain areas. We were puzzled by this, but as soon as we got out of the taxi we understood! Sam immediately had a leaflet for 'banana ping-pong pussy show' and all other sorts of pussy shows shoved in his face! We were trying to look around the market area, and although we managed to get everything we wanted, the people trying to get Sam to sex shows were pretty un-avoidable! When we walked along a little further there were lots of groups of sluttily dressed women...... no prizes for guessing what they were! We saw millions of thai brides with older white men, thai guys with gay white men, and thai men dressed as women! A very strange place...... We headed back to the hotel for some food! Today we didn't do so much; we got lost wandering round the shopping area, lots of very tall buildings and not much signage (and saw a building that used to be a multi-storey shopping centre but is now burnt extremely badly by the red shirts the other week) and we got sweaty walking around a weekend market. It was huge and it was so hot today! We decided to come back to the hotel and swim - the swimming pool has different coloured lights along the walls, that light up in the dark - and take it easy!

Tomorrow we leave for Phuket - on our flight very kindly booked by the concierge - and have a few days before Koh Phangan and the full moon party. We then have one day in Bangkok before I head to Delhi and then home and Sam is off to New Zealand! I hope I haven't missed too much!